How to finally leave?

[Thisgirlcando]

I’ve wanted to leave for a while. We have good stages where everything seems perfect and we are happy but I can sense we are coming to the end of that again. I can’t keep doing this, I grew up in a very similar environment- Mum saying we would leave my stepdad and the arguments would stop but she never actually went through with it. I used to walk and get the housing paper in secret to try find us somewhere to move to in the hope of encouraging her.

Even during the good times I’ve been checking letting agent websites weekly for the last year and I’ve not seen anything suitable (has to be pet friendly and affordable by myself).

I just don’t know what to do now, I don’t have anything I can take with me in terms of furniture but I can manage over time to buy more.

What else can I do to help myself?

Just to add there are no kids involved and I’m not in any danger or anything like that we are just very different people.

Try OpenRent and Gumtree. Many private landlords are negotiable on pets - offer to pay an extra damage deposit. Ask every listing if the landlord will accept pets with extra deposit.

Phone lettings agents and tell them what you're looking for. A significant proportion of lettings never get advertised because they get leapt on before being advertised. Make sure you're on everyone's lists.

If you're in an over-priced area, can you move somewhere a bit cheaper? Can you increase your hours at work, get promoted, take overtime, etc?

Have you checked if you'd get a housing benefit top up?

I’m a teacher so can’t increase hours to get extra pay unfortunately!

I’ve looked at all areas that are commutable from work and there’s only been 2 houses, one looked beyond liveable it needed fixing up that much and the other I applied for but they accepted a different application first. That’s a good idea about contacting letting agents. I will stay behind at work tomorrow and make some phonecalls.

I had a look earlier for some not advertised as pet friendly but they were still out of my price range unfortunately.

I’ve not been looking at open rent, I hadn’t heard of it! There’s a pet friendly one that I can afford and in the perfect location.