Help!

clairey_3

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping that you'll be able to give me some advice as my husband and I are really struggling at the moment. We're not really in debt but we're not managing.

My husband has his own company which hasn't been going very long and so therefore he's not making much and whatever profit he makes really should go back into the business, however we obviously need money to live on, we're a family of 5.

To give you a few more details our monthly income - my job, tax credits, child benefit etc. is £1390
Our direct debits which cover mortgage, utilities, all bills, insurance etc. total £1773.20, our mortgage being the biggest at £900.
We then have to buy food, petrol and other bits and bobs which I've estimated to be about £700 per month if we're really careful.
There are then other things like car servicing, road tax, birthday presents, Christmas etc. that aren't really a monthly cost but I'd like to be putting £300 a month away in an account for these.
These expenses total £2773.20 so we're £1383.20 short each month. We've been funding this shortfall by our savings which have pretty much gone and by taking money out of the business as a wage.
What really worries me is our mortgage payment. We did remortgage a couple of years ago and have since got advice from a financial advisor but because we'd have to self cert there don't seem to be any savings to be made there and we'd actually struggle to get a mortgage for the amount we'd need (my husband was employed with a good job previously).
We have about £150k equity in our house so I'm wondering if we should actually think about moving to a cheaper area where we could get a house similar to our own but way cheaper and have a very small mortgage thereby cutting our costs. My husband's business can operate from anywhere in the country and I could find work easily. Obviously, it would be disruptive for the kids and us but is it worth it? Is it something we should consider?
I'm going to read the Money Diet again and try to cut some more costs but I'm wondering if the problem is just that our mortgage is too big. I just can't look at things objectively, I'm just so stressed!! I just want to get things sorted before we do get into trouble.

Thanks for reading such a long post, any advice would be much appreciated.

Claire

kennyward

if i was in your situation i would sell up take the money and you would be able too buy 3/4 bedroom house for a little over the equity figure in the beautifull rural county of lincolnshire.best of luck.kenny ward

magentadreamer

I think you are going to have to take a regular wage from your husbands business in order to attempt to make ends meet. How long is it likely before this business actually turns over a decent profit?

Make a list of all your out goings Is your household and other insurance products the cheapest when was the last time you checked? I was extremely suprised when I went throw all of mine . Do you have a SKY tv package? If so ditch it perhaps or swap it for freeview. Is you Gas/elec/ phone/broadband the cheapest. It's surprising how much you can save just by looking at all the stuff like that an changing. You say you spend £700 a month on food and stuff? Look at ways of cutting back -the money saving old style forum is an excellent starting post. Consider shopping for basics at shops like Aldi or lidl -you'll be suprised at how much you can save. If oyu have any credit cards etc make sure any debt is on the cheapest APR going.

Good luck and welcome to MSE - it's a marvellous place.

clairey_3

Thanks for the replies. We have cut back alot - got rid of Sky, shopped round for cheapest phone service, broadband etc, switched utilities, insurance etc. We're in a rural community and the only supermarkets within 20 miles are Tesco, Co-op, Somerfield and Budgens, no Aldi or Lidl anywhere nearby. Have started planning meals and think that I can save some money on our food bill. Can't really save on petrol, we have one car and I walk everywhere as it is.
Yes, I agree we're going to have to take a wage from my husband's business, things are getting better with it, it is going well. At the moment we could probably take £1-1.5k from it but we can't really rely on it as it's so up and down.

Kenny, I don't really know Lincolnshire, where's nice? If we did move it would be good to be within half an hour of a motorway network as my husband does have to do some travelling for his business.

Well, I'm going to go over our budget again and really think about things. Thanks again.

Claire