The only suitable place we could find that was available and close to my son’s school was £100 more expensive per month and came without white goods, a further cost to factor in. We were told that we would need to pay the first month’s rent and deposit right away, over a month before we got the keys, leaving us £2,500 out of pocket. It was only through sheer luck that we had the funds available – I’d recently been paid a couple of big invoices – otherwise I’m not quite sure what we would have done. It scuppered our plans to pay off a big chunk of our outstanding debt, forcing us to re-examine our financial plans, at least in the short term.