If you own your house

[rainbowbaby2]

If you owned your house outright but struggled with daily cash flow, what would you do?

I’m asking for advice, not to be belittled and told it’s easy to budget because I’m an adult. If I found it easy, I wouldn’t be on here asking for help?

For some, and for all sorts of reasons it IS difficult. But it can be delegated. There’s no point in her getting a job and then paying for childcare - so unless the husband can mind the kids that’s a non starter.

UC will help cover some of this and OP you need to get right into what you’re entitled to. There’s a website called “entitled to” so run it through there for benefits

Some of the replies here seem quite harsh - ouch. Probably these are things you need to hear? I expect, right now, they may he be landing heavily. I imagine you are perhaps feeling somewhat ‘frozen’, embarrassed and lost. Perhaps if you start to make some steps, any to change direction it will help you and the momentum will begin.

DH will no doubt need support to change direction too, stay positive and make a plan and start working towards it. One step will lead to another. Keep trying for job opportunities however small. All the best.

Having no mortgagevat your age is such an advantage and unless that was due to some windfall like a lottery win shows your probably not as bad with money as you think.
Since you both seem to enjoy working for yourselves could you find ca business to buy and run it together. Your dh could do the lions share while you gradually do morexas the children get older or whatever dynamic works best. You could get a business loan.

Downsize / cheaper property?

He’s doing his best.
The failing business is through no fault of his own, it’s the town we’re in and lots of other reasons out of our control.
I get why you’d think ‘he’s not amazing at work’, but you’ve just read a small part of what’s going on in my life and not the whole picture.
My husband is a great man and does everything he can for our family. We’re just in a bit of a difficult situation currently, doesn’t mean it’s forever.

It’s not rude - it’s blunt but not rude

it seems to the the truth that you want to avoid because it’s so obvious that your question seems daft

OP are you going to even look at benefits?

OP you are young you can easily learn to be better with money. It’s not a skill that you can’t learn beyond a certain age Your posts sound quite defeatist which is why you are getting some of the blunter responses. Get yourself over to MSE, make a truthful list of all your expenses and income and the people on that site will help you. But you are going to have to face up to the truth of it.

People are so easy to attack on the internet though. I just want some helpful advice. Not to be made to cry lol.
Whether you think it’s rude or blunt. Both are a bit harsh. I’m just asking for advice - helpful advice at that. Not to be told the obvious.
You don’t know the whole picture.
Some comments have actually been super helpful. Others have just made me feel stupid and incompetent.

Of course I am

Well ditch this thread and do that. It’s doing you no good getting upset.

Yes, paying a regular wage rather than drawings is probably best. Wouldn't probably help tax wise too.

@rainbowbaby2 £4k goes out, but what comes in?

It’s different every month like I said but mainly we’re just scraping by

So how long have you been living like this?

Look at outgoings, see what I can reduce, get rid of subscriptions, swap credit cards to 0% interest, take in a lodger, 2nd job. Whatever it takes really

Open bank statements online.

Write down essentials monthly outgoings IE council tax, car costs etc.

Write down monthly variables IE food, fuel etc

Calculate annual costs IE birthdays, Christmas etc and divide by 12

See what your monthly running costs are.

See what your monthly income is.

Are you in the plus or the minus? What can you cut back? Shop around for car insurance, cancel netflix blah blah.

Check entitled to website.

Done.

Yes you’re probably right

Start with budget as others said.
look into free child care - then you at least know what you’re entitled to.
If you are not happy with children in childcare do they at least go to playgroups/school nursery? If so use this time to train up consider what you want to do in the future.
Husband to apply for jobs. Self employment might work again in the future.
Make a To Do list every morning to see what you will tackle each day.

About a year that we’ve bern struggling

OK but if you divide the yearly figure, by 12, you get the monthly amount. It wpuld help mento be able to advise.

It is hard closing a business and it is easy to fall into the sunk cost fallacy. But it does sound like it might be time to wind the business up.

Downsizing sounds an easy option but really isn’t and given solicitors, stamp duty and moving costs often releases a lot less than expected.

Once you have some proof of income in a new job you could take out a small mortgage to pay off the business and other debts.

But the priority has to be finding a steady income. This might mean looking at alternative options e.g are either of you good at driving and would consider a HGV/ bus/ heavy plant licenses?

I know you don’t want to work as you want to be there for you children but you also don’t want to work antisocial hours. As adults/ parents we sometimes need to do stuff that is not ideal. My local Sainsbury’s is looking for early morning (4-8am) online shoppers. Brutal but has a higher hourly rate and 3 shifts a weeks would start to add up and really help.

Well his next move is to look for full time work

Increase household income and decrease outgoings - go through all spending with a fine tooth comb, cancel subscriptions, don’t buy new phones on pricey contracts, meal plan and prep, pick up a weekend job, possibly downside if needed. Don’t have any more kids.