How do people afford to drive on minimum wage?
Posted by CandidBar4794@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 122 comments
I really want to learn to drive, but I have no idea how I would be able to afford it. I live on my own.
Unhappy_Judgment_816@reddit
We don’t, I’m moving back in with my Mum so I can afford to learn.
SeamasterCitizen@reddit
Do you need to? Even as a HENRY, I avoided vehicle ownership unless it was absolutely required. Car defaultism is not the one.
FancyAd3942@reddit
Is there anyone who can teach you? I have a dela with my mum if I buy the car she’ll give me lessons in it. Admittedly I already have rood experience because I used to have a motorbike but nonetheless if someone is willing to help you out. The lessons cost more than a cheap car.
-scottishsunshine@reddit
I don't know how you afford to live on your own on minimum wage, never mind learning to drive!
CandidBar4794@reddit (OP)
I live in a council flat
manny00778@reddit
How do you move into one?
I've asked my council and I'm always deemed as ineligible.
FancyAd3942@reddit
You can’t have anywhere else to go. Having children helps. And a bunch of other stuff I can’t think of. My aunt what to move out of her house so ended up in sone really terrible temporary housing a homeless shelter basically with her youngest and eventually a retreat several months she got into a house.
CandidBar4794@reddit (OP)
I still don't have it tbh. I live in supported living. I've lived in supported and homeless shelters since January 2019. I'm eligible for mental health reasons.
Healthy_Spite_2334@reddit
I love this country.
We drive people to mental health crises before homeing them.
this is the way.
Snoo93102@reddit
Keep fighting man, you desrve a place at the table. Don't let them force you out.
Terrible-Group-9602@reddit
They learn when they're 17/18
lavender_cookie_@reddit
I was lucky enough to have help. I don't know anyone that managed it without help, whether that was living with someone who helped them save, family helping out, I don't know anyone who has done it completely alone. Same for affording to get on the property ladder. Again, I don't know anyone who hasn't had help one way or another.
JoeyJoJoeJr_Shabadoo@reddit
Even 20 years ago, it was either your parents help you or you don't.
clarerose85@reddit
Not true I past my test 21 years ago at age 19. I bought a shitty Daewoo matiz which I was the smallest engine size at 998cc I think for £150. Paid for all my lesson, theory and insurance myself. I went to work and saved. I could 100% not do that these days. The price to learn and even insure a car these days is ridiculous.
lavender_cookie_@reddit
We're you living with parents or?
Winston_Carbuncle@reddit
It seems the days of the £500 or even £1000 first car are behind us now. For anything remotely reliable looking you're looking at about £2,500 now.
My first 2 cars were 1k bangers about 17 years ago
donalmacc@reddit
Inflation adjusted, £1000 in 2010 is £1500 in 2026. On auto trader right now there’s 6000 cars for under £1500.
Most 1000 cars in 2010 were shitheaps, just as most of those £1500 cars are today.
jungleddd@reddit
My current car I bought just before Christmas for £1300. There’s nothing wrong with it except the wipers won’t work on intermittent. I’m 50 and could easily afford a much more expensive car, but I don’t see the point.
There are plenty of cheap cars and they’re generally much more reliable than when I started driving 33 years ago.
sneddsdead@reddit
Me 2 Renault Megane 1.5 dci 150,000 miles £1800 from an ex who I knew had spared no expense on it. It's got everything I need on a car and is cheap to run £35 road tax and £500 a year to insure. Loads of decent cheap cars out there just don't rush and look for ones with good history.
jungleddd@reddit
£35 tax??! That’s a bit extortionate. I only pay £29 for mine.
sneddsdead@reddit
Mines a 2010 band C - 111/120g/km Didn't even know there was a £29 road tax payment
St2Crank@reddit
So how much was you earning? How much was insurance and your rent? At 19 to afford all that you must have been doing pretty well for yourself. Im the same age and passed my test at the same time. My car cost £350 and £1300 to insure.
clarerose85@reddit
I used to pay my insurance monthly at about £120 a month when I first started driving. I was constantly skint 🤣 the car I had was literally the cheapest one to run. I’m not kidding it was like a hairdryer. Look them up. I worked in hair dressers. Wasn’t really on much money, lived in my boyfriend’s flat rent was around £70 then (I live up north) I definitely wasn’t living the dream.
