Tidying up the mess

System

Babystepper with regards to EF , £1000 is usually recommended for home owners and £500 for rental properties.

I think you are wise to keep the EF then if anything goes wrong you have some funds. I rent but my EF has been a great relief.

You seem to have everything going the right way ie down not up. Personally if it was me sorting my mortgage out I would stick with my lender and just get the best deal they offer as ES says they are unlikely to do a credit search. You can think about moving when you have the debt down.

Of course the decision is yours . Good luck with your debt busting.

DD265

Sometimes I think it depends on the kind of person you are; if you know you can put only the emergency on the credit card and not go wild with other purchases then it's probably OK to have less in the bank whilst paying off debt.

I'm not one of those people, and so I'm not throwing everything I have at my debt. I have a £500 emergency fund and am slowly growing the 'maintenance' or 'annual bill' categories in my budget. We're buying a house so my January bonus will be going into the emergency fund to increase it to £1k, and then it'll stay at that level until the cards are gone. It means it's taking longer to pay off my credit cards (interest free luckily) but it is what it is.

If we all had unlimited funds/lived within our means/nothing ever went wrong we probably wouldn't be on here!

Moneywhizz

I agree that it seems a good idea to stay with your current lender, given your drop in income and current level of debt. That would mean that you can work on getting all your debt on interest free, which means that it will come down quicker because all your payments are going to the actual debt. You seem to be quite anxious about your money situation, but your debt is decreasing just maybe not as quickly as you would like. As long as you have a budget in place that covers all of your regular expenses and anything left over can go to the debt, you are in a good place. Just make sure that your budget covers everything and allows you some money to enjoy life so that it is sustainable in the long term,. If you want to increase your debt repayments is there any way of increasing your income? Otherwise it is a slow and steady journey of paying down the debt. Good luck.

BabyStepper

Thank you for these replies. You're right Moneywhizz, I'm feeling very anxious about it all at the moment. This mostly derives from my self-employed status, even though it continues to go from strength to strength, I'll be invoicing for £2,300 at the end of this month so that's good, but I can't help feeling the instability of it all. If I can't get a handle on the lack of security I may as well go back to my old employer, the most miserable experience of my life.

If only I knew there would be no affordability check with the mortgage. We're also still awaiting the final approval of OH's promotion, he has already jumped through about 15 hoops to get it and with one last hoop the process has ground to a halt. At least that would provide some feeling of security.

I have been reading a few diaries on here where people having been making totally mad financial decisions. I get so scared for everyone, which is crazy I know, but especially for us. If we lost our home I would be devastated. These are not easy times to be in debt and struggling. Anyone else read in the news about the huge amount of people becoming homeless and moving out into the coutryside to live in tents? I've never heard anything like it in Britain. We also have 2 new food banks near my home in what used to be an affluent city. Not any more.

I really need to relax. Or do something to take my mind off it. I might go help OH with the diy and stop stressing, obsessing and generally doing my own head in.

Thanks to all.

Moneywhizz

Why don't you just give TSB a call and ask them what the procedure is for changing to a new product when your fixed rate comes to an end. Most lenders don't seem to do a credit or affordability check but one or two may check. If you knew what TSB's policy is you would maybe have some peace of mind about the situation. You seem to be building up your current situation into something much worse than it is. If you are keeping up to date with your mortgage payments why do you think there is a chance of you losing your home? Not only that but it sounds as if your business is actually doing well so your income will probably be increasing going forward. Budgeting should be bringing a sense of control and choice into your life, not causing you to be stressed and anxious. A few posts back you spoke about being thankful for your level of income and lifestyle, you should try to keep hold of that thought and not allow your peace of mind to be destroyed. You will be debt free one day, maybe just not as quickly as you would like. Take care of yourself.

BabyStepper

Thanks again Moneywhizz. You're right, I was feeling quite optimistic and thankful, I don't know what's happened to me today. My business is doing well, and still lots of time left in my week to make even more money. I rang TSB who said they would send out a letter with our options laid out, 3 months before the fix ends. Talking to a 15 year old reading something off a screen is not very reassuring for me though! I just need to let it go and trust that with no issues making payments we should be alright.

BabyStepper

I'm not sure what all that stress was about but it has now subsided considerably. I did a few sums in anticipation of next months' budget and things are looking fine. We are able to keep going for another month, the roof is not going to fall in and we can afford to be alive. Think I knew that anyway but it doesn't hurt to see it in black and white.

As December, Christmas and New Year approach I'm thinking of doing a 12 month plan for 2019, just a rough guide to where we can expect to be each month, small changes to work towards and trying to celebrate the journey. Need to go away and work on that.

BabyStepper

I just spoke to the TSB. Again. The young man reassured me that there will be no affordability checks or anything else if we choose to go with the rate they offer us at the end of our fix. If we want to change anything, or use a different product, it sounds similar to any other bank in that we would need to go to an appointment armed with evidence of income, outgoings, all that. All this sounds well and good until I spotted on someone else's diary a mortgage £35k more than ours costing £75 per month LESS! Whatever happens, we won't lose our house, we may just get stuck with a less than brilliant interest rate. It's also happening across the Brexit fiasco come spring so that may add a twist or two. However, for the moment I am reassured.

I have started planning for next year and things are looking good so far. I am creating a plan to get the debt below £10k by the end of 2019. Optimistic but there's no harm in trying.

The immediate plan is to keep making minimum payments on all debts and try to get through the festive season without adding to the cards or devastating the emergency fund. Challenge on.

I have a meeting next week with an organisation who want to employ me for a full day's work per week. If I can pull this off I will definitely feel like I've succeeded in the world of self-employment. It still doesn't fill up my week but it would mean a monthly wage that smashes my old one as an employee. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, not much happening. Very much looking forward to family visiting this weekend and having a good catch up. Hope everyone is keeping cosy.

BabyStepper

Another mse day about to start. I'm planning the usual, taking sandwiches to work, possibly a flask of coffee, and secretly hoping my family will pay for dinner when they come to visit tonight. I could do with paying that cash off a card. Is that cheeky?

Hoping everyone has a calm day.

HelpfulHetty

It's not cheeky to say that with the new enterprise you're squeezed a bit. You mention haircuts, did you know that barbers will often cut women's hair? They are excellent at cutting and at a fraction of the cost. I'm presuming that you're female, apologies in advance if you're not. Looks like you're getting it all under control, well done!