Credit Crunch. Passing you by, or has it landed on your doorstep?

It's difficult to say.

I'm earning more than I ever have and have less debt than I ever have had - in terms of credit cards, student loans finance etc.

However, we now have a mortgage and all the associated costs of being a home owner.

Plus I work for Lehman and whilst I'm currently employed and being paid this is not going to last much longer and I'm desperately job hunting.

But, on the face of it, we're doing ok. Yes, some bills have gone up but it's not horrific yet. I'm not counting any chickens though.

We're not really feeling it at the moment, either.

As you say, it costs more to fill the car up, and the shopping is a bit more expensive, but I got in the habit of stashing 1/3 of my savings every month, and haven't missed that chunk of money. I still seem to have roughly the same amount of disposable income at the moment.

Mind you, I was able to claim mileage at work until a few weeks ago, which probably helped me not notice the petrol increase as much.

H had a payrise earlier this year and he's diverted the extra straight into our mortgage, so we're overpaying it at the moment, hoping to pay it off a bit sooner than otherwise.

On a personal level, we're probably in the same boat as you. Business turnover is still increasing, although I think we're having to work harder for it. I'm doing much more PR than I used to.

We have overspent recently, but that's because we had a holiday, it was my Mum's birthday etc so we have to cut down our spending on frivilous stuff. I've also just started a year's contract so am getting paid for that for the first time in a long time.

Petrol in my car is more expensive - probably about £10 per tank at it's worst, but now about £7 or £8 depending where I fill up. I've started to shop for food much more carefully, so I haven't really noticed much difference in our food spending, but that's my behaviour rather than anything else, so it's hard to measure.

Again, like you Minx, not wishing to sound boastful at all, but this is my honest answer and, like you, I am interested in how others are getting on. Although my business is risky, H has a stable job in the public sector, so we're relatively secure, thank God.

? to those who are struggling.

Apart from the rise in fuel and food prices, not much, yet.

It might just be that we had to shave our outgoings as much as possible so we could financially survive having a baby though - we don't have much disposable income anyway and no social life to speak of.

So far it seems to be largely passing us by, though i'm well aware that we live in an offshore finance centre and though neither me or Mr Dooby work in finance if everything did go seriously horribly wrong here it would be difficult to avoid the fallout from it.

I think we're insulated over here to a certain extent but watching the news is certainly getting rather scary and depressing.

Maybe that's another aspect I hadn't taken into account actually? Several years back, most of our social group where young (mid-late twenties) couples. Now the majority are married with very small children. So it's not a constant stream of outings on Fri/Sat nights anymore. Even though we have yet to have children ourselves, I suppose we still feel the financial effects of not going out as much, as all our friends are now staying in... therefore we tend to too.

Is that twhat they call growing up? ?

It's circling us, but hasn't really bitten us too badly yet. Mr Layabout still has work lined up for the foreseeable future, but it's all a bit more precarious than usual. Bills, fuel, food has gone up of course but we're managing. I don't know how we'll do if things stay bad for years though. The job I've just spent 3 years training to do seems to be in big trouble - no one is booking onto courses, so too many people are scrabbling around after very little work which is a worry but again that's in the future.

Minx, I'm in a similar situation, largely because I've done really well in my job since starting here 4 years ago. We also made a conscious decision to pay off all our loans, don't have any credit cards, have plenty of equity in the house, and can afford the mortgage easily. Needless to say, I am counting my blessings!

I think at the moment, the people feeling it the worst are those in construction and finance, and those on lower incomes who are being hit by rising prices generally. Anyone coming to the end of a low-rate mortgage deal is also likely to feel it, as they will struggle to get a similar rate.

However, unless things improve dramatically in the money markets, it will affect more of us. If the banks can't lend to businesses, we will start to see redundancies as wage bills and suppliers go unpaid. This will obviously have a knock-on effect, as we start to see rises in unemployment, lower consumer spending and cutbacks in government spending (because there won't be as much tax coming in). It's difficult to say just how bad it's going to get at the moment, and until we know what the US are going to do with their bail-out plan, it's watch and wait time.

Credit what now ?

From what I've read, hitched probably isn't the demographic most feeling the pinch.