RoyofBungay@reddit
Quite simply you don’t. Like others I suspect my monthly expenses are roughly 80% of my salary. No leeway for running a car, having a holiday or doing anything with gay abandon.
OutlawJessie@reddit
I splashed out and spent £17 on rubbish food when I got paid. That's the extent of our excess spending. No car, no holidays, no new clothes, I look at people's expense forms at work and I'm like How do you spend £50 a month on your hair? We get one bottle of shampoo between 3 off us (Wash'n'Go - £1), not even once a month, and just brush it. Other people spend money all the time on what I'd consider a once in a lifetime special event payment. They win money on the radio competition I hear in my friends car once a week, and they all say they're going to spend it on a holiday, do you not have a crappy bit of carpet that needs replacing or a dodgy door you could fix?
Misskinkykitty@reddit
People would rather spend their winnings on memorable experiences rather than random bits of carpet.
OutlawJessie@reddit
And each to their own, but you can get a nice carpet, doesn't have to be a "random bit". I'd rather make my house look better since I spend my life here. When we got unexpected money (someone died) we had double glazing put in. I'm glad we did that every time I open the back door to let the dog out and realise how cold it is out there and no longer cold in here.
pajamakitten@reddit
But there are plenty of us who think that a new carpet is not how they want to make their house look nice too. If I wanted to spruce my home up then buying a new carpet would be pretty low down on the list.
the_inebriati@reddit
Eh? What work pays for your hair appointments?
Reactance15@reddit
I'm pretty close to minimum wage. My partner and I have paid for 4 week-long trips this year: 2x Tenerife, Rhodes and Croatia. Each costs less than a week's wages each.
Even with the mortgage and bills, we have around £1500 leisure spending money a month between us.
It's expensive being single.
RoyofBungay@reddit
Yes a person in a relationship pays effectively 50% each of the council tax bill whereas we have to pay 75% of a discount.
I also love being told that it is my fault not the economic system for being in the position I am in. I should either get married, get a better a job or move from the south coast.
Goldf_sh4@reddit
They often don't. They catch the bus, walk, cycle our use an e-scooter. Maybe take a taxi oncevir twice a month.
fire-wannabe@reddit
Minimum wage should mean you are walking, on a bus or a bike. At a stretch a scooter.
There no reason to be driving.
GlumAd9856@reddit
Cars are an absolute money-sink. If you don't need one for work then just leave it.
Dave_Tee83@reddit
I've historically just driven a 15 year old banger and run it into the ground. Before the car scrappage scheme came in you could pick up a car that would do you for 2-3 years for £600. Used car prices shot right up after the car scrappage scheme though.
Honestly, when the current car I have dies (2010 Honda Civic) I've been doing the maths and pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'm now priced off the roads with the rest of the cost of living, and now petrol.
Am just going to have to cycle and walk everywhere and make do. Wages just haven't kept up with the cost of living and trying to do it all on one wage is becoming impossible.
avfcgirl@reddit
Messsge me
Valuable-Fruit-9947@reddit
Buy yourself a corsa, insure it with a black box and use it very little.
braapstututu@reddit
Corsas have high insurance because of how much they are crashed
avfcgirl@reddit
Mines £67 a month with black box
Comfortable_Age_5595@reddit
learner- i’ve never spoken to anyone that thinks a black box is a good idea. insight?
avfcgirl@reddit
I have one it's fine
Valuable-Fruit-9947@reddit
Well if you drive sensibly there’s absolutely no issues. Ive had it for 2 years and have no complaints.
Sure-Recognition-262@reddit
FTFY
Psycho_Splodge@reddit
Assuming they're all running Google maps underneath you're going to get speeding events where Google has the wrong speed limit.
Sure-Recognition-262@reddit
Massive tangent: the government should have to publish (for free) definitive machine-readable speed limit data so that mapping/etc apps can accurately display them.
Radiant-Mycologist72@reddit
I also think if the thing glitches out you have very little recourse and you could easily end up with a cancelled policy. Now you are a whole world of pain.
