to be fed up of always feeling poor even though my husband earns above the national average?

[alwayspoor]

I am a SAHM, live in east anglia. HOuse prices are massive, we have a house up north that we can't sell (need to be near London for DHs job) and a mortgage. We've got 3 dc's. Struggling to by decent food on top of all the bills.

alwayspoor

Is there any way you could take a hit on the house up north??

I ask as dh and I did just that during the summer....we really needed to sell too...ours had been on the market - on and off - for 2 years so we did it up, and took a £20k hit on asking price from a no chain cash buyer. Sold in 3 days!!

Maybe you could sit down and figure out how much you could drop the price by? Or do an open day and have a fixed price (several people I know have done this and sold after struggling)

You dont say how much its on for...is it near a SD threshold??? Could that be whats holding it back?

Sorry to say this but if a house is priced correctly (i.e. for the area and market) it will sell.

Best of luck x

We have it on for offers over £130K, we need at least £132 to cover mortgage. We bought it for £160 I would sell it for a lot less if we could just to get rid. I think its a house that you either love or hate, most people seem to love it except buyers

People probably do love it but the banks just aren't loaning at the moment, well not without huge deposits.

Whereas rentals, especially in certain areas, seem to be snapped up.

You could always post it's selling details on here and let the house porn fetishists tell you what's wrong with it :o

I think it is a buyers market as well, if you have the money you can be really picky.

Ok - bearing in mind its cheaper to borrow money (i.e. loans) than it has been for years and years, how about accepting less to get it off your hands and taking out a small loan (£5-10k) to cover repaying the mortgage?

I know its not ideal, but it could get you out of this fix. A small loan is better than your current situation, surely? And in 2-5 years you will have paid it off.

We didnt want to rent our house out for the reasons you have stated upthread.....in fact I went to view a house a few weeks ago and the vendors had had to spend thousands of £££'s to put right the damage caused by their tennant...new kitchen, new carpets, complete redecoration.....awful. Put me off buying it as a) what other damage did this tennant from hell cause that isnt obvious? and b) they added to cost of the repairs on to the asking price!!!!

Alwayspoor, I have only skim read this thread but the answers to why you are struggling are all there - in retrospect it wasn't a wise decision to leave your house empty for 2 years, you should have rented in to someone in knowledge that the house was also up for sale at the same time, you could have even transferred the house into your sole name and taken the profit under your tax return to pay minimal tax, but hindsight is a great thing. You would also be in a far better financial situation if you worked - I've had to give up a career by going part time, I've worked around hubby's crap hours, I even did childminding for 3 years, I still think you should consider this and not see childcare as any barrier. You could look into reducing your costs in you new home, if you have 2 cars, well sell one and use public transport, look into moving to a new rented house if the current one is too expensive.

I think thats true always Our buyer got a bloody good deal, but we got no chain cash sale after no interest for months!

Its been empty for 2 months not 2 years.

becar Thanks for the suggestion, I will think on it. My head is spinning at the moment, rent, loans, work, money etc etc - going round and round.

One thing this thread has highlighted, is how expensive things are, the standard of living the 'national average wage' gives in the South East isn't in anyway comfortable. People over the national average in London are just getting by, with no or very little spare money, you really do need to be rather above the national average to have regular spare money and a good buffer. People don't think feeling 'poor' should be the average situation. The average situation should be being ok, not rich, but confortable, below it being increasingly difficult and above it being rich, so when you are struggling, realising that this is what is 'normal' for most people is a bit of a shocker.

That earning the average wage leaves you in a situation where you are just about holding on can't be right. How can the average situation be survival and nothing else? I honestly think it would only take a tiny rise in interest rates to completely break huge numbers of families, numbers on this thread show it.

OP - it seems like you and your DH have got a good plan, 1 more month then renting makes sense. You can always reassess the sales market in 6 - 12 months time.

(Marianne - please get insurance, your making me nervous)

Confused as to what the average wage actually is - various opinions posted ranging from £23,000 to £28,000 and is that the mean, median or mode?

