Has anyone moved on a shoestring budget?

[belle40]

...and how did you manage it?

I am in a bit of a tricky situation. We (me and one child) have lived in our current house for nearly 7 years. I have a big mortgage but not unmanageable.

While we have been very lucky with location, despite careful decluttering and being quite tidy we have struggled for space for a couple of years and have now reached a bit of a crunch point as I am losing my office space (University) and we will be hotdesking from the next academic year. We have no space to extend and I currently work in the kitchen / corner of our small living room when at home (upto 2 days a week).

I have delayed a house move for a number of reasons (we live in a good location, child at local primary school) but we are now really struggling.

I have a big credit card debt (house repairs, had to replace our old car) but credit score is good.

I have had some local interest in our house (cash buyers, we live in a slightly niche area).

A few houses have come onto the market in a village close to us at around 20k more than we would likely sell for but I don't have money for stamp duty so would have to borrow enough to manage costs of moving.

I wondered if anyone had moved house successfully in a similar situation?

I have a good job and will apply for promotion in the next year but initially this would be about 1.5k (before tax) a year.

Thanks for reading if you have got this far!!

There's not much you can do but add all costs to the mortgage, if allowed and don't pay for removal men, rent a van. That's what we've always done.

How much would the extra mortgage cost you per month and is it possible that a re-mortgage might result in lower costs on the original manageable loan? Also if you can project how your earnings might grow over the next 5 years, that may give you some comfort.

Years ago DH rented a large van and we did it all ourselves, packing up and he got a couple of friends to help him. Life larger stuff into the van. He had to make 3 trips but it was far cheaper than the removals company.

Thanks. Yes, I see your point but we have been a little pushed by the issue at my workplace. We have to clear our offices of all material which is a big problem as I have no permanent workspace at home. I have gone over this a number of times but we are really struggling now and I'm not sure we can make it through another year here. It is a bit frustrating when in terms of mortgage increase the sums are really minimal over the remaining term but a bit disconcerting when there is no flex. As a single income household I am also conscious that I need to be careful in terms of outgoings but our pay rises are pretty rubbish and overall I'm not sure if things will be hugely better in 12 months. Although in this time the debt will be halved but I think we won't see a notable increase in the value of our house in this time as I think we are pretty much at the max without ripping out bathrooms etc. which I am not going to do now.