I bought a van last year to make life easier with disabled dd and dogs and taking all the stuff on holiday (and for tip runs!). I've thought about it for years but I hate all the hassle surrounding motor vehicles particularly how helpless you feel when the garage says there's something wrong and that's it.
9 months after buying it and it's mot time. Long story short I really struggled to find a garage that could take it due to the size and weight. Basically had to beg a commercial place and they found very little wrong with it but the bill is through the roof, as in £1.5k and still investigating something. That's about £100 per time we used it, would have been cheaper to hire one !
Now I'm not MN level rich but we live very frugally so save more than most and when we bought we agreed we'd just throw money at it until problems go away. But never expected this level of expense after getting it checked on purchase and being told it was in good nick.
Anyway we really have no choice here, there is nowhere else to take it so we need to pay and have the money to do so and will.
But my god its stressing me out. I can't sleep for feeling I've been taken advantage of, feel physically sick about the money, keep running through imaginary conversations in my head where I tell them what I think, etc.
I'm sure lots of people have situations in their lives that make them feel the same but they know stressing over them doesn't help.
So please, can anyone tell me what they say to themselves to be convinced it's not worth the stress?