If money was no object, it’s likely that most of use would choose to buy brand new cars, straight off the forecourt of the local dealer. Sadly though, very few of us have discovered a money tree at the bottom of the garden, happened to stumble upon the winning lottery ticket, or have a job that pays enough to buy anything we could ever want.

As everyone reading this is likely to need to use at least a few budgeting skills every now and again, it’s good to know that there are ways to get your hands on a much nicer car that you would do if you went to that local dealer.

The obvious way is to buy second hand. That doesn’t need to mean a ten year old wreck – even three month old cars sell for significantly less that they would brand new. You just need to know what to look for in order to avoid a disaster after you’ve committed to your purchase.

First and foremost, buy with your head and not your heart. Wandering around a used car forecourt and deciding you simply have to have a specific vehicle is a recipe for failing to get the best deal.

What you need is a general idea of what you want to buy – for example a small car with a decent amount of boot space. Also make sure you know how much you have to spend – that doesn’t mean you have to spend it all, but have a set amount as a maximum and stick to it.

When negotiating, sales people will be very pushy in finding out how much you have to spend – that’s your business though, not theirs. If they know your maximum, that’s what they’ll aim to get out of you.

It may be they throw in a few extras like paint protection or service plans to make you feel like you’re getting a great deal, but it’s far more important you get the core details right – namely a vehicle that matches your needs.

Buying second hand can come with additional risk above and beyond those of buying new, so look for clues about how a car has been looked after – things like stains and damage to the interior are normal to a point, but if something appears to have been completely replaced, be on your guard.

Generally speaking, someone either looks after a car or they don’t. There’s very little in the middle.

If you can see evidence of damage, make sure you look very closely at the rest of the car too – it’s great that something’s been fixed, but it may not be the only problem to find. If you don’t know what to look for, take someone with you later to check over it who is more of an expert.

Naturally, even the most clued up buyer can miss things, but by being careful and not falling in love with a car that you’re yet to buy can help you to see a car for what it is, and not a vision that you want it to be that it may never live up to!

What has fitness got to do with your company car? Pumping! One’s pumping iron and the other involves pumping air. At least it does when you’ve got a flat. And that’s exactly what happened to me when I was on the way to run this week’s Pump class.

As you know, I’m a bit obsessed with punctuality, which you’ll know if you’ve ever arrived late to one of my classes. That’s something that immediately flooded back into my mind on the side of the road in rapidly dying light. It’s tough to walk into a room after the scheduled start time when only a week ago you’ve pulled someone else up for their time keeping!

Fortunately, I’m quite disciplined in my preparations with vehicle maintenance as well as keeping in shape, and had a tyre inflator in the boot ready for just this eventuality.

A few years back I found myself stuck in the middle of nowhere with hit and miss mobile signal and a soft tyre. Normally I’d just grab the spare out of the boot and swap it over, but I couldn’t loosen the wheel nuts on the wheel so the spare was no use whatsoever.

I learned a couple of things that day – once I’d eventually managed to hold signal long enough to summon the nearest breakdown patrol van.

Firstly, I didn’t know that you can email a request for assistance from your smartphone. If you need the details, call your breakdown company today – it’s no use waiting until you’ve broken down and realising you should have done so before (like me). If it’s something your policy offers, you can draft the email and your phone will send it quickly when it finds even the faintest signal. No need to keep losing the call before you even get to a human as you navigate the ‘Press 1 to speak to someone useful’ menu.

The second thing I learned that the tyre inflator I mentioned earlier would have saved me, and also saved the patrol man from one job that day. A tyre inflator does exactly what it sounds like it should do – pumps air into your tyres when they’re soft (or even flat). Of course, if I’d known this back then, I still may not have bought one, but having felt the pain of being stranded, it suddenly seemed like a very sensible investment. And so it was.

That fairly cheap purchase meant I made the class this week with a few minutes to spare, and saved me the embarrassment of admitting I’m not perfect (of course I am).

So, the moral of this story is to so your preparation ahead of time and don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. That’s especially true when it’s something to do with safety. If you’re wanting to follow my lead, take a look at cartyreinflator.co.uk for inspiration and to find out more.

We know that it’s your fitness class that you’d be most appalled to be late for, but if you think about it, it could be other less important things too. Just imagine being late for work, missing out on meeting the future in-laws or hospital appointments. Granted, its the weekly pump class that you must be on time for, but other people might appreciate punctuality too. We all rely on our cars so much, that we sometimes forget that they break down from time to time too, so having a simple thing like a portable digital car tyre inflator on board can make all the difference.

This is the destination you need to get fit if you’re a music lover. Regardless of your chosen genre, we’ve got what you need to get the heart going and make the difference to your life.

Whether you struggle to climb the stairs without getting out of breath or you’re trying to beat your 5k personal best, we’ve got you covered. We’ve worked with people from all walks of life, from kids to pensioners, and helped them make a real difference to their enjoyment of life.

Let’s face it, we all know that inactivity leads to poor health, so getting fit could be the key to unlocking a new lease of life, so why not get involved today?