Students, pensioners, low income families (OK I know there are a few of those here), and those that spent crazily on credit and are now regretting it are the ones being hit.

Just because I don't know many who are doesn't mean that the problem isn't real. And remember, this is only just the start - winter fuel bills and the possibility of mass redundancies over the coming months are when things will start to hit harder.

We've been hit by the problems with the housing market. We had to move but we can't sell our house. We're now renting somewhere as well as paying the mortgage on the original house. We're looking at renting it out but I fear that rental prices will be too low to cover the costs of the mortgage now that house prices are dropping.

For me it's very difficult. A year ago my H was laid off when my 2nd baby was 1 week old..a very frightening time. I did ALL the things we're being advised to do now, the fine tooth comb on the outgoings, the meal planning etc. Then I got 4 foreign students in baby was 1 month old etc etc. Did all I could, got our outgoings down by £700 quid a month! So we've kept our heads above water and suddenly everything has shot up in price, but I have nowhere to go with budgeting.

I know that 50% of what I buy in Asda has gone up in price by 50%.

One of our loans finishes next month, but so does our fixed rate on our mortgage, and when we got our mortgage H was earning a fortune and I was on maternity leave, so my whole wage was taken into consideration - so now we can't just get another deal, so we're onto SUV.

nb, H then started his own business which is how we've kept our head above water, but it's not really making any more than subsistence yet.

BUT, I did all my fear a year ago, we did worst case scenario then and we came through, so we know that the worst is we rent our house out and rent somewhere cheaper / smaller. We already know we are prepared to give up everything, even our home and privacy, and we've come to terms with it, and we're a stronger unit for it

Sorry for the stream of consciousness..

Oh, I wasn't for one moment suggesting it wasn't real. Just pondering I suppose... have I just been 'lucky' to avoid it so far, will it hit me enivitably, or is it something we can try and avoid if we put certain measures in place?

Definitely agree with the winter fuel bills. I think the main reason I haven't seen a huge rise so far, is simply because it's not been on. When we do put the fire/central heating on, I think we're going to be stung quite heavily. Which is why I'm putting extra amounts away now I guess, while it's to hand.

I work in the defence field, and although my current job is safe-ish until June 2009, redundancies will be rife then I think.

Obviously no-one has a crystal ball, but as an intelligent guess, do you think there's an end in sight yet?

I think it depends on your circumstances really. Those in the construction or finance industries are the ones most feeling it at the moment. Also, if you're single or a couple and have job security, then I don't think it's going to hit you as hard as those who are on low incomes, those with children, etc.

I've definitely noticed the food bills going up, but we're a family of 4 now so it was inevitable, now the baby is weaned. ?

I've also noticed the hike in petrol costs but I use the car every day to take the kids somewhere or other, so we're naturally using more petrol anyway.

I think it really does depend on your personal circumstances. If we didn't have children and I was working full time back in my old job, and MrOs's job was secure, then I doubt we'd notice it much either.

Interested to read the replies to this as we were having the same discussion with some friends at the weekend. Only you know your financial situation and people who have been prudent in the past are less likely to be affected by it. Redundancies make a huge difference though.

I think the doom and gloom stories are making everybody feel uneasy, which just contributes to the problem.

D

Pure opinion / conjecture, but I'm in the "it'll get worse before it gets better" camp.

We've only really started to notice it personally from this month as our fixed rate came to an end on the mortgage so we've had to re-mortgage at a much higher rate. Obviously hindsight is a wonderful thing and we wished we'd fixed for 5 years instead of 3, but who was to know what rates wouldbe like that far in advance?

Although we've both had decent salary increases this year (Mr ET's due to a promotion) we have noticed that our money is stretching less, although we've cut down on spending rather than compromise our savings or "big spends" like holidays. I start a new job in a few weeks on a significantly higher salary, but we're ruining any benefit that could give us by moving to London so our accommodation costs will increase by 50% as well. We did have one last blow out for our wedding anniversary in August though, so we kind of have a reason for being broke! since then.

