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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder if £10,000 can change your life?

111 replies

Arabellasmella · 03/09/2012 11:25

Around 6 years ago when life was alot rosier my sister got married and my parents gave her and her partner and me and my partner £10,000 each. At the time I was on maternity leave and our mortgage was quite high, so the money came in handy, but apart from new windows, computer, settee and bed I can't think what we actually did with it. It has long since gone anyway.

Now things are a lot tighter I keep thinking about what I'd do if we had the chance again. This is an imaginery game, but can you actually turn 10k into something more? Start a business? Invest in stocks and shares? My best imaginery plan so far is to buy a static caravan so that we could ahve free holidays and rent it out for a bit of income. But I'm sure there must be better ideas out there. What would you do?

OP posts:

hazchem · 03/09/2012 13:16

It would change our lives!
It would cover the cost of having OH sit and certify for his profession in Australia as soon as we land meaning he could continue on his career path without a bump. Probably enough left over for me to start a degree too!

Rikalaily · 03/09/2012 13:19

We would use it to clear all of our debt and have a nice holiday as we have never had one. Clearing the debt would free up a couple of hundred quid a month for us so it would be a good investment.

edam · 03/09/2012 13:21

It would make a huge difference to a lot of people, including us - dh has been out of work since December.

MissMogwi · 03/09/2012 13:21

It would mean I could pay off my debts, have more driving lessons and hopefully pass my test sooner and get a decent car.

All those things are achievable in the long term obviously, but to be able to chuck a load of money at it and be sorted would be great.

I often daydream about how I'd spend a big lottery win.

whatsoever · 03/09/2012 13:22

I'm incredibly lucky in that DH & I have this much in savings at the mo so it wouldn't change our lives (as if it could, we'd have spent the savings on the life changing thing).

But there is always something good you could spend it on - be it the house, a holiday or something nice for family, friend's or a good cause.

OneLittleToddlingTerror · 03/09/2012 13:24

I'm surprised so many here can't drive .

LemonBreeland · 03/09/2012 13:31

£10000 was a life changing amount of money 6 yrs ago. DH won a car in a competition. We sold it and used the money as a deposit on our first house. We would still be renting if it wasn't for that money.

Mrsjay · 03/09/2012 14:21

Ok will take back my not life changing cos of course it would but a lotto win would give me the life we want.

Loads of people I know don't drive I dont my husband and daughter drives but it never interested me I took lessons but I hated it

toomuchmonthatendofthemoney · 03/09/2012 14:26

alphabite your little tale just made me blub wipe the dust from my cold viper eye, what a wonderful thing to a) notice and b) do something about it. for that.

faulkernegger · 03/09/2012 14:32

My ILS gave us £10,000 about a year ago (a tax thing, I think - didn't ask too closely). After much discussion- pay off some mortgage, new car etc. we decided to get solar panels. We'd been considering it for a while and had done a lot of research any way. It was the best decision! We have already 'earned' £1000 back from the government, and the bills have gone down by £35 per month already, and I'm expecting it to be more next quarter. It's lovely to see the meter going backwards on sunny days!

SilkInsideAChestnutShell · 03/09/2012 14:35

Pay off debt or invest in dh's business idea or buy a new car or travel. Send it this way and I'll let you know what we decide .

firawla · 03/09/2012 14:38

would use it to pay off debts and unfortunately it wouldnt even cover the whole lot anyway! but would cover most of it, so would be great!

alphabite · 03/09/2012 14:41

Thankyou toomuchmonth. I would do it again in a hearbeat. I lost count of how many times I replaced plimsoles etc too. It's part of the reason i left teaching. Too emotionally draining seeing the hard lives kids lived. It's a constantly daily battle to get 2-3 sublevels when in reality my kids were coming to school with malnutrician and the kind of lives no one should ever live. I was too soft hearted to cope with it!

Yummymummyyobe1 · 03/09/2012 14:49

I would invest 10k into drop in day care the idea being that people could leave their DC from 1 hr a day up to an entire working day, with no contracts. Min age being newborn and max being 3 years (no more than 20 children at any one time).

