The school run is turning out more expensive than I realised... I dont think we can afford it

[Blueschool]

My ds, now in year 2, was attending a local infant school -which was fine.

However, we saw many parents with older children having hugely complex problems with juniors, so we put ds down on waiting lists for "through" primaries as a back up.

Unexpectadly, a space came up at a good school 2 days before start of term. It was a rush decision tbh. The school It is a 20 min drive away, but I calculated we could just about afford the petrol.

However, it Seems despite me checking figures the actual reality is petrol has already exceeded my monthly calaculation is just 3 weeks.

We were already cutting it fine, but this is just beyond our budget with the reality of the spending.

I have no idea what I expect anyone to say Im just sat here wondering what the heck to do, and has anyone else been in this position?

Ok, hopefully this doesn't sound too patronising but are you sure you're driving as economically as you can? No braking if at all possible (use gears to engine brake) , empty out all the junk in the car, also combine other journeys etc? If you're one week's petrol worth short of what you thought you might use in a month it's maybe feasible to eek it out a little more?

Hope that's not offensive, but dh can be particularly heavy on fuel and I too, if I'm in a rush:-(

move?

That really does work Schnuller!

But I am :o at "rolling"

Go back to the old school. Talk to the school about the issues. Use the money you've saved on petrol for a tutor every other week and a subscription to maths whizz type website. Buy some Letts books and go over them.

How far is it?

6 miles each way Skippy

schnuller what you're doing is called coasting, and not recommended nowadays. Rolling means keeping the car in gear but moving slowly, eg, not accelerating to catch up in a slow moving queue but allowing the car to catch up in front slowly.
See advice from the aa here

I am completely amazed that people on here are suggesting that you walk to school.

If its 20 mins in the car it is totally unrealistic to suggest such a thing. I drive 20 mins to work each day. But it's 8 miles away.

It's 6 miles to your school. That would mean you walking 24 miles a day, dragging 2 children with you. Come on people!

x-posted with the roller!

Can you part car share with someone - so there might not be someone as far out as you - but you could drive part way to them and then share with them the rest of the way - or pick your child up from them, and drop their child on alternate days?

Even if I did put ds back into the local infants Im still concerned it wont solve much as the he would only have this year left there.

Then its onto juniors, but thry are still 15-20 mins drive away.

Most of the local kids have been given free transport via buses/ taxis to school. However when dh spoke to school team they said the bus is nearly full so we probably would have to drive anyway.

Im not sure why some kids get free transport then and some dont. This is all new and confusing to me as ds is eldest

I would have thought you should get free transport for a school six miles away.

Im going to speak to school transport team tomorrow ,but If I understand policy correctly then as I voluntarily moved him its my problem.

Of course we are happy to pay, but I grossly miscalculated cost and its getting go be a case of cant afford it.

I think my only plan is too speak with LA tomorrow incase there is any advice they can give and then double check with school there is nobody living near us.

Sorry forgot say, thank you so much for all your help.

Can you look at ways of increasing your income to cover the petrol costs? If you are a low-income family then are you getting everything you are entitled to in tax credits etc?

Or could you look for some work to bring in a bit extra - selling on eBay, Betterware/Kleeneze, taking in ironing, an evening shift in local pub/supermarket?

Apologies in advance if this is immensely patronising . . .

How have you calculated the monthly cost that you've gone over? Have you done it by actual number of school days in September? If you've managed September (18 days for us) you should be able to manage most months - Nov might be tricky at 22 days but all the other months for us are 17/18/19 apart from Dec (15), Feb (14), and April (12!).

Could you stop paying something else monthly, eg water rates, to free up that money to help pay for petrol and then pay that 6 monthly in February (no council tax instalment?) and August (no school run) instead - topped up with money from a car boot sale or Ebay selling frenzy - rather than be scratting around every month?

Will the Council pay for travel once DS is Junior school age? I would find this out urgently. You can easily rob Peter to pay Paul for a year (eg giving low customer readings on elec and gas and then not letting the meter readers in until you can afford to pay) but any longer gets a bit tricky!

Another idea, can you try to combine this drop off to school with other chores, errands such as shopping etc to bring down the overall cost of all the petrol used in a month?

Have you looked to see if there's any sort of loyalty scheme running that you could make use of? Round here I think it was Sainsbury's giving 10p a litre off if you spent £50 and the shell garage by me has some sort of 'drivers club'. Might make a little difference.

There are some good tips here. I'm going to think about some of these too!

Rather than a smart car have you looked at something like an aygo a couple of years ago we managed the return journey (Plymouth to London) on one tank of fuel, a different style of driving I know but insurance and tax costs are also cheap (comparatively!) Tax is now £20.

The aygo also has peugoet and citroen version which are all much the same car.

Could you apply for junior school places at other schools for next year?

Could you cut back else where? Take a look at the money saving expert forum. They have a budget checker, and you Can also post your income and expenditure and people will scrutinise it for you.

Good luck.

Could you drive to school, park car walk home then walk back for pick up in afternoon. 6 miles really isn't that far and then you would be saving 12 miles a day on petrol and a gym membership. DDs school is 6 miles away and I do this to save on fuel occasionally.

12 miles is quite a way to walk and given that the OP has pre-school children as well I'm not sure walking would be feasible. If you manage say 4 miles an hour that would be 3 hours walking but younger children would be unlikely to do that and it would be at least 4 hours walking I would imagine. Plus it depends on the sort of roads.

Second the comments on economical driving - I get 45mpg out of a Seat Leon 1.6 petrol. Pump the tyres up too; I run ours at 40psi all around - it really makes a difference.

Also, sell your car and buy a Citroen AX 1.5 diesel. You can get 70mpg out of them: they were very clever back in the day with regards to weight saving. For example, I recall reading that the front seats were significantly lighter than the front seats in other cars because the 'spring' in them was provided not by loads of foam (which takes up room) but by - essentially - a big bungee cord, which also provided then tension for when you reclined the seat.

They're old and cheap now, but the diesel engine is good forever, so if you get one where the body is sound you're good to go - some of the panels are plastic anyway I think, but check underneath.