Getting my car back

I've mentioned in earlier posts that I had to manage without my car for several weeks, because of bad service by my insurance company.  During that time, I practised living without my car, and found it surprisingly easy, and occasionally actually liberating.  Now that I have my car back, I am making some use of it, but am definitely still considering selling, and having us move to a one-car lifestyle.  I know that there are some times, like today, when I drove over to my parents' house twenty miles or so away, when it would be very inconvenient not to have my car - I could get to them, but it would involve at least a two stage train journey plus bus or taxi -  but I'm still weighing up whether those times are worth the cost in money, and also importantly in time and trouble, that having two cars between the two of us necessitates.  

I've been reading 'The Power of Less',  by Leo Babauta, which I'm sure I will review in more detail soon, but some of the ideas he puts forward, including looking at what your key priorities are and getting rid of other things,  are encouraging me in my view that getting rid of my car might be quite a good thing.

I've also been reading Wojciech's posts at Fiscal Fizzle on his car-related thought processes and decision, and those of his readers, with some interest.

Bartering and swapping

I was getting my hair cut earlier, and we were discussing the hairdresser's holiday plans.  She mentioned that to get to her holiday location, she needed another vehicle, ideally a people-carrier to fit six people.  Apparently, in August, at school-holiday time, hiring a people carrier costs a massive £400 for a week!  We discussed whether she could borrow one from someone, and we thought it would be great if she could barter for it, maybe offering some free haircuts plus use of her small car, in exchange for the use of their large car for a week.  I guess such an arrangement would only work in a fairly small community - you would want to either know the other party, or know a friend of theirs - as it would involve quite a bit of trust.  But it would be great if such an arrangement could work.  I think I might ask the person who runs the local oil-buying group - which we have now joined - if he knows of any bartering groups in my area.  If not, maybe we could set something up.   In the meantime, the hairdresser is going to sound people out via Facebook.

Anyone else have any experience of bartering, and if so, how did it work out??

Public transport & freedom

I am still involuntarily car-less, but the experiment of  managing without a car is going well so far.  Today, I had to get into town in the middle of the day for a dentist's appointment. For the first time I ever, I took the bus from my village; it was on time, quick, and only slightly more expensive than I had expected.  (My ideas of what buses should cost are somewhat late 1990s...)  I had to get the bus rather early, because of the limited bus timetable, but spent a contented hour in a coffee shop in town, getting quite a bit of work done, and also did some useful errands. Rather than wait for the bus home, which would have involved another two hours out, and would have definitely meant buying lunch, I took a taxi, which was cheaper than expected, and speedy to arrive. 

Somewhat to my surprise, far from feeling restricted by my lack of independent transportation, I felt unexpectedly free, not having to drive, or worry about finding a car parking space or being stuck in traffic.  It was also rather refreshing being early for my appointment, rather than trying to 'efficiently' time my arrival so as to be just on time, as I would probably have done if driving.  I am sure that once I have done this trip a few times, the novelty will wear off, but so far, so good.

Could I manage without my car?

Thanks to some idiotic behaviour by my insurance company – for the sake of my blood pressure I will not go into the details - I do not have a car at the moment.  Anyway, I’ve decided to use the opportunity to see how I get on without a car for a little while.  We live in a fairly rural area, and I had, until recently, never seriously considered whether we might be able to get by on one car long term.

My husband needs his car for work – he has to make visits to patients during the day – so my dropping him off and collecting him in the evening won’t work.  I work from home several days’ a week.  At least once a week, I get the train to London from the station about 10 minutes’ drive, and 4 miles, from where I live.  On at least one other day, I need to get to a nearby town in the morning. 

Until yesterday, I thought that there was perhaps one bus a day in each direction to my nearest town. However,  I have discovered that there are three buses a day each way, and they go first to my nearest small town – where the station, dentist, supermarket, public library etc are – and then on to the much bigger town. The bus even stops a few minutes’ walk from where my sister lives! 