I don't think we're as bad as could be, I know some people who are really struggling with mortgage payments and increased utility bills and have really had to cut back. I work in HR (not finance) and we've had to make some redundancies to reduce our overheads, which has been hard so it's hitting every sector gradually. Our finance is provided by HBoS though so the recent merger has helped a bit, as they aren't breathing down our necks quite as closely as they were when it looked a little bleaker for them.

I'm inclined to believe you. Although I hope it doesn't get as far as it did before... huge numbers of repossesions etc.

I'm 33 so only vaguely remember the hard times before, certainly wasn't old enough to have been accoutable for anything that would have been affected anyway. But now I'm a home owner, a car owner, a pet owner... it's a concern.

I'm a student, so we are surviving on Mr P's income until I find somefink part-time, so the rising costs of living are affecting us quite a lot. On the other hand, we only started living together a month ago, so we haven't known prices of stuff any other way IYSWIM.

On the other hand, we spent a month in Thailand, have plenty of savings and have a really busy social life so it isn't all bad.

Minx, not wishing to be the prophet of doom, but I think it is going to get worse before it gets better. The question no-one can answer is how much worse it's likely to get.

There's not a lot anyone individually can do, except manage their income and outgoings as carefully as possible and not take any unnecessary risks. Even then, there's a degree of luck in it, as we're all at the mercy of the wider economy.

Take heart, though - there have been tough economic times before, and they don't last forever. Markets recover, confidence rebuilds and the pendulum swings back again.

Daisy - I'm sorry to hear things have been so tough for you. You sound very together though, and I'm sure that will stand you in good stead. I wish you the best of luck for the coming months.

We're perhaps feeling it preemptively because H works for a bank where there is a risk of redundancy and I will be working a lot less soon because our baby is due in December.

We don't notice anything in our immediate disposable income, but that is because we were only really starting out in our careers 5 years ago and so are now both earning more than we ever have.

However, because of the possibility of redundancy, and the precarious situation for banking bonuses this year (we use H's firstly to sink cash into our pension pot, then to cover one or two larger purchases) we're having to hold back on plans for stuff like holidays and home improvements.

As P&P says, we're not in the typical demographic, but H's job means that we are directly affected, albeit in a different way. Personal circs come into play for us as well.

The Pieman is right about students. I've just left my job to go back into full time education (a move carefully planned way before credit crunch time) and to say we're feeling the pinch would be a huge understatement. I don't feel that comfy about going into my finincial woes, but suffice to say the CC has landed with a big splat in the lamp.

A lot of other students are in a bad way too: http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/storyrss.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=NOED29%20Sep%202008%2020%3A50%3A44%3A077 - the debt wall at my Uni.

We're counting our blessings at the moment - both H and I work in 'secure' fields, so our jobs should be fairly safe. Nevetheless our mortgage fixed rate ended last month and the best deal we could find is 20% higher, and I'm on maternity leave from December so household income will drop and then when I come back to work it will be spent mostly on childcare. Even so, we're still feeling flipping lucky.

Just been reading that article Ginni, scary to think some people will graduate with a debt of £70,000. Is a University education really worth that much? Will you ever recoup that by having one?

I didn't go the Uni route, went straight out to work after my A-Levels. Did my HND at day release/night school. This was simply to increase my career prospects (same reason people go to Uni I should think). Would I have done that had I known I'd be £70k in debt before I even started working? Not sure.

Think the best way for me to describe how I feel about things at the moment is 'uneasy'. I know from my economics studies that economies do have cycles and what goes up, inevitably comes down, and then up, and then down etc. So I do expect things to get worse before they get better.

I managed to remortage with a good deal the day before Northern Rock collapsed, which is enormous relief as it has saved us a lot of £££. And incredibly, I've persuaded work to make my position permanent as from tomorrow (I was on a 12 month contratc due to expire in Feb next year) which is a weight off my mind as I was worried about having to find new employment .... and Mr GMT has no job. He needs to get one and has done sod all about it for a year but that's another story ....

At least with my regular income I know we can cover the bills (including the cat / dog food) but there's not much left over. We would like to move house but we might now have to wait even longer now to find the right place .... at the right price .....

I do realise I have much to be grateful for, however, and know that there are others whose position is much more uncertain .....

