My 2 year battle to try to keep our home

savingholmes

Definitely be kind to yourself and see it as a trial run.

joedenise

It's always difficult when you are just starting out with budgeting but it will get easier over time and you'll have the money there when it's needed.  It's really annoying about having to spend so much at the start of your budgeting journey but stick with it.

Have you budgeted for an Emergency Fund?  Aim for £500 to start with and then try to increase it to £1,000.

Tiredbutdetermined

Thanks guys. 

I have done my figures and I think I am stressing. This month is tight but doable with little debt payments. I just need to be careful from here in! 

joedenise said:

It's always difficult when you are just starting out with budgeting but it will get easier over time and you'll have the money there when it's needed.  It's really annoying about having to spend so much at the start of your budgeting journey but stick with it.

Have you budgeted for an Emergency Fund?  Aim for £500 to start with and then try to increase it to £1,000.

Am emergency fund would be great but it looks as though my 2 year timescale might be very borderline between getting the sole mortgage and becoming homeless so it depends whether I go down the pay off debt to pass affordability line or the save like a crazy lady to build a deposit line. The latter could double act as an emergency fund and the former possibly would
once the credit card is done and I move to save to pay off the loan (I think for the
loan I would either save and make overpayments every few months or save the full balance and pay off in one go).

I am really looking forward to speaking to the mortgage advisor on Tuesday. If she can’t do anything right now I am hoping she has the expertise to give me a clear strategy until I become a more useful prospect

I am very confused by my mortgage payments and balance. There doesn’t seem to be any consistency anymore in the effect my payment have on the balance. This month it seems to have had a significantly larger effect on the balance so very odd but a great time for everything to look more positive! I am looking forward to trying to make sense of it in a few month when I get my annual statement.

RosaBernicia

Surely you can't be forced into a timescale that would leave you and your children homeless.  I hope you can review advice with another solicitor once they open - don't most offer a free half hour, that should be enough to outline your situation and get their initial thoughts?

Fortune_Smiles

I thank RosaB has a point.  I thought this site had some useful information https://www.familylawgroup.co.uk/site/blog/flg-news/who-gets-the-house-in-a-divorce-with-children.  Maybe there are other options to consider.

Fortune x

enthusiasticsaver

Budgeting takes time to  get to grips with.  Once the car is  sorted with new brake pads or whatever do not  make the mistake of not saving car maintenance money for a while under the mistaken impression you do not think you will need to pay for anything for the rest of the year.  Cars can and do go wrong usually at the most inconvenient time and your biggest issue now is you have no emergency fund or car maintenance savings pot.  The house deposit savings is a medium to long term goal but the budgeting, paying off debt and overdraft and saving for emergencies should be a short term goal.  

Hopefully the mortgage advisor will give you good advice on Tuesday. 

Tiredbutdetermined

I think it all just feels a bit like I have too many balls in the air and I have no idea how to juggle! 

I am lucky that all this is pretty temporary and I think everything will have a solution.

My plan for Sunday and Monday is uni work so I don’t have that hanging over me.
Tuesday morning I have the mortgage advisor and then on the afternoon I will craft my response to my solicitor outlining my position and see if she is going to support us having the time to fight for the house. If not, I will take some recommendations and find a solicitor who will fight for and support us.

Then back to school on Wednesday, which I think I am sort of organised for but the end of last term feels like an eternity ago!

Brie

Likely it's just me but I always wonder about having an emergency fund when one is in debt.  Surely all the money should be thrown at the debt to get rid of interest and then allow the savings to mount up.  

I don't have anything that I would call an emergency fund.  What I do have is credit.  If there is an emergency I will use my credit and then ensure I have a way to pay that back to zero. 

Likely that I have this attitude as I have a flexi mortgage so the more money I have against that the less interest I pay each month.  It is absolutely pointless for me to have a separate account with a nest egg of any sort while I'm being charged interest for the mortgage.

RosaBernicia

Brie said:

Likely it's just me but I always wonder about having an emergency fund when one is in debt.  Surely all the money should be thrown at the debt to get rid of interest and then allow the savings to mount up.  

I don't have anything that I would call an emergency fund.  What I do have is credit.  If there is an emergency I will use my credit and then ensure I have a way to pay that back to zero. 

Likely that I have this attitude as I have a flexi mortgage so the more money I have against that the less interest I pay each month.  It is absolutely pointless for me to have a separate account with a nest egg of any sort while I'm being charged interest for the mortgage.

I feel similar as I always ensure I have a 0% credit card available.  But I think it comes from the need to build the habit of budgeting, and also situations where people have no access to low interest credit any more. 

Tiredbutdetermined

@Brie I totally agree. I could spend 3/4months saving a £500 emergency fund but whilst I do that my credit card would be back to minimum payments so wouldn’t be gone until 5/6months time. If I put the credit card first then it is gone in hopefully 2months time and I have one less debt in my name. If anything comes up as an emergency in that time I could either pay it from what would be debt repayment or put it on the credit card if need be depending on what the emergency is.
My next target after the credit card would either be deposit savings or one of my loans depending on the mortgage advisors suggestions. The loan is £5643 or a settlement figure of £4724 so I guess I would be building savings either way that could act as an emergency fund.

I feel as though I am in a race against time to be mortgage ready. If time weren’t an issue then I could take quite a different approach.