Have you? Would you?
Both Aaron and I have returned to uni but he is still working full-time on nights so we have a fixed household income. We live just on the outskirts of a major city (Sheffield) so on a good day I can make it into the centre in 20 minutes on a bus and weather permitting, he cycles in. We rarely take the car unless it's a weekend so he can park at work for free (avoiding expensive city parking).
Now, we currently have a Ford Edge (with all the trimmings) on PCP (my mum works for Ford so we get a good deal) but we're only using the car 2-3 times a month. Mostly to pop over to my father-in-laws or do the food shop. The car costs us around £700? a month when you take into account the finance, the insurance, the tax, the fuel and annual service.
The way we've looked at it is, if we need a car for something more specific like a weekend away then we could hire a car for less than we pay a month. We can get shopping delivered. Get an Uber home from the cinema. If we have a late night gig we just catch the train and stop in a hotel. We can't see many things that require us to have an actual car to be able to do.
There is nothing I would love more than for Aaron to be able to quit work and us both enjoy a proper student life which is impossible at the moment. He's running on 3hrs sleep each weeknight, sleeping all weekend to catch up, I have to be at home to look after our son so I've been turning down social events with my fellow students, social events are a complete no for him too. In order for this to happen, we need to first decrease the outgoings and then look at a sustainable earning method to top up our student loans. I have my blog, he's working on his comic (which he'll hook up to Patreon etc) and I'm going to look at us both tutoring as he has the potential to tutor in loads of subjects.
Before the start of next year, we can easily reduce our outgoings by over £1000 a month, which means we wouldn't rely on a fixed income so much but there is still something nagging me not to get rid of the car....so, what would you do?
Both Aaron and I have returned to uni but he is still working full-time on nights so we have a fixed household income. We live just on the outskirts of a major city (Sheffield) so on a good day I can make it into the centre in 20 minutes on a bus and weather permitting, he cycles in. We rarely take the car unless it's a weekend so he can park at work for free (avoiding expensive city parking).
Now, we currently have a Ford Edge (with all the trimmings) on PCP (my mum works for Ford so we get a good deal) but we're only using the car 2-3 times a month. Mostly to pop over to my father-in-laws or do the food shop. The car costs us around £700? a month when you take into account the finance, the insurance, the tax, the fuel and annual service.
The way we've looked at it is, if we need a car for something more specific like a weekend away then we could hire a car for less than we pay a month. We can get shopping delivered. Get an Uber home from the cinema. If we have a late night gig we just catch the train and stop in a hotel. We can't see many things that require us to have an actual car to be able to do.
There is nothing I would love more than for Aaron to be able to quit work and us both enjoy a proper student life which is impossible at the moment. He's running on 3hrs sleep each weeknight, sleeping all weekend to catch up, I have to be at home to look after our son so I've been turning down social events with my fellow students, social events are a complete no for him too. In order for this to happen, we need to first decrease the outgoings and then look at a sustainable earning method to top up our student loans. I have my blog, he's working on his comic (which he'll hook up to Patreon etc) and I'm going to look at us both tutoring as he has the potential to tutor in loads of subjects.
Before the start of next year, we can easily reduce our outgoings by over £1000 a month, which means we wouldn't rely on a fixed income so much but there is still something nagging me not to get rid of the car....so, what would you do?