JoelPetey@reddit
Have a look at quotes. For my first year it was only going to bring the annual cost down by about £100, didn’t want the stress for that measly saving.
whitey2048@reddit
It's a very bad idea if you are going to drive badly. I'm 44 and for the first time my cheapest insurance quote this year was a black box, I'd never been quoted for one before. I have the luxury of generally cheap insurance, and not on minimum wage, so didn't go for it, as I didn't need the saving, and didn't want to be watched. However, if it was for my kids, I'd be trying to get them to go for it. If it was available when I was 20, I probably wouldn't have wanted it either, but maybe if I had it, it would have definitely stopped me driving beyond my abilities, which I didn't realise I was doing, until I was a lot older. I probably sound old, and I kind of am, but I think it should be mandatory for young drivers for the first 2 years, just like the maximum points of 6 is. That won't be popular amongst the youngsters I'm sure, but that's why you don't ask a turkey if it wants to cancel Christmas.
HarryPopperSC@reddit
Black boxes are terrible. They measure your acceleration and braking. The benchmarks are set so incredibly unrealistically that it's actually dangerous. The kind of drivers you think you are preventing are the ones who paid more to not have one. So all you're doing is giving honest and good young drivers another thing to worry about.
Imagine pulling out on a busy roundabout as a new driver and having to worry about accelerating too much at the same time as trying to drive... Absolutely stupid.
If all they did were monitor deliberate speeding and the times then made it mandatory for 17 to 25. Then maybe there is some logic to it. But the current implementation is silly.
Comfortable_Age_5595@reddit
…and i already worry about my speed on roundabouts so i don’t need that extra concern. As a new driver i already over analyse everything so eeehh yeah pass.
LordVoldewhart@reddit
You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s not just about if you “drive badly”. They are generally erroneous, full of extra charges and they cancel policies for even minor infractions, leaving the driver with massive premiums (£5k-£10k per year).
Visible-Pomelo7748@reddit
Make sure you get the full t&C's on what it's measuring. I got one with my first car on the understanding that it only measured whether or not you were speeding. It actually measured 5 different metrics, 1 of which was safety of the area you're driving. You got a green, amber or red score for each drive and then it averaged out to your overall rating. I had to drive through a 'low safety' red area every day for about 30 seconds on my way to work, so never got a green score even though the other 4 metrics that were within my control and actually measured my driving were always green. I ended up getting a £39 refund on my insurance because it was missold to me, but none of the benefits or discount I was supposed to get for having a black box.
Nimble_Natu177@reddit
Telling any new drivers to buy a Corsa is literal insanity.
Thistlebup@reddit
My partner and I are both 34. Our paretns never paid for us to learn (couldn't afford it) so neither of us can drive.
I have just secured my first full-time, permanent, non-minimum-wage job ever - which means we're finally in a position where one of us can afford the expense of learning to drive.
bars_and_plates@reddit
Like all of the other questions on this stuff it comes down to the fact that min wage is not min wage.
In London paying full market rent vs. up North paying council rent or living with your mum.
Bantabury97@reddit
I work in education and am paid minimum wage.
I don't. I don't drive.
Charlie_Yu@reddit
Idk. Moved from Hong Kong a few years ago. On public transport my entire life. Driving was never a thing in my life until 40s when I feel maybe I need to learn. Driving instructors kicked me out, you don’t learn that well when old. Public transport is good enough for me. If I need something else, I get an Uber twice a month and it is cheaper than getting a car
AmeliaOfAnsalon@reddit
They don't, lol
SurprisedCoot23@reddit
I only do 27.5 hours on minimum wage with no overtime and own 2 cars.
AmeliaOfAnsalon@reddit
How?? Why?
AmeliaOfAnsalon@reddit
Why did they delete this
SurprisedCoot23@reddit
Take home £1300 4 weekly. My house and 2 cars are owned outright. I used to earn about 3 times what i earn now. My house hold bills are about £250 per month, food about £120-£140. Car tax and insurance just under £100. Fuel for cars £40-£50 (i only do about 3000 miles a year). Child support for 2 kids £160. My hobbies are cheap and don't care about travelling. Why 2 cars? Because my stepdad retired and gave me his old car which i use for running around with my kids but i also wanted a 2 seat convertible for my 40th.
