As
a family who live on a very tight budget and do not have much ‘spare’
money to play with from their low income after all bills and
necessities have been covered, dealing with unexpected bills can be
difficult.
Take
for example when a couple of months ago our old, hardworking machine
went bang! To be fair I can’t really complain as it had worked
tirelessly for over 10 years without any issues, tackling mountains
of washing for our family of four including at points in its life
cloth nappies - but being so old meant it was out of any warranties.
But with so much washing done in our household on a weekly basis it
going bang and deciding to call it quits on washing our clothes was a
big problem. Yes I could hand wash bits and pieces but there would be
no way I could keep on top of the washing pile doing it by hand.
Living away from family meant we could not pop round to a loved ones
house to borrow their machine. And with no laundrette close by we
were stuck and the washing was piling up.
Thankfully
my mum’s boyfriend came to the rescue and lent us the money to
borrow a snazzy new washing machine with fancy cycles and eco-perfect
technology. I think how much I love my new washing machine shows that
I am getting old - being excited about household appliances instead
of beauty bits and trendy gadgets…..the fact that I have a Shark
vacuum cleaner on my Christmas wish list showcases this perfectly.
Over the past couple of months we have been paying him back a little
bit at a time, but the gesture of lending it to us is priceless.
Without it we would have been stuck without a washing machine.
Whilst
we were lucky this time to have his kind help it did get me thinking
how would we have managed to cover this unexpected cost? Even though
we try to have a rainy day emergency fund saving is difficult and as
you never know when an unexpected bill is going to darken your day
the chance of us having a chunk of money instantly is very unlikely.
Even
though I hate asking, going to close friends and family to see if
they can help with a short loan that we would pay back asap would be
an option we would consider. The beauty of borrowing from family is
that they are unlikely to demand interest.
If
we could not borrow the money from family, we could look at online installment loans like Northcash. For us like many people this option
would be a carefully considered one and only in necessary
circumstances to cover vital unexpected costs.
To
try and limit the panic and worry that unexpected costs cause and not
have to rely on borrowing money from anyone or anywhere I am going to
work hard on adding to our rainy day emergency fund so that we can
cover unexpected bills ourselves. To add to the piggy bank I will be
using the following ideas - selling unwanted toys, clothes and
furniture on local selling sites, making use of cashback websites and
making money on apps such as Roamler and Field Agent.
How
do you deal with unexpected costs?
* Collaborative
post *
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