I suspect the differences in opinion might be based on what is average for a particular locality because even £23,000 is a very good wage indeed for here (West Cornwall).

And as for the poor person who has to pay £1100 a month in rent! That's horrendous.

Ooups, did say I only skim read. Have you applied for your exemption from council tax, it lasts I think 6 months if you keep the property empty of furnishings?

How about looking for money saving tips on moneysavingexpert.com?

I really do sympathise - hubby is a civil servant, we thought his job was pretty secure until David Cameron arrived, he is "frontline" law enforcement, yet the department which was already understaffed is taking a 25% reduction in staffing, staff told no leave at all in the months around the Olympics, not even one day, then told even more sackings will follow! This is how important Cameron thinks law and order is. Staff are relocating anywhere just to be able to keep their jobs with lousy pay and threats to their pensions, we relocated ourselves.

No it really doesn't pay to be a working family sometimes, those who do minimum hours or none at all with the reward of tax credits and housing benefit, whereas those not claiming any benefits are struggling.

Yep council tax exempt for 6 months. Big worry when thats up.

Pendeen - that's about normal, I paid more than that 2 years ago for a 2 bed flat in zone 3 in South East London. London pays more, but costs more. This is why most people I know had to move out of London when they wanted a house rather than a flat...

Yep, here on the South Coast rent for a 3 bed family home would be a min of around 1100 in a semi decent catchment.

Marianne it is all very well saying you don't need insurance as you don't care about stuff but if your place as ravaged by fire insurance would provide your family with somewhere safe to live, replacement possessions etc. You would need to replace what your child needs, not just you.

always I can imagine! You muct be so fed up

Perhaps an appt with an IFA would help/give you some ideas/advice??

Gross mean household income last year in the UK was just over £36k.

Always, put a lamp in the window on a timer for a few hours each night, we did that when my mums was empty to deter squatters.

Good idea cheesey, will do when DH goes up again (thats another financial drain - petrol £100 to get there)

Bec yes that is a excellent suggestion, will arrange that asap, prehaps FA can make things a bit clearer.

Well, we certainly found it helpful and they can also usually get you much cheaper deals on home and contents ins stuff like that

Good luck

Marianne. You may be right in not having sufficient possessions to warrant content insurance in the case of burglary. I know a family in Hampstead Heath who were broken into and the burglars took nothing, because they had nothing. (They inherited the house on Windmill Hill or something like that, but they had nothing).

On the likelihood of you house burning down, however... I seem to know an inordinate number of people who have had their houses burnt down. Most of them were related/known to dh, but one was my brother with 2 small childr They are all ok now but at the time it was absolutely (no adjective could do) horrific.

1. Chimney fire: The main beam (or joist) went red hot and spread through the house, without being noticed. Six fire engines and (this is the mark of a real fire) a catering van for the fire officers. House owner had a swimming pool and they used that to douse. It took three years to restore the house/roof etc.

1. Chimney fire. Very sadly the house was burnt to the ground with the two elderly inhabitants. They were abolutely wonderful people who had extended their kindness to me and other people that I know. The only comfort in this case was that they would have died through smoke inhalation, rather than burnt. That is not much comfort at all, I know.

1. At the risk of outing myself, the 'news bunny' from Sky TV told me that they had a big meeting at Sky TV to tell all of the staff that they were all being made redundant. He thought that that was the worst day of his life, got drunk, went home, and found that his house had burnt down. (that one was a gas leak)

4, Brother's house, with 2 v young children. The house was so badly burnt that the forensic people couldn't even establish the cause. It was either the immersion heater or the boiler. I visited the house and it was a bombshell. God only knows the cost of their weeks in ITU, and I hope that God does know of our gratitude to ITU.

My convoluted message to Marianne is not to advise getting contents insurance, but do not think that stuff like fires will not happen to you.

(meant that brother's family are all ok now; this was 4 years ago)