It has now been three weeks since my car accident, and I have discovered the super easy solution to making a huge difference to your budget - stay at home! With no car for the past few weeks I have saved heaps. No petrol costs, no quick trips to town, no caf lunches, no retail therapy, no takeaways. In a lot of ways I've rather enjoyed not being mobile, if only it was practical to be without a car all the time, I probably wouldn't bother getting another! Unfortunately there are rather unavoidable situations such as taking the children to and from school, rugby training twice a week, games on weekends and swimming lessons which mean my carless existence cannot continue.
Yes, this afternoon I shall once again have my own set of wheels in the shape of a shiny blue Holden Vectra. Not brand new I hasten to add - no thanks to the insurance payout for that either! Still haven't received any payment from the insurance company, but they aren't exactly my favourite people. I bought my last car 18 months ago and paid to insure it for $9,500. Here we are less than two years down the track and after a visit from the assessor, they decided my car was now worth the princely sum of $5,750 - before they take out two other vague sounding 'fees'. Bearing in mind that I still owed $4,000 in payments on my car in the first place, I am left with an amount which will probably buy me a steering wheel on a replacement vehicle. Considering the accident wasn't even my fault, it's really left me quite peeved that I should still be left considerably out of pocket - I mean, I didn't want a new car in the first place! Still, there's nothing to be gained now from complaining. We did our homework, shopped around extensively and ended up with a really good deal on my new Vectra, which has low kilometres and, more importantly, one heck of a good sound system! Just kidding, of course the most important thing is that we can afford the darn thing. It certainly helped a lot that we were able to knock $2,700 off their starting price - woohoo!
