Car finances and budgeting

[Gavster]

Do you actively manage the money required to buy and maintain your car/s? E.g. do you have a monthly budget or seperate account that's for car stuff? Or do you just wing it from your earnings/savings each month and suck it up when unexpected bills appear?

[Sundayjumper]

Totally winging it here My finances overall are recorded in fine detail but there’s no specific car budget in there.

But I’m lucky that I can do most repair jobs myself and don’t really *need* a car so it’s no big deal if it takes a couple of months to get around to fixing it.

[Gavster]

Not needing a car definitely takes the pressure off.

In the past I've always winged it, then become jarringly annoyed when a big bill appears and batters my spending that month. On the other hand everything that's related to running my home is budgeted into a single monthly payment into a separate house account. All household bills, food, mortgage, insurance, maintenance and repairs are built into that budget, so that most day-to-day eventualities are covered without impacting my disposable income.

Having a separate account which gets a £xxx standing order each month sounds like a very stress-free way to manage a car, with the added bonus of potentially accruing funds towards and upgrade if the car isn't a lemon.

[Ascender]

I tend to wing it which has been ok, although with the Porsches I really paid the price for not having the space and facilities to do more here myself. So at the moment its quite nice having the M2 which is under warranty, doesn't need anything done and isn't leaking oil from anywhere.

[Delphi]

As I'm time and facility limited at the moment, the Porsche costs me more than it could, but I just take it on the chin. It was the equivalent of a £120K car when it was new and the running costs are commensurate with that.

The Volvo just needs servicing once a year and it's generally not that much.

[Beany]

I'm always kinda interested in how people set a budget - IE £15k to spend.

Is that coming from selling the old car? Personal loan? PCP?

I'm still paying off old loans so I'm wary of getting another one for a newer car, even though it'd make financial sense to have something much newer that'd require less running costs.

For now I just wing it, but I might start setting a couple of hundred quid aside for just 'fuck it' stuff like 'fuck it, I'm redoing the bushes and shocks all around' or 'fuck it it needs a louder exhaust' etc.

[Gavster]

I'm always kinda interested in how people set a budget - IE £15k to spend.

Is that coming from selling the old car? Personal loan? PCP?

I'm still paying off old loans so I'm wary of getting another one for a newer car, even though it'd make financial sense to have something much newer that'd require less running costs.

For now I just wing it, but I might start setting a couple of hundred quid aside for just 'fuck it' stuff like 'fuck it, I'm redoing the bushes and shocks all around' or 'fuck it it needs a louder exhaust' etc.

When I buy a car it's always based around whatever I have combined with whatever I can reasonably borrow. I've bought with my own cash, family loans, personal loans, although never had finance/PCP on a car.

As for the other type of budget, the idea being to add up all the costs and then start sending that across to a car account, e.g.:

Insurance £1,000
Tax £200
MOT £60
Parking permit £120
Servicing £500
Random repairs £1200
Cleaning and other stuff £300

Total £3,380

Then setup a standing order to a 'car' account for ~£280 a month and know that running the car won't have any impact on other disposable income. It seems like a very sensible way to manage car ownership.

[MikeHunt]

My phd is male mathematics comes into its own here

[Beany]

As for the other type of budget, the idea being to add up all the costs and then start sending that across to a car account, e.g.:

Insurance £1,000
Tax £200
MOT £60
Parking permit £120
Servicing £500
Random repairs £1200
Cleaning and other stuff £300

Total £3,380

Then setup a standing order to a 'car' account for ~£280 a month and know that running the car won't have any impact on other disposable income. It seems like a very sensible way to manage car ownership.

That's a surprisingly simple and obvious way of doing it. I'll look into that when I'm back on the level and not having to chuck £300 a this, £400 at that every month

[Broccers]

I've 250 a month go into an account that I'm not spending on a lease. V owning my boxster it's currently up a lot.

[simon_g]

Boringly sensible here, usually run a regular saver account that ends before insurance (biggest cost) is due, and the rest is for tax/MOT/servicing/contingency for the rest of the year.

Leaf is on PCP, then also putting £250 a month into a s&s ISA pot that will hopefully clear the balloon when the PCP ends.

[duncs500]

I tend to just try to live with a working surplus and save what I can whilst trying to enjoy life within sensible limits. It's all very well having a car pot, but unexpected costs can come up for any number of reasons in life, no point in sectioning off cars specifically.

[JonMad]

All paid for as and when needed. And not from any particular account, whether it's a cost for a family car (Yeti or Swift) or the Fabia as my toy. Given my pay goes into the joint account directly then whether I transfer money to my own account to pay for a cost on the Fabia, or pay it directly from that account, it makes no difference.

At the time I had company cars with known monthly costs I had funky spreadsheets where I looked at the equivalent all-in monthly cost of buying/leasing something new or used and running it. I think this resulted in the Golf R on a lease for a few years.

After that it was generally based on how much I'd spent previously, keeping that amount as a kind of already allocated car budget.
I'd bought my CLK for £9k, so around that felt ok for another fun car (Megane RS250). Thereafter, the same when I got the Swift.

I've only ever paid up to £13k in cash for any car when buying it outright, so that's become a default limit for no other sensible reason. If I was ever going back to leasing something new, like an EV, I'd look at monthlies again.

[240PP]

I just pay for stuff as and when.

As for buying them, I don’t like borrowing so always pay cash, but then the max I’ve ever spent on a car is £15k.

The only time I did borrow was a bank loan for my S2 Elise (£10k loan, £3k in cash) but I knew it was unlikely to be a depreciating asset so I was ok with that.

Edit: I bought my Mum’s Punto off her in 12 instalments of £100

[PaulJ]

I always imagine my knees/back will tell me when to stop buying low, expensive(ish) sports cars; and that's how things tend to work out.