Do we need a reality check?

mynameiscatherine

Doesn't matter any more

getmore4less

So in the 2 years you have had cheap living you still could not mamage your finances and still have debts.

I would see if you can get by for at least a year without messing up.

What makes this place the "forever house"

Rent the cheapest place you can and save faster.

Sell the car and get something cheaper to run.

What you realy need to do is a set of SOA for the various options and see what it looks like.

Live on the one that if you bought the place to practice.

Get a few weekends away in cheap hotels(holiday inn 2-4-1, travelodge £10pn devere £20pn) cheaper than commiting to renting a place.

mynameiscatherine

Doesn't matter any more

CloudCuckooLand

Not "littered" with defaults. No. Get your joint acts together. Stop defaulting. Allow a few months to pass...

Get the debts cleared off. Then use 6 months worth of those old debts payment to rebuild your savings.

What is the point of having £4.5k in savings by July, when you are incurring interest and charges on defaulted debts and debt collectors fees? The longer that continues the longer it will damage your credit and make it either impossible, or more expensive than it needs be, to get a mortgage.

To answer your question. Yes, you need a reality check.

getmore4less

What's the contingency for the next redundancy?

metaldud

it seems nowdays nomatter how much you earn if the credit files are not squeeky clean then they will turn you down.

Just live at home for a year and im sure a 15% deposit can be saved by then.

mynameiscatherine

Doesn't matter any more

SimbaSimon

I think you need to wait. While your making progress and have savings the debt, specifically the one of your boyfriends that is with the debt collectors will be holding you back. Are you savings from both of you or have you put more in since your on a higher salary? My immediate suggestion would be to use the savings to get the debt cleared from your boyfriend and that credit card can be easily paid off given the low balance. The family member isn't quite so urgent since it won't affect your credit rating atall, although obvious still needs to be paid back.

Once your debts are cleared starting saving for the next 6-9 months and don't miss any payments or make any mistakes and then review the situation. It definitely seems more sensible to rent then buy a shared equity property given your current situation but staying with the parents is even more sensible and money saving! Could you perhaps rent a room together in a house share? That way you get to try living without the parents and see how it goes from there?

TrickyDicky

mynameiscatherine wrote: »

I didn't think we would get a mortgage but there's no harm in asking is there. Now I got the answer I thought I'd get, I won't get my hopes up & we'll get a rented house and save which was our original, more sensible, plan.

First action - stop saving and pay off all the debts.

CloudCuckooLand

getmore4less wrote: »

What's the contingency for the next redundancy?

mynameiscatherine wrote: »

What's yours?

If I live my life thinking I'm going to get made redundant every month how will I ever get a house? If I save up a 30K deposit for a house I would be silly to actually use it for that purpose 'in case I get made redundant'.

To be fair to GM4L, it is a valid question.

MSE recommendation is to have a 6 month emergency fund.

Suppose you bought a house with a £30k deposit. Then got made redundant and it took 6 months to get back to earning...

There would be two possible outcomes;

1) your emergency fund covers essential living costs, you don't fall into arrears, you keep the house, hunky dory.

2) in the absence of emergency funds you quickly fall into arrears, after 6 months the lender starts proceedings for repossession, makes you rush into a quick sale at a low price, or actually forces repossession and sells it themselves, leading to a shortfall compared to what you paid, so losing you thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of your £30k...

Back to the parents. Back to saving.

I know which one I'd prefer...

poppy10_2

You shouldn't be putting money away in savings when you have debts with a debt collector. Pay those off before building up a savings pot.