Learning to drive is a pretty expensive business but there are ways to cut the cost of learning to drive if you know how!
Our daughter turned 17 recently and like many, she wants to drive to have more independence. Once she has passed the test she will also take her brother to school which will save us paying a weekly bus fare for both of them which is £26 per week.
Chloe is lucky as we bought her a car for her birthday and joint Christmas present. Although it was a big outlay we decided it suited our family needs. A few years ago due to the Government Scrappage Scheme it was hard to pick up cheap cars. Now there are plenty about again and it just takes time waiting for the right car.
We spent 1K buying a Ford Ka as we knew it was a great size learner car. We found a very tidy car that has had only one previous owner and is immaculate inside. It is the perfect car to learn to drive in.
How to reduce the cost of learning to drive:
- Register for your provisional licence online as it is cheaper than doing it by post. You also don’t need to get more photos done as they will use what is held by the passport agency.
- Research your insurance options if you have your own car. We are using a company whereby we have paid for 28 days of insurance that we can use for any days we choose within three months. This is ideal for Chloe as the car she is learning in is owned by my husband and I. We are both fully insured and are adding Chloe as a named driver whilst she learns. This means that on the days she doesn’t use the car we are not spending money on insuring her. We got our cover through a company called Covered Insurance.
- Practice practice. With a driving lesson costing over £20 the more Chloe can practise in her car the better. We have vowed to go out twice a week. She had her first ‘official’ lesson today with her instructor who believes she will pass much sooner due to practising.
- Rather than pay for theory books use free online apps to practice before the theory test. There are plenty of apps
- Block book driving lessons and you can often negotiate a discount. Even a pound or two off each lesson for a block booking will quickly add up to a decent saving or free lesson.
Chloe went out for a drive the day she turned 17. She had waited very patiently between Christmas Day and Jan 2nd, just looking at the car in the garage! Lee took her to a local car park to introduce the basics and hear you can watch how she got on!
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EmmaB
Blogger, teacher and more importantly mum to 3. Emma shares money-saving and making tips around the web.
Great tips.
It’s horridly expensive to learn to drive. I had my own car before I even started learning too..a good incentive to get my bum in gear
clare nicholas recently posted…New year, new me! NO WAY! NO New Year’s Resolutions here
This is really useful! It’s 18 months until my son learns, but he’s already begging to use my car when the time comes and I’m already dreading the cost of the lessons and the insurance! I’ve never heard of insurance like that, but it sounds really sensible.
Sarah MumofThree World recently posted…What I read in 2016
Honestly Sarah – we came across this type of insurance when researching and we think it is fab. We just click on it as we need it.
Took me 16 years to learn to drive and over 1000 lessons and I can only drive an automatic. THAT was expensive!
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