The Unexpected Costs of an Accident That Can Really Add Up….

I don’t think we always appreciate quite how much goes into keeping an ordinary family week running smoothly.

There are school runs, work, shopping, cooking, cleaning, appointments, after-school activities and all the other little jobs that somehow get fitted in around everything else. Most of the time you don’t really think about how it all works – you just get on with it.

But imagine one person in the family suddenly couldn’t do their share for six weeks.

A broken ankle, for example, could mean no driving, time off work and regular hospital appointments. Someone else might need to take over the school runs, do more around the house and fit extra journeys into an already busy week.

And alongside all that disruption, there can be a surprising number of extra costs.

A drop in income

This is probably the most obvious one.

Depending on your employer and your sick pay arrangements, being unable to work could mean a significant drop in your normal income. Someone who’s self-employed could feel the impact even more quickly if they’re having to cancel work or turn jobs down.

And it’s not necessarily just your basic salary that’s affected. Regular overtime, bonuses or other earnings could disappear too.

If an accident wasn’t your fault and you later make a personal injury claim, loss of earnings may be one of the things taken into account. That’s one reason it’s worth keeping payslips and any other evidence showing what you’d normally earn and how that changed after the accident.

All those extra journeys

Hospital appointments have a habit of generating expenses of their own.

There could be hospital parking, petrol, bus fares or taxis to pay for, particularly if the injured person isn’t able to drive. There might also be trips to the GP, physiotherapy, scans and follow-up appointments.

A £5 parking charge or £10 taxi fare might not feel worth keeping track of at the time, but repeat that over several weeks and it can become a surprisingly significant amount.

I’d keep a note on my phone of every extra journey, along with any parking charges or fares, and photograph the receipts as I went.

Extra childcare and help at home

This is probably one of the costs that’s easiest to overlook.

If the person who’s injured normally does the school run, looks after the children after school, cooks most of the meals or does particular jobs around the house, somebody still needs to do them.

Sometimes another family member can pick up the slack, but that isn’t always possible. You might end up paying for additional childcare, a cleaner, gardening help or even something as simple as extra food deliveries because getting to the supermarket isn’t practical.

Even when family and friends step in for free, it’s worth keeping a record of the help they’ve provided. In some circumstances, unpaid care and assistance from relatives or friends can be relevant to a compensation claim too.

You don’t need anything elaborate. Just make a note of who helped, what they did and roughly how much time they spent doing it.

The cost of recovering

Depending on the injury, there might be things you need to buy to make everyday life easier while you recover.

That could include mobility aids or other equipment, or you may end up paying for treatment such as physiotherapy.

Again, keep the receipts.

Not every expense will necessarily be recoverable if you make a claim, but it’s much easier to work out what’s relevant afterwards if you’ve actually kept a record of what you’ve spent.

Things that were damaged

The financial impact of an accident isn’t necessarily limited to the injury itself.

Clothes, glasses, a phone, bike or other belongings could have been damaged at the same time.

Before getting rid of anything that’s damaged, take some photographs. If you still have the original receipt or can find evidence of what the item cost, keep that too, along with receipts for any replacement you need to buy.

Plans you can no longer use

This is one I probably wouldn’t immediately think of.

What happens if you’ve already paid for a holiday and can’t travel? Or you’ve bought concert tickets, booked a family day out or paid for a sports membership that you can’t use while you’re recovering?

Your first step should be checking whether you can get a refund or claim through any insurance you have. If you can’t, keep a record of what you’ve lost.

Whether something like this could ultimately form part of a compensation claim will depend on the individual circumstances, but it’s much easier to have the information and not need it than realise months later that you’ve forgotten about it completely.

Keep a running record of everything

If an accident did turn our normal family life upside down, this is probably the one thing I’d make sure I did from day one.

I’d start a note on my phone or a very basic spreadsheet and keep track of every additional expense.

Something as simple as:

18 June | Hospital parking | £7.20 | Fracture clinic

would be enough.

I’d also photograph every receipt and keep appointment letters, relevant emails, payslips and invoices somewhere together.

And if I’d lost a receipt, I wouldn’t automatically write the expense off. A bank statement, credit card statement, email confirmation or invoice might still provide evidence of what I’d paid.

The little costs can become a big cost

Hopefully most of us will never need any of this information.

But I think it’s one of those things that’s useful to know because when something unexpected happens, keeping track of £6 parking charges and extra petrol probably isn’t particularly high on your list of priorities.

Over six weeks or six months, though, all those small amounts can become hundreds or even thousands of pounds – particularly when they’re combined with lost earnings, childcare or additional help around the house.

So if an accident ever does turn normal family life upside down, keep a record from the beginning. Even if you never need it for a compensation claim, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what the situation is actually costing your family.

I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉 This is a collaborative post.

Do your future self a favour – Pin this post for later.