First time taking the leap - can no longer afford my repayments - PLEASE HELP

RAS

Depends what you mean by "you can pay very little when this contract ends"?

Can you afford the mortgage, CT and bare essentials?

If not you need to get some work of some kind sorted out for the end of your contract.

If your wife worked previously, is she on mat leave, getting anything other than statutory pay? Is she going back to work?

Whatever happens, tot up now your annual income for the last four years and see what long term employment would give you the same new income.

It's one thing balancing an erratic income when there is another coming in regularly, quite different when you are the only thing between the roof over your head and the wolf at the door.

katsu

There's a recommended SOA format here which will get you some easier replies I think.

Paid bank account jumped out at me. £26 a month for what? Can you ditch it for a free account?

Areyou sure the buildings Insurance is only £20 for a whole year?

SparFuchs

Not sure if I'm allowed to mention it on here as I rarely see it suggested but You Need A Budget (YNAB) is the one thing that sorted out my self employed ups and downs and actually levelled them out. I'm surprised that I never see it mentioned as it was such a game changer for me after my whole adult life not budgeting properly.

zedonk

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867973#Comment_81867973

I second this. I was self-employed for the best part of 15 years and YNAB (or any envelope method) works really well with variable income, as long as you have enough coming in to cover your essentials.

However, I got YNAB when it was a one-off charge for the software. They've now moved to an online subscription model and from memory it's quite pricey. There are free or low cost alternatives out there - Buckets is one.

Bank accounts like Monzo also let you use the envelope method by sorting your money into pots. That works better for me as it's easier to know whether I'm sticking to my budget.