Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles

greent wrote: »

What a great year - other than the injury and illness, of course! x

Hopefully 2019 will be even better

beanielou wrote: »

What an amazing year you have had
LOts & lots to celebrate.
Here is to an awesome 2019 too.

Thanks guys. We've done ok. Particularly as we only moved in eighteen months ago!

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

We've been thinking about replacing my car for a while now. It's been great fun but isn't really practical going forward. Mr F spotted an opportunity at the garage yesterday so we went for a look today. It's exactly what we were thinking of and at a reasonable price. However, we will have to sell my current car privately as it's unusual and the garage can't price it for trade in. So... that would mean taking out a loan to bridge the gap between buying the new one and selling the old. And we can't be sure that we'll be able to cover the full price of the new car from the sale of the old.

Mr F has had confirmation today that his job has been re-graded :T This means a pay rise from 1 January but also the choice of a more expensive company car. So one may cancel out the other

We will also lose some income from 1 February when lodger friend moves out. We may be able to replace this by running the cottage as a B&B.

What to do? The timing isn't great but my car has started losing value now and is likely to continue to do so. On the other hand, we may have a reduced income this year. We can afford the change. However, something may have to give in the short term.

Will sleep on it but any advice would be welcome.

Fortune x

Karmacat

That's a complex set of interrelated issues, Fortune!



Does your OH *have* to take a more expensive car?


How easy will it be to sell your car privately? Is there a market? Is there a cheap loan available?

in_need_of_direction

if it's a short term thing, what about taking the cost on a 0% credit card offer?

beanielou

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

if it's a short term thing, what about taking the cost on a 0% credit card offer?

This from me too.

greent

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

if it's a short term thing, what about taking the cost on a 0% credit card offer?

Just what I was going to write!

Does Mr F *have* to have a more expensive co car? - Can he not keep same level (and take any surplus allowance as cash, if possible?) x

Fortune_Smiles

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

if it's a short term thing, what about taking the cost on a 0% credit card offer?

beanielou wrote: »

This from me too.

Karmacat wrote: »

That's a complex set of interrelated issues, Fortune!



Does your OH *have* to take a more expensive car?


How easy will it be to sell your car privately? Is there a market? Is there a cheap loan available?

Great questions guys and ones I've been asking myself along with:

Do we need to do this now?
Does it have to be this car?

Mr F will have a number of cars to choose from for his grade but will be restricted to these. We don't know yet what cars are available to him. He will try to keep costs down, however, he does a huge amount of driving in his job so I think it's important he has something comfortable. Plus he's client facing and drives colleagues sometimes.

The initial credit limits on the 0% cards are very low relative to the cost of the new car so we don't stand to save much there.

There's no way of telling how easy it will be to sell my car privately. Values are dropping and sales are taking longer. However, my car has extremely low mileage and is in excellent condition so that may help. We've done as much research as we can but still can't be certain what we'll get for it. Worst case scenario is that we'll be short of the cost of the new car, however, we would be able to cover this with our emergency savings if need be.

Mr F should get a bonus in May but this isn't guaranteed.

I think we do have to make the change now. Values for cars like mine have been climbing over the last couple of years but are dropping now and will continue to do so. My car is also starting to need more repair and maintenance. What we really need is something more practical and comfortable that will last us for the next ten years or more.

Ultimately we can afford it but other things will have to drop down the priority list. Plus any shortfall in values will be money that could have gone into overpaying the mortgage.

I'm a bit scared but I think we're going to do it. I've not taken into account anything we may earn from the Cottage as that's not guaranteed income but I'm sure we'll make something.

Thanks for the advice guys. It's really helpful. Anything else you can add would be appreciated.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

greent wrote: »

Just what I was going to write!

Does Mr F *have* to have a more expensive co car? - Can he not keep same level (and take any surplus allowance as cash, if possible?) x

Thanks Greent. I wanted to quote you in my post above but am limited to three comments But that does mean you get a special mention

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

I'm still not up to full energy Christmas has really taken it out of me. Worth it though

We've decided not to go out tomorrow evening. I'm just not ready for any more partying Instead we're going to have pizza and champagne and watch films. I bought the pizzas in case we needed a quick lunch for our guests but we didn't use them in the end. There are plenty of leftover 'toppings' in the fridge that need using up. The champagne was contributed by lodger friend for our Christmas day but we already had a bottle so didn't get to open hers. So no extra cost involved. Unless we choose to rent a film. Lodger friend will be joining us as she's trying to keep costs down too.

Lunch today was a big Sausage Roll made with ready made puff pastry from the freezer, spread with pate and filled with red onion cooked with sausage meat, thyme, rosemary and tomato puree. Operation use up is working well Supper was Smoked Haddock & Leek Risotto. I'd made the dish before Christmas and had enough ingredients left over to make it again.

I've spent today getting the accounts and my diary in order and thinking about goals for 2019. I wonder what the New Year will bring?

Fortune x

doingitanyway

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

I wonder what the New Year will bring?

Good things Fortune. Lots of good things