h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Usually, the thing needing replacing hobbles along on its last legs for a few months, then gives up the ghost entirely.

At this point I procrastinate about getting a new one for a few months more, and often come to the conclusion that I've done without it for a couple of months and it's been no hardship, so I can live without one.

This has more to do with laziness and a dislike of shopping than parsimony, I have to say...

Sometimes we don't even replace things... we got rid of our microwave in May and don't miss it in the slightest.

I miss my microwave slightly, but that is outweighed by the vast swathes of space freed up.

Not only do we have a CRT tv, but it's not actually tuned in since the area Went Digital in June or so. I just haven't got around to getting rid of it yet....

I'm not going to try to count the white goods, etc.

Cars are tricky, and I totally get your question.

There's a cheap time to run them between about 20,000 (when the depreciation's done its job for second hand car buyers) and 80,000 (when it needs a new cam, and other things start to show their age). After that it depends on the car. The alternator just went on mine so what I thought would be a new battery was a total walletectomy. Now its a case of who blinks first - I want my money's worth out of the alternator, but will the pads go, or a spring pop or something?

B

"who blinks first"
That's it, absolutely! There's no point in investing money in a car if it's going to need getting rid of. I'm beginning to wonder if cars are made deliberately complicated in order to require us to spend far too much on them.

Yes, I'm sure they are.

I once replaced the bumper on a Ford Fiesta myself. The bumper cost about £25 and it was a simple job requiring two nutsnbolts.

The bumper on our present car would cost £600 to replace, according to our local dealer. So we're driving around with it scrunched. Sigh.

Mol

Heh, I remember someone reversing into my Cortina, the quarter bumper came off. I got her to cough up for a new one rather than go through the insurance to save her no claims, then just clipped it back on when she'd gone.

When the silly cow crashed into my less-than-30-days-new-to-me Extol bumper at a similar speed it cost nearly £2k to get fixed.

I just replaced my first car after the power steering went - it would've been a £550 fix on a fifteen-year-old car that I'd bought for £280. Did manage to get £150 for it as a part exchange/scrap. And then bought a 10-year-old one with just over 80,000 miles, which, to me, represents a massive upgrade.

Dunno how 2legs manages to keep his boots for so long - I usually end up re-soling or replacing my main several pairs of shoes every year, on account of water seeping in through the gaping holes from below. And it doesn't matter whether I buy cheap or expensive ones, they only last a year.

Nearly always when something breaks and its going to cost a bomb to repair.

I won't go into cars at present though..we'd be here all day.

If I remember rightly, 2legs manages to keep his boots for so long by burying them under the radiator, putting mad white laces in them, and then forgetting about them for a decade or two. It's a tempting approach...