Down in the dumps today

loopyloulou_3

I am seriously giving myself a hard time at the moment, and am seriously worried about how much worse and harder things can possibly get.

After my break up with my ex I brought him out of our house - my parents paid for it, and consolidated my debt so in total I owe them £20k - which is manageable. But I am still close to the wire with finances, I have approximatley £250 left a month after all bills and travel (although food has to come out of the £250). My mortgage offer is up next yr and I am seriosuly worried about what will happen then with interest rates etc.

I was talking to a friend of mine and she said she was worried that interests rates could go up to 12 or 13% - which scared me to say the least! I dont have enough left to save or overpay my mortgage or do anything really.

As I can rarely afford to go out, I dont think I will ever meet anyone either! So am stuck in a big house with no equity really, no partner, little disposable income and £20k debt and no way of speeding up paying off my parents. Being a grown up seriously sucks sometimes!

Boo hoo, sorry all - just having a bad day and needed to vent my fears and frustration!!

RAS

Loopylou

Have you considered a lodger?

Tax free and will probably come with a social circle attached?

embarrassed_about_my_debt

I know it probably wouldnt be what you wanted but what about selling your house and moving into a smaller rented property to give you some extra money to throw at your debts and give you some money to live on?

whitewing

I have found that not watching the news so much helps keep things a little more applicable to my actual present circumstances. If I can take control of my situation this week, it stops me failing big time over all decisions, and gives me breathing space to consider the future objectively. Otherwise I get caught in a very negative cycle.

view

Hi loopyloulou, great name by the way! :-)

Hope this doesn't sound weird but someone once told me, imagine you're walking along a huge park, in the very distance you can see a bridge. You're not sure when you get the bridge if it'll have a big toll to cross or not and am worried that you won't have the fare, however, don't worry, just keep walkign along that path until you get to it, you may find the bridge has no toll at all.

What I'm really trying to say, is don't worry yourself into the earth just now, just continue to be money saving and make savings where you can. You're obviously doing a really good job with your life just now, although it may feel like a anchor round your neck. Look at what you have and how far you have come. It can all feel too much sometimes, but when you take a deep breath and really look around you'll see you're luckier than you think. A lot of people can't find a way to buy out an ex, and you have! Count yourself lucky for that, you've your health, your parent's and your children's health (if you have any) - don't mess with that by constant worry about what might be.

Hope you're ok, big hugs!

GJ x

loopyloulou_3

embarrassed_about_my_debt wrote: »

I know it probably wouldnt be what you wanted but what about selling your house and moving into a smaller rented property to give you some extra money to throw at your debts and give you some money to live on?

the problem with this is I have a mortgage with GMAC (boo hiss) and my redemption is £11,000 until next year. I have no equity at all and therefore it would cost me a fortune to sell it and move somewhere else. So I am stuck for the time being. To be honest I want to hang on to my house - it was the main focus from my breakup and kept me going to be honest, if I lost my lovely house I think I would fall to pieces. I know it is just bricks and mortar, but it is my home that I have worked so hard for over the past 5 yrs of living there.

As for the lodger thing, I am seriously considering this now, I always put it off because I am scared of sacraficing my own space and having to share with someone!! A hurdle I may have to deal with!

cady

hi lou,

im so sorry your in this situation i know its a scary time but until you know what the situation is its hard to tell how its gonna be, could you post a SOA then we could see if there is anything you can save some money on a lodger is a good idea too and maybe checking out the os board for ideas to save a bit of money too

loopyloulou_3

thanks all
have done my soa more times that i can count!! everything is down to the bare bones already and all but become a hermit there isnt much i can do, just have to ride it out and see what happens! its so frustrating!! defo going to reconsider the lodger situation more carefully, just worried as then i might have to turn my heating on!! lol

tyllwyd

loopyloulou wrote: »

... I was talking to a friend of mine and she said she was worried that interests rates could go up to 12 or 13% - which scared me to say the least! ...

I wouldn't get too hung up on mortgage rates going up quite that high - I am old enough to remember 'black wednesday' when interest rates nearly went up to 15% (although luckily I wasn't a homeowner then). People owe a lot more money on their houses than they did then, and it would be a huge huge problem if that happened again, so I can't see the government letting it happen if they could do anything to prevent it. I was watching Working Lunch yesterday, and the 'expert' they had on there was predicting a fall, not an increase, and the presenter was saying that fixed rates have come down a bit in ancticipation of a fall - experts aren't always right, of course, but at least it wasn't all doom and gloom.

embarrassed_about_my_debt

loopyloulou wrote: »

the problem with this is I have a mortgage with GMAC (boo hiss) and my redemption is £11,000 until next year. I have no equity at all and therefore it would cost me a fortune to sell it and move somewhere else. So I am stuck for the time being. To be honest I want to hang on to my house - it was the main focus from my breakup and kept me going to be honest, if I lost my lovely house I think I would fall to pieces. I know it is just bricks and mortar, but it is my home that I have worked so hard for over the past 5 yrs of living there.

What about leaving things as they are for the time being and then look at the end of your redemption period. I knwo you say the house was your focus through the seperation but is it worth having no life for? Only you can answer that one.

Another thing to look at is local football clubs look for people to take in the young players that sign as apprentices and pay the rent for them, might be worth looking into contact a local team?

RAS

loopyloulou wrote: »

As for the lodger thing, I am seriously considering this now, I always put it off because I am scared of sacraficing my own space and having to share with someone!! A hurdle I may have to deal with!

There are ways of having your cake and eating it.

How about week day lodging only - someone who arrives Monday night and goes Friday morning?

Or do theatre lodging - for the duration of the rehearsals and shows (likely to be out in the evening)?

Or short-term moving into the area and want somewhere until I get my own place lodgings?

Or if you have a university nearby, the temporay accomodation for visiting lecturers, exchange students or short-term research students?