"Budget Creep" - does anyone else do this?

[ex vtskid]

Browsing the classifieds as you do, seeing what you can get for a couple of k. And then it begins, I'll see something for £3k and so on until I'm looking at 996's and 348's! I then slap myself and see a right bargain for £1000 or so and then the circle begins again...

[anonymous-user]

Always.... when i'm searching I always end up looking at cars way more than what I should be spending.

[Shaw Tarse]

Hours of "fun" doing that, often started by a link on PH to an ad

[balders118]

My budget always gets extended. Always. A car i've just bought, absaloute max was £1000, as I am very skint ATM. How much was the car I bought. Advertised £1500, paid £1350. oh well.

[parapaul]

Always

Whatever the budget is, I always look at cars up to £1k or £2k over, just in case there's an absolute bargain waiting to be had.

[Scho]

Thats life, Anything ever ended up costing you less than you thought?

No!

[davido140]

I do it with everything, set a budget, find something just outside, then the creep starts...

Done it recently with everything from cars to shoes to tools...

Currently doing it with houses, the 300k house is now looking like 425k!!!! NOT GOOD!!!

Someone give me a slap and a reality check please.

[lescombes]

Just been looking for a cheapish motor for my daughter.....she said the budget was £500.....yeah yeah...low...so I did the dad thing and looked at all the local ads/Autotrader and the like.....went to see some right crap....so I started looking at the £1000 mark and said to Mrs "we can lend her the dosh".....then I decided to visit Mum in Law....and I went to scout a few garages near her place......I ended up with a mint Astra "Arctic" for £500 FSH/MOT for 12 months and serviced recently too..needless to say I was a happy bunny as the trader had just dropped it by £200 due to the September registrations (he get most f his motors local from dealer who have had them as trade in's) There are bargains out there in your price range....you just need to look....if only she could have stretched her budget to £1000....

[RudeDog]

I've just spent £5K more than I budgeted this week on a used car I saw on PH.

[snuffle]

I needed a van or estate for last winter as the pulsar was/is broken
and I didnt want to drive the exige durring the winter.
Things didnt go as plan.
although the exige did survive the winter and the pulsar is still dead.

[Hitler Hadrump]

Why else would manufacturers print those big brochures featuring their entire range?

They hope someone will pick one up looking for a Ford Ka, and while reading it on the toilet creep up to a fully loaded Scorpio.

[davido140]

snuffle said:

I needed a van or estate for last winter as the pulsar was/is broken
and I didnt want to drive the exige durring the winter.
Things didnt go as plan.
although the exige did survive the winter and the pulsar is still dead.

you got a Ferrari instead!! Ace!

[Matt UK]

When using 'man maths', anything is possible.

Amortise the purchase price over 10 years and all of a sudden your monthly budget can get you into all sorts of trouble / tasty metal

[colonel c]

Not just budget creep. I set out to buy a Defender for some off road fun and to save my Disco some scratches and bumps but ended up buying Golf as a run-around instead. Still not sure how the fk that happened.

[Killer2005]

Guilty

I start looking at MX5's for 2-3k, then manage to work myself up to 8-9k caterfields

[NoNeed]

I always start with £2,000 but it has to buy more than one car. I.E buy one for the engine one for interior then a body to put them in.


But it does go on for hours and hours.

[snuffle]

davido140 said:

snuffle said:

I needed a van or estate for last winter as the pulsar was/is broken
and I didnt want to drive the exige durring the winter.
Things didnt go as plan.
although the exige did survive the winter and the pulsar is still dead.

you got a Ferrari instead!! Ace!

winter is only a few months away I suppose I should start searching again, wish me luck.

[uuf361]

Yes, almost always........when Iwas looking to replace my Golf a couple of years ago I started with a budget of £10-£11K and ended up with a £17K SEAT.

And when I was replacing the Aston had a budget of £50K and ended up spending over 50% more on the 911!

Not sure I'm good at sticking to a budget somehow - it is good fun trying though.....although the last car I did set myself a budget of £5K and managed to come in a whole £100 under

[ShadownINja]

I once went from £6k to 25k over the course of maybe 6 months of deciding what I wanted.

[Mr E Driver]

In Dec 2008 I was after one of the last E46 330cd and was looking at spending around 14k.
I couldn't find any and then I was offered a March 08 E92 335d with 9k.
Although it was nearly twice what I was planning on spending I made the right choice in the end, especially as it has lots of toys on it

Edited by Mr E Driver on Wednesday 15th September 00:06