It’s Frugal Confessions Friday!!!
Posted on | November 13, 2009 | 4 Comments
Good morning, and Happy Friday to everyone! If you are new to this series, here is the intro post.
Here is my confession of the week:
We are a two-car household. Admittedly, one of the cars (the mustang) is a gas guzzler (I know…it was one of Paul’s bachelor buys:)). When I am home on the weekends and want to run errands, I always take the other car because the gas mileage is so much better. Paul has given me his mustang to drive to work. My work is 18 miles from where we live, and Paul’s is 10 miles from where we live…so even though it appears that he should take the gas guzzler to work instead of me to save on gas, I feel that the way I drive the car is more conducive to good gas mileage than the way that he drives it (sometimes he likes to gun the gas…). Needless to say, I have not suggested we switch!
Now it’s your turn–what are your frugal confessions of the week? I’d love to hear them!
- Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living
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- Vehicle Situation Update and Lesson Learned
- Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living
- It’s Frugal Confessions Friday!!
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4 Responses to “It’s Frugal Confessions Friday!!!”
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November 13th, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
I actually bought my car (2005 Chevy Aveo) simply because I wanted a cheap car that would get good gas mileage and could get me from point A to B for 5-7 years. I even asked the dealer to find me one that was a standard transmission with no options other than an A/C so I could save the $2000 extra that an automatic would have been. I had to pay a $100 delivery charge for them to track it down since they only had automatics, but it still saved me $1900.
It doesn’t have power locks or windows…heck, it doesn’t even have a CD player.
But, it has served its purpose. It’s 4 1/2 years old and only has 37,000 miles, so I definitely should be able to drive it for at least a few more years!
Then I want a Prius…is it wrong to covet my husband’s car?
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November 13th, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
speaking of cars, my subaru wagon wouldn’t seem like a frugal choice either because it doesn’t get awesome gas mileage, but it has actually saved us a good deal of money in delivery charges! when we bought our house we were able to bring home our dryer ourselves and when we bought a new couch we just barely were able to squeeze that in the back to avoid having to pay for it to be delivered. we’ve transported many, many more things with it, but those are the two that stick out in my mind where we would have had to pay delivery.
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November 14th, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
Cars are usually the most costly items we own, not only due to initial price, but ongoing expenses like gas, maintenance and insurance. A house costs more money, but unlike a car, it preserves its value over the long run.
It pays to minimize car costs by estimating the total cost of ownership over time. My goal is not to exceed $4K/year per car. That means initial price + annual costs divided by # of ownership years = $4K/year.
To keep costs low, we only buy used reliable cars that we love to drive – for 3 reasons: Buying used saves a lot by allowing someone else to pay for steep initial depreciation, high reliability equals lower maintenance costs, and last but not least – a car that we love to drive is a car we keep for many years without being tempted to buy another car.
We have 3 reliable cars that we love to drive. One has been with us for 5 years, another for 12 years, and a third for 15 years and counting…
[Reply]
November 14th, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
Hello CentralNC!
Thanks for your comment!
Our last vehicle that I bought used lasted me for six years before it died, and certainly was under the $4K per year threshold you use. My fiance’s car does not meet that, however…:). Have a great weekend!
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