Its tough, it will get better and guess what its freezing brrrrr!

starsandmoon

Kitcaboodle wrote: »

I envy you your house prices! Average price for even ex-council two bed terraces here are around the £180k mark! If we could save £50k for a deposit we could afford to borrow £100k but there is practically nothing we could buy at that price.

Oh well, the deposit is still several years away at this rate so I shouldn't worry too much about the house prices!

I live in a rough bit of Liverpool though so pretty cheap here. Could never save 50k, flippin heck

Fruball

TY Nuala and Jackie I have found that keeping easy to prepare and rubbish foods (supernoodles and such) satisfies my need for speedy carp snacks!!! In the past I would never have bought things like supernoodles, but if they are there I will have then rather than order £10-£15 of delivery so altho I curse myself as I put them in my trolley, I know they will save me money

Fruball

Oooooooooh! Almost forgot to say, I have had my eye on a winter coat in MrS but they didn't have my size... went in today and they had a very similar one in my size AND........... its 25% off all Tu Clothing in MrS atm so instead of paying £30 I paid £22.50 :money: For a winter coat! :T:T:T

starsandmoon

Talking about people buying property they couldnt really afford I witnessed the downfalls of this whilst renting a flat. When my marriage broke up in 2007 I rented a new build flat while I got my divorce/finaces sorted out. It was a new build estate built at the height of the boom. One of the many offers Barratts made was they paid half your mortgage for the 1st year so imagine how many people thought Oh Il have a better job, release equity etc when that offer ends. Next thing the bubble burst. By the end of 2008 a quarter of the estate had been repossessed. The flat I rented cost the landlord £120,000 they are being sold for £50,000 now. In my block of 8 flats 5 were repossessed and the tenants had to move out.

I saw the heartache all this caused which is why I got the house I did plus there is only me (and my little girl). Theres no one to bail me out.

Im glad I got a cheaper house as up to now my wages are being cut by 20%, my ex has been made redundant so no/very little maintainence and my step dad is being made redundant in Dec.

At the moment its survival. I involve my little girl with the finances, she knows you have to budget. She gets pocket money and has 3 piggy banks. One for our hol next year, one for emergencies and one for everyday. She loves books but they are so expensive so she reserves library books online and gos to charity shops. She's like a mini Martin but with long blonde hair. She was telling mum off last week for having the fire on and the back door open.:rotfl:

parsonswife8

Aw, bless her.:)

Primrose

starsandmoon - What a wonderful financial foundation you've given your daughter. You can be really proud of her because a sense of financial awareness is a really valuable life skill for any young person to grow up with. And she's got a sensible Mum too. With the financial circumstances you describe, just imagine how you would be feeling now if you'd somehow managed to get the mortgage for that bigger house and were lying awake sleepless every night wondering how long you would be able to keep it.

I'm sure that better times will come eventually but many who have overreached themselves financially in the past couple of years, through buying what they wanted rather than what they needed, may never be sufficiently clear of debt to be able to take advantage of the eventual economic turnaround.

Rosanna79

Greent
So sorry to hear of your worries. Never been in this position during my marriage so unsure what to say other than something my late brother once told me:
'People only put the value on you that you put on yourself'
You're worth more than being cheated on amd I hope you will soon be able to discuss this with your OH and make him see sense.

Best wishes at this difficult time

Rosanna79

starsandmoon wrote: »

Talking about people buying property they couldnt really afford I witnessed the downfalls of this whilst renting a flat. When my marriage broke up in 2007 I rented a new build flat while I got my divorce/finaces sorted out. It was a new build estate built at the height of the boom. One of the many offers Barratts made was they paid half your mortgage for the 1st year so imagine how many people thought Oh Il have a better job, release equity etc when that offer ends. Next thing the bubble burst. By the end of 2008 a quarter of the estate had been repossessed. The flat I rented cost the landlord £120,000 they are being sold for £50,000 now. In my block of 8 flats 5 were repossessed and the tenants had to move out.

I saw the heartache all this caused which is why I got the house I did plus there is only me (and my little girl). Theres no one to bail me out.

Im glad I got a cheaper house as up to now my wages are being cut by 20%, my ex has been made redundant so no/very little maintainence and my step dad is being made redundant in Dec.

