Welcome to TSP
@MelK I agree with Surest1tch about not ditching your mum's old machine, though it depends a lot on just what "old machine" means; 10 years old or 100 years old?
A lot of us on here will tell you that the old black Singer straight stitchers are as good as anything made today when it comes to straight stitches but of course they don't do the fancy stuff. A good solid machine from the 60s or 70s which does a variety of zig-zag stitches really is well worth keeping. After that machines got plasticy and not so good unless they were really high end, though if it's electronic it should be fine until the motherboard goes.