The topic of being skint....

We're ok at the moment and I count my blessings that we don't have a raising morgage tor any debts to worry about (we're renting and the rent shouldn't rise until April next year). My OH is also in the building trade snd although I'm slightly worried as he's a contracter he's assured me that as he's in the nuclear industry it's the one area of industry thats relatively safe - we'll see.

I think all this panic about money has been quite good for us, because it's meant I've really looked into managing our finances (I know, I should have done it before - I wish I had).

I am slightly terrified at us staying in the pub industry because it's dying on it's arse; fortunately not here, but everywhere else, it seems. It's pot luck. The breweries are offering tenancies for free if you know the right people at the moment, they are so desperate for tenants. I quite like the idea of a freehold as it's not dead rent money, but it's finding a nice one within our means. I don't really know how we would leave the industry now - H has looked into jobs he would be qualified for and they just aren't enough money. The logistics of me going out to work with baby, niece and possibly nephew give me a headache.

Skint is such a relative concept. I am quite careful how I use it as although money is tight for us at the moment, partly due to rising bills but more significantly to me being on maternity leave and getting the grand sum of £117 a week, I wouldn't say we are on the breadline, although we are being very careful. I do remember when I bought my first house that I lived off pasta and tomato sauce for about 6 months as I really was on the breadline, so I always think back to then and give myself a slap and remind myself that things are better now than they were then!

It used to nark me off that MIL used to trot out the 'We're skint' line having just got back from one holiday, already booked another and gone out for a few meals that week!

Like P&P I think I am naturally cautious so have been careful financially over the past few years and as such other than our mortgage, we have minimal other borrowings and also some savings, so at the moment we are still keeping our head above water. Things should also improve when I return to work and bring in more money.

At the moment we're still doing ok, but the constant talk of recessions and such in the media is making me worried. I am self employed and it's a limited market for us. If I don't get enough bookings in for next year, I don't know what I'll have to do.

Also, in December, our fixed rate mortgage ends, so again, no idea how hard that will hit us. On top of that, MrNeo's workplace (he works part time there and part time for me) is in serious debt due to gross missmanagment and unless things change and they get plenty of funding in, they might have to close the books by the end of the year. In other words, more will depend on my business doing well. So we are currently holding back on any extra spending.

I do think the constant talking about it in the media and by politicians isn't making it better. It makes people worry more, they will spend less and hence it's becoming a self fulfulling prophecy.

We're doing OK too so far but that's mostly because I have just moved in with my OH and have put a tenant in my flat. My mortgage is about to go up by £200 a month and if I was still living there then I'm not sure how I would cope. Mr CD is a recruitment consultant and has lost a few contracts recently so he is down a fair amount each month but now I give him 'rent' it's not so bad.
My priority now is to save the extra money I have each month to make sure that if things do get bad, I have a back up.

I went out for dinner and drinks with an dold school friend not long ago. Despite earning considerably more than me, he asked if I had any cash as he would put the meal on his CC if I gave him half. No problem, but I asked if everything was alright.

Apparently he had mortgaged himself to the limit on a huge house (selling his sports car to raise the deposit), didn't have a penny saved (let alone a pension), was up to his overdraft limit and was now living day to day on his VISA.

All this at a time when his wife had just left work to have their first child, property prices were falling and he wasn't sure if his work contract was being renewed. He looked dreadful, was drinking too much and couldn't sleep at night.

OK, he's a good friend and I wished him well, but that didn't stop me pointing out what a twat he'd been.

I'd like to think we're pretty careful. Our main saving is that we got rid of the car a couple of years ago and walk everywhere possible, so we don't have any of those expenses to consider. There are lots of places we could cut back, if we have to. We have a rule where we never allow our essential monthly spending (mortgage, gas/elec, council tax etc) amount to more than the equivalent of one of our wages. That way, should one of us lose our job, we should be able to scratch by for a bit.

We have decided against taking another holiday at Christmas though, as it seems unwise to be spending too much at the moment.

I have a friend in a similar situation P&P, bought her first house at the top of her budget, brand new car she rarely drives yet has v little money. TBF to her, I think it may have been naivety on her part as to what could happen to her mortgage payments and cost of living, as opposed to trying to live the high life. She graduated a couple of years after me, and I suppose has only really seen the economy on "a high". H and I both saw our parents struggle previously and so have been (more, although not as much as we should be) cautious.

? I thought I was the only person that anal careful.

And I'm glad that I am. Its got us out of some tight spots when G&T was made redundant (twice), and my contract fell through leaving me out of work for 6 months.

That said, I appreciate that we are in a fortunate position to be able to do this - not everybody has such a luxury.

I really wanted to move home at Christmas, but I really don't think it is going to be the sensible thing to do.

