£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Hi TOPM I just wanted to pop in and add my support. I have been where you are, working full time with young children and feeling swamped. When I felt like this I used to take a deep breath and lift my head above the water and try and look practically at everything I "needed "to do.

Often the things we think we "need" to do aren't actually that essential. They are things that we put pressure on ourselves to do, to be that perfect Mother we think we should be. I would suggest looking critically at everything you do and start prioritising the things that are actually essential.

Give yourself a break - no one will ring Social Services if your kid's PE kit is a bit crumpled and the kids won't be malnourished if you feed them fish fingers now and again. You could also give your clients a chocolate hobnob rather than feeling like you need to make homemade biscuits, I doubt anyone would complain : )

With regard to your debt would it help to think about it in 3 parts ?

There is the £20k debt to your parent. They don't seem desperate for it back and so I would just put this to one side and forget about it for now. You can always come back to it if they decide they need it back.

You also have the £21k loan with a high interest rate. If your remortgage comes off, then that will be addressed. If not, you probably need to think of another way of reducing the interest rate - maybe moving it to a cheaper loan or credit card and then, because this will have the higher interest rate focus on paying this off first.

This would then leave you with £16k debt on the credit cards which you can focus on, if the remortgage comes off or just make minimum payments if it doesn't (see above) and focus on the more expensive loan

It might feel more manageable if you can think about it in smaller chunks, rather than the big total figure.

It might also help you feel back in control if you can get back on top of your food budget in the run up to Christmas. You could allow yourself a little extra in the budget to start buying food for Christmas, to spread it across a few weeks. This would also help from a time point of view too - the week before Christmas is manic enough normally.

And finally, every penny you spend on Christmas needs to be a very conscious choice, as essentially everything that you spend will be more money that you are borrowing. I am not suggesting you have a miserable Christmas, but try and have a thoughtful and smart Christmas that costs less. I am confident that you can spend far less than £1000.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend and just be kind to yourself.

So pleased for you that your mortgage has come through Bet you feel as though a weight has been lifted.

Try and relax and enjoy the weekend, you can look at all the brilliant ideas given and think about which will work for you on Monday! XX

Excellent news that your mortgage offer has come through. I hope you're having a thoroughly relaxing weekend.