Petrol?.....

**Toothfairy** · 12-09-2011, 01:01 PM

At the moment I am claiming the 45p per mile for my car/petrol. I know you can't chop & change once you have chosen which method to use but 45p per mile is not even covering my expenses.

I have a Chrysler Grand Voyager and last Monday I put £25 worth of petrol into an empty tank (light on) and by Friday evening it was on the red again. I did not use the car between Monday and Friday for anything else other than Childminding.
The 45p per mile I claim only covers about half of the £25 petrol I put in never mind the wear & tear on the car.

So most months I expect I am running at a loss with petrol/milage, as last week was a typical week.

So how do you all work out your petrol???

aly · 12-09-2011, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by Toothfairy

So how do you all work out your petrol???

get a smaller engine diesel car....

i looked aat the voyageurs but the petrol guzzling didnt impress me, i hsve a galaxy diesel and I dont use that much.

**rickysmiths** · 12-09-2011, 03:47 PM

Goodness!!

Lets get this right. You put £25 petrol in the car and the number of miles you are claiming for only adds up to approx £12.50?

So that means between Mon and Fri you did 27.7 childminding miles in your car and it cost you £25 but you can only claim £12.50?

I would be looking for a new car to be honest. I couldn't afford a car that only did a little ove a mile to a litre. Thats only 4-5 miles to the galleon

I get 45-50miles to the galleon running around locally and nearer 55-60 on a long motorway type run.

**Toothfairy** · 12-09-2011, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by rickysmiths

Goodness!!

Lets get this right. You put £25 petrol in the car and the number of miles you are claiming for only adds up to approx £12.50?

So that means between Mon and Fri you did 27.7 childminding miles in your car and it cost you £25 but you can only claim £12.50?

I would be looking for a new car to be honest. I couldn't afford a car that only did a little ove a mile to a litre. Thats only 4-5 miles to the galleon

I get 45-50miles to the galleon running around locally and nearer 55-60 on a long motorway type run.

Sorry, I was just generalizing

I did around 40miles which works out around £18.
I know the car is thirsty but when we bought it second hand it was the only car in our area which ticked all our boxes.

I think in the new year we will need to look for another car.

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 12-09-2011, 05:43 PM

I think you need to take a different approach to the use of the car.

1. Do you have to use it?

2. The mileage may not cover the cost of the petrol and wear and tear BUT you have 7 others sitting with you so the money you are getting for the space is more.

3. What about capital depreciation? How much business miles are you doing compared to personal (you need to know this) and how much did you buy the car for? how long have you had it?

**MrAnchovy** · 12-09-2011, 07:28 PM

The combination of a car that is expensive to run, low business miles and low private miles is exactly the situation where claiming actual costs is likely to be better than mileage.

For instance in a week where you only do 40 business miles and no private miles, you can claim all of your petrol costs (although £25 does sound a lot for 40 miles - that is only about 10 miles to the gallon, even accountants can't afford to run cars that are that thirsty!), plus 1/52 of your annual insurance, servicing, car tax etc., plus (in effect) 1/520 of what it cost you.

When did you buy the car? If it was since April 2011 you won't have committed to using mileage yet. If it was last tax year and you have submitted your tax return claiming mileage, you can resubmit your tax return any time before the end of January 2012.

**khlwomitchell** · 12-09-2011, 07:51 PM

where as for me my 75 childminding miles a week x 45p = £33.75

I put in £30 every 7 days and do 150mile a week in total.

Your car is the problem. Mine is a 7 seat espace and its 1.9 petrol, running at 27mpg. Thats not cheap or good MPG, yours is appaling!!!!

mine covers my other car costs perfectly

**linzi66** · 12-09-2011, 08:02 PM

can we now claim 45p??? when did that go up lol

**khlwomitchell** · 12-09-2011, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by linzi66

can we now claim 45p??? when did that go up lol

recently, i found it out through a similar thread x

aly · 12-09-2011, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by linzi66

can we now claim 45p??? when did that go up lol

It went up April this year

....l0ng time coming.

**MrAnchovy** · 12-09-2011, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by linzi66

when did that go up

It was announced in the Budget on 23 March 2011 and applies for journeys made on or after 6 April 2011 - there were quite a few threads on here about it at the time

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 14-09-2011, 08:42 AM

My car is a 2.4 the same as the Chrysler and I get approx 300 miles out of £80 so it sounds like you have a problem with you car. Have you had it services and mentioned the bad fuel consumption?

TheBTeam · 14-09-2011, 11:55 AM

I have had two chrysler grand voyagers in the past and none were quite that extravagant on fuel, however our main childminding car has now been swapped for a cmax diesel, and we have just 10 spare seats not the 12 we had, but in car tax and petrol costs alone i could almost afford to lose the two children if they came along!!

**CreativeJourney** · 28-09-2011, 04:38 PM

All this is confusing me as I am only just starting my book keeping as I only started 4 weeks ago. I hadnt thought about how to record the petrol so I need to9 think about that? Maybe a note pad in car....anyway the 45p per mile, what is included in this, petrol and wear and tear? How do you include car insurance, MOT, tax and servicing?

Thanks

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 28-09-2011, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by CreativeJourney

All this is confusing me as I am only just starting my book keeping as I only started 4 weeks ago. I hadnt thought about how to record the petrol so I need to9 think about that? Maybe a note pad in car....anyway the 45p per mile, what is included in this, petrol and wear and tear? How do you include car insurance, MOT, tax and servicing?

Thanks

The .45p covers everything apart from valeting. Look back through the bookeeping section and you will see a lot of discussion on the subject