What to do when you need money fast?
Recently we had a home disaster when our upstairs bathroom flooded, soaking the room below and causing quite a lot of damage. Due to certain factors involving the drainage system, this turned out not to be covered by the home insurance and we needed to come up with the money to fix it – and fast! I don’t know about you but we certainly don’t have a huge amount of savings, if any at all most months, and as a result we ended up borrowing the money from my parents as our options seemed quite limited.
Once it was all sorted, I started to think about how anyone copes in an emergency when they don’t have savings. I’m not talking about the luxuries like holidays and designer handbags, but just the day to day items such as a new boiler, home repairs, your means of travel or even just putting food on the table during a difficult financial month.
I asked a group of other parents how they manage financially and where do they turn when they need money fast.
My Mum is my saviour. I hate asking and It’s rare to do that but she knows I’ll always pay it back. She’s a dream! – Nicole
If we need money fast we use a loan to tide us over until we find our feet again. Sometimes a small loan can be a big help! – Sarah
My husband is about to get a loan for a new van and we’ve been using comparison sites to find the best deals. – Laura
We sell things through eBay or at CEX. – Lucy
We cut out all luxuries and use that money for the essentials. If we have to eat pasta all week and downgrade our Sky subscription, so be it! – Anna
We use our credit cards but pay them off as soon as we can do we don’t get into debt. – Lynsey
I invested a lot of money into my designer handbag collection my 20’s so when the need arises, I sell one! The good thing is I always end up getting more money for them than I paid as they are ‘classic’ or vintage now! – Becci
I think it’s always important to have options available to us, although in future we have agreed to try and put money away each month incase of future home disasters!!
