How I Bought a New Car as a Gig Worker

I Failed To Get A New Car With Gig Work

Nearly 3 years ago, I hatched a plan.

At the time, my wife and I were a 1 car family.

During the pandemic, it was easy to have only one car. But coming out of it, it seemed impossible for us to live the way we wanted with only one car.

So, rather than just doing the boring thing and going to get a new one (which honestly wasn’t an actual option at the time), we decided that I would work extra gig work to save up for a car.

The Plan

The original plan was fairly simple.

First, work normal hours. I wanted to make sure the average person could do this, not just someone who could take significant time off work to focus on driving full-time.

Second, I would use everything I’ve learned from years of doing gig work and anything else I could try. This could mean:

  • Taking advantage of multi-apping
  • Using incentives
  • Downloading Solo or any other service that would allow me to make more money with the same amount of work.

Finally, I had to save money for expenses.

Rather than taking money from my regular freelance income to pay for gas, oil changes, and new tires, I had to take it from the income I made from gig work.

The Challenges

As with everything, this plan had its challenges, which I originally discussed. This time, I’m going to explain how or if I overcame them.

Earning Hours

Lunchtime has been and continues to be the time that I typically drive and when I make the most money.

My number one app is DeliverThat, a catering company. Most of my orders come during lunchtime. I make an average of $34 per delivery, which takes between 20 minutes and an hour.

I also drove at night and on weekends several times, which I was able to make decent money.

Delivery Only

Several times over the last few years I did turn on the passenger apps. I even got several requests; however, none of them were worth it, so I didn’t accept them.

To date, I still have only done delivery, and honestly, if that’s all I ever do I’ll be happy with that.

Spending On Food

Food is my weakness.

For a while, I was packing lunch to save money, as well as getting drinks at Costco or Sam’s Club in bulk and bringing them with me.

This likely saved me a few hundred dollars, as when I don’t have this planned out ahead of time, I end up spending $10 to $20 every time I go driving. Regardless if I make $40 or $200 on that shift.

Life

I cannot begin to explain how much life got in the way of this plan.

Between multiple hurricanes hitting my area, a few health crises, and my freelance work getting busier, it became more and more difficult to hit the road and make money.

At the same time, because of life, I needed more money to pay for everything, so I ended up driving hours that fell outside of what I call fair for this challenge.

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What Happened

Despite it all, I did get a new car last year.

Though it wasn’t in cash, nor did I have a substantial down payment saved, I feel the experience can help other gig workers in a large way.

I failed my challenge, but because I spent the time and effort on this challenge, my gig work income was enough to help me qualify to get the loan for my new car.

Getting a loan was not what I wanted, but it ended up being what I needed. It allowed me to get a much newer car than I anticipated getting, with more features than I thought I would get.

As a gig worker and freelancer, none of my income is W-2 work. So, I didn’t think I would ever be able to get financing until I tried and got the prequalified Capital One Financing (which was truly a dream).

Capital One Financing

I’ve seen many commercials about how easy this financing is to get, and I thought it was too good to be true.

But honestly, it was incredibly simple.

Filling out the questions was basic and easy, giving your expenses, social, and income.

Where most gig workers run into issues is proof of income. As we don’t get paychecks to share with financing departments.

How Capital One did it with me is they requested bank statements. So, I submitted the bank statements for my business account, gig work account, and personal account. Within a matter of hours, we had our approval for a lot more than we needed.

Finding a dealership that took the financing wasn’t an issue either, as you could search for it right on their website.

Bringing all the paperwork of our prequalified status meant we got to walk out of the dealership less than 2 hours after we had decided on the car.

I Didn’t Fail… I Cheated

In the end, I may have failed my self-imposed challenge. But driving my new car, knowing I’m able to afford the payments, and that I was qualified because of my gig work makes me feel like a winner.

I hope to not need to get another car for a long time, but I’m still saving and planning like I’ll get a new one.

No matter how good things may be at this very moment, you may have an emergency at any time, and as such, you need to be prepared.