Travelling On

themadvix

I hope LM doesn't decide 3am is when to really start complaining about that door being shut! They are so funny about closed doors.... no concept of pushing them to behind them to keep the heat in either. 

badmemory

I'm another one who doesn't carry a handbag normally.  Only when I am going to have to wait around somewhere so need my kindle cos I'm not reading any of their magazines, not that they have those anymore either.  I cannot just sit there staring into space.  I have winter & summer "shopping coats", the breast pockets have cards in one & mask in the other & inside pockets have purse & mobile.  Can you imagine someone trying to pickpocket me?

Karmacat

themadvix said:

I hope LM doesn't decide 3am is when to really start complaining about that door being shut! They are so funny about closed doors.... no concept of pushing them to behind them to keep the heat in either. 

With my own cats, I never had any doors closed except the therapy room, when I was working (and there was one never to be forgotten time when my older cat sat outside and miaowed for a solid hour.  Disconcerting).  But yes, I wish they'd learn to close doors behind them, that would really help 🤣

badmemory said:

I'm another one who doesn't carry a handbag normally.  Only when I am going to have to wait around somewhere so need my kindle cos I'm not reading any of their magazines, not that they have those anymore either.  I cannot just sit there staring into space.  I have winter & summer "shopping coats", the breast pockets have cards in one & mask in the other & inside pockets have purse & mobile.  Can you imagine someone trying to pickpocket me?

Aha!  I like the sound of the shopping coats.  I *can* imagine someone trying to pickpocket you, and I can imagine them not getting very far 🤣The handbag would be the things that I *used* to use a handbag for - not only shopping, but also days out with my sister or alone.

Anyway, went for a bit of a walk, dealt with the cat litter, and decided to set up a spreadsheet I've been thinking of for a while: cars!  Model, age, mileage, engine size, the usual guff.  Split into two sections, electric and petrol driven.  I've only looked at Autotrader so far, and the price differences are startling.  I'm going to have to do some serious thinking.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, exciting car spreadsheet! Knowledge is power after all, and the key to sensible decision making! 

Karmacat

Thanks Cheery!  There's an ethical decision that can't be rationalised into a spreadsheet ... even the second hand EVs are really, really expensive, more than double the price of the petrol engined ... for such light use as I'll be likely to have, I'd be paying a huge, huge premium.  It's devastating to think about, but I have to be honest about it on here it's only occurred to me today, so I need to let it all sink in.

themadvix

I appreciate that it probably doesn’t negate it, but bear in mind the cost savings on fuel (assuming you’d get a charger fitted and be able to charge on the cheap overnight rate (although we’ve just discovered that the Octopus Go night rate will be 12p/kWh when our current OG fix runs out in March 😱), plus no tax, at least for a year). But there’s no getting around the initial outlay being much bigger 😬

Cheery_Daff

Yep, the huge initial outlay is one of the main reasons we don't have an electric car. And I'm not convinced the battery would keep up with the mileage on work days - but I've not even investigated that properly, because right now we're just not in a position to pay several thousand for a car of any kind. It's one thing to swap your 'normal' car purchase for an electric if the cost would have been vaguely similar. But for us (and maybe for you starting from scratch), it's quite a different decision to switch from spending £1500 for a second hand one to paying several times that, even if the ongoing cost savings work out. 

Big decisions! But once you have all the info at your fingertips, you can see how you feel about it - and while the ethical thing is difficult to put into a spreadsheet, I think it's easier to know how you feel about things once all the factual info about costs upfront, projected costs over 5 years etc are in front of you. It might be, for example (and I have no idea about this) that over 5 years it pays for itself in saved fuel costs, depending on your anticipated mileage of course. And if that's the case, maybe it would be easier to suck up the larger upfront costs? But if it's going to take 10 years to make up the difference, maybe not? Anyway, your magic spreadsheet will reveal useful things, I'm sure. 

Good luck! And do let us know what you find out!

badmemory

One of the things about EVs that I worry about is the life of the very expensive battery.  Also the damage that recycling that battery causes.

I'm not going to worry about it for now as my car may be 7 but it still has lots of years left in it.

Karmacat

Thanks all - I'm really going to need input here, I'm starting from such a low knowledge base.  I've just been speaking to my brother, who's a vastly experienced driver, and has been driving his sons' Teslas for a few years now, so he has a lot of experience with those too.  He mentioned that because I'd just be doing "pottering" type of mileage, a hybrid, rather than an EV, could be a really useful choice.  So I'm going to put a third page on my spreadsheet, and list the hybrids separately.

greent

I only do about 3k miles a year so decided to stick with petrol on that basis. I briefly looked into how much the charger being fitted was and that alone was my petrol bill for maybe 2 years. I did go for a smaller engined car this time around, which was about the only concession I ended up making.