Debt about to spiral - advice needed

summerlilly

Welp looks like my plans to get an older car as a run around may be about to be scarpered if the new rule for the London emission zone go ahead. Great (!) 

kimwp

Do you really need a car if you are in London?

summerlilly

kimwp said:

Do you really need a car if you are in London?

Honestly yes, with a child in school so that’s 2x school runs a day + a newborn alone. Add in shopping, dropping to the ex - I’ve been without my car before and it’s bedlam getting around and very isolating. The years I didn’t have children I didn’t have a car and it was fine, but you need a car with kids, even an old banger.

I’m in an outer London borough so things are a bit more spaced out. 

summerlilly

stymied said:

Personally I would keep the reliable car and sell the rings but maybe that’s just me? How are you getting on with keeping a spending diary to find out where your spare money is ending up each month?

More importantly how are you feeling?! Any sign of the baby yet? X

Kind of you to ask! I’m ok, day 2 on mat leave and feeling very tired and unenthused about getting my nesting started. I need to get a few more bits (£5/£10 things sorted) and now spending any money at all makes me feel sick! I’ve never enjoyed spending money, but now even more so my Heads in a tailspin about it, wish I had someone in real life to talk about it logically but everyone’s just going ah you’ll be fine. I find that really unhelpful when I’m trying to make this mat leave enjoyable and less intense financially. Need to get the jewellery out but not sure where to take it. Think the diamond came from hatten garden, no idea where though. 

I’m 34 weeks tomorrow so that’s approx 6 weeks left although so health stuff make bring baby sooner - so ready for him to be here but Not so ready for him to be here! Iykwim! 

katsu

You can Google for second hand jewellery places and see where you might go? 

The modern Pawn shops in the High Street like CEX would give you something. 

fatbelly

summerlilly said:

Welp looks like my plans to get an older car as a run around may be about to be scarpered if the new rule for the London emission zone go ahead. Great (!) 

Depends what sort of car you can live with. The Honda Jazz we mentioned earlier is ULEZ compliant going way back

You can get ULEZ compliant cars for less than £1000, not that I'm suggesting that as a budget

summerlilly

fatbelly said:

summerlilly said:

Welp looks like my plans to get an older car as a run around may be about to be scarpered if the new rule for the London emission zone go ahead. Great (!) 

Depends what sort of car you can live with. The Honda Jazz we mentioned earlier is ULEZ compliant going way back

You can get ULEZ compliant cars for less than £1000, not that I'm suggesting that as a budget

In my many years experience of owning older cars - I’ve only ever found that you end up paying a lot to keep them going - I’ve usually had to pay £300+ to get it though an mot, and sometimes a mid-year issue that needs correcting - my last car ended up needing a jump start every morning on a colder days. Very unhelpful on a school run. 

I’m not for one minute denying I need to sort out something to avoid bigger issues, but the more I think of it, the more getting rid of the car becomes a short term solution which will end up with me still paying for a car I don’t have, a car that needs more financial attention and likely needs replacing in a few years with no funds to get a new one- just as I’ve “paid off”the other and all the while not driving a car that’s safer and much more pleasant to drive (this being the least important bit I appreciate).

maybe I just need to live with the dip in my overdraft for a few months? Knowing my other loan will drop off meaning I’m better off by £200 a month by jan, going back to work earlier than planned?

getting the money quickly via selling my car felt like the answer but doing the maths and logic somethings telling me I’ll regret it? 

stymied

How would you feel going back to work after 9 months instead of a year? I had 6 months with my first which felt a bit too short then 9 months with my second which I was fine with. He had lovely childminders nearby so I guess it’s partly about whether you can get childcare sorted in time? I guarantee your baby won’t remember the difference although as you’ve had to start mat leave a little early maybe you’d be looking at 10.5 months instead of 9?

RosaBernicia

Is there a middle ground option with the car if you look for a warrantied option?  Especially if you're willing to drive something unfashionable or a less popular colour?

Eg, I paid about £4k for my 2011 plate runaround a few years ago - it was ridiculously low mileage (probably pensioner owned), came from an outer London dealer with a year's warranty and has only needed one suspension bit and headlamp bulbs (well aside from a wing mirror that someone swiped, but that's not a reliability issue).  It's currently worth about £1500, according to Parkers, and having just run a registration check on TfL, is apparently ULEZ compliant.

sourcrates

As regards the car, I live in Yorkshire, we don`t have all that congestion charge/ULEZ rubbish up here, I thought I`d check if my 19 year old classic Audi TT Mk 1 is ULEZ compliant, and surprise surprise, it actually is, so you don`t need to be bang up to date with your choices of vehicle it seems.

They can all be checked online to see if they pass muster or not, so downgrading may still be an option for you.