Anyone's advice would be appreciated!

tomstickland

Definately not up for selling and renting. We rented before, and really needed to get onto the property ladder.We have managed to keep paying our mortgage so far, and everyone says it will get better once we can change over the mortgage. I appreciate it is a struggle at first when you buy a property.

When most people refer to a struggle they don't mean spending 70% of income on the mortgage. I'm not saying this to be harsh, but home ownership "at any cost" could prove to be a mistake.

I'm not advocating renting, but maybe looking around to see if you could downsize or move to a cheaper area.

alwaysbusyMUM

wow, what a list, my advice is similar to everyone already posted, if you cant/dont want to sell up, then you do need to swap those cards apply for loads of them sending one CC/Store card bill to each one you apply, we did it a while ago and come Feb 07 apart from our very small mortage compared to yours £539 we will be debt free, but it will take you time, switch everywhere you can, the coop bank do a privleage account {i can't spell} that gives you a very low overdraft the 1st £260 is free, plus the account comes with free car breakdown through greenflag, + loads of other benifits too, might be worth looking at. Check the insurance search engines to get cheaper insurance, might help to cover just 3rd party fire & theft if your cars are old enough for now at least, do you need to use your car for work, can you get the bus/tram, I can't for my job so I know thats not always an option. Set yourself a job each week,
week 1 find cheaper gas/elec - when was the last time the meters was read, they might owe you
week 2 find cheaper insurance and so on until you've covered & checked everything.

You'll get there in the end, stay positive.

And a baby will not really change much just make things a little harder for a while, kids come with their own bundles of joy, highs & lows.

Good luck I wish you & your hubby all the very best

moozie_2

Hi dibdob and welcome

I think your SOA is one of the scariest I've seen on here. Not because of your mortgage but because your total monthly bills exceed your average income by £219 a month! :eek: Without even paying any debt, you are already in the red every month.

How did you get a mortgage that big in ralation to your income? I assume it's 100%

I think you need additional income urgently and hope your husband's attempt to get some caring work is successful.

Best of luck

Seaxwyn

Hello Dibdob

Well done for posting. I'm a newbie too and still working up to posting my SOA.

I'm in a very similar position to you and just wanted to say you must MAKE your husband look harder for other work. If he doesn't you will start to get resentful, especially when you have a child and are out working all hours to pay the bills when you want to be at home enjoying being a mum. The effect of that resentment on your relationship causes far more stress than just dealing with the money side, bad though that is.

Sit him down, make him go through the SOA and do anything you can to make it click for him. I haven't been totally successful in that but you have to try.

The only other thought I can offer is have you investigated other options for short term rentals outside the summer season?

Good luck with it, I will follow your thread with interest and get round to starting mine soon too.

S x

System

I too agree with the comments re: mortgage. It really, honestly, truly is the problem. How about just downsizing the house, not renting, just finding a cheaper place

bigdec

I hope you don't mind me asking but how much is the mortgage as that amount is so very expensive

chevalier

I too would be very interested in understanding just why your mortgage is so big. And who lent it to you. It seems to be a very big part of your outgoings. Can you ebay anything, to get some extra money? What industry does you OH work in? Is there scope for temping in that?

Babies don't have to be expensive if you swallow your pride. My babies did not have a new thing (apart from a couple of little outfits as I really wanted them to have something from us) for the first 18 months of their lives. I had two people give me their boys wardrobes of clothes, so had loads, my moses basket, first pushchair (and second come to that), baby seat, bath, cot, etc ALL came from friends or older siblings who passed things along.

If you don't have that sort of family have a look on your local https://www.freecycle.org. You can pick up lots of baby stuff on their for FREE! If you live in London, then gumtree also do a similar thing I think. Like I said you don't have to spend a penny on cost for a baby, some areas even do a real nappy service to encourage the use of reusable nappies, and provide discounts.

If you are on such a low income, can you claim working tax credit? Or any other benefit (eg housing benefit, council tax benefit?). There is a websit called entitledto.gov (i think), where you can check out what benefits you may be eligible for.

Seaxwyn

Forgot to say..... you could maybe take your current account and overdraft away from Nat West.

Like you I've been with natwest for years (19 to be precise) and since discovering this site I have opened a new current account with Alliance and Leicester, who offer to match your current overdraft and give you 0% overdraft for a year. So that's one big debt you're not paying interest on for quite a while.

Sx

lex_1971

I like the idea of the 0% interest overdraft for switching - I've been with Natwest for years too and never would have thought of this - thanks!

iwbus

lex_1971 wrote:

I like the idea of the 0% interest overdraft for switching - I've been with Natwest for years too and never would have thought of this - thanks!

If there's one thing this site and the associated book have taught me it's that loyalty don't mean squat and can also work against you when trying for a best deal. "Brand new customers only"........