How much to live on

BooJewels

I may be a very early learner, but I do know enough to know that it's not a little hook you pull out to hang your handbag on. 

When I was first dating my husband, he drove a Riley Elf, that had a choke.  We called it Apollo 13 - as we'd set off out, not knowing if we'd get home again.  

Savvy_Sue

Worth noting that it is still possible to 'flood the engine' with the automatic chokes we have now. Only managed it once. 

Fond memories of stop-start traffic in a temperamental car, right foot applied to both accelerator and brake at the same time. Not a recommended technique!

Farway

Indout96 said:

Krakkkers said:

Most important thing is to learn how to steer with your knees while unwrapping sweets.

With lane keeping on and adaptive cruise control its a doddle these days, not like in the old days where you had to jamb a matchstick in the choke to stop it sliding closed on its own before the engine was warm.

I used a clothes peg, more readily manipulated with frozen fingers and steamed up glasses

WYSPECIAL

Savvy_Sue said:

Fond memories of stop-start traffic in a temperamental car, right foot applied to both accelerator and brake at the same time. Not a recommended technique!

The good old toe and heel technique to keep your revs up! That takes me back to early morning starts on a cold day.
 And remember the self adhesive heated rear windscreens you could buy to retro fit? I doubt there is a car made without a heated rear screen now.

sheilavw

I remember the self adhesive heated rear windscreen, we had one in our Austin maestro. Also the seatbelts hung on a clip. I hated seated belts, in fact I passed my test in Feb 81 without wearing one because you didn't need to

Farway

WYSPECIAL said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Fond memories of stop-start traffic in a temperamental car, right foot applied to both accelerator and brake at the same time. Not a recommended technique!

The good old toe and heel technique to keep your revs up! That takes me back to early morning starts on a cold day.
 And remember the self adhesive heated rear windscreens you could buy to retro fit? I doubt there is a car made without a heated rear screen now.

Yep, had those, and how about fitting a radio and drilling a hole in the wing for the aerial?

blue.peter

Farway said:

Yep, had those, and how about fitting a radio and drilling a hole in the wing for the aerial?

And reversing lights, which meant drilling holes for mounting them on the boot lid, running a wire through the length of the car and mounting a switch on the gearbox. (That was on a 1969 Wolseley Hornet which - like the Riley Elf mentioned earlier - was a Mini wearing a bustle.)

Organgrinder

Ah but at least you could have your choice of radio/cassette back in the day!

On a separate note, interesting holiday development this week. I noticed Easyjet were offering £200 off next year's holidays. Out of curiousity I searched for our hotel and flight. Three days on from our booking Easyjet were offering the same holiday but £50 cheaper and with another £200 off!

I checked the T's and C's and I could cancel and use the existing deposit against another holiday. So I did and went to rebook it. Lo and behold, the room I just cancelled appeared with the exact flight we were originally travelling on but for £100 less!

So including the voucher, a £300 saving.

Happy days.

Indout96

sheilavw said:

I remember the self adhesive heated rear windscreen, we had one in our Austin maestro. Also the seatbelts hung on a clip. I hated seated belts, in fact I passed my test in Feb 81 without wearing one because you didn't need to

I had an Avenger, my Girlfriends (now wife of 41 years) son used to clean the rear window with a sponge but one day I managed to fix the heater so told him not to touch it to see if heater cleared it. Slowly a clear portion at the top started to clear, I was really happy until it cleared a bit more and there was a blue flashing light behind me.
Luckily by the time I have explained this to the police he was laughing like mad and just told me to clear the whole window next time. (doubt you would get away with things this easy now)

Organgrinder

Well more savings to be had this week.

Laithwaites sent me a discount code - 30% off. I'd already saved an offer of 4 bottles of wine for £24 with free delivery and a case of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. These two came in at £119 for 16 bottles of wine. For some reason i had applied a £20 off code. Clearly 30% was a better deal so I attempted to use it. Sadly the website was having none of it.

So I contacted online support who at first insisted it was new customers only but eventually agreed I had been sent said code. However still no joy, so arranged a call back.

I was told the code was £30 not 30% and that he'd add it to the £20 already deducted so lo and behold 16 bottles for £69.

Even better was that I also had 20% off any spend at Laithwaites with my Halifax reward account. So broadly speaking a net cost of £55, or £3.50 a bottle.

Every little helps :-)