At the moment its survival. I involve my little girl with the finances, she knows you have to budget. She gets pocket money and has 3 piggy banks. One for our hol next year, one for emergencies and one for everyday. She loves books but they are so expensive so she reserves library books online and gos to charity shops. She's like a mini Martin but with long blonde hair. She was telling mum off last week for having the fire on and the back door open.:rotfl:

How heartening to hear a parent giving a child such a good foundation for life! She sounds delightful starsandmoon. How old is she as a matter of interest? Good for you!

ceridwen

starsandmoon wrote: »

Talking about people buying property they couldnt really afford I witnessed the downfalls of this whilst renting a flat. When my marriage broke up in 2007 I rented a new build flat while I got my divorce/finaces sorted out. It was a new build estate built at the height of the boom. One of the many offers Barratts made was they paid half your mortgage for the 1st year so imagine how many people thought Oh Il have a better job, release equity etc when that offer ends. Next thing the bubble burst. By the end of 2008 a quarter of the estate had been repossessed. The flat I rented cost the landlord £120,000 they are being sold for £50,000 now. In my block of 8 flats 5 were repossessed and the tenants had to move out.

Crikey - thats a high proportion of people - just in that area.

i guess none of them stopped to think "Now - why are Barratts giving such incentives to buy to people? Answer - times are getting hard for them....times are getting hard.....". I guess none of them looked around and thought "Its 2007 - things are starting to get worse...better change my plans a bit" (other than your sensible self:)).

We DO have to look round at the times/society we live in and "see which way the wind is blowing" to help with making our own personal financial decisions and too many people don't do that...

It IS annoying/upsetting that things happening round us in the Wider Society can "upset our personal applecart" - but theres no point in shutting our eyes to that. We have to keep those eyes wide open and think "Right - this may happen in Society. That may. That definitely WILL and the knock-on effects on me personally might be/will be......etc" and plan to "duck and dive" accordingly. I guess it boils down to "Get out the virtual surfboard and learn to surf the waves".

So - congratulations you had the sense to look around and adapt plans accordingly.:T

Talking of your daughters' 3 piggybanks - very sensible idea too. I remember my mother having a metal tin with several compartments when I was young - and she put money for one thing in one compartment, for another thing in another compartment and so on - so she must have been allocating money to different categories in her budget. Thats good training for your daughter. Its a difficult thing to do when one starts getting some income at last (ie first salary as an adult) to have to remember that it ISNT "all mine to do with as I want". It takes some years (of resentment in my case....) to learn to "knuckle to" and that money for most of us is more a case of having to try to find ways to "wrest some personal money out of the purse" AFTER taking care of necessities - rather than taking personal money first and hoping there will be enough left over for necessities like bills, etc.

BB1984

Morning all,
I'm on another day's unpaid "study leave" today so getting on with my reports for my professional exams.....time is ticking away now so I've got today, saturday, and monday lined up to get my nose to the grindstone!
Feeling a little brighter today than I was the other night when I had a bit of a moan (sorry about that!), think having a good night's sleep last night helped - about 10 hours!!
DH is away from today until saturday, will miss him lots as I've got so used to him being around, but at least it means I can get some work done without distractions.
Had a text from Approved Foods at 7.30 this morning saying my order has been dispatched - does anyone know when that means it'll be delivered? I put a delivery note on the order to say they should leave it in the porch if noone's at home, I hope they will do that as I'm at work tomorrow.
Someone recommended Berrocca as a way to lift me and my mood a bit - apparently it makes you feel much more "vital". However, I looked in Boots for it yesterday and it was something like £4 for 15 days' worth! Anyone have any MS versions of it? God knows I need something, feel constantly as though I've got a cold coming, tummy not happy, cold sores threatening, and skin covered in spots. Mmmmm sexy! :eek: Thing is, I really don't have time to be ill right now!!

RE money matters - I'm not keen on discussing my own bank balance etc, but I am happy to talk about mortgage rates, how we organise our household spending etc, with certain friends and family. I've find that people seem to be talking about money much more lately. I do get annoyed with certain people moaning about how little money they've got, though, as if it's a competition. And it's not even as though they're that badly off!

I have a hefty mortgage with my DH, so am glad of the low interest rates, personally. However, we are using the low rates to overpay our mortgage and save some emergency cash, to prepare ourselves for when rates do go up (as of course they will). I cant' believe it when I hear about people spending the "extra" cash they've got due to low interest rates, on things like extra holidays etc.

Has anyone seen the weather forecast?! Having had a period of unseasonal warm, this weekend it's gonna get cooooooooooooooooooold! Brace yourselves and get those thermals ready, people!

Have a good day

BB