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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

personalised number plates

138 replies

Yeeehaa · 04/10/2010 13:47

DH and I both work, but don't earn a lot.
We need to budget fairly tightly, but we manage fine.

DH has been looking at the DVLA personalised number plate site, and has "chosen" our number. He says he has been thinking about it for a while, and because his DB has one, maybe it would be a good idea if we got one. I assumed he was joking and nearly laughed my pants off. He was a little upset that i didn't take him seriously.

Now, if this was something that was really, really important to him, I wouldn't stop him, but £250 goes a long long way in this household - in fact, £250 would mean a far better Christmas than we're used to.

So, WIBU to assume he was joking, and to think that personalised plates are an unnecessary luxury?

(I am prepared to give in here if the majority think IABU!)

OP posts:

fledtoscotland · 04/10/2010 21:33

Well I'm obviously an ignorant chav then I have had my private plate for a good few years now and yes, when I bought my new car last year, the plate was transferred on to it - and the transfer fee was paid for by the car dealership as part of the purchase

It was a present to myself in days pre-children when we had a disposable income and no debt. So judge me for having something I like ...

hormonesnomore · 04/10/2010 21:56

I often see AR51 COW in our Tesco's carpark.

I often wonder if she bought it herself or if someone gave it to her as a gift.

MollieO · 04/10/2010 22:16

A local number I see on an old Renault is
PEN 15. It is always driven by a woman. Seems a bit of an odd choice to me.

fortyplus · 04/10/2010 22:17

MollieO -maybe they've fallen on hard times - that number used to be local to me - I think it was on a Jag then!

fortyplus · 04/10/2010 22:24

A friend of my dad's bought a lovely new Mercedes. The following Xmas his wife bought him 'S82' at great expense. His name is Steve...

He was really hacked off because now no-one knew how new his car was!!

Mind you - that was about 25 years ago and he's still got the numberplate as far as I know!

AlwaysbeOpralFruitstome · 04/10/2010 22:29

I could never work out what there supposed to say until I realised they all spelt 'Twat'. Don't let him do it!

anastasiak · 04/10/2010 22:34

personalised numberplates are pointless and very, very tacky/unclassy.

ajandjjmum · 04/10/2010 22:35

I really like mine.

Suda · 04/10/2010 22:38

I have one - my married surname - my 'up yours' to DHs EXW and EX d-i-law both of whom told me for several years I was not a Mrs Suda - as they were - and never would be and was ONLY the girlfriend at any family occasion or in any dispute. DH bought it for me anyway - wouldnt have bought one for myself.

By the way I am a very good driver - drive for a living and DH first noticed me for my reverse parking skills - so IMO a person who generalises is 'a bit twatty' more than any personalised number plate holder.

LadyBiscuit · 04/10/2010 22:39

I've never really understood the point of them. Can you explain why you have them, those of you who do? Honestly, I don't get it.

LookToWindward · 04/10/2010 22:41

My DH has a very subtle one on his old Mercedes for no other reason than to hide the age of it. Don't see the point myself but who am I to judge?

People spend / waste cash on frivolous things all the time. I think anyone who does something as stupid as forming an opinion of someone based on nothing more than what they spend their money is a moron.

Sorry.

Scuttlebutter · 04/10/2010 22:43

I think they are incredibly naff and tacky. Leaving aside that issue, if it was something else that was £250, why not agree between both of you that if he does get it, that is this Christmas, next Christmas, and the next two birthdays taken care of? Alternatively, why not invite the rest of the family to chip in - rather than buying him the usual socks at Christmas, each to make a very small contribution to the plate?

flowerybeanbag · 04/10/2010 22:45

What LookToWindward said.

There are a lot of people not showing themselves in a very good light on this thread, and it's not those of us with personalised plates!

But it's amusing me so do carry on.

morleylass · 04/10/2010 22:51

The point of mine is that I wanted it, no other reason than that, and to be honest why shouldn't I have it? I don't spend £50 down the pub every week like some, I don't have any expensive hobbies, play golf, belong to a gym, so if I want to spend my money on something, then that is my business. I'm not a foodie, not bothered about eating out, some people think nothing of spending several hundred pounds on one meal out, well how is that money any better spent? However I appreciate that to some people that is how they like to spent their money.
Some of the comments on here just show a real lack of imagination or understanding that not everyone thinks in the same way.

madmn52 · 04/10/2010 22:54

No more tacky and pointless than ' little princess on board ' - Whats that about ?? - and dont say to advise emergency services - I know full well what those signs are meant to be for - and theyre certainly not for drivers fertility status.

LadyBiscuit · 04/10/2010 22:57

I still don't really understand morelylass. I subscribe to the William Morris theory that stuff should be either beautiful or useful (or fun, which I also think is important) and they don't really seem to tick any of those boxes. But there are a lot of things I don't really understand about the UK so that's not a first. Thank you for trying to explain :)

LadyBiscuit · 04/10/2010 22:57

oops sorry morleylass

MrsMadWriggle · 04/10/2010 23:11

flowerybeanbag Having a number plate you can remember is not a "function" unless you are incapable of remembering a short number/digit sequence (says the woman who can never remember the mobile number she has had for about 10 years).

A personalised plate, to me, is TOTALLY about showing off, and COMPLETELY without function.

In fact, I challenge you to come up with any item that is more about display and less about function (apart from the princess on board signs!)

MrsMadWriggle · 04/10/2010 23:13

Actually scratch that about the princess on board. That might just be ironic. I'm sure personalised number plates never are.

flowerybeanbag · 04/10/2010 23:14

I was not being entirely serious. I make no claim that personalised numberplates are useful or functional in any way. They are clearly an indulgence, like lots of things.

I'm sure I could think of lots of things that are purely about display but I'm tired and off to bed.

madmn52 · 04/10/2010 23:19

I am not a chav - I do not have big white stupid square fingernails - and as for toenails - oh do behave !! I do not have 50 trinkets hanging off my phone/handbag. I do not own one item of clothing that is pink or velour or has any form of glitter on it. I do not nor ever will wear false eyelashes or tango shade foundation. I have never or ever will had myself sprayed orange.

But I do have a personalised number plate ?

Sorry to mess up your tidy pigeon holes.

stretchmummy · 04/10/2010 23:24

I suspect this is a boy thing and none of us are really qualified to comment. I would buy them for his Christmas if he really wanted them THAT much, at least you are saving the cost of buying him any other present.

MrsMadWriggle · 04/10/2010 23:26

"I suspect this is a boy thing"
FFS we don't have to go along with the boys. They have been known to be wrong ever so just occasionally

fortyplus · 04/10/2010 23:52

Is there anybody out there who does consider themselves to be a chav?!

It's a bit like tattoos, innit?

If you have one then you still think that you're classy and interesting ...

I'll type my own because I know this deserves one!

gtamom · 05/10/2010 03:49

Maybe it's because mothers labeled their dinky cars when they were little boys? (well I did, on the bottom, with nail polish)

My dh does have a personal plate, but nobody would know what it means but close friends, and I can at least spot the car when he picks me up. (so many cars look alike to me, red car or silver car etc.. And my dh is a really nice, reasonable sweetheart of a guy, conservative and so on. Not flashy at all.

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