Watch out for some car related bargains

We have 2 cars (ok I feel kind of guilty about that but we do use both of them....and mine is a crappy little thing anyway) and May to July is a really expensive time for us as both cars need insurance, tax, MOT, servicing and repairs. Last year the bill came to £3,000 and so I have been worrying about this years repairs and tests etc. But we've managed to find some bargains this year and I wanted to tell you a bit about where you can save some money with all of your car stuff!

Insurance
SHOP ABOUT - In my experience it is best to change your provider every year as your current provider rarely (if ever in my experience) charges less than a new company will charge you....even if you do try and barter. Sites like confused.com and comparethemarket.com are pretty good but beware that the price they give does include some "generalising" and the actual price can change at the point of purchasing it.
LOOK FOR MULTI-CAR DEALS - If you have 2 or more cars you can save LOADS of money by going for a multi-car deal such as the one that Admiral does. I've just saved nearly £250 on their multi car policy.

MOT
BOOK ONLINE - Some places now give you a discount for booking online. The one that I just booked into for mine gives a £20 ($35-ish) discount for booking online.
DEALS - The place that I've booked mine into sells an insurance that is possibly great news if you have a car that's a few years old (or if you know there is likely to be a problem with your car). Basically you pay £50 (about $80 ish?) and any repairs that are needed on non-durable parts is done free, up to a value of £600.

Servicing
DO IT YOURSELF - Its a bit difficult servicing your own car, but on some models its pretty easy. Interim services for people who do alot of mileage have a good potential for saving money as the actual work needed is (depending on the car!) easy. Generally speaking its an oil or air filter change and it takes about half an hour (ok, maybe an hour the first time you do it!
LOOK FOR DEALS - Look out for bargains on places that sell oil filters etc as they sometimes do a special offer where you can pay as little as £10 to get an oil filter changed.
AVOID CAR DEALERSHIPS - Unless you absolutely have to get your car serviced by a car dealership, try and find somebody who can recommend an independent garage. Not only are you more likely to be able to strike a deal with them, but you're also more likely to get a friendly and more personalised service. Beware that warranties may be an issue if you use an independent garage....although I have a feeling this was supposed to be getting sorted out in some legislation....whether it ever happened or not I don't know!

Tax
BREAK DOWN THE COST - If you have 2 cars, try and break the payments down by buying a 6 month disc for one car and a 12 month one for the other.
THINKING OF BUYING A NEW CAR? If you're thinking of buying a new car, then remember that smaller cars and hybrids are cheaper to tax

Repairs
You can sometimes save money by buying parts online but also try bartering a little on the price - and ALWAYS go through the bill with the garage before you leave and query anything you're either not happy with or work that was carried out unauthorised.

So I hope you found those tips useful :)

Just when you're starting to feel a bit more positive....

A few people lately have been telling me that they've been reading or watching somewhere that the recession might be turning round now. Personally I have seen no evidence of this and I find it funny that these people are never able to cite specific sources....so I remain sceptical. But I must admit that despite Andy losing his job last month I have actually started to feel a bit more positive recently. But then I go and find articles like this that drag me back down to earth.

Personally I have a feeling that another million won't be made unemployed by the end of the year - but what do I know? If he is right though then that is very worrying especially for those of us who are lucky enough to still have a job in the automotive and manufacturing industry. We are a worldwide major company and have lost nearly a quarter of our workforce in the last 5 months and I just don't know how many more losses we can take before we end up not being a viable business any more. Sure I am so busy I'm meeting myself coming backwards but unfortunately that doesn't guarantee me a job will be there forever.

And another thing that is REALLY beginning to grate on me now is all the talk about the YOUNGER generation being so badly affected....seemingly much worse than any other group. Well personally I think that's a bunch of ********. For a start the very young people generally speaking don't have a mortgage and another thing they tend to be a cheaper workforce and at the moment that's a good thing. Try being older and experienced and nobody wants to pay your higher wage.....and yet your mortgage company still expects you to keep up with the mortgage payments. I dare say that many of the older newly redundant have paid their mortgage by now so maybe its those of us stuck in the middle....those of us with mortgages ....who are the ones that are really struggling. Its not rocket science.

More horror stories

I do wish people would stop telling me about various unemployment and redundancy horror stories. It seems like everyday I get told about Tom, Dick or Harry who were made redundant 12 months ago and who are STILL looking for work. At first it was worrying but now its just downright annoying. Can't these people see that I have to believe that something will come up soon for Andy? Do they think I want to be made even more worried then I already am? I really NEED to think that something will come up soon even if the reality turns out to be different. I *do* trust that God will send him/us down the right path in whatever time it happens to take....but I'm also human and need small things to keep me going.

Andrew applied for JSA yesterday

Andrew went to register with the Job Centre yesterday and I think its fair to say that the experience wasn't quite as bad as he's anticipated. Although he did say there was a shocking number of track suit clad young men hanging about outside. Andrew always finds track suits very shocking so to see so many of them in one concentrated area must have been a real eye opener LOL. The reason he was a bit worried was because we've heard these horror stories about people being forced to take the first job that they are offered otherwise they'll loose their benefit. I must admit we were both worried that they'd make him accept a job in a supermarket or something. But anyway it turns out they give you a contract which lists what jobs you will consider - your allowed to refuse 2 I think? So he's got a contract to find work as a design engineer or project engineer within 40 miles of our home and paying 26,000 or more. Its still a good step down from 32,000 a year and a 5 mile trip to work but that's life I guess and beggars can't be choosers.

Job Centre meeting

My husband got his official notification of his redundancy yesterday and today he received his appointment to go to the Job Centre for an initial interview. I really hope they know how to help him but to be honest, I can't say I feel too hopeful about it. The feeling I get from listening to other people is that the Job Centre people are good at finding help for unskilled people but not so good with the professionals. When the JC people came into work to talk to the affected workers about the upcoming redundancies, my husband said they were trying to push him into a career change or plumbing. The thing is he loves his chosen career and he spent alot of money on his education to get there so a career change isn't really an option. I can understand his point. I mean I reckon my education has cost me £70,000 and its going to take me until retirement to pay it all back so a career change wouldn't be an option for me either. I think the professionals are the forgotten people in this recession.

Last week we wrote to our MP about supporting local engineering jobs. We got a fob off just as I susected *sigh*.

A very late update

Wow! I have so much to update but first I must explain what happened to me and my blog. Well me being the klutz that I accidentally deleted it. I mean seriously how stupid was that? Well anyway I finally figured out that it is possible to get your blog back!

Well I have alot to update on. First of all I'll recap on the potential issues that we had a few months ago and then I'll update on them. The first issue was that our 2 year mortgage deal comes to an end in May 09 and we could be in negative equity by then which means we wouldn't get a new mortgage deal. Our mortgage provider is Northern Rock and well we all know what's happened with them so that was a worry. We were worried the bank might just call in the mortgage and we'd be left homeless. Also job losses were announced at our company and we were both waiting to hear something.

So I can tell your dying to know what happened :)

Well first of all we couldn't remortgage as we didn't have enough equity in the house because of the huge price drops. We did have SOME equity but it was only like 1 or 2%. Our mortgage company would put us onto the standard variable rate but wouldn't offer us anything else. For now though that works out cheaper as the interest rate is so low right now. But now for the horrible part. Andy did lose his job in the redundancies. He is our chief income earner and we are now 70% less in income that this time last year. That is very worrying. He is applying for jobs like there's no tomorrow but nothing is coming up yet :(

Well now I have my blog back online I'll update more ofter. I might even do a little makeover on it :)