Time to get serious

EatingTheElephant

Well I have just tried to do a multi quote on my phone and failed miserably.

I agree, cars and horses certainly don't help the mfw plans, I'm not known for taking the easy path :rotfl:

After feeling so much better about money as there was some left over last month I am now feeling decidedly stressy.

DD1 her car is still in the garage, still no quote but an mot done to check what else needed doing. We didn't want to spend a fortune for the clutch to then find it needed loads to pass its mot at the end of the month. We are looking at a good few hundred.

Now DD2 has written off her car last night. Thankfully no one hurt apart from a bruised hand, but now they are both car-less, both need a car to get to work and I only saved about £200.

That's not going to go far!

Part of me thinks they need to sort it out themselves like I had to at their age (parents were very poor and very uninclined to assist). They are never going to stand in their own two feet (or four feet for both of them) if we keep bailing them out.

At the moment though I can't see how either of them will get back on the road and we certainly can't ferry them around everywhere now we are out in the sticks

Maybe tomorrow I will not feel so grumpy about it all after a good nights sleep. Didn't get back from a&e until gone 3 and now I'm up for work. Could be an interesting day!

I've told DD2 she will have to cycle to work (perfectly do-able distance wise 6-ish miles, but I'm not sure I like her coming back along the cycle path at 10 at night) maybe it will galvanise her into making her own plans though.

hiddenshadow

Sorry about the car troubles. I would agree (based on my own experience) that ideally they should sort themselves out, but it is tricky if there isn't a way to get to work without a car.

Are they on your insurance? Could they pay you to "rent" your car for when they need to go someplace? Still teaches some financial lesson but doesn't leave them stranded. (Though it may leave you stranded, defeating the point!)

FloppyDisk

Cycling sounds like a good option for now, at least it is summer and still almost a bit light in the evenings.

I dare say I wasn't able to buy a car until after university but I was able to use trains and bikes for work. If I had grown up in the sticks I probably would have had more help. I just checked, 5.7 miles to my job when I was 15, felt like 20 miles!

EatingTheElephant

Thanks hidden and Floppy for your thoughts. We don't have suitable cars for them to borrow, the insurance would be too high and they are both big vehicles. I will be interested to see how DD2 gets herself to work today as we are out at an event all day. I don't think she can cycle today as her hand is too sore, but there are buses into town from our village, we shall see!

Luckily DD1 got her car back yesterday. It is her birthday in a couple weeks, so we decided to give her £200 for her birthday. This combined with her savings, birthday money from mil and what she could scrape out of her wages will just cover the bill. Seemed a suitable compromise to get her back in the road. It will make the month tight for her, but we have all been there! She has said she will take DD2 to work today if needed.

DD2 is talking about buying another car. I'm pleased as I was worried she wouldn't want to drive again. She has money from her 18th last year still saved and we will give her the same amount for her birthday as we are giving DD1, so that should be able to get her something. In the meantime she will have to work out how to get herself around.

Hope everyone has a good weekend, looks sunny out there for us today, first time since the first day of the school holidays!

EatingTheElephant

We are worn out after being out most of the day yesterday with the dog then having friends over in the evening.

I had over estimated on the food as I thought we would be eating around lunchtime then would need snacks in the evening. As we didn't get back until late afternoon we only ate the main meal. We will need to make sure all the snacky stuff is used up for lunches next week.

Today we need to squeeze in a ride and catch up with house stuff like ironing, although I'm feeling very tired at the moment.

Karmacat

Take it easy, EE - a bit of quiet time would be nice, sounds like you had a lot on yesterday - even though its good stuff, it still takes energy

EatingTheElephant

You are 100% right Karma, you know me better than I know myself. I was overly ambitious when I woke up this morning and have not moved today yet apart from shuffling the washing around.

Much as it frustrates me to not have a productive day, the sensible option is to have a lazy day. I ache all over and riding today would be incredibly stupid, they always know if you're not up to it and then subsequently play up!

We even have an easy meal of fajitas planned for this evening, instead of the usual roast and trimmings. Sometimes plans need to change

FloppyDisk

Enjoy your chilled out Sunday, once you have decided to relax you ought to make the most of it! Will the horses mind having a quiet one and be wild tomorrow?

EatingTheElephant

Hi Floppy, no the horses will definitely not mind having the day off! The dog definitely needed the rest too, he only got a short walk and he was very slow and grumpy which is most unlike him.

Hubby will be spending this morning trying to sort DD2s car, getting the things out of it from where it was taken after the accident and getting it scrapped. They charge a daily storage fee, so better to get it sorted asap.

EatingTheElephant

It's been a bit of a crazy week again. A lot of trying to sort car stuff for DD2. Her insurance sent her a bill for £500 as she didn't report the accident within 24hrs. We were at a&e until 3 in the morning! She rung up and they said they would waive it if she could prove she was there, so we are now trying to get her medical records. She still hasn't looked for any cars but we will have to lend her money to get something I think.

The fencing at the field will need to be completed asap, I thought there would be enough grass in the half they are in until September, but they've eaten it all! So we need to move them into the other half which still needs a whole length fencing. It's not too bad, just not pony proof.

We've also been offered a puppy, which we've decided to get. Same lines as current doggy, so that will involve a bit of spending. We collect him tomorrow

All in all an expensive time at the moment. I've just completed a survey for 45p so that will help :rotfl:

Lots of free eggs from the girls currently, 4 a day, so I'm making good use of them and had scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday and I'm thinking I might have the same again today.