How do you budget for vehicle maintenance and vehicle replacement?

[Wayne02]

Do you budget a monthly amount to go towards necessary vehicle maintenance and repairs? How about when it comes time for a replacement vehicle, do you budget a monthly amount to go towards that when the time comes?

[Jenn]

Must admit not a budgeter; but if I were I'd set aside 1-2 thousand (would calculate exact amount) every month and use that fund for insurance, oil changes, repairs and hopefully when I next wanted another car there'd be enough in that fund to pay cash for it. (We have two drivers and at present three cars.) And if there weren't enough to pay cash for the next car, maybe need to wait longer to buy again or budget more to our cars.

Not budgeting we just pay the bills as they come (keep a cushion for unexpected ones but for our older vehicles repairs are EXPECTED!) and when we think we want another car move some longer term savings into available cash and go shopping.

I highly recommend anyone who has an automatic budget of cart payment, to continue that payment to YOURSELF after the car is paid of (hopefully still running well!) Then when repair bills get bigger or when you wish to buy another you'll be way ahead of the game.

[PineRidge]

We don't budget specifically for repairs, but we do put some money back every week, and it often goes to the vehicles In just the last two months we have replaced a starter, alternator and two batteries (not all one vehicle).

We do budget to replace dh's work cars, lucky for us he is happy driving cheap vehicles. I normally have about $1000 saved for a purchase at any time, you never know when the current car might go. If I needed more money then it wouldn't be too hard to add a few hundred dollars.

But, we are not good about budgeting for a family van (morer expensive because it has to be reliable). The last two that we owned we had to get loans, and just paid them off ASAP. We hate debt, but have never been able to save up more than a down payment.

[DW]

We always keep one good one that I commute in. By good, I mean dependable enough that we can jump in and go anywhere. We sometimes have payments on the good one. All others are cash purchased. My sons & work truck...good deals and we do keep up maintenance. The rule is no pymnts over 3 yrs. We never buy new. We are currently thinking of getting another truck with better gas mileage...probably smaller than our work truck. I have the money saved...just not into payments. I save every month for whatever we need & for emergencies.

[Mel-]

the easy way is to take the governments figures or AAA. AAA just published a new report that driving a car cost 52.3 cents per mile. the government gives 48.5 cents per mile.

In looking at the last 15 years of owning cars it has cost me 21 cents per mile plus gas and insurance (that included all others costs like purchase price, tires, repair work, etc).

so take one of these figures and figure how many miles you put on a month. 1000 miles a month times the gov figure of 48.5 is $485 that those miles cost you. subtract what you paid for gas, insurance and car payment and put the rest away towards repairs.

the government and AAA figures include everything including gas and insurance. it also assumes you buy a brand new vehicle and drive it 100k miles then trade in for a new one. also assumes much higher insurance than I pay.

my costs are half what the governments figures are because I buy used and run it to death before buying another used car. and pay cash so have no financing fees. the government and AAA figures assume you have a loan for the car and include in their figures significant interest payments.

[Bink]

Right now we don't. We've been lucky the past 15 years to have vehicles that needed little more than routine maintenance. Before then, we had junkers that we didn't dare mention windfall money around or they'd want their cut.

I knew a woman 20 years ago that budgeted $500/year toward vehicles. She'd buy a used one for 500 bucks and run it into the ground in that year, spending nothing toward repairs.

[Meg Z]

We don't budget for that specifically, we just set aside a percentage of our pay for savings/investments every payday. It's there for small emergencies like new tires, and it's there for big emergencies like a new car. And other things, as well....so if that land next door ever goes for a reasonable price.....

Meg

[Selena]

I've read to budget $.06 per mile for repairs. As I've just started working on the budget EVERYTHING for a month, I don't know if this is a valid number or not. Of course we just had the $625 repair (timing belt time). I don't believe $.06 per mile would quite cover it for one year but I think if one started doing it the year you bought the car new, it would. Not sure how to handle a used, I would think you'd need to know if any major maintenance items were coming soon.

[Christine in OK]

We just reworked our budget (hubby got a raise for a change - yea!) to include $400 a month to be put aside for a car. We're hoping that our 2 will last about another 5 years, and then we should have a fair chunk of change - if we can't pay cash in full, we won't have much of a payment. Of course, we're also looking at having to replace both probably within a couple of years of each other - they're 9 and 12 years old right now, respectively. So if they do last another five years, they'll be well into the 200,000 range. I told Lance I want to see my car roll 250,000 before it's gone. It's sitting at 190,000 now, so I will probably make it! He mentioned buying something "new", but I told him it would probably be more advisable to buy used, particularly until all the kids are grown. Maybe in my old age I'll buy me a sporty little convertible - I've never had one, unless you count his old jeep CJ7 we had when our oldest was a baby.

We sat down and figured out all bills, including car insurance, tags and farm property taxes (our house property taxes and insurance are the mortgage escrow). We leave that amount in our main checking and move the car savings to main savings. I have a secondary account at the same place that all the rest gets moved to; into that we have figured gas, groceries, school lunches and spending money for both of us. Any extra above that gets moved to a secondary savings for things like birthday presents, car repairs, vet bills, etc. Sounds complicated, but I believe once I get the hang of it, it will be so easy to tell exactly how much money I have and if I'm on target for saving for those special things (you know, like woodworking tools and garden supplies!).

[MelissaW]

We just bought a good used car. When we knew our jeep was starting to cost more in upkeep than it was worth, we trimmed our budget to specifically set money aside for a new car, which took about a year. Then, we spent quite awhile shopping for just the right car that was within our budget. Let me tell you, I was ready to give up after two months of looking at cars every weekend during the coldest, most miserable time of year! Luckily, my husband does the vehicle maintenance and repair (unless it's something that involves the computers or that sort of thing), so we don't really need to budget much for that outside of our normal incedentals fund.

[goatsareus]

Originally Posted by Wayne02

Do you budget a monthly amount to go towards necessary vehicle maintenance and repairs? How about when it comes time for a replacement vehicle, do you budget a monthly amount to go towards that when the time comes?

Yes, we do. $200. a month, for repairs and replacement. Our outlay for repairs is low, by history, been keeping track since 1991. So when it comes time to replace a vehicle, we see how much is in the repair/replacement account and go pay cash for the vehicle that we can afford.

[michiganfarmer]

I dont budget for anything yet. I dont owe all my paycheck so I have leftovers. I am constantly buying lumber, and little things for the farm. I spend all my money every paycheck. When I have vehicle breakdowns, I take money I would have spent on farm stuff, and pay for vehicle repair parts. I do most repairs myself. I hate to pay someone els to do something when my arms, and legs still work.

[Christine in OK]

So true, Max, on the repairs. Lance is looking forward very much to having this shop building finished so he can do most of our repairs. At this point, we simply don't have any place that he can do them (it's down to us building a retaining wall on the backside now and then calling for inspection).

Also, it helps that our mechanic is a personal friend. He often gives us a break on parts, and he's practically done my last couple of oil changes for free. I guess it works out in the end - they like to hang out over here and I generally cook when they come.