Kill 'em!

I am on the move. As you can see in the debt-O-meter and the graph at the right I nailed my 2K down payment a month ahead. Saves me 10 bucks in the end lowering interest payments. I must admit, being down for a couple of weeks because of the confronting financial review and the clouds above my head until the end of next year seems to have moved on into seeing the beauty of recognition of my situation in the current world. Where they dark clouds, I can now see how they will slowly (truth, very slowly) begin to dissolve into a beautiful debt free blue sky.

With my current rate I am planning on reaching the -10K milestone around December and immediately going at it full speed in January reaching -8K before the first of February.

At that pace I'll probably be able to smell freedom by then.

For now I am looking closer at my possibilities for financial improvement on the go. I have a fairly accurate (okay, a penny-precise) spreadsheet telling me what comes in and what goes out. SInce this is my first year in seriously budgeting my personal finance I just "took what I had ever been doing" and made my budget for the year accordingly. After moving and fine tuning I managed to be able to make more money free to relieve me from debt. This is potential savings money after next year (oh, I can't wait!!).

So. Now we get to the harder part. When I take a closer look at my expenses, my biggest unchanged expense is my car. This is basically a low hanging fruit. I drive a 15 year old Volvo which is incredible trustworthy yet also incredible heavy (=road taxes) and a incredible fuel addict. Okay, I must say I'm fairly impressed by getting it up to around 12,5km a liter yet this still adds up.

My trustworthy Volvo had a little problem this week (first since I owned it over a year) and I had it at the garage for a couple of days, making me dependable on public transportation.

Since I'm a drummer I never really looked at the option of living without a car (also the GF lives in the most awful place to get to by using public transportation).

So I am looking at a couple of options right now.

a. Keep the Volvo. Yearly costs of $ 720 road taxes, $ 600 insurance, approx. $ 2400 fuel, 
    around $ 100 yearly parking fees and a small reservation of $ 500 for maintenance and 
    repairs.
    Minus: costs approx. $ 4300 yearly. Plus: This car will never ever fail on me.
b. Get a Nissan Micra or something alike. Fairly simple yet decent Japanese car. Pretty 
    reliable, low on maintenance (yet be careful when buying; some of the bigger repairs 
    can cost up to $ 1500). Yearly costs of $ 240 road taxes, $ 600 insurance, approx. 
    $ 1700 fuel, $ 100 parking and the same $ 500 for m&r. Plus: costs approx. $ 3150 
    yearly. 
    Minus: I need to buy a different car. This takes time and brings a risk of initial repairs. 
    Yet anything up to $ 1150 within the first year is still fairly acceptable if it stays with 
    that).I am willing to pay around $ 1500 for the car plus anything that my Volvo still will 
    sell for. Or less, if possible.
c. Sell the Volvo and use public transportation. With my current whereabouts this will 
    cost me around $ 2000 yearly to travel mainly to the GF and to family and friends. 
    Major benefits: no taxes, repairs, fuel what so ever. And, if I don't travel, I don't have  
    any costs at all. Also my current employer provides me with free transportation on our 
    own network. Without this, I would have to add around $ 800 yearly. Still over $ 1400 
    cheaper (and less risky) than owning and driving my current car and even cheaper than 
    buying and driving a smaller car. Also, I personally don't mind sitting in a train. It 
    brings me time to let my mind wonder of without hitting a tree or driving off a bridge.

Sounds like a no brainer... yet this comes with a fairly high emotional price: I really ought to quit playing drums for a while since without my own car I can't possibly get to rehearsals (which are in an nearly impossible reachable place using public transportation) with the bigband and the gigs are even further away (for which I also need to bring my own gear). I must confess I'm seeing my overall motivation for playing with my bands going downwards ever since I'm focusing more on changing my way of life. But for now, is this a bridge to far?

Yet with quitting bands I could also save an additional couple of $$$ (yes, these bands so far only cost me money with having to pay for rehearsal space and some beverages).

Do I really want to make this big step and quit playing drums (or at least on a fairly smaller basis) and loose a lot of social interaction there? (Making space for new social interaction within reach?). Or do I have to bring this down step by step and see how things work out with a smaller car? Carpooling might be an option for rehearsal purposes but I'm not to fond of the idea.

Or, the other way around, am I willing to pay anywhere around $ 1000 yearly just to keep doing my hobby and be able to get to any relative / loved one fast by jumping in a car?

Also there's the GF issue: it's a long trip there and I can't even get to her house without using a bike somewhere down the trip. Yet I think that this still is fairly do-able with a little effort I'm willing to take.

All in all I can save up to $ 2300 a year by not owning a car anymore, and the less I travel, the bigger the win... With that covering up a full month of expenses, that's a number that sounds pretty appealing to me at this moment!