So far so good. 5 weeks and counting.
I still need to try and reclaim the almost £40 VED duty paid by DD 01/03/21 after I sold the car 27/02/21.
Local shops are 1 mile away...in 20 odd years I think I’ve only ever driven there a handful of times. My old mum lives one mile away so no probs visiting her, I’ve great walking on my doorstep, choice of two local railway stations and a half decent bus service for linear walks and shopping in larger urban areas.
I do miss driving, but as leisure travel is only just beginning to ease it’s been no hardship.
I’m still conflicted as to whether to hold on until I can get the exact spec/ vehicle I want, or buy an old banger privately as a ‘put me on’ until I can drive down to Spain late September...which is looking increasingly unlikely. Who knows.
This is the longest period I’ve been carless since passing my test back in the dark ages.
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To be fair, even when you did have the Barbiemobile you very rarely drove it anyway.....
Just wait to you try your first dump run by bus......
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Don’t do dump runs. I’ve a wheelie bin.
Anything large goes on FB as a give away. The cr*p people collect & take away never ceases to amaze. Better than landfill.
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>> Don’t do dump runs. I’ve a wheelie bin.
We just had to book a place and do a tip run after a year of storing all the stuff they won't allow in the wheelie bins.
Turns out some of it they won't allow at the tip anymore either. No textiles. No paint.
We're apparently supposed to find a commercial service to take two small half empty tins of Dulux and a carrier bag of old socks.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 5 Apr 21 at 07:15
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I'm opening up a 90 year-old fireplace to fit my new wood burner so took 8 x bags of Barney (rubble) to my local recycling centre. How many kilograms you got there says he.
Dunno says I, I'm a pounds & ounces man ... he charged me just £3.90 which has gotta be better than dumping it in a farm field entrance like some do!
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Dog. Well done.
Fly tipping is an awful blight on our society.
I’m currently remodelling a bathroom. I’ve removed all the wall and floor tiles. The intact ones are piled up outside, others in a dozen rubble sacks. My local tip charge £4 per bag and I’ll have around 20...mini skip hire, 2 sq m is £77 so I’ll probably dispose that way.
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>>mini skip hire, 2 sq m is £77 so I'll probably dispose that way.
How do these compare to mini skip hire I wonder? www.hippowaste.co.uk/hippobag/
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"We're apparently supposed to find a commercial service to take two small half empty tins of Dulux and a carrier bag of old socks."
When my uncle died in 2012, I was left with over 60 pots of full/part full pots of paint; he had worked as a gardener at a large house and when they had done any decorating, he couldn't bear to see unused paint disposed of. His house was a tiny council old folks bungalow. I managed to give away a few of the fullish tins of emulsion to a friend who could use them, but the rest were all mine.
If the paint were dry, then it could be disposed of via the black bin so, over the next two summers, there were rows of plastic food trays (supermarket-bought meat) each with a small amount of paint drying in the sun. We have a south facing wall and all was well until rain threatened - then we had to gather up the trays and get them under cover.
I had a couple of years breathing space before my father passed away and then, being an expert on paint disposal, I inherited another 40 or so tins. By now, I was perfecting my technique so I could help the drying process using moss that I had scarified from the lawn. If you don't have access to any moss, I suppose some old socks might do the job almost as well.
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Couple of years ago went to the tip with (amongst other rubbish) a broken door mirror. It's trade waste, £10 please. Took it home and put it in the black bin - no charge.
A demonstration of stupidity in action on the part of the council - charging residents to use the tip for normal residential type waste in the belief they can offset some of their costs simply shifts waste elsewhere.
It makes no difference to the amount of waste created - just increases fly tipping or bury it in the garden behaviours which then needs to be cleared - at more cost!
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>> We're apparently supposed to find a commercial service to take two small half empty tins of Dulux
Our local tip will take half empty tins of paint, as long as you stir in some sand or soil.
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>> We're apparently supposed to find a commercial service to take two small half empty tins
>> of Dulux and a carrier bag of old socks.
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Couldn't you just put it in with your general rubbish wheelie bin.
Failing that my friend would have dropped it in one of the big commercial bins - or a skip - that he sees everywhere.
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Our tip takes pretty much everything, bags of soil, rubble, plasterboard, mattresses, old paint, clothes, shoes, household chemicals, bulbs. They've got a bin for pretty much everything. No charge for anything either.
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The only notable exceptions at our are asbestos and tyres.
Very long waits though.
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Yes, tyres are a no no at ours.
You have to queue? Ours are all on an appointment system you book online, straight in that way. Although your can't go on a spur of the moment thing.
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>> You have to queue?
Turn up an go, same as it always was except distancing has reduced capacity.
Supposed to be 'no queuing beyond this point' but of course if folks have filled the car with hedge clippings and driven 7 miles they ignore it.
One site is opposite a Builder's Merchants and they've had to put a member of staff on 'point duty' so that delivery lorries have space to manoeuvre.
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I hope they keep the booking system and make it permanent. That way you know you're going to get straight in rather than waiting about in a queue.
At our nearest tip, pre-covid, the queues were very long and caused traffic issues they were backed up so far at peaktimes anyway.
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I've never not had a car since I passed my test shortly after my 17th birthday. Even at times in my life when my finances were tighter than a crab's fundament at 60 fathoms, I've always had a car of some sort.
But, this past year, I guess we could have easily managed with only one of the three currently sitting somewhat forlornly on the the drive.
Mine has still managed to notch up 10,000 miles in 12 months despite everything, but that represents only about 25-27% of "normal" use. My wife's has done less than 3000 miles and my son's has done just over 2000. There have been very few occasions when more than one of them was in use at the same time.
Who knows what the future holds for any of us in terms of needing or wanting powered personal transport, but I'm reluctant, for now anyway, to change the basic shape of our current arrangements.
Oddly enough, or maybe not, I rarely use my car, or any car for journeys of less than 2 or 3 miles, preferring mainly to use my bike or feet around town, but I'd not want to be without a car for longer trips or those that involve shifting heavy stuff.
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Going carless - Bobby
