Advice needed

SuziQ1962

Morning all,I would appreciate a little advice as I can't see the wood from the trees at the moment.
My husband is being made redundant soon and won't get redundancy(he was on a contract) I work part time and don't earn a great deal(also need to pick kids up from school).We have a loan for around £7500 which I was going to pay off in full with a fixed term ISA that finishes in April but I am beginning to think I would be better off hanging on to the money as it would give us 4 months of mortgage, bill etc paying income. We have no other savings and recently added to our mortgage to pay off credit cards and bank overdraft. We are trying to stick to a budget and not get overdrawn again-first month was ok,struggling a bit this month
He has not got another job yet ,not had any interviews either so think he may be out of work for a while.
I would really like to get rid of this loan as it costs us £323 a month which is the same amount we budget for food shopping but am worried about paying the mortgage and everything else.
Any advice gratefully received

dancingfairy

Hi - I would check whether you will be entitled to any benefits - ie jobseekers, income support (or whatever it's called) , working tax credits etc if you will only have your income.
You probably need to keep the cash to ensure the mortgage and bills are paid, when things improve then probably think about the loan. Is it secured or unsecured? if unsecured then you will be able to make token payments if neccesary (you will need to prioritise the mortgage etc).
Perhaps you could post up a new SOA and see if people can help you?
df

dreamdreamer

Just as an income booster could you increase your hours to full time while hubby is out of work? He'll be there to pick the kids up etc. Might help in the meantime.

I'd definitely hang onto the savings in case you need them.

Hope his job-hunting goes well!

Xx

SuziQ1962

Thanks dancing fairy,it was a loan for £16000 with t***o to consolidate our last lot of credit card debt due to finish Dec 2012(We WERE really crap with money but having had our LBM last November when we had no money left on our overdraft or cards to pay for anything, have taken lots of advice from this site and are trying to keep within our means.
Will post an SOA when I have pulled all my figures together-be a bit later today.
Yes ,will need to check what benefits we are entitled to
Have tried to contact Child tax credit office by phone but can never get through,so going to write to them

SuziQ1962

Thanks dreamdreamer,I am self employed and at the moment not a great demand for what I do where I live, haven't done full time work for over 10 years and feel completely out of touch.Have looked for weekend and part time work but nothing much around at the moment,but will carry on looking.