Zen and the art of motorcar ownership: how much are our car ownership costs, really ?
For some time now I have been looking at our family car and thinking! You see, we have one car, I don’t drive to work and John works from home. We live in a city with good public transport, and infrastructure. When we go to the city centre we use the bus; and we do our food shopping in the local shops (ha, I really love my shopping trolley and it annoys and embarrasses John so much; this is a bonus, of course).
What I am saying is that it is very rare for our car to leave the drive more than five – six times a month. As to longer journeys, we probably do these three-four times per year.
You already know, that cars rank very highly on my list of liabilities; actually they are pretty high on any list of liabilities. One rationale to keeping a car is that it allows a level of flexibility that people don’t have otherwise (this is if people live in the city and there is acceptable public transport) and peace of mind through the knowledge that one can get in and drive off if and when it is necessary or they simply feel like it.
Now, let’s do the maths and see what having flexibility and peace of mind is costing us at the moment. The calculation of car ownership costs is very simple monthly expenditure per month and doesn’t even account for depreciation. Pure spend on keeping our under-used car. Continue reading
A week of budgets: how to manage expenditure
Here in the UK we are still agitated by Wednesday’s budget; well at least the press is. Last night I told you how writing about the Government’s budget made us realise that we have been underpaid on our child benefit for a very long time. Now, this may sound like good news – after all we are going to get a nice payment – but in fact it also made me think that although I ‘knew my numbers’ I did approach these wrongly. In this case, I approached wrongly a number referring to a very small income; we can do our finances considerable damage were we to act inappropriately with expenditure.
This made me think about how to manage expenditure and the different types of expenditure every household has. I find it helpful to think of three groups of expenditure: constant expenditure, negotiable (changeable) expenditure and variable expenditure. In fact, The Money Principle Budgeting Tool is build around these. But what do they mean for the way in which we manage our money? Continue reading
How much do you waste on food?
According to a study in the UK, not wasting any food will place you in a minority: apparently households waste on average £650 ($1,021) worth of food per year. I will be very surprised if the waste in the US is less although finding comparable data was not possible. Reading this I felt, I believe, rightful indignation; for three reasons.
My first thought (and reason) was that we live in a strange world where 80% of the population doesn’t have enough to eat and 20% consistently over eat. In the light of this distribution, wasting so much food sounds really morally wrong and irresponsible.
Secondly, I started thinking about all the things this money wasted on food could be used to buy. For my family, this is a very generous trip to Bulgaria to see family. There are so many good uses and causes this money could be put to but instead it is wasted on food.
And thirdly, about 19% of the waste in landfills is food which can’t be good for the environment. Biodegradable, true; but food rotting in landfills contributes to global warming. Continue reading
20 Ways to Celebrate Christmas With Kids Without Overspending
This is a guest post by Penny at The Saved Quarter as part of the Yakezie blog swap with the topic “Best tips for saving on the holidays”. You can see my post, Christmas on a Budget, today at her blog.
Holiday expenses can add up fast, but you can enjoy the season without breaking the bank! There are many frugal ways to celebrate. Spending time with your family is far more satisfying than spending money! Here are 20 family-friendly ways you can enjoy this Christmas season without spending too much money. Continue reading