It's landed on our doorstep though so far, fingers tightly crossed, we still have work. I'm doing financey and legal stuff (3 things actually ?) and H is in the construction field. I can't remember the last crunch but know this one will be bumpy for us. I'm pretty recently self employed and our mortgage deal runs out next year so we'll struggle to remortgage.

We have a huge mortgage as it is. If either of us lost our jobs we'd be in crisis as our savings are non existent. My dad works in finance too so they'll be hit fairly hard and my mum is a full time carer so doesn't "work" otherwise. Luckily the ILs should be ok though.

Re your Q about uni MS, I would be able to do 2 of the things I do even without my degree. I had hoped my degree would at least give me something decent to fall back on one day but the field it's linked to seems to be having a crisis here atm too so bang goes that idea.

At some point, those to go the Uni route, and those who go the apprenticeship route, will even out/meet salary-wise. Would you ever earn enough in the time before that happens, to make starting with a £70k debt worth it?

My head says no, but surely noone would bother with Uni if that were true?

Obviously I'm not talking about professions where a degree is a prerequiste i.e. medicine, but those where it's possible to work your way up the ladder from the bottom. Obviously those with degrees will start on a higher rung, and therefore come in on a higher salary, but at some point the ones who went the apprenticeship route will catch up. When that happens, will the uni education have been worth it if you still have debt as a result?

We are tightening our belts even though H2B and I are both in public sector work as we find that outgoings are fast catching up our income. We're being more thrifty with food (e.g. Sunday's roast chicken leftovers went into Monday's chicken pie) and I've transferred credit card balance to a 0% jobbie for the next 14 months. We're going to leave it a late as possible to put the heating on and generally mend and make do. Thankfully, we're on a fixed-rate mortgage until end of 2011 which we sorted when people were worrying about the interest rates a couple of years ago. I fear that the whole credit crunch will get worse before it gets better.

Its hitting us, H owns a pub which is doing ok but only ok, smoking ban, CC etc. We own a house too, the fixed rate ends in Dec and i've called the mortgage company today who have advised me that as of today they have withdrawn all fixed rates and discount for the forseeable future - so my mortgage will increase by £150. We've been over paying for a while so the increase isn't going to be that huge but it means no more over payment! (we dont live in the pub, purely a business)

I've gone back to work full time (well i start on monday) which will ease everything really. I didn't/don't want to do it but needs must.

Its a terrible time but you cut your cloth accordingly - well i have!

Personally for me leaving school everyone was pushed into uni as if we needed it to get a job/be seen to be going on the next step. There's was some snobbery about not going to uni from the school's POV and some parts of society I think.

I have a law degree and about 10k of debt. If I wanted to be a solicitor I would have to do 2 more years here and would come out with about £20k of debt I'd say at the very least. Friends have gone down this route and are now qualified and can't get jobs as solicitors so are, apart from being able to go into it some day, back where they started. Others have got jobs but on starting salaries of about £17k upwards which IMO isn't that great considering the debt they are in. Obviously they may earn a lot more one day depending on the field they go into but even so considering the amount of hours those jobs entail, the money per hours work isn't as great as a lot of people think - as lots of solicitors have told me! I know of at least 2 solicitors looking at entering one of the lines of work I am in (something which doesn't require a degree or any kind!!) because their earnings are so bad in what they do now

? You're a love, what a nice thing to say, thank you. Didn't mean to come across as 'poor me', although having read it back it does sound that way. It's not bad, and it really is the making of us as a family. Plus it's increased our optimism 100 fold, something really always does come up when there's a problem.

It's not hit us as such but it is changing our behaviour.

Whilst on a day to day basis we can survive (I'm a stay at home mum) our savings are staying where they are "just in case" so we don't splash out on non essentials as much as we used to and we were thinking of putting the twins into nursery but that would cost us about £400 a month so we aren't doing that as that would be a huge chunk of our savings which could pay the mortgage if it needed to.

Also my mum and dad were trying to sell their house to move closer to us and they can't ? so will have to stay where they are for the foreseeable future which is a shame but not the end of the world.

We're trying to cut down on food bills and look around for different providers for broadband and phone etc as well.