We’ve had a really tough year financially. DH was made redundant in December last year, and despite a lot of applying and interviews, didn’t find any work until April - which was due to start in September. That got cancelled at the last moment. He’s really struggled with the stress; which has flared up his CP.
I was let go when my employer found out I was pregnant, although they won’t admit to that in writing, so I’m back trying to establish myself as freelance. I’ve taken advice from Pregnant than Screwed etc and I’m following their advice on this. I signed a contract yesterday that’ll pay £8k across Jan and Feb, so there is money, but it’s a bit sporadic and scary at the moment.
So, it’s been tough. We’ve got a three year old boy and I’m 22 weeks pregnant. I’m waiting on a contract from Europe that’d start just after my due date (they’re aware of the pregnancy), so we may be moving around April.
Anyway, we’ve been dragging out DH’s old three door car, which I wanted to change years ago but he’s very attached to. It broke down this week. It’s cost us £650 in parts so far and they’ve failed the MOT today for suspension work; which will cost us another £1100. There will also be an advisory for a “severely eroded” drive shaft, which may or may not be passable once the other work is done. In good condition, with a new MOT, it’s worth about a grand, so we’d be paying far more than it’s worth.
DH thinks as we’re £650 down anyway, we pay to get it all fixed and use it until Europe - but we’ll never fit both children in it; we’re struggling enough with my three year old now, his seat needs to move back to give him more room and he doesn’t have the survival space to forward face him (not that I’d want to; yet).
The only other option is financing a car; which feels like a hard decision when money isn’t yet set. We’d probably be looking at £250 a month in repayments, I think. We’ve got no access to capital to grab something from Autotrader, savings have been exhausted on the house this year.
We can’t really be without a car. We can’t get to nursery/work without one; public transport here is dire.