Car Budgeting
Feb. 2nd, 2015 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI've finally gotten myself to do something productive today. I caught up on and reconciled my bank account for December and January. It got away from me a little bit over the holidays. At the same time, I updated my car expenses spreadsheet. I'm really interested in what the actual operating and ownership costs of my vehicles, both petrochemical-fueled and human-powered, are.
I bought my 1999 Lumina in July of 2013 for $200. Repairs and registration ran another $728.35. Since then, I've driven about 12,138 miles, and spent a total of about $4,970 on the car. Altogether, it comes out to about forty cents per mile. That includes the $400 I spent on tires, and the $867 for a new fuel pump and gas tank. I'm still under the AAA estimated 60.8 cents per mile, even though that last repair was a big bite out of my finances.
I'm averaging about 20mpg, though it swings up and down from that point a surprising amount. (I *really* miss my 45-48mpg Swift. This is *not* my ideal car.) At that price, my Oklahoma trip will cost about $140 in gas, at $2 per gallon. However, in total operating costs, it will come out to about $560. That's a *big* hidden cost, isn't it? It should be a little bit lower due to all the highway driving, but still. Cars are expensive things to own, and rather sneaky about it to boot! (Updated with corrected math. Oops!)
Still hoping I can live without a car when I move for grad school.
*sighs* In my Swift, I could have done this for about $60 in gas. It was about a 12 gallon tank and I could get over 750 miles on it.
Someday, I'll have a car like that again.
I bought my 1999 Lumina in July of 2013 for $200. Repairs and registration ran another $728.35. Since then, I've driven about 12,138 miles, and spent a total of about $4,970 on the car. Altogether, it comes out to about forty cents per mile. That includes the $400 I spent on tires, and the $867 for a new fuel pump and gas tank. I'm still under the AAA estimated 60.8 cents per mile, even though that last repair was a big bite out of my finances.
I'm averaging about 20mpg, though it swings up and down from that point a surprising amount. (I *really* miss my 45-48mpg Swift. This is *not* my ideal car.) At that price, my Oklahoma trip will cost about $140 in gas, at $2 per gallon. However, in total operating costs, it will come out to about $560. That's a *big* hidden cost, isn't it? It should be a little bit lower due to all the highway driving, but still. Cars are expensive things to own, and rather sneaky about it to boot! (Updated with corrected math. Oops!)
Still hoping I can live without a car when I move for grad school.
*sighs* In my Swift, I could have done this for about $60 in gas. It was about a 12 gallon tank and I could get over 750 miles on it.
Someday, I'll have a car like that again.