Open-Butterfly-5288@reddit
When I did, it was basically a matter of "You drive a complete piece of shit, and you hope nothing happens to it".
Also, I lived a really boring life for a long time, scraped a little bit each month and just about managed to afford it
With everything getting expensive, I don't know how it's going to work.
tmr89@reddit
For some people Motability helps
Notagelding@reddit
I'm not far from minimum wage but I don't live extravagantly and can work part time, so that saves me paying a couple of hundred pounds a month on tax. I also bought an electric car in 2025, which saved me a couple of hundred pounds a month on petrol (as home charging totals about £30 a month).
FewAnybody2739@reddit
Learning is going to be more expensive, as you've got to pay for lessons and also still pay for the bus.
Nimble_Natu177@reddit
Totally worth it, its an investment into a life skill that will have untold amounts of reward.
luala@reddit
…for maybe 8-10 years before the self-driving cars come in?
Nielips@reddit
A large proportion of people live in multiple adults households that have much lower out goings per person.
JeffreyEpsteinUK@reddit
eric-artman@reddit
I do not know why they minus you.
Dyalikedagz@reddit
Maybe because hes called JefferyEpsteinUk
eric-artman@reddit
LOL. And?
Icy_Knowledge5004@reddit
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Nimble_Natu177@reddit
Learning to drive will dramatically improve your quality of life and has the potential to open countless doors in both your personal and professional life. Either put some money aside each time you are paid, or sack off some non essentials to afford lessons.
Once you pass, you can get a 20+ year old shitbox that's cheap to insure and you can work your way up from there.
Being able to drive is one of the most best investments in yourself you can make.
Low-Captain1721@reddit
I'm early forties and don't have a driving license. Have a decent job & a rather nice girlfriend.
Don't miss what I've never had.
Low-Captain1721@reddit
Tbh once you look up the cost of lessons, test, first time driver insurance, a vaguely reliable car, tax etc you will probably realise you can't.
To be quite honest I'm early forties and don't have a driving license. I have a decent job, a very decent girlfriend etc - not having a licence really not the deal breaker a few make out.
If someone paid for all of first paragraph for me I still wouldn't want it - you don't miss what you've never had. 😀
NowThenHowDo@reddit
That's the fun bit.
I love having this incredibly important and expensive to maintain metal box that I rely on to get to work that could break at any moment and completely financially ruin me.
NowThenHowDo@reddit
In all seriousness though, its hard.
learning to drive alone costs 1000s and thats assuming you pass both tests first time.
After buying a banger for cheap that lasted a couple months I had to then take out a loan to afford something (2nd hand) that would be more reliable.
But even then i got fucked over with my MOT this month and had to borrow £600 off my parents just to keep it on the road.
The issue btw was a faulty tyre pressure sensor, an (optional extra) sensor that tells you when your tyres need filling up. If my car didnt come with these thats no problem but becuase it has them they have to be working. Ridiculous.
£600 for my car to tell me when to put air in my tyres. When i can just use my own eyes or my own tyre pump to check. I was livid.
So id say if you don't need to, don't. The novelty wears off withing a couple weeks and you are left with a money pit.
Take public transport if you can, I couldn't because I live in the countryside.
Weak_Environment2528@reddit
You just got to Put the hours in sometimes tho it feels hard to live on under 50 hours a week
Vaniky@reddit
Bank of mum and dad when they are 17/18.
Sirlacker@reddit
Minimum wage is essentially working just to be able to afford to work. You can't 'afford' shit. You gotta scrape by, saving here and there by sacrificing things here and there.
Snoo93102@reddit
Been able to drive actually reduces your personal spend. You can shop around more and do odd jobs, sell things locally to suppliment income. When you look at it as an expence that does not actually factor in oppertunity that comes with it.
Its very weird how it works. Happens without you even thinking about it.
oli_ramsay@reddit
It's cheaper than public transport, plus you can drive to locations that have higher wages
MisterD90x@reddit
Am on meh wage.
