Household budgets

[stevieannie]

Sat down last night and looked at a budget. Woah.

Liberating stuff. The long and short of it is that we really need to look at selling our Volkswagon Sharan.

Anyone interested?

Full disclosure: there is a scratch on the side which we intend to fix before the sale and the fuel consumption is high.

Plus points - it's really big, it's really fast (2.8 turbo injection), it has a lot of removable seats (8, I think), a tow bar, a hoopy froody CD player and lots of cool gadgets.

It's worth about 4K+ on the open market, I believe, but we would probably be prepared to let it go for less than this to a friend/acquaintance.

Comments

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

it has a lot of removable seats (8, I think),

Seven - the front driver and passenger seats plus five removable ones in the back.

How will you get you and all your kit to reenactments without it?

Teddy

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the seat info!

As regards schlepping stuff around, we've spoken to Nev, about borrowing his Space Wagon (which has better fuel consumption, and we wouldn't have to tax and insure) for pulling the trailer. He's happy with that if we'll go halves on getting a towbar installed on it.

Mike has also just skyped me to say that we could borrow their new HUGE VAN (nicknamed the Green Vanalishi for reasons only apparent to Fleetwood Mac fans) as well. I think we're pretty sorted!

[(Anonymous)]

Yaaay!

Then find a buyer, quick!

Teddy

[keristor.livejournal.com]

You're fortunate to have people near you who can lend you a van, but even without that it can often be cheaper to rent just for the times you need it (as I believe you mentioned in your post). I find that, for most things my car is adequate but I can always rent something larger if I need it. In places where public transport is adequate it can often be easy to do that with a car in general (where you are I think a car is pretty much essential, but many people living in London do without and just hire one on the few times they need to go elsewhere).

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

I hate the fact that I am dependent on a car, but the lack of small-scale infrastructure means that I really have to get to a larger town for my shopping. And if you are shopping once a week for a family of four, it is very difficult to carry everything you need. Well, impossible actually - I fill three huge re-useable carriers which I can barely lift to get in the car boot. I couldn't carry those on public transport. The bus fare to shop daily would soon leave me with no actual money for food!

I'm looking forwards to having two children in school so I can try cycling the five miles to the nearest large shops!

Hiring was our first thought about occasionally needing the larger vehicle, but that involves a 50 mile round trip to pick up and drop off a vehicle. I would much rather borrow one from nearby...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Even if you were nearer you still wouldn't manage that much shopping without a car. I remember when I was growing up many people used to go to the shops almost every day for food, rather than weekly, but those shops were within easy walking distance, and buses into the larger towns were frequent. In those days the village store was an essential part of the village.

Do you have a general store in the village? I've been appalled to find that virtually none of the villages round here (North Herts / South Cambs) have any sort of shops at all, not even a general store / post office. I knew that such things were declining but didn't realise it had got that bad, the nearest store to where I'm living is 8 miles away, a Somerfields supermarket.

Cycling should be good for you (and the environment, of course).

Good point about the distance to hire a vehicle, for me it's about 2 miles and they'll deliver and pick up (free). And they know me so I get a discount (which usually means that I pay the price of the next group down).

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

We're very lucky - we have a flourishing village shop about 5 minutes slow walk away and a farm shop about 1 1/2 miles away.

Incredibly useful for "ack! I've forgotten the milk!" or "I have to make sandwiches and I have no bread!", but it's too expensive to buy everything there.

[armb.livejournal.com]

Some people do manage that much shopping by bike.
(http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~armb/cycling/trailer.html might be helpful if you want to try it. What it's missing is links to commercial trailers.)
Sadly a nice cargo bike like the 8-freight costs more than a modest second hand car, but there are cheaper options.

[armb.livejournal.com]

P.S. Our budget is struggling with the cars we have, so a bigger thirstier one is out, no matter how nice. But good luck selling it.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

The GV has a towbar, BTW.

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

I wish we'd been able to buy it back in May. I thought it was a great vehicle, and I know you'll find somebody for it.