What's your current biggest "delayed gratification" sacrifice?

Mine is a car that's over 20 years old. It's so beat up you'd think I was close to homeless if you saw me driving it. Half the paint is gone, it's got a huge dint in the back from when someone crashed into me, the tint is all warped and the windows no longer shut properly. People who see me driving it assume I'm poor. Ha.

I plan on upgrading in a few years when I pay off one more loan, and even then I plan on buying the cheapest god damn car I can find...I've got my eye on the new Yaris.

What's yours?

 

Have you pinched my ride, Jaybean???

 

1. A Patek Phillipe watch (I have a specific goal for this)
2. An LV holdall bag for travelling
3. Business Class tickets to UK for the family (although out of the above, I’d be most likely to push the button on this once borders re-open)

 

I need to build a special room for my side hustle. I've got all the bits and pieces I need (including a room) in a pile just looking at me but I won't do it till I buy a new PPOR (6-12 months away).

It's killing me not having the special room, but I get by and I need to put every other dollar into the PPOR fund...

 

Early retirement

 

Once you get used to frugality, nothing is a sacrifice. When the car is ready to go, buy another one. It’s just a tool to get from A to B.

 

If you build it, they will come.

 

Haha, I thought I was the only one that did this. I buy a car & drive it until it dies, then get the next one. My current car is a Diahatsu Terios of dubious vintage. I've had it for several years now & I love it. It's been treated very much as a work vehicle for reno's & is quite battered around on the inside. No modern conveniences, like automatic windows, but it does have air con that works somewhat. No heating. Hubby keeps telling me I need to upgrade, but why spend the money when I'm happy with what I've got?

 

I have been "desperate" to buy a new(er) car for a while. Currently drive a 2004 Toyota Kluger - bought it in 2010 when my wife was pregnant with twins and we needed a box on wheels to get around. I've been looking for a 4wd to replace it with, but my requirements are fairly specific. I was ready to pull the trigger about 2 years ago, but was just waiting for one to come up. Since COVID, stock is even more scarce, and prices have gone way up, plus we have been making good traction on paying down the PPOR, and I am becoming less-inclined to spend a significant amount of money! I expect I will wait at least another year given the stock and pricing.

Also want a new mountain bike and a road bike, but again, stock is scarce and I can delay those purchases

 

What's the cost of the car you want?

 

Let's crowd fund it

 

um....

 

They can buy @skater's runabout

(I've got short arms and deep pockets).

 

Cheap cars have ended up being a big expense for me. I've had bad luck with breakdowns and the big maintanence items like timing belt changes and gearbox fluid changes that costs almost the value of the car at the time....

Even doing my own servicing and basic repairs. I got caught out with an old Pulsar that basically wouldn't rev past 3000rpm. Took it to a mechanic: spark plug & oxygen sensor replacements later, still doing the same. Took it to an auto electrician who spent the whole day dismantling many things (and charging me for it), in the end turned out being the "lifetime" fuel filter that's located in the fuel tank accessed under the rear seats of the car (big labour job or so he claimed). $1k later my $3k car was back on the road again being less of a piece of junk.

These days I spend quite a bit of time in my cars, ~6 hrs a day so it's a luxury I allow myself. I bought a new car and it's honestly been the best value car purchase I have made: a Corolla hybrid. Sure, any chump would advise against buying a new car, but at the time it came with a low interest rate (1.9%), so interest overall end up being about $1500 over 4 years - which I think is reasonable considering the TCO of cars. Then, because of business use, I could claim running expenses and depreciation on it, plus it being a hybrid it costs sweet FA to run. There's only the standard maintainence of engine oil and filter (<$150 at any mechanic). The brakes don't wear as much, having regenerative brakes, the fuel cost is less than $50 per 1000kms travelled. My current tyres are near 90k and they've still got tread left enough to last beyond 100k kms. At the end of the loan term, my balloon payment is about $12k. Looking at car classifieds there are no 4 yr old Corolla hybrids for sale anywhere near $12k. All but 2 nationwide are listed for sale at above $20k. In the end, it'll cost me about $2k per year to be in a new car, with all the modern conveniences. Toyotas have excellent resales and they are the whitegoods on wheels for anyone not into cars - a Camry hybrid 5 years old only loses about $6k in total deprecitation from new.

This post brought to you by your local Toyota shrill.

 

The prices I've been looking at are pretty broad, but as an example, in late 2019 I saw a model I would have bought for sale at about $32k. About the right price at the time, and it was snapped up the first weekend it was listed. Fast forward to late 2020 and I saw pretty much the same car going for $40k+.

I'm after a petrol Prado. Getting hard to find now, no longer available new.

 

I'm for it!

 

I've never heard of anyone going wrong buying a Corolla. Ever.

They're never going to be the most exciting thing in the world but I'm terms of "getting the job done" they really are incredible machines!

 

For me:
A BA Falcon wagon as a removalist's/repairman's car
An old civic just in case I need to be a normal human being