We would ask friends of ours that are pediatricians, Nursery Teachers and Dietitians to act as consultants to make each area as educationally appropriate as possible. There woud be things like this:

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=100&category_id=9

This

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=36&category_id=9

This
www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=109&category_id=29

This

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=107&category_id=29

This

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=107&category_id=29

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=106&category_id=9

and this

www.softbrick.co.uk/online-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=121&category_id=30

with an outside playarea with a pirate ship and secret houses etc a wall painted with blackboard paint and one with wipe clean paint for outdoor messy play. The outside area would be under a great big canopy so it could be used all the time with sliding safety doors.

MainlyMaynie · 03/09/2012 14:58

Yummymummy, couldn't you have saved that £10k from what you spent on this season's wardrobe? Those look like great toys though.

Yummymummyyobe1 · 03/09/2012 15:02

MainlyMaynie thanks we could in theory set the business up now but then my wardrobe would be tiny joking aside 10k extra would be great for it because we want all the above items a sleeping room, a dining room, a full sensory room as well as the usual items that children play with.

EugenesAxe · 03/09/2012 15:03

I'd buy all the camera equipment I want... which may change my life if I took good shots with it all!

The rest (as that would probably cost a lot) would go on a holiday I expect.

Margerykemp · 03/09/2012 15:10

Twice we've 'came into' this amount of money.

Once it went into a business start up that went belly up.

Second went on a car, a few trips away, career time out for DP, living expenses, bit of socialising, paid off debts, tbh just not worrying about money/having to budget when shopping was a real priviledge.

littlebluechair · 03/09/2012 15:27

Yes, this amount can be life changing. It all depends on whether you see potential or not, imo. For many people, paying off debts will alleviate stress and give a new lease of life. Or starting a business, retraining, improving a home.

I have been in the position of having zero savings, loads of credit card, living a couple of quid within budget every month and crying when the kids' feet grew. Then we received an inheritance that was enough to clear the credit cards - our life is so much better now, all that stress gone and the repayment amount going into savings. Yes, it feels like life has changed. We are very lucky indeed.

noramum · 03/09/2012 15:31

No, not life changing. We would invest some of it into our retirement long-term investment plan and some of it would go into "DD hopefully college fund".

Bertrude · 03/09/2012 16:23

For us it wouldn't be life changing, but definitely change our immediate day to day lives.

We haven't had a holiday for 5 years. At the moment any leave I take is unpaid, and I'm the breadwinner so it isn't just the cost of a holiday, its loss of income too. 10k for no apparent reason would mean we could have a 2 week holiday and not worry about my loss of income not that I earn 5k a week as well as paying for the holiday.

It would also mean I wouldn't have to put my 2.5k car repair on a credit card when I go to pick it up on Saturday.

BoffinMum · 03/09/2012 16:31

TBH the only way you can invest £10k and be sure of seeing it again is to spend it on property as a capital purchase in some way, and wait 10-20 years for a result. Only problem with that is that you need it to be part of more than £10,000 in order for this pan to work. Overpaying on your mortgage is always a good idea.

AnnieLobeseder · 03/09/2012 16:57

Considering we're exactly £10k short of what we need to move out of our shoebox starter home, yes, it would change our lives. For two adults to live here, they would have to get on very, very well, it's so ridiculously small, let alone a family of 4 with 2 dogs. The lack of space causes a lot of stress, and I think part of the reason DH and I spend so much time in cyberspace instead of interacting with each other is that we're all so completely claustrophobic.

JugglingWithFiveRings · 03/09/2012 17:12

I'd love to go on a family holiday abroad - Majorca or the Algarve, or Italy or Spain. We used to travel a lot before we had the DC's but I guess haven't been able to stretch to that recently - though we've managed a couple of holidays abroad since they were little (now pre-teens)

I quite fancy spending some money on clothes for about the first time in my life too. Probably just a few things would set me right

I'd like a few other things too, like a SatNav and maybe a dishwasher plus having it properly installed. Wouldn't mind blowing a £100 quid or so on getting the oven cleaned too

BollocksToKarma · 03/09/2012 17:31

Yes it would change mine without a doubt.

I would learn to drive, buy a car and invest the rest in my own self emplpyed business I can work around the kids and ds's needs. DS's life will be eaiser as we will be able to go places without him getting fed up and stressed due to croweds and queues, which in turn makes life eaiser not just for me but DD as well...It would change so much.

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