How can I make £1000 quickly?

[QuestionableMouse]

Not a begging thread! Even if people offered money I wouldn't take it!

My car caught fire driving home from work last night. The engine is fucked and it'll never run again. I'll get probably £3-400 scrap value for it so that's a start. Realistically looking at about £1000 for a new car - I can't get to work without one (genuinely - the closest public transport stops miles away and due to the condition of the lanes it's not safe to walk the rest of the way!)

I'm sorting some stuff out to go on vinted which might get me another £50 or so. And some models/pocket dragons that will get about the same.

A loan or a credit card isn't an option - I'm already struggling monthly without adding another payment!

I live in a tiny one bed flat (and it's not allowed under the tenancy agreement!)

Can you not get a really cheap runaround just to get you to work whilst you save for a more expensive car. About 5 years ago we sold my car for £250 to a friend of my husband's for his wife to use to take the kids to school. It was a really old car but it was so reliable, I had it 10 years and in all that time it never broke down. Could you look on auto trader or ask on your local Facebook page?

Cleaning locally, ironing ( they bring the stuff to you)

Switch bank account.

Topcashback.

This is an awful situation to be in.

Is there a rural cab service in the area which would allow you to set up an account and in the meantime be picked up for travel to the nearest public transport point?

I wish I could think of a better option.

£1000 is a cheap runaround 🙁

Anything under that is either being sold as spares/repairs or has faults and tbh after catching fire on the duel carriageway at 70moh I'm really not keen to risk it again!

I think you are going to have to take a loan and then pick up some extra work to pay it back. Agency over the Christmas period is in high demand, as suggested, and you are in a good position to be flexible not having young children.

Sadly there is no magic way to instantly make £1k

People often are desperate for pet sitters this time of year.

Babysitters are always needed at this time of year if you know people with kids?
You can probably charge £100 each for Xmas eve, Xmas day evening and New Year’s Eve.

I wish people would stop saying "ironing".

I did do ironing as a business at home, it took me 6 months to build up a decent, regular clientele and it was hard bloody work. Not something you do to raise money "quickly". And my best customers were the ones that I collected from and delivered to.

Cleaning is a possibility, but in offices after hours, not in people's houses which is usually done during the day.

The other option is some casual work in pubs etc who might need extra help over Christmas.

It might be that you need to take out a loan for the car and THEN take on extra work in order to pay it off.

A very short term option but would take the immediate pressure off is to rent a car. Double check your insurance doesn’t cover a courtesy car but if you can rent you might be ok until the insurance confirms whether or not it’ll be paying out to cover the cost of a new one.

Car rental is not cheap though, quite the opposite

I work alone in a private house so no one to share lifts with and no chance of getting an advance on my wages!

Do they rely on you, though? I’d have thought in that scenario they might want to help? Is it that you don’t want to ask, or you feel they can’t pay, or that they’ll just replace you?

If you can’t do that though then I guess a post on FB, NextDoor or whatever saying ‘all odd jobs for cash considered - no driving!’ and explaining your predicament? Are you within walking distance of things where you live, even if your job’s rural?

Good idea, but again transport might be an issue to get to people’s homes? And one-bed flat sounds like they can’t be hosted at OP’s.

Go through your jewellery box and sell anything you no longer wear.

If your jewellery is gold, you can sell the random earring backs/butterflies, broken chains etc.

Work out how much it will cost to pay back the loan. Ok so maybe you'll pay £1500 instead of £1000 but it might be more achievable over a few weeks than a few days.

Sell your bank data about what you spend and where for six months for a fiver?! That sounds ridiculously low, why would you give a company all that information about you for a fiver?!

What has your insurance company said - it should be covered for more than the scrap value on your policy.

A friend makes money selling her dirty socks online (seriously). You could branch into all underwear and make money whilst saving on washing.
Hope you get your car sorted soon.

I have exactly two bits of jewellery and they're worth pennies 🙁 never really wore it!

If you have time then definitely cleaning -people are gagging for one off cleans at this time of year, and shift workers usually want them to come at times outwith the standard working day

This we paid nearly £200 for a weekend and that was for their smallest car!

Depends on your attitude to risk. It’s a pretty safe site. I use open banking to connect to some other finance apps, and most people give away data for free on a daily basis without even knowing they’re doing so. But obviously anyone should only do things they’ve researched themselves and are comfortable with.

I was also going to suggest a credit union for the reasons you outline. They can be a lifesaver!

1k will get you a 20 year old fiesta with 6 mths MOT, the price of second hand cars has sored in the last couple of years.

This whole process takes around a month. I've just done it.

Definitely worth it if you can wait that long though.