Driven

Those of you who have been in the habit of visiting my blog on a regular basis, will be aware that I ran a monthly saga that eventually came to be known as Debtwatch. It was where I spoke openly about how I believed God had provided the opportunity, need and the desire for me to clear up the temporal effects of some of my past mistakes. By his grace, it took me less than a year.

It's been several months since I even touched upon the subject... I believe I paused only to mention that I had taken a breather and treated myself to a laptop.

However, I have not been idle. I have been working along a similar principle to try and save up for a car... as well as looking at more long term savings.

At the current time, I'm 3 months into my voyage of saving. I could probably afford a vehicle of some description now but it would undoubtedly be a:

So much as I'm dying to get out on the open road again... I think I'm going to have to be patient. This is really frustrating because there are people I want to meet, places I want to go... there are events in the calendar coming up that may well require me to be under my own steam if I am to help others... and at present I can't - the way is shut. To people questioning the environmental wisdom of me purchasing a car, I would caution that it's very easy to pontificate about the importance of public transport when you live in a metropolitan transport hub like London or Birmingham. Living in a small relatively rural market town does not offer me the same advantages. I have to travel 8 miles to access the nearest rail network... and direct trains are very hard to come by.

By my estimation, I think I'll probably be ready by the beginning of July (but then my money is in an ISA... so i may not be able to get to it before then anyway).

I'm looking at getting a car that's about 3 or 4 years old and is 1.4 litres or lower in cubic capacity. The budget I'm setting myself is approximately £3,500 - £4,000.

I reckon I'll be looking at something like a Ford KA:

... or a car in the same class. I don't need anything flash, just something that will get me from A to B without flying apart at the seams.

If you have an recommendations about make, model, specification - heck even colour (but not something crazy like "hot pink"), I'm fairly open minded.

I'm reminded of the time - several years ago, when a friend passed his driving test and we jokingly set up the P.P.B.V. (Pat's Porsche Benevolent Fund), in our youth fellowship's magazine (I was joint editor at the time). The project was a surprise success and we managed to raise the necessary funds...

...for a die cast model.

So I announce with some trepidation the launch of my new fundraising trust - S.A.I.N.T. (Society for Accumulation of Income for Nick's Transportation). I say with trepidation because this is the Internet... and there are probably some people out there who are crazy enough to actually contribute - I probably know half of them! ;-)