How do people do it? Can’t afford mortgage

[MonsterTrunk]

Hello,

We are a family of three - DH, myself and our 3 year old.

So our current income is just under £50k with DH working full time and me part time. Our current mortgage Rate runs out this year and it was £900 a month and current rates are around £1300 a month. With energy rates and petrol and food and savings as we need a new roof we’re okay at the moment but that loss of £400 is going to make things very tight. Very very. As I I don’t know if we will be able to afford it.
The answer would be me working full time but then we have to pay for childcare - we have no family to help so I’d have to pay for before/after school club and holiday care, so the extra money would possibly be gone.

What do people do? The mortgage rates are a killer. We’re going to go through everything and tighten where we can and will hopefully be okay, but this situation is just awful. I didn’t realise the jump would be so high. We’ve been very lucky with our last mortgage and I realise that now.

Of course it’s less now, that’s what it was. But we did have to remortgage and take some money out for house repairs pre-child.

I need to sit down and calculate everything alongside all the advice I’ve been given here. I’ll talk to CAB too.

increase the length of your mortgage this time to decrease your payments - then next time you renew when your dd is older - decrease the term. Change to an interest only mortgage for a short period. Swapping back when your expenses are lower and you can pay more on the mortgage

Op not much help but hope you’ve gotten something out of this thread, I would agree with trying to sell some bits, shave more off outgoings but definitely do not sell your house or move- the cost of moving in terms of what you have to spend will make sure any savings from moving will be lost

Increase you mortgage term or go interest only for a while. It's a shit situation to be un OP.

@MonsterTrunk ahhh. So you haven't really reduced the capital portion of the mortgage when you were earning more. There is your problem. Other people cope by not adding more to their secured debt. Sorry.

So it's boring but there are only two ways out of this - earn more or spend less. go through your budget with a fine tooth comb and cut out any fat. As you have learnt cheap credit does not last forever.

They may even back date the child benefit. We weren't getting it for a couple of years because of a house move (we didn't respond to a letter) and when we enquired about it they back dated it.

How many years is your mortgage Op, and have you approached your home insurer about partial funding for the roof?

You would earn more as a Teaching assistant where you don't need extra childcare costs, or if DH can support some childcare you could work the after school clubs too.

Some insight as to what you and dh do would be helpful. As if your combined salary is £50k then he isn't earning mega bucks either. I doubt it would be outing.

Going to give you a few pointers but based on what my DM did as single parent:-

• went to night school to get A levels
• Went to teacher training college for a year
• was mostly veggie with occasional meat for a few years
• let rooms in her house to pay mortgage, at one point she let the top part of the house bar bathroom and 2 bedrooms as a self contained flat-let (kitchen, large and living/bedroom to a young woman)
• took in international foreign students
• taught drama and ran Saturday morning drama clubs at spare rooms in a theatre and at a local school
• did puppet shows at kids parties
• did private tutoring at home
• holidays in England at friends houses or their holiday homes
• second hand clothes and toys

There are a few free courses, a friend is currently doing one to be an online English teacher, she’s done TEFL and taught abroad.

If you have skills and space eg fitness, cooking, crafting, you can do zooms of these or do eg in local room at pub, friend does crochet classes there. Or hire a room in a school or church hall to teach classes. Personal trainer sessions in park/tennis courts.

Lots of people retrain by going to Uni. they take student loans to survive on whilst they do a degree and then hopefully move into a higher paying job. It's not exactly uncommon for people to do this?

I think you need to look at the positives firstly you are buying your property not renting so you have many more advantages as long as the mortgage is paid.Contact the mortgage provider and discuss the best way forward for now.Your child will soon be in school so costs fall.Look carefully at your outgoings can you cut the food bill for example.Do you have a food share close by.This is on the date food which otherwise goes to landfill.We have amazing things which would really help the budget and stop landfill.Every little saving is a bonus.You are doing well,life will get better try and find a job which suits you and build your career.Good luck.

Except plenty of people with degrees end up doing lower paid jobs anyway.