So I am considering reasonably seriously whether we could sell my car, and get by pretty well on one car.  

My thoughts so far are as follows:

• On days that I go to London,  J. already usually drops me off at the station and collects me in the evening.  (This saves us about £6 a day in parking costs, and is reasonably convenient for him.) So not much change would be needed there, except that he would always need to collect me, or I would have to take a taxi home if he were not available.
• On days that I go to other places to work, I would need to plan my journey ahead, and either a) get J. to drop me at the station or bus station b) take a taxi part or all of the way, c) get the bus into my local town and take a bus or train from there, or d) for major expeditions, maybe hire a car for a day.
• If I were working at home and either needed or wanted to make an expedition into town, I would need to time my outing to catch the bus either both ways, or bus one way and taxi back.
• We might occasionally have to make use of online supermarket shopping, something we have not really done so far. 
• For holidays, evening or weekend outings, we already generally use J's car as it is more comfortable than mine anyway, so no change would be needed there.
• The main difficulty I see is in my going on a spontaneous outing during the day, or in getting to certain work locations if they are far from a station or bus, but perhaps I just need to become used to taking the bus, or using taxis.    
  

It is very nice having my own transportation, but I am not sure whether that comfort and convenience is worth the nearly £3000 a year I estimate that my car is costing me.  (I do not have a car loan, but that figure takes account of car tax, insurance, servicing costs, petrol, and an estimate for depreciation.) 

I wonder if it is mad of me to think that I can manage without a vehicle, living where I do, or whether this could actually work?  Further consideration is definitely needed, but advice or comments from others would be welcome....

Savings - different purposes - saving to spend

Today, I'm tackling saving up to buy something in the future. For example, you may wish to save up to buy a car, or home improvements, or perhaps a wedding or holiday. I have also saved up for an occasional expensive item of clothing, and in one case a watch. I contend that these expensive purchases don't make me financially irresponsible; I didn't use credit to buy these items, but chose to save my personal spending money to buy them in place of a number of smaller, more forgettable, treats. (While saving up for the watch, I decided to forgo new clothes for several months in order to buy it; maybe a sign that my priorities are a little peculiar, but it worked for me.)

Anyway, my point is that if you want to buy something expensive, it is, in general, with some exceptions which I will tackle in future posts, more efficient to buy it with money you already have than to borrow the money to do so. And while you are assembling your cash, you may as well get some interest out of it.  You will probably want to keep the money somewhere accessible, although if you are planning fairly long-term for your purchase, you could sign up for an account with some notice attached, if that gets you a better rate.

My recommendation would be to consider the following: using your Cash ISA allowance if you are a taxpayer and have not already done so; using an offset facility on your mortgage if you have one; or, failing either of these, using an ordinary savings account with a good interest rate. Unless you are planning fifteen or twenty years ahead, I would not invest the money in anything stockmarket-related.

You might also consider buying some premium bonds with the money.  There are sites you can visit which show how to calculate the effective interest rate, and this may be worth considerable. I had quite a few bonds for a while, but wasn't lucky enough to win more than a very few small prizes, so I eventually decided to cash in all but a couple of them. (This was rather illogical of me as the more bonds you hold, the more likely you are to win, but after all I am not a computer!)

I suggest deciding to save a certain amount towards your goal each month, bearing in mind what you can afford and when you plan to buy the item, and setting up a direct debit to the designated account each month. If you have the chance to name the account to suit your goal, which is sometimes possible, that may help you.  As mentioned in a previous post, I use my mortgage offset account to save, and have recently set up a "car" jar, into which I will save a small monthly account towards the next car I expect to buy several years' from now. 

Finally, it may be that it is unrealistic to save the full amount you need for the purchase in question before the time you need the money, but even if you are able to send 20% or 30% of the money needed, that will reduce what you need to borrow, and therefore save interest, and will help you to get into the habit of planning ahead.