Do you really want to buy a car?

Do you hate paying car bills? I'm not particularly fond of them myself.

When any friend mentions their desire to buy a car, I can't help but think that their innocent days will soon be over. Nothing is as demanding as a car with all its associated running costs. Even our cats could be considered docile and undemanding in comparison to my car.

Some months can really suck because there are never ending bills to pay. June is one of those month for me. I've just paid a swag of car registration bills to keep my car legally on the road.

Pink slip (car safety inspection)                    : $34
Green slip (compulsory third party insurance)  : $491
RTA road registration                                   : $312
Comprehensive insurance                             : $993
Total $1830

Sometimes I feel like my car is bleeding me. *sigh* It slurps up the fuel like how I slurp ice cream milkshakes...way too fast. Even if I didn't drive it around, it's still costing me $5/day just to loll there and $35 each week regardless of whether I'm using it or not.

That's equivalent to $152.50 a month and on top of those expenses, there are fuel bills, servicing bills, car part replacements such as battery, tyres, windscreen and wipers and wheel alignment bills.

Fortunately I bought my SUV outright so I don't have any repayments to make in terms of car loans. I would never buy a car with financing. I'd rather ride my (push) bike to my destination regardless of how long it takes me than buy a car using financing. Seeing as I'm rather unfit, it's probably a good thing that I don't have to make that choice.

Car expenses and bills are simply painful because it feels like I'm dumping money into a giant black hole that doesn't return much and is infact, merrily depreciating every single day.

One of the blogs that I subscribe to 'Punch Debt in the Face', wrote about saving money like crazy so that he and his wife could build a $100k down payment (for the Aussies:deposit) to buy their first home. When I'm not busy haranguing and moaning about my car bills, I've been busy saving money like crazy too because I really need a huge ass lump sum to use as my deposit next year. All these bills are like little bumps along the way...

Peace x