Job under threat... Is it over reacting to sell up and move to cheaper house?

[Yfront]

I'm just musing really but would be grateful for anyone thoughts or experiences!

In brief, we have equity in our house of around £275k. We have savings of around £100k. Our current house is a Victorian semi in a smart part of town. Mortgage is £2200pcm,
council tax £350,
gas and electricity £770 pcm

On top of that we have the usual tv, phones etc, plus 3 children doing ballet and scouts etc. Lots of outlays to maintain our current standard of living. We are really lucky in that the past 10 years we've not had to worry about paying bills etc.

DH is the bigger earner, but his job is looking shaky to say the least. There are zero bonuses this year, and they make up around 50% of his income. His team is under threat and he is worried about the future of the company itself.

I earn £2100 a month so no way can I cover outgoings with my salary.

My question is whether we should be seriously looking at selling up and trying to buy a cheaper house. There are some available in our town between £3-400k which we could get either outright or with a small mortgage. The idea of moving feels massively stressful but should we working towards that? Or am I catastrophising?

What if his job turns out to be ok and we've moved... What if the company goes bust and he's jobless with no redundancy pay and we struggle to sell our house...

Any thoughts? I'm trying to be savvy but not over react.

Redundancies etc went round DH work so I understand it’s stressful.

I think you’re in a good position though. You bring in a reasonable amount, and you have a large amount in savings that would cover your living expenses for at least a year.

It’s unlikely DH would be unemployed earning absolutely zero for more than a few months, as he could get a min wage job and still job hunt. And presumably if he was unemployed you could choose to drop or reduce the childcare.

Moving house is so expensive and stressful, I wouldn’t do it without a good reason, and I don’t think the threat of redundancy is a good enough one. You may want to move to another area anyway if he does secure a new highly paying job in a different location.

For me the obscene amount of money you spend on energy and are still cold would be my driving factor regardless of H job. You have a decent chunk of savings so can weather a storm if the worst happen but blimey £800 a month is a hell of a lot of cash.