SOS...don't know where to start!

Retro.Monkey90

Well here goes....again! Previously started a diary back in 2017 (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5557221/little-by-little-to-be-mf) but things drastically changed during that year which meant that my original goals felt completely out of reach.


To summarise the clusterf**k that is my financial situation:

• We bought our house (the one we live in) in 2014 on a Scottish H2B scheme
• In 2017 we had to increase our equity to 100% and therefore out of the scheme
• In order to do the above, our term was extended to 35 years i.e. an extra 10 years
• We did all this so we could get another morgtage to buy a house for my parents
• We therefore have 2 mortgages currently

The buying a second house thing and having your parents live in it has been quite a difficult thing for people to comprehend...mostly the banks. To be allowed to get a second mortgage we also had to cut a lot like car loans etc (they were private loans on low interest). Now we have one car and one motorbike, we re-financed the one car on a super long, super low private loan and we have money left over from the sale of the other car.


To make things just a little more fruity, we are getting married next year in Italy. It will be a tiny little ceremony (not legal) and then we are having a knees up in a rugby club when we get home (legal part also). We have also been doing bits and bobs around the house that we have been putting off for 5 years because we didn't want to spend any money on it.


Honestly, I need to get a grip on our finances again and I am hoping this diary will keep me accountable again. Doing my TTs, making sure I know where money is going & coming from and just knowing what our balance should be. For too long I've been too scared to look and hence our spending has been uncontrolled. It gives me anxiety and so heading into autumn (my favourite season) I want to get things tidied up as much as I am trying to get my house tidied up :rotfl: but I mean who am I kidding?!


Any help or tips for this wreck of situation would be greatly appreciated

Retro x