Giving up house tomorrow : (

Forward_thinking

Hi! I'm new but here for the long haul.

Dh hasn't had any work for a year. Now 33k in debt on cards. We have no money at all. We can't get any benefits - been confirmed today. Our outgoings each month are 7k. Our rent is 2300£ a month. Usually that is fine as dh earns well when in a contract. But that has been a while.

We are desperate to keep up with our payments so we don't affect our credit ratings. We are wanting to get a mortgage soon. We are confident we can pay it back but we need to get work. Fast!! There are a couple of loose possibilities on the job front but we won't know for a while. In the meanwhile we have 6k to find each month. We have had a family loan for 15k but that will only last us two months and if we don't get work in that time we have big problems!!

Dh wants to ring up and give notice on the house. We have to give two months notice and he is really worried that if the two months go and there is still no work we won't even afford to be able to move. We will be totally stuck. On the other hand if one of these contracts comes up we would be able to stay here and break even. We would be able to pay off a bit of debt each month - £600 but all the rest of the money will be gone.

Dh wants to take on a 3 bed house at about 1300 a month instead of 2200. That would also take our council tax down and bills down. But we have six children and it's going to be such a squeeze. We have a lovely house at the moment. But if we go in a smaller house we would be able to pay the debts off a lot more quickly. The children will be devastated and won't be able to have play dates around but we will cope. I am also intending to do some client work from home for 30£ an hour but that won't be possible if we move. The house would be too small.

The move into a smaller house would only be for about six months or so until we are back on our feet. But it could be longer. It also took us ages to find a house we liked here!!!

But if we don't give our notice in tomorrow we are committed to paying three months from now. And if we don't have work that third month will be put on credit cards. On the other hand this contract may come up and then we could have stayed. Although we wouldn't have very much to throw back at our debts.

Should we stay or should we go. I'm gutted as we are all so happy here but I know dh is speaking sense. We're determined to pick ourselves up again. We have had a terrible few days and hardly slept!!

Advice please!!!! Thank you!!!

wannabe_credit_free

Personally I would go, if it meant I could pay my debts down and be able to sleep at night. Once your work situation changes and with it your income, you can always review the situation and find another house that meets your needs..

I hope everything works out in your favour..:)

girlsmum

personally i would go, 6-7 months is not the end of the world and you can relax again afterwards. then again even if you give notice and work comes in you can see if you can stay. You dont want to get deeper debt.

pmd123

Apologies for not having any useful advice, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but how can you possibly spend £7,000 each month when you have no income? And it's been a year since your OH worked coupled with no benefits (not even child benefit?). I presume you had some pretty sizable savings which have now been spent, but you must consider that level of spending is untenable and would need to be reduced massively until your income increases again.

Are you able to post up an SOA so the more knowledgeable people on here can give you some advice on how to trim your budget to a realistic level, based upon your (zero?) income.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I'm staggered by the numbers quoted.

FireWyrm

I think we need more information on your outgoings because I couldnt imagine spending £7K a month even if I had it which I dont. Clearly, living on less is not the end of the world, because many of us do so quite happily. I suspect there is plenty of wiggle room in the budget to say the least. If you are paying £2.5K a month in rent, you've got to be in London, so have you considered moving to a large(ish) house on the outskirts which are often very much cheaper for the same square footage?

You clearly cannot continue to spend money you dont have, even it it wasnt £7K, so your only alternative is to move but I think you should be seriously considering where and how to cut that monthly budget to something more sensible. If you are as affluent as you say, then you should have sizeable savings accrued in the good times which should have seen you through these bad ones. The fact that it didnt (for whatever reason) points strongly to previous financial mismanagement. Dont worry, we are all in the same boat, £7K misspent is the same as £70 misspent and just as rectifiable.