I fuel my motorbike with my own tears 😭
Going out for a weekend jolly couple hundred miles, can't do that anymore.
FakeNordicAlien@reddit
Do the research to find out roughly how many lessons the average person needs to learn (when I was first learning they said 30 hours was average; obviously it varies from person to person, but find out what the average is these days), and how much lessons cost where you are, multiply cost per lesson by number of lessons for an average person, add 25-30% on top for safety, and slowly, painfully, put that much aside in savings. Even if you can only save £5 a week and it takes five years. Add in any windfall money you get - birthday or Christmas money, bonuses at work, £10 you find wedged in the couch, money from selling some of your stuff, etc.
In my area, 30 hours is currently about £1200-1300, but this will likely vary a bit depending on location.
Whatever you do, do not do what I did and save enough for a block of 10 lessons and figure you’ll start saving for the next block after that; you will likely forget what you’ve learned if you take breaks till you’ve saved the next chunk of money.
It will be painful, but being able to drive will open a lot more doors for you work-wise. I only drove for a few years and then had to quit for medical reasons (epilepsy), but life has been so much harder since I stopped. Even jobs that I can easily get to on public transport generally don’t want to hire me just in case they need me to go to a different site or on a training course temporarily. It’s hard to appreciate the difference driving makes until you’ve experienced both.
thelaughingman_1991@reddit
My 30 year old cousin drives, and he's on minimum wage. Car is fairly beaten up, and he lives with my aunt/his Mum in an affluent area, and she charges him barely anything to be living at home.
Doesn't have savings and spends a lot of things like meal deals, his phone contract, a mattress on finance etc.
He's seemingly pretty happy which I'm glad about but, do wonder about the practicalities of it all long-term.
ah__there_is_another@reddit
I'm not on minimum wage, but my car costs me about £120pm. A small 2011 1.2 petrol car. I think that may be affordable even on minimum wage?
srogijogi@reddit
In the company I work for, people in one of departments earn very close to minimum wage. Lots of them drive cars. What exactly is the problem? You need to save money for lessons, then do a test, then check and cry for your insurance quotes for your (most likely) old car worth less than a yearly cost of insurance.
BigFloofRabbit@reddit
I got mine on Finance at £220 per month, so I just pay for it gradually.
yorkspirate@reddit
This makes so much more sense than running a banger and having to cheap out on repairs like I've done on the past after having the 'finance is bad' mentality drilled into me
GREENGRAVY_@reddit
Depends what constitutes a banger. You can drop £3k on a car that will do 150000 miles if you just service it.
yolo_snail@reddit
Finance.
You can finance a brand new car for £250 a month, and you can get used ones cheaper.
Our Leaf was £120 a month, and considering we could charge at work for free, the whole car was cheaper than the cost of fuel alone.
buginarugsnug@reddit
I think OP is more concerned about paying for lessons.
yolo_snail@reddit
Full time minimum wage is £25k a year.
About £1700 a month after tax.
Maybe it's just my northern bias, but minimum wage isn't as bad as people make out.
aarontbarratt@reddit
Average rent in the UK is currently £1,368 a month
In Manchester the average rent is £1,347
Minimum wage is fucking brutal
yolo_snail@reddit
Meanwhile, where I live, you can rent a decent house for £500 a month.
For that I can get a converted 4 bed church or a 5 bed detached.
buginarugsnug@reddit
No you can't. A 2-bed in Middlesbrough is £775. Where the hell are you getting a 5-bed detached for £500? Absolute bullshit.
yolo_snail@reddit
For the average rent price
buginarugsnug@reddit
I'm also from the north, living in a post industrial town and do not spend frivolously. I wouldn't be able to afford to rent on my own and cover other essentials plus pay for car finance on top of that if I was only taking home £1700 a month. It's also highly likely that OP is living somewhere more expensive.
NeverendingStory3339@reddit
I’m working a minimum wage job atm. I’m paying for my rent and food. My colleague pays for her car and lives with her parents. Neither of us have much left over.