We have to decide by the end of september.

I'm very wary because I'm on maternity leave (and now being paid nothing) and whilst I go back to work in January, it will mean we'll have to be spending £800 a month on childcare. However, it seems our saving when I was pregnant has paid off and we're doing much better than we expected at this stage. Plus I'm very lucky in that I've been promoted whilst I've been away (and might be getting a second promotion before I go back) which means my salary has also increased. It doesn't mean we're not being careful though - I think more careful than we've ever been.

Redundancy does worry me though - until now, we've always liked to think that we could both get other jobs fairly easily if we were made redundant, but in the current climate, who knows? Noone could really claim science communication is a core job. Well, I'd give it a good shot, but I'm not sure it would be a very solid argument ?

We are quite lucky as we have no mortgage. Our disposabe income is about £1000 per month. I do worry about the future though. We are giving up my car that is on HP as it sits on the drive going no where since I had my licence suspended. We also have a credit card but it only has a £200 limit so it's not too bad and I pay it in full each month. My worry is if I am not allowed to return to work in January as my pay (main income) will be halved and H (self employed farmer) will have to work longer hours.

Oh Flowery, it isn't as bad as it sounds - I think people just like a good moan.

I'm not 100% sure of your situation, but if you can line up some stable jobs, and have a bit of deposit money (assuming you want to buy), then December might not be that bad a time to come back.

Fuel prices are already starting to fall, and food has increased about as much as its going to. The economy is projected to pick up again next year, and with house prices already having fallen considerably, now might be a good time to get on the property ladder.

? Now that is lucky !

We have a house that we are renting out, so that's ok. and my parents have a bungalow in their garden we could stay in if we needed to for a while.

But MrFtG has a good job here that he enjoys (while I am now unemployed and drifitng) - so either he gives up his job here, and we move back to a country in recession with no jobs to go to (and no idea of how easy it will be to get news ones), or we sit it out another 3/6 months here (we have to give 3 months notice on our flat here, and only on jan 1, april 1, jul 1 or oct 1) while i go quietly mad. Though I am starting a new OU course in Jan, so that would keep me busy.

jammy indeed! what has happened to your old job?..... Are they recruiting?

We seem to be coping at the moment. We have savings behind us that if we need to, we can break into, although we would much rather not touch the savings. Our biggest outgoing at the moment is the cars, we have just had a huge bill for one of the cars that needed work doing to it, so that has pretty much reduced the money we had for this month alone.

You could then rent your spare room out groucho ?

Agreed, especially if you only have one income coming in for whatever reason, then it must be very tough.

For some people, I think it's about making choices. For example, I was gutted when I got rid of my car. We could afford it, but it really was an unnecessary expense when we live in London and have everything on our doorstep. Similarly, when we bought our flat we could have afforded a bigger place/a nicer area. However, what we bought is ample for our needs. But each to their own, I suppose.

We're doing ok fortunately at the moment as H is in a business where people are still spending loads and has contracts lined up for the foreseeable future. I am a SAHM.

Our biggest outgoing is we have two mortgages, once we sell out second house (fingers crossed for a second viewing today!) we will be managing really well. I know we are very lucky and am really relieved that we have saved for the 7 years we've been together.

Our bills have gone up noticeably

Well at the moment we're plodding through alright, but in November we have our mortgage review which I have a feeling will mean a higher interest rate and at the moment we're only paying interest only (which I do hate but it's that or have no money!).

So on the surface it looks alright but I'm sh!t scared about what might happen ☹️

Oh and at the moment one wage (which isn't that big) covers all our bills and leaves a tiny bit left over. I'm relying on whatever babysitting etc jobs I can get and the child support money to pay for food and bits. Not quite sure how we muddle through!

It's all relative for most of us, I think. When you're choosing between paying the gas bill and eating, you're in trouble. I've been there. The ex-MrJK and I had four lodgers in our three bed house at one point in 1992 - we had a couple sleeping in our dining room, and we were still scraping around for the bill money.

I only do two and a half days a week in a job with a shortage of qualified personnel - picking up more work would take one phonecall. It's not attractive enough at the moment because of childcare costs, but if push came to shove, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Helping a lovely lady somewhere else meal plan for a month for 4 for £20 we're thankfully okay. I'm worried about my longterm future as i'm still so poorly following the car crash and money will soon be cut by 1/2.

I am now even more anal on shopping and keeping our budgets as low as possible, my H growing lots in the garden has been so helpful, we only buy bananas and a melon a week as our bought contribution to our 5 a day.

Nb. mr tesco must think we're unhealthy lumpets!

Bears don't have to be grizzly

Im not in a position where i cant afford to do things, but im not in a position to spend, spend, spend IYSWIM.

