Sparky0207

Im so stupidly worried about money. Me and OH bought our own house together and because we were young, we struggled like mad. Then I made the stupid decision to get a credit card to help pay some bills, which never seemed to get paid off, so I thought id get a loan to sort it all out. Im now stuck with a 5 grand loan and 2 grand on a credit card. Ive just found out that OH has a credit card with 5 grand on it too and we just wont be able to pay it back before little one comes along
I cant believe he hid it from me and now all we're doing is arguing about it.

We worked really hard to get our house and ive just had to take a lower paid job due to getting made redundant the month i found out i was pregnant so we are struggling like mad as it is. How on earth will we manage when i go on maternity leave? Ive got images of us getting our house repossessed and im so scared. I cant see a light at the end of the tunnel and feel like im letting me LO down before shes even born

Vickie

Money is always a concern isn't it? My mom has always told me though that when the LO comes along you find a way to make it work

Whisper

aww hun i feel for you, i was/am in a similar situation. There are plenty of options the best thing i would advise is to try and get a CC with 0% for a year or 9months that will help, or you could try and remortgage adding the debt to the mortgage and fingers crossed it shouldnt make your repayments increase too much.
I don't think many people having their first child will ever be without debt, personally i have a mortgage and a £10k loan plus about £3k on the CC's but we are just managing to repay it back its going to take a few years.
Maybe you could speak to a financial advisor or the CAB?

I hope it works out, and try not to stress things will always work themselves out in the end.

GemGems

Hi there. I'm so sorry you're getting stressed over money. I was in a similar situation but have now managed to sort it. Me and OH dont own our home, we rent privately. My total debts are around the £15k mark. I'm on an IVA programme which basically lets me pay off £200 a month (or whatever you can afford) to my debtors. This goes on for 5 years. After the 5 years, the rest of the debt is written off. Maybe this is a good option for you? I dont know where you'd stand with the fact you own your home though.
Have a look on the internet. There are loads of companies that could help you. If i didn't chose the IVA i would have to go bankrupt.

Good luck. xxx

Alchemist

Have you thought about drawing up a budget together? I am amazed at how many of my friends havent done this. Its important to understand where your money goes and after doing this it becomes easier to tackle the debt reduction (which is slow but it is possible so dont lose sight of the end goal).

Also, with the baby, I know its not great (and no I am not about to say sell it ha ha) but have you considered loaning things and getting 2nd hand or hand me downs. I mean the only one who will know is you and the baby wont care!!!!

I know its a tough one, but my thoughts are , so we really need satelite? no
home internet? no
eating out? no
There are so many ways to cut bills but you both have to be mature enough to negotiate and stick with the plan....

good luck honey!!!

melbo

were in the same kind of situation, my hubby took out a 15k loan before he met me and now were still paying it off, its taking 300 quid a month to do it, and thats money better spent elsewhere, but there is nothing we can do about it except pay it, and we will be paying through our noses for years to come. Its a shit situation to be in babe, I know how you feel xxxx

Sparky0207

Thank you everyone. Ive managed to get a loan (it is quite high interest but will consolidate it when we remortgage next year) which should pay off some of our debts so our outgoings are reduced, but ive just sat down and did a budget and our outgoings are still over £1000 a month and i just dont know how we will cope when LO is here.
Half my anger is directed at OHs parents as we borrowed some money off them when we were struggling (just under 2k) and they said that we could pay them back £200 a month, which we have been doing. Now they have booked a holiday and need to pay it by the end of May and so are demanding that we pay them the rest off (£1400) before they go in May - there is no way we can do it. They are having a go at OH and he is having a go at me and theres nothing we can do to solve it. What pisses me off even more is that OHs brothers girlfriend is pregnant and all they ever seem to do is buy things for them and they even bought themselves a new car, they know how much we are struggling so surely if they can afford to spend all this extra money on everything else, they shouldnt be in such a rush for us to pay them back so they can pay off their holiday

I really dont know what to do and its stressing me out more than i can believe

xxxxx

toriaaaaTRASH

I just found out my OH has a loan of some kind.. It bothered me at first but whatever, everyone seems to have problems.

Hope you guys can sort it to a degree that isn't so worrying for you.

GuernseyGirl

Is your mortgage one that you can change to 'interest only' for the time you are on maternity leave? We manage to do that when DD was born - we'd bought our first house 5 months before she was born and a month after my husband lost his job!!! With the interest rates at the moment you might only save £100-£200 a month but every bit helps.

did you look at the 0% balance transfer interest rate credit cards - these would give you up to a year with just the balance to pay and no interest - well worth doing if your credit rating is good.

I'm sure you will do fine - don't worry about what other people have (a lesson I have had to learn) just buy the essentials! Car boot sales & NCT second hand sales have been a life saver for us

we're just about to face this all again when second baby arrives!!

Sparky0207

Ive just changed our mortgage to interest only but we only save £52 a month! I had a chat with a friend of the family who is an independent financial advisor and she was greta - and best of all, she didnt charge for the few hours she spent giving advice!

Ive spoken to the people I owe money to and have agreed to pay back small amounts, its only a short term fix but it all helps for now.

The only trouble were having now is OH parents, they are demanding that we pay them back £1400 before the end of April, we only take home £1600 a month between us so how on earth can we do it. Theyve told OH that if they have to cancel their holiday then they expect us to pay the charges for that too.

Family and friends have been great and we have got some quality second hand stuff (and lots off ebay!) so we're getting there. It just seems ironic how i sorted it so easily with the people i was worried about (banks etc) but the people i thought would be understanding are proving to be a nightmare!

Thanks for all your advice girls

xxx