DuskAngelX@reddit
Usually through budgeting, used cars, shared expenses, or side gigs driving costs get spread out over time.
nathderbyshire@reddit
Have someone else teach and cut down on paid lessons, reduce the amount of lessons you have in a month if one a week is too much to cover, get a recommendation for someone, they may do a cheaper price, not cheap, but cheaper. The guy I started to learn with did a discount for Tesco staff because one girl recommended like 20 people to him so ymmv with that one.
Mostly you have to convince someone to teach you the majority of it. Usually family would do this. My siblings and step siblings all got driving lessons at home and paid, I didn't though. It can really fuck with your opportunities, I lost many job opportunities or flat out couldn't even apply because I had to be a buswanker
whucares000@reddit
Parents I guess
bladefiddler@reddit
I'm not much above minimum wage, and mange to run a (old cheap) car and a motorbike for funtimes on my single income.
Really though it's cos I'm middle aged and got on the housing ladder young so my mortgage is £<300/month. If I was paying £1k+ like many do, I'd probably be sitting in the cold & struggling to eat.
ImScaredSoIMadeThis@reddit
A lot of the time - very slowly. One one hour lesson a week. Cheapest instructor they can find. Probably about £180-£200 a month. Treating it as a bill.
But also - asking help from friends and family who have had their license long enough. Insurance costs about £20 for 24 hours, which you can get a lot of driving in
Superspark76@reddit
Adding a learner onto your insurance can lower your insurance premium. Mine dropped by £5 a month when I added my son to learn
PetersMapProject@reddit
With difficulty. I am reminded of one acquaintance in their early 20s who announced he couldn't wait to learn to drive because it'll be so much cheaper than getting the bus.
I asked how much he thought it would cost to run a car. About £500 a year he said.
I'm self-employed so I keep incredibly good records, I run two vehicles and between them, over the last three tax years, they cost an average of £6,000 in total a year to run. Neither are high mileage.
Remote-Pool7787@reddit
They save up money for driving lessons, ask for lessons as birthday, Christmas presents. Or they don’t use an instruct and have a friend or family member teach them
Skjoldehamn@reddit
I’m on minimum wage, I got my license in late 2020, but I only got my first car in 2025. I managed to get an Aygo from a friend at a very cheap price, and I had to way until i was 25 to afford my first insurance policy. And it wasn’t even mine, my friend was the policy holder and I was just a named driver. I remember the insurance quotes i searched when i just got my license were on the £3k/year for an i20 💀
Hadn’t it been because of these circumstances i could’ve never afford it on my own and im certainly on the path to not being able to continue to afford it and go to work if the gas prices stay like this or increase even more
humpty_dumpty47368@reddit
It's cheaper, put a false plate on and don't pay for petrol, licence, mot or insurance. Saves quite a bit.
PineappleheadLUFC88@reddit
I would get yourself some insurance and try find someone (family / friend) to try teach you the basics then you can have less actual paid driving lessons. Of course you will have to contribute towards fuel but this can sometimes work out cheaper as you don't need as many to then be put forward for your test.
IsOkay_No@reddit
I bought my car for £300 when I was on minimum wage but driving was cheaper than public transport for sure once you already have the car
Zilybanana@reddit
I live in a place where you have to drive, otherwise you are trapped at home. You just deal with it. It really is how you prioritize things
YouSayWotNow@reddit
Many who do it have financial support from their parents, others have to sacrifice spending on other necessities to be able to afford lessons. And some get friends/ family to teach them which is obviously way cheaper than proper lessons but there's no safety net of dual controls in the car.
BitIntelligent4486@reddit
Carshare, more than one owner or really cheap car
TroublesZoo@reddit
That would be very tough nowadays.
SlightlyAdventurous@reddit
Honestly, they don't now without help.
My partner works min wage hospitality and is wanting to learn this year before her theory runs out. We're looking at options for me to pay for it or loan it as the higher earner, though that'd still hammer my savings to do so (and subsequently what will one day be considered our savings).
BigMagic88@reddit
Like anything they make it work. The same way you manage to eat and pay bills. Things sometimes have to be sacrificed but somehow you just manage each month
Equal_Chemistry_3049@reddit
Most people can't afford to live alone on minimum wage so it's probably an either/or unless you pick up overtime
ALIJEALSF@reddit
They get a cheap car and use it as little as possible.
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