Jump to content

Keeping a spreadsheet for your shitters..


DaveDorson

Recommended Posts

Anyone else take this approach with their cars or is it just me?

 

It really started this year, I decided to take stock of what I've got "in" and how much each one is costing me to either get to a useable state, or to keep in a usable state in the case of the Mongdoggo.

 

It's quite scary how quickly things add up.. I'm not keeping one for the 72 beetle (I'll update that thread again soon) as it's terrifying, but the black "new beetle" has a running total of around £400 this year and is still to see a tester, the Mongdoggo has cost me £175 so far this year, although that does include converting it to massive front brakes and re-doing the rear discs and pads,  and it's still making an annoying clicking at the front and will need all four tyres replaced in the not too distant future.

 

I'll admit, part of the reason is because I'm taking my household budgeting a bit more seriously with the increase in the cost of living, and rationalising how much my storage etc is costing me, and making sure I don't over-spend on my leisure activities.. it also gives me a good way to "prove" to the director of household finances that me having a workshop is actually cheaper than me paying finance on a sensible car, and having someone else service it, even if it does mean occasionally she can't use my services for the weekend to dig more holes in the garden for plants, or go to some garden centre to buy yet more shit that she'll decide she doesn't want anymore in a few months and will cluttering up the place, but it's a proper eye opener as to just how expensive it is to keep your cars going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

no

absolutely no

i've spent £4,200 in the past year on my C5, i don't want to remdind myself of it........would have been cheaper to finance a new car

and the XM

no again

i paid probably too much for it, going to spend too much on it cos like the C5 i love it

it's depressing to think of how much i've spent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not me. It seems like a complete waste of time. I know cars cost money and apart from football and holidays it's my main money/time outlet.

At times I'll price up what a car cost me and what I've put into it. This means when I sell it, I don't sell it too cheap. I have a habit of fucking cars off if they upset me for some reason and do it cheaply so I don't have to look at them.

Better than how I used to be if something or someone upset me though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, maxxo said:

no

absolutely no

i've spent £4,200 in the past year on my C5, i don't want to remdind myself of it........would have been cheaper to finance a new car

and the XM

no again

i paid probably too much for it, going to spend too much on it cos like the C5 i love it

it's depressing to think of how much i've spent

£4,200 Christ that’s a bad year what went wrong!

I don’t keep tabs on expense to be fair, more I keep an informal tab on the inconvenience. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, sierraman said:

£4,200 Christ that’s a bad year what went wrong!

I don’t keep tabs on expense to be fair, more I keep an informal tab on the inconvenience. 

auto gearbox valve block

rear arm bearings

spheres

4 transmission fluid changes

few small repairs

tyres

servicing

i feel like theres something else but i can't remember

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll do it if I buy something broken to fix and sell but not generally for the "keepers" on the fleet.

I should do as much for making a service history record for the time I've had something as I usually forget to list some crucial piece of work I've done when I come to sell it🙄

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh I love a spreadsheet for running costs. Probably slightly different for me being a self employed courier, but I've a record of every single thing, even every fill up of fuel. I know what the working vehicles have cost me to the penny and how much they cost per mile to run.

Non working vehicles I just keep a record of maintenance/servicing and part/labour costs.

It makes for unpleasant reading sometimes but its important to see if I'm actually making any money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think when you start doing this you start looking at everything.

Both the e60 and the vectra have had a bill each circa £1k plus other things but I am happy with this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have recently, out of idle curiosity. It doesn't change my thinking of how I run the car, I just like to be organized I suppose. 

10 months/7000 miles or so of running a MK2 Focus - £294.69 repairs and servicing (parts only - NO labour etc)

When I bought it, 2x tyres were atrocious and 2x were ancient, so I was lucky that I had 4x nearly new 205/55/R16 on Focus #1 at the time to swap over (will likely swap them back, so cost £0) Had I not had those tyres probably add another £200 to that figure. 

image.png.d4825b59b01c7d576fb40841dce4915e.png

Including new tyres, I would expect that lot to total at least £1200 at a garage which would be the end of the car for most people. Even though there's nothing major there at all. 

Lets say £1200 worth of work in a garage, that gets you a high mileage MK2 Focus that is probably due a cambelt and realistically will need a steering rack in a year or two

Surprising how it adds up, you can see why people bridge seemingly good cars!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep. One for every car.

But there's no amount columns in any of them, because i might accidentally select the whole column in Excel and then see the SUM bit at the bottom, and that would ruin my enjoyment* of having a small fleet of shitters. (I sometimes note the cost of parts in a Comments column, but only so i have a record of where i bought them and to see what i can expect to pay if they need replacing again later)

I have the spreadsheets as it seems the easiest way of recording dates and mileages of oil and filter changes, tyre replacements etc. and as a record of repairs (or attempted repairs) which I'd likely forget all about otherwise. I'm also crap at keeping and organising paperwork, so this makes for a better service history that i can pass to subsequent owners, either on a memory stick or printed out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I have recently, out of idle curiosity. It doesn't change my thinking of how I run the car, I just like to be organized I suppose. 

