Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

Elisheba

Evening, all,

@beanielou I have seen a physio, but found the exercises made it worse.  To be fair though, I don't do them regularly enough - so that's another things I need to start doing!

@SuzeQStan I think I would be more motivated about giving it all to a charity shop if there was one near me with parking!  I end up having to walk quite a way and make several journeys with heavy bags, so not much fun

@Makingabobor2 I actually have a years full membership of my local gym and swimming pool.  I figure if I can get back to swimming and get my steps up, then I can consider some classes.  

Well, today I have mostly been thinking about buying a new car.  Mine is working fine and paid off, but I am aware it is 15 years old and needs a new cam belt and that's worth more than the car itself.  Ideally I would want a bigger car for microcamping.  I looked at loads on Autotrader, and saw one that fit all my criteria (fairly decent MPG, ULEZ compatible, reasonable tax, under 50k mileage, lots of room, acceptable colour, reasonably close for a test drive).  Its £15k though, and I just don't know if I want all that debt for 5 years.  My bank would give me a loan at about 8% and I think it said £370 a month in repayments. I can get big cars cheaper, but they are either not ULEZ compliant (which is going to become relevant in every city pretty soon), or their MPG was really low and tax was double what I pay now.  

Urgh.  Decisions, decisions.  Any money I spend on a car will be money not going towards my debt or house deposit. So ideally I would just leave it, its just that I know I need to spend money on my current car.  I'll have to mull it over.  

Other than that it has been a fairly moneysaving day as I have spent nothing so far.  Will be out for a chippy with friends later so a few pounds will go on that.  Not sure if we will go for a drink after on not.  

Tomorrow will either be spent cleaning my car (in the forecast rain sadly), or meeting a friend who has just messaged to say he is in the area.  Then I am out with friends in the evening, so that'll be nice if potentially quite busy!

Healthy eating has started apart from 2 chocolate limes I ate before I remembered no unhealthy snacks! Oh and then I'm having chips tonight and out for dinner (and possibly lunch) tomorrow, so maybe I'll start on Sunday!  I have organised with my swimming buddies to go two mornings next week, and I think I'll get up to 10k steps today as went a slightly longer walk with my dog at lunchtime.

I've not managed to declutter anything yet, but maybe on Sunday.

Thats about it for frugal (or not so frugal news today).  Have a fabulous weekend everyone 

foxgloves

I love a good ongoing decluttering project, @Elisheba. It seems really to sort my head out. It's very satisfying moving items on which are no longer serving any purpose.
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Elisheba

Morning, budgeting buddies! 

I spent most of yesterday thinking about the car I liked, and couldn't get to sleep last night as my head was still going round and round about it. I *think* provisionally I've decided against it. Getting on the housing ladder is too important and I'm not getting any younger, so I need to focus on that for now.

If my current car gives up the ghost I can revisit it then, but in the meantime even if I have to spend more money than its worth on it, it's still cheaper than getting the new one I liked. Yes, the new car would be far more convenient for visiting people, and staying over with my dog, and camping, and taxiing my family around when I'm up in Scotland, but none of those things are essential.

I just have to hold the line, ditch the debt and get a deposit together. Then, when I know what my outgoings are I can revisit the decision. It's so hard to hold onto something nebulous like debt and a house in the future though, when you could have something concrete, like a massive car with loads of room as a camper, in front of you straightaway.

I've had a lazy morning so far, breakfast and coffee and social media. Once I'm finished posting here I'll get ready, then need to give the house a tidy and go and hoover and clean the inside of the car. I *think* my friend who is on the area will be over about lunchtime, so I'd like to be finished by then ideally. 

Had a nice evening in the park yesterday eating chips with friends. I forgot to take a drink with me, so once I'd paid for the chips, gravy and a bottle of juice, it was £6.50! I read an article during the week though about how chippy's aren't making any money because of the amount of energy they need to use on the fryers, and food prices doubling, so I'm happy to support my local one where I can. 

I saw today that in the Uxbridge by-election where they voted the Tories back in, and which has been explained as a protest vote against ULEZ, it was actually the Tories who insisted on the ULEZ expansion as part of a funding package for TfL. It's like turkeys voting for Christmas, it really is.

It'll be interesting to see how a general election goes. I'm trying to work out when it'll be. The Tories will be in no rush to call one and technically they have until November/December 2024 I think as we are limited to 5 year terms, but it would be much cheaper to have one in May next year when the locals will be. I imagine there will be a lot of voting analysts manically looking at polling predictions over the winter, and trying to decide when will be best for maximum Tory turnout.

Right, my coffee is almost finished so I best be getting on. God speed on your frugal journeys this weekend, chums! 

Makingabobor2

Have a good day. Think that's the best decision about the car. 
I think GE will be next May. Don't think Torys will get back in though 

foxgloves

My prediction for GE is November 2024....about as late as they can get away with.
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WinterWarrior

I’m sticking with Dave Ramsey who says the car for you is the car you can afford. So no payments, buy outright and the rule of thumb is your vehicles shouldn’t be worth more than 50% of your annual income. I’m saving up in the background, but am determined not to have another loan, so I’d rather just repair mine as and when and when it gets to be time I will replace it outright. It sounds really sensible to get your housing sorted first if you can. 

Good luck with the healthy eating and steps. 

slm6002

@WinterWarrior that is good advice.  Not heard the 50% of annual salary advice before.  

beanielou

Not heard of the 50% of annual salary before either.

SuzeQStan

Hey Elisheba - don’t suppose your work has a company car scheme?  If you get one of those all leccy ones they aren’t too bad - cheapest is around £30 per month. 

We weren’t sure we would get on with an EV but 🐙 has a nighttime charging rate that makes it cheaper to run.

foxgloves

Back when I was working (public sector - local authority), I had a lease car from work. The monthly payments were deducted from my pay & the servicing was all done in-house at nearest council mechanics site. It was a brand new car & at the end of the 3-year lease, I could either swap it for another one or hand it back. I did the latter as had seen an extremely good deal elsewhere. For those 3 years though, when I was on my own with just my income, it did mean I was able to drive something extremely reliable. I seem to remember that the monthly lease payments were slightly subsidised because I was classed as an Essential Car User. There was a mileage limit for handing it back, but even with a 40 mile round trip daily commute plus holidays, outings & fairly regular visits to my family 80 miles away, I only came in just very fractionally over so the excess mileage penalty was peanuts.
This may be of no help to you whatsoever, but I'm just mentioning it as the scheme helped me at a time when my old car had become worryingly unreliable & had entered moneypit territory.
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