I have some savings that i haven't yet had to dip into, but still find myself cutting back on things to save a little more money.

I just hope this "credit crunch" is over and done with soon, although i dont see it happening in the foreseeable.

H is an IT network engineer, seems to be going well. went for an interview yesterday for a better paid job, so hoping for the best.

i'm currently an estate agent, but starting my pgce on Monday. this, however, wouldn't be happening if h's mum hadn't offered to pay our mortgage for a year so i can train, which works out as a long-term loan from her of around £15k - hugely generous.

we're in our mid 20s, and we moved into our current house in december. we moved from a 2 bed mid terrace to a fairly big 3 bed semi. it's a gorgeous house with an efficient boiler and new double glazing, but i think we're going to be sleeping next to the gas fire this winter! i don't think h has realised this yet. we also have one of the infamous northern rock 'together' mortgages - basically 95% plus £30k. we don't have to renew until march 2011 so i'm hoping things have picked up a bit by then! i'm not (currently) sorry we moved - things fell into place at the right time. we got top whack for our old place and a good deal for the market then on our current one. it has probably gone down £20k since we bought it, but it doesn't worry me too much, partly because the mortgage is assured for a year with h's mum (wonderful woman) and partly because we haven't had any problems keeping it up ourselves so far - although i do think this is the right time for me to leave estate agency, and when i handed in my notice one of the directors agreed with me and said he didn't blame me one bit...

we have borrowed lots over the years. we have a 0% credit card but i think we'll have to balance transfer it again because we were paying off my old student overdraft to make sure we didn't pay any interest on it. then we can just hammer down on getting rid of that. in a good month we can pay off £800 on clearing debts, and we don't have much out comparatively. but i know things could go tits up very quickly if anything went wrong, so we're just battening down the hatches as much as we can. one thing that makes me nervous is that if h gets this new job we'll need a second car for me - uni is 2.5hrs each way by public transport. my mum did it, she doesn't currently have a car, but she says i'll definitely need it because it's virtually impossible to manage, if she hadn't been beyond desperate at the time she wouldn't have stayed on the course. i'll buy a little cheap one of autotrader but my insurance is expensive because i've always had a company car, so no 'no claims'.

sorry that was so long! bit of a train of thought running away with me...

i'm hoping there's a job for me at the end of my pgce (suffice to say i will be giving this course my full attention, can't afford not to pass it) - my mum's a teacher and she said in the last recession they cut back on recruitment, but at least as secondary english it's a core subject so hopefully there will be more jobs...

What i completely forgot to say was that i don't think we've ever been particularly reckless with spending, in the sense of buying frivolous things. our biggest expense is the house, and genuinely believe when the market recovers in 2-5 years it will bounce up again - v attractive period property plus our village is on the new metrolink expansion from manchester, and the closest stop from the city that's a decent area.

we don't go on foreign holidays - normally just one or two nights in the uk. our biggest lighthearted expense this year has been weddings. 2 down, one to go. presents, staying over (one will need 2 night stay) different outfits for very different weddings... then a hen/stag and we have to stay over again for that, fortunately should be *relatively* inexpensive - h bowed out of the £150 racing driving session in the morning. it's scary, but you feel like you can't just not go - especially when you know them well. i'm just glad our friends don't seem to want the whole foreign hen/stag thing - we definitely couldn't run to that.

I do think its all relative though. I spoke to an acquaintance on FB who was bemoaning the credit crunch because they could only afford a UK holiday this year and weren't able to change their second car.

We're in the same situation here in South Africa. Our bond was affordable when we bought it but the interest rate has been increased 8 times since then and we are struggling.

Oh, and OH and I are both unemployed. I was working part time before I went on maternity leave and now have nothing to go back to. OH was working for his step father and it really was not working out between them and he walked out. ?

The job market is sooo slow but we are both actively looking and using every contact we know to get out CV's out there.

Fortunately, we have no debt besides our bond and we had an emergency fund which is seeing us through, but we only have about 3 months left before we are truley up *** creek without a paddle.

Things are tighter than a tight thing for us at the moment. Our son is disabled (so he needs one of us to care for him outside nursery hours), and was due to start school this week, but his mainstream school won't take him until the special school have time to train his support worker, they don't have space until January. So, all my best laid plans for starting Uni once Dan was at school, so Mr G could get some employed work (he's been teaching sax and delivering a community mag around looking after Dan, while I worked, but it doesn't bring in enough without my wages) have gone tits up. Mr G can't get decent hours until January now, and I can't work as I'm starting my course in a couple of weeks. My wages have gone and my student money hasn't come, so things aren't looking great for this month. I may have to rely on a nice fat overdraft on my soon-to-be-opened student account to see us through until I get my bursary.