10 months/7000 miles or so of running a MK2 Focus - £294.69 repairs and servicing (parts only - NO labour etc)

When I bought it, 2x tyres were atrocious and 2x were ancient, so I was lucky that I had 4x nearly new 205/55/R16 on Focus #1 at the time to swap over (will likely swap them back, so cost £0) Had I not had those tyres probably add another £200 to that figure. 

image.png.d4825b59b01c7d576fb40841dce4915e.png

Including new tyres, I would expect that lot to total at least £1200 at a garage which would be the end of the car for most people. Even though there's nothing major there at all. 

Lets say £1200 worth of work in a garage, that gets you a high mileage MK2 Focus that is probably due a cambelt and realistically will need a steering rack in a year or two

Surprising how it adds up, you can see why people bridge seemingly good cars!

I took a leaf out of your book and made a spreadsheet. I have most of the paperwork in the car but since it's raining I'm not going out to get it, so some are estimates. I've had the car a year as of March and it's covered 10,000 miles with me. The air conditioning was by choice, so subtract the £47 and you're still left with the four figure sum. 

image.thumb.png.a69f0a2b7e65da680228f125912f653c.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely not, why would I want to ruin my hobby by knowing how much of an expensive hobby it is?

The less I know, the better. When you look at it like that you can genuinely live by man maths and just remember purchase price and resale price. That way if you sell the car for more than you paid for it you really are in profit and don’t take in to account the amount you’ve spent on it during ownership. 
 

I never want to think about what I spend on any of my vehicles, ever. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel the same when it comes to MPG

 

I have seen people that religiously record every fill up, pence per litre, exact amount filled up, calculate the MPG for every tank and record it.

 

I just don’t understand why, what does it actually matter? You still need to put that fuel into the car and pay the price on the pumps.. I just feel like it must take the enjoyment out of it massively.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

I feel the same when it comes to MPG

 

I have seen people that religiously record every fill up, pence per litre, exact amount filled up, calculate the MPG for every tank and record it.

 

I just don’t understand why, what does it actually matter? You still need to put that fuel into the car and pay the price on the pumps.. I just feel like it must take the enjoyment out of it massively.

I don't bother with writing in when I fill up and how much, just something to go with the invoices if the garage does any work, although I do a lot of work myself

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do have a spreadsheet like that but don't fill in the costs religiously because I'm too lazy.  It's handy to keep the details of each car in one place though and I have set it up to track the MOT, insurance and tax status of each one.  Also the V5c reference no. can be useful for taxing online.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started adding up just expenditure over a year recently. Excluding purchase price of vehicles, I got to five figures and decided I ought to stop. 

Definitely has made me re-evaluate having the cars I own and possibly reduce down a lot. Plus a spreadsheet makes the expenditure evidence too easily findable by your other half!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JJ0063 said:

Absolutely not, why would I want to ruin my hobby by knowing how much of an expensive hobby it is?

The less I know, the better. When you look at it like that you can genuinely live by man maths and just remember purchase price and resale price. That way if you sell the car for more than you paid for it you really are in profit and don’t take in to account the amount you’ve spent on it during ownership. 
 

I never want to think about what I spend on any of my vehicles, ever. 

 

To be honest it was initially so I didn't have to write a load of annoying repetitive logic apps as part of my day job, but I found it sort of interesting after costing up the re-commissioning of the black beetle so decided to make tabs for each of the fleet and update them when I buy bits for each one.

The fact of the matter is, each member of the current fleet is in a queue to get finished and will be done no matter the cost, because it's my hobby and the resale value doesn't really impact me as the likelihood of ever selling any of them is fairly low.

I've reached the point I'm not even looking for interesting new projects at the moment, until I've at least ticked off doing a few of the ones I have here.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

I do have a spreadsheet like that but don't fill in the costs religiously because I'm too lazy.  It's handy to keep the details of each car in one place though and I have set it up to track the MOT, insurance and tax status of each one.  Also the V5c reference no. can be useful for taxing online.

The V5 reference is a great tip actually!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I took a leaf out of your book and made a spreadsheet. I have most of the paperwork in the car but since it's raining I'm not going out to get it, so some are estimates. I've had the car a year as of March and it's covered 10,000 miles with me. The air conditioning was by choice, so subtract the £47 and you're still left with the four figure sum. 

image.thumb.png.a69f0a2b7e65da680228f125912f653c.png

"Holy Shit"

I've spent more on injectors and fuel pipes for my Land Cruiser than you have on a whole year of motoring.

If there's any holy shit to be shat here, it's with me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...