Down to one car.

We're now a one car family. Hurrah!

Recently I was bought out of a Letting Company that I was a partner of, so now it's only Rob that requires a car to commute to work in Liverpool.  He'd happily get public transport, however his workplace is not ideally situated for an easy commute without having over a 2 hours commute each way.   I don't particularly need a car, I write a weekly column for Urban Life and a variety of lifestyle and property magazines in the UK.  Any time I will require the car for a client visit then I'll either drop Rob at work and then go onto my appointment or alternatively use the www.citycarclub.com where I can hire a car for £3.96 per hour (available at most large cities across the UK), they use one of the parking bays across the city and the nearest to us is just behind our building.   If anyone joins to get 4 free hours type in promotional code 'FRIEND Jonathan Welford' while completing the on line application.  There is an annual fee of £50 and there are a variety of car choices you can choose from, if you are moving home, you can have a van, hatchbacks for a quick journey, even the eco family car the Prius Hybrid.

As we live in the city centre of Manchester we are easily catered for food shopping, we get our heavy essentials delivered from a choice of chain supermarkets, and all our entertainment is on the door stop or within a quick rail journey.  Our apartment doesn't come with a parking space so we have let our next door neighbor take over one of our rented car parking spaces saving us £1080 per year, and around £2000 in running costs (insurance, tax and servicing).  This cash saving can be invested in more worthwhile life experiences, travel plans are afoot.

Choosing the car to go wasn't a difficult choice, we kept the newest one with the lowest mileage, so the family car is an old faithful 2003 Volvo Estate, the 2002 Ford Focus with a zillion miles on the clock was sold off.  We thought about advertising privately however in the end went with the new on line service www.webuyanycar.com, so long as you have all your documentation, you simply input the car details into their website, mileage, MOT length, license plate and condition etc and they will give you an offer there and then.  If you are happy with this then you just make an appoint to take it in.  We did just that, within 30 minutes the car was assessed by one of their chaps and we were driving away in the last car left. Job Done!

With the money we have made from the car sale we are investing in doing a TEFL course, this is a course to Teach English as a Foreign Language, we are investing in ourselves and for our future, plus it looks like a fun weekend course.  Now booked for October, and fortunately it's being held 3 minutes walk from where we live in a local hotel.