Overspending please help

Bloody hell, it takes me well over an hour just to do the kitchen (worktops, sinks, cupboards, hob, outside of oven, floor, window sills, windows). And that's on a good day, when my arthritis isn't too bad!

You could advertise the holiday home amongst people you know and even charging mates rates cover the overheads. Your DS is plenty old enough to help with cleaning. If you feel the cleaner is hugely beneficial to your mental health I might not cancel completely but cut down to once a month. Re your food bill, Lidl and Aldi are cheaper even than Tesco. Have you anything you can sell on Vinted? The general living costs can probably be cut easily if they include stuff like buying coffee and lunches regularly. It's very easy to get used to living up to your income but you've got quite a few 'luxuries' you can trim.

If you sold it and invested the money, plus dribbled that capital yearly into a S+S ISA you'd probably get a better return.
Don't sell it now for a loss unless you absolutely need the money. See if you can at least get it to pay for itself untill the timing is better to sell it.
Do your friends pay to use it? They should

Those are non essential luxuries. Use the clothes you already have. No (or v few) restaurants, no decorating at the moment, holidays can't be afforded. Many people don't do any of those 4 things because they can't afford to. Or only very, very occasionally.

Clearly being offset by your financial stress
How often do you use the holiday home, do you rent it out,sounds like a money pit I imagine travelling is fairly expensive.

£280 per month on a cleaner is high. How often does she come, could she come bi weekly to halve that cost?

Food wise you need to be strict. Batch cook, and repeat meals plans with small variations weekly. Prepare lunches at home / packed lunches. Think about where you can save money e.g meal kits, jars of sauce, fancy yogurts etc all add up. Make meals from scratch with lots of veg and beans and pulses for bulk. Cut out the snacks. Have fruit and something homemade flapjack. Make homemade ice lollies. If it's only 2 of you what on earth are you buying that adds up to £500. I can feed a family of 4 (two hungry teens) on that.

When the phone contracts end buy a phone for you and your daughter and get two SIM only deals, I own my phone and pay £10 a month for the sim. I'd never go back to a contract phone.

That all sounds good.
You might try asking your therapist to give you a concessionary rate for a while.
Your son can help with the cleaning.
Good luck.

Deffo cleaner, and rent the holiday home. Nhs waiting list but obvs don't stop until get your apt. And once your contracts have ended, get a sim only deal - it costs me a tenner a month rolling contract and I have unlimited free call&texts and quite a chunk of data. You do not need the latest phone on expensive contracts, you need a phone that does its job. Selling older phones on ebay can bring a bit back too.

Other than that.. just general cut backs on meals out etc. Take picnics, go for walks and swap a couple of cheap days for when you go out, but still go out too then life won't be too dull.

Good luck for the future OP, sorry about the job.

When your phone contract ends, get sim only. I pay £7 a month with Lebara

Cleaner needs to go - unnecessary

Definitely ditch the cleaner and your DS can earn pocket money/phone contract by doing help with cleaning.
And no more Waitrose - Lidl and Aldi. Make a meal plan for the week making sure nothing food will be wasted, and putting some budget meals in there.
obviously the holiday home is a big issue here but seems you’re trying to address that.

I would phone the phone contract people. I wonder if there's a way to extend the contact so you pay it over a longer period. Explain that you are in debt and struggling to pay.

I'm sorry that you're going through the redundancy process :( I went through the same last year and it sucks, there's no denying it and it takes a toll on your mental health.

But on the plus side you do have a lot of room to maneuver in your budget.

You'll be ok, in a couple of years when you're settled in a new job this will be just a little blip

How do you travel to work, could you take a cheaper option eg bike to a nearer train station to cut cost? Work from home more?

Do you actually use the holiday home? Sounds like you can't afford flight etc. If not, can you just cut utilities off?!

I would cut the cleaner and reduce the food bill until the loan is paid off

OP, don’t do this, unless you’re absolutely desperate. Pet medical bills can be huge and easily wipe out any savings.

My phone contract is £17 per month and I never get close to using all my data - WHY are you shelling out so much?

Having a holiday home is a massive luxury. You lost my sympathy with that.

You can’t get out of phone contracts till he they’ve finished.

You don’t need to go to restaurants, you don’t need to redecorate.
You probably don’t need clothes , although a growing kid does.
If you’re really serious you don’t NEED holidays.