a money saving thread for the cash poor amongst us.

increase the viewing [up a level] of  your bank and credit card accounts

from [never to] annually to monthly to weekly to daily

i had a workmate who reviewed his bank account and cancelled 5 or 6 subscriptions he couldnt even remember using let alone signing up for… :0)

 But lots of people simply don’t bother getting their car serviced at all, decline the preventative maintenance items OEM service schedules recommend and ignore the MOT advisories. This means that cars are driven until they break or continue to be driven broken/unfit for the road until MOT failure, at which point owners baulk at the repair cost resulting in either bodge fixes (delaying the inevitable/exacerbating other issues), excessive garage fees as fix needed urgently or p/ex the broken car as owner ‘loses faith’ and thinks new is better (but will treat new car exactly same as old).

So you’ve met my mother in law then 😀

She’s a serial car wrecker and that right there is her MO.

And on the subject of doing your own oil changes… It’s just not worth my time and effort.

I can do most things on a car other than proper engine work.. I can do brakes, suspension etc.

I just don’t have the space or suitable flat ground, and I can’t be arsed either.

So I just get it done at MOT time at my local indie. Drop car off early in the morning, pick it up at closing time…no waiting around.

Horses for courses.

Save money on expensive carpets by buying two small sample carpets and gluing them to the soles of your shoes

Save money on expensive carpets by buying two small sample carpets and gluing them to the soles of your shoes

This has the added bonus that you and your other half can enjoy different coloured carpets to suit individual aesthetic tastes (see current “light coloured carpet” thread).

Small indy garage . One oil fits all. They don’t have 6 to 8 200l drums lined up.
2 mins to let most of the old oil out .
Engine driven for 15 mins to get oil hot ? I doubt it very much.
Old filter inspected with torch for debris? Well it’s possible but I bet it’s straight in the bin.

My friend drives the same car but but a few years youner than mine . I strongly recommended a gearbox service as prevention maintenance , manufacturers recommended service 100k Kms . BMW say filled for life .
Indy garage comment was ” is it working ok now ? Well its obviously not in need of a service. ”
Let’s not spend a couple of hundred , when inserting ones head into the sand could cost thousands .

On servicing. Don’t rule out main dealers. When my 6 year old Skoda Superb was needing an MOT and service I got quotes from 2 VW indies,  Halfords and my local main dealer.  Henrys Skoda were cheapest at £180 or thereabouts all in.

MOT pass and no adviseries.  Only comment (on service sheet  not on MOT) was front brake pads 60% worn.  Which I knew as they are original.  Nearly one year on I haven’t changed them yet.  Might actually get them done soon.  Change then now and they should last the rest of the time I’ll own the car.

And unlike a one man corner garage as per the comments upthread I’m reasonably sure the correct grade of oil will have been used.

Small indy garage . One oil fits all. They don’t have 6 to 8 200l drums lined up.
2 mins to let most of the old oil out .
Engine driven for 15 mins to get oil hot ? I doubt it very much.
Old filter inspected with torch for debris? Well it’s possible but I bet it’s straight in the bin.

My friend drives the same car but but a few years youner than mine . I strongly recommended a gearbox service as prevention maintenance , manufacturers recommended service 100k Kms . BMW say filled for life .
Indy garage comment was ” is it working ok now ? Well its obviously not in need of a service. ”
Let’s not spend a couple of hundred , when inserting ones head into the sand could cost thousands .

We clearly live on different planets… I know the owner of my local garage/MOT place.. we see each other in the pub from time to time and have a bit of a chat, he’s a good guy and know’s what he’s doing.

Maybe your probelm is you drive a BMW, so your basicaly just a victim?

A victim of what?

A victim of what?

Reality i think , Singletrackmind describes well what goes on in reality.

Confused.com for insurance quotes. Get a competitive quote and a £20 halfords voucher each time, with a couple of cars and household insurance its a decent saving.

Trouble with oil service is they let the apprentice do it. If he can drag himself away from his pi for more than a 3 minute stretch.
So I personally know people who have had double the oil inserted into the engine, a sump plug finger tight which left the chat , ditto oil filter loose . And my brother, who had his quattro sump plug threads stripped by a gorilla with a rattle gun it sits in a bath of oil , is fitted on a film of oil and lives behind the protection of the undertray .

Also remember that diy servicing does have knock-on costs and they’re a bit nonlinear and funky, I got my current car with full history and completely ruined that, realistically for this model it’s knocked £500+ off the resale value and also means there’s just less buyers out there that’ll touch it. And you can do that really fast, ultimately one “missed” service screws a lovely dealer history instantly but it takes years to get equivalent gains.

I’ve easily saved more than that on the total maintenance costs but on the actual <servicing>, not massively, and if the actual servicing schedule had worked out a little different I think I could have lost money that way (because it’s only a couple of higher cost jobs that have really provided a saving). The other non-service-book stuff, I’ve saved a ton on, thousands- but sometimes there’s a tightrope to walk between maintaining your stamps but doing the non stampy stuff yourself.

Course you’re not guaranteed to ever sell a car, and it’s cost today vs winnings tomorrow.

A good way to save money would be to keep your car to a point where that doesn’t matter.

A lower sales price is a low price to pay for ensuring it’s done correctly and no corners cut.

I mean on the one hand I agree but on the other hand when I finished swapping the engine in my mx5 I accidentally filled the power steering with brake fluid because they were in a similar shaped bottle. So maybe correctness is not always ensured.

Presumably that really slowed down the steering 😉

On coffee, for those who love to but can’t always stretch to buy little bags of beans/grinds, I get Save The Bears coffee off Amazon for £17 for a kg but this is sufficient for my 3 cups a day for the month.

Less than 60p a day and what they do after they’ve done their posho artisan roasts is dump the residual beans from that roast into these bargain bags and sometimes I get really lucky.

Is this the viz top tips thread.

I ordered something from a retailer rhymes with sun whelm, they sent the wrong colour.  Fair enough, click and collect so returned it.  Reordered, same thing happened, returned and reordered.  Third attempt successful.

Asked to speak with manager, he apologied and offered me 30 quid off 40 quid price and a free coffee in in house cafe.  Nice coffee too I may even go back.  So be kind and ask nicely, I couldn’t believe it.