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How is the credit crunch affecting you?

A few weeks before interest rates were first slashed our graduate mortgage deal with HSBC expired and we changed to a base rate tracker. GENIUS on my hubby's part as of course interest rates are dropping and dropping - our mortgage is now well under half of what it was a few months ago. What with having a new baby and all, the timing has really worked in our favour.

I appreciate that we're very fortunate and that not everyone will have felt a positive impact. How about you?

Replies

  • We are breaking about even at the minute. If the mortgage rate gets any lower they will be paying us to live here, and petrol going down has made a big difference as hubby's car is a 4.2l and drinks petrol :lol: Our other bills are up, but overall I think we are about the same.
    xx
  • like yourself our morgage payments are going down, will be as of the 1st of feb, but aparanty the bank of scotland are dropping the base rate again so e
    we will be paying even less, but we have decided to keep the payments the same as we can still aford it and it will pay of morgage faster and make us pay less intrest, we have been over paying for over a year alread so this will mean over paying by even more wich can only be a good thing.

    Everything else is the same except the grocery budget has gone up bt ??100 a month but thats only because we now have a new baby, we are still able to save a couple of hundred pound a month and havent cut back on anything, so we have been really lucky x
  • Our mortgage is fied rate until May, seemed like a really good idea at the time but now I'm kicking myself for taking a fixed rate. Our food and energy bills have gone up a bit but thats about all. Luckily both me and oh have pretty good job security, it must be so horrible to be in a job where you don't know how long it will be there.
  • I think this cold snap is actually what is costing us the most at the moment, my heating bill has gone through the roof, but it's so hard to say inflation has been hard on everyone these last coupld years and so perhaps a couple years of slow growth will allow some catch up, what I worry about more than anything is the fear driven moves so many influential people are making and the cost it could have long term.
  • i'd agree with most of you that have said about the gas / electric costing the earth - like many,i'm dreading our next bill!!

    fortunately tho' - again, as many have said, the mortgage rate has come down about 60% for us, so that is good!! petrol is 82p a litre - again a bonus! (big 4x4 so that is great news for me!!)

    shopping... like you all, it is more expensive than this time last yr, and i have tried changing from Tesco, but i find i end up going back there, as i know where everything is, what i can get there, fresh veg / fruit lasts etc. i dont have the time to shop in 3/4 different places, or go 3/4 times a week to different places. my nearest supermarket is about a 10-15 min drive, other than tesco express, which is apparently dearer than normal tesco (?)

    fortunately, it hasnt been as bad as i expected it would be, but ask me again in a few weeks when the gas bill has come!!! :lol:
  • Its made my DH redundant!

    He's been out of work since mid-November and has been trying to find work since but its bloody hard. There are so many people around for so few jobs. This week we have had to bite the bullet and start to claim benefits which was a really hard decision for us but with no money and two kids we had no choice.

    My DH has experience in industries that are all going down the toilet! He has put CVs out everywhere but has had no luck.

    Fingers crossed he'll find something soon.
  • Awe sorry to hear that Tommysmum, that's such an awful situation to be in. I really hope your dh finds something soon

    xx
  • our mortgage is fixed rate so that doesnt really help us, as we are over paying by alot! i dont think we can change it untill sept now. shopping has become stupidly expensive, i spent ??120 at asda on monday and that was only on food, luckily my oh's gran buys tegans nappys and milk. but we only use to spend ??60 a week but almost everything has doubled. petrol is the only thing that works in our favour really as its down to 83p instead of ??1.30 like it was back along, so with oh travelling 60miles a day it helps alot! oh and gas and electric has shot up, dreading ur next bill as we have the heating on constantly at the moment.
    so at the moment we are only just getting by which isnt great as ive only got 13 weeks left untill baby number2 arrives, and ive still things to buy. but we will manage like we always do! image xxx
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