I do this, a ‘relief’ post in the social care sector, I can choose what shifts I work and there’s always evening/weekend work going. It’s not a great hourly rate but allows me to add a few hundred onto my main wage and there’s always the option to do more/less. (If you do similar with the nhs you will get enhanced rates for antisocial hours work too). Good luck, it’s tough at the moment😞xx

My first thought was getting a second job, working Friday evenings in a bar or restaurant would give you a couple of hundred pound per month.

See if you can extend your mortgage term.

Switch some of your mortgage to interest only and switch back when your DC are older.

Go onto Entiltedto just in case you are eligible for any benefits and play around with putting in working more hours and paying more childcare to see if you would be better off working full time.

It’s not ok that some people are paid such low wages that they can’t get by.

But the situation is that OP has a large mortgage to pay. So earning more is a very good way to address that. More likely than lobbying for an increase to minimum wage.

OP, you don’t have to answer me but check if you’re earning over the personal allowance for tax of £12,570 per year. If not, and you’ve married your partner, you can transfer some of your allowance to him, so he pays less tax, therefore more take home pay. It’s not a big help, but it’s something you can benefit from quickly.

Also, do either of you wear a uniform for work? You can get a higher tax allowance as well for ‘laundry costs’.

We had to move out of our comfort zone years ago to be able to afford the house we are in now.

Are you using the tax free childcare for ? Alongside the 30 hours. It’s £2000 year which is £168 a month for us. It’s available to everyone xx

https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare

Similar to us. Household of 4, with 11 & 9 year old. Combined salary is 55k. Mortgage is £1360 a month. Roof is leaking, car need service, kids do extremely expensive sport ( 8k year) and we live in London. No chance of working more as getting to work already takes best part of 2-3 hours round trip. House is in semi- crappy area and tiny 2 bed mid terrace ( saved deposit for 10 years !!!). Heating is on as normal. We don't do holidays 😞 we don't eat out and don't buy crap from fast fashion or plastic rubish toys that end up in bin. We have netflix and prime. We don't do gym but I take kids running out to park 3 times a week after school for stamina. They do swimming weekly too. Parents live abroad = no free childcare. But somehow we manage & we don't really count pennies. Never been on benefits. But we do get child benefit. We don't have financial help from anyone.
I always think that we are fortunate to be able to own a home even if its not as big or in nicer area as I would have wanted to. But our children are happy. They don't miss out on anything. We will struggle when it will be time to upsize but that's a headache for another day!
You'll be fine 😊

My SIL who’s in the arts which is badly paid generally (and with a RG uni degree) has had to go into management in her area and doubled her salary. Her own SIL has done similar, got a directorship post for a charity after being on a lower paid but good arts job at a local museum where they live.
of course both these jobs require hard work and sometimes travel.

@Narcises2012 were on earth are you living in London that getting to work involves a 2-3 hour trip? 🤔 I mean you may as well not live in London and get a cheaper house.

Sorry this sounded a bit confusing. Husband is electrician ( works for company rather than for him self) We're SE London he travels up north London, South West, rarly east or south east. . Today it took him over 2 hours to get to SW London from home ( leaving just before 7am). He finishes work at 5pm but won't be home before 7pm. I am more fortunate and work locally (architectural technician) and only school hours, only downside I earn very little but it covers children's clubs.

House is on cheaper end for London. Can't get any cheaper. It was complete wreck. Bought in 2021 for 300k. We don't want to move and we're not struggling, but then I do understand when people in similar financial situations are, because everyone's circumstances are different.
I do hope all will be well OP. Stay positive! ❤️🙏️

Pretty sure they won't be entitled.

will the wrap around and holiday club really eat up all the extra income? You’ll have AL both of you for some holidays so you’re not going to need all of it for paid childcare. We didn’t go on holiday every year when kids in childcare so we each used our 30 days AL to have mainly separate leave.

There has been a lot of good advice on this thread, and I just want to post to say well done for looking into how you can improve your circumstances. Please don't consider your salary as a reflection of your worth or your ability. Also, everyone who is financially savvy now had to start somewhere, so don't beat yourself up. I hope your circumstances improve soon.