Sell up and rent - thoughts?

Fireflyaway

I wouldn't sell up. The reason being, it appears you went from having plenty of cash and 2 houses to being in debt with credit cards, loans and big car loans for expensive cars. your income is also modest ( in relation to the repayment on the car loans and house price). It seems you are living above your means.
Unless you change your financial behaviour you will most probably get in more debt and make your situation worse, possibly spending all your money and not having the choice of buying again. I'm not being derogatory. I can see my own behaviour in what you have done! We sold our house and rented. We are still renting. Spent a good deal of the equity from the sale on nonsense, couldn't even tell you what. Got into debt which ruined credit score so don't know if we will even qualify for a mortgage any time soon.
I'd stay in your home and pay the debt off. Check out dave ramsey on youtube. There are people who have paid off crazy sums using the snowball method. It's very inspirational to see what can be done.
Maybe downsize when the kids move. But a small place in the UK and rent it and a small place in spain. That way you have income from the rent and somewhere to come back to. Often if one partner dies the other wants to move back. Just leave your options open.
Don't mess with the roof over your head. Also what do you think your dad would want you to do? Would be be happy about the way you spent his money and the choices you are making? Hope you don't think I was harsh, don't want you to regret a big decision:)

trailingspouse

CarpeDave wrote: »

We did the weekly food shop in our nearest Aldi (15 miles away!) on Sunday. Was somewhat amazed that it came in at £49.96, we knew it would be cheaper but were expecting it to be in the £80 region compared with the usual £120 delivery from Tesco / Ocado. Now we just have to limit the midweek top-up shops - that'll be easier when the new Aldi just up the road opens in a month or so, as we've only got a Tesco and a few corner shops where we live at the moment.

We've written down every penny spent over the last three days. This has had the immediate effect of stopping either of us picking £5 or £10 worth of unnecessary bits and bobs as we go along. We've also gathered together all the duplicate/unused household bits and bobs ready to sell on facebook and eBay - I reckon we can muster £2k that way.

There's plenty more that we can do, and we've had some good honest conversations about how to go about it. Thank you to all who have contributed guidance and advance so far, I was ready for a lot of flak but we've received so much positive information on here.

For me, this is such a positive post. So often one partner blames the other for the situation they're in, or one partner has had their 'lightbulb moment' and the other simply won't talk about it. It looks like you're both on the same page on this - and that's what will get you through. Talk, talk, and talk again, and keep talking. I wish you all the best for 2019 and beyond.