What Have You Got That I Haven't?

some of us have had a great few years of spending maybe holidays doing a house up buying a car etc others have struggled to meet day to day living expenses through no fault of their own everyone is different and has a different story to tell

I went to uni, then got a bank loan to train as a teacher and actually don't think my debt is that bad considering I lived off the loan for nearly two years. Admittedly I have run up a credit card bills and paid them off and extended the loan twice to pay for dental work and to fix my car.

I waste money now, thats my big problem. I should have loads of savings but have frittered it all away on cds, dvds, books, my pets and make up/beauty products. ugh.

Buffy.

I didn't run up a debt, I married one! Eight years ago we were in the red to the tune of £17k, but have now reduced this to somewhere around the £5k mark (in fact we HAD cleared it completely, but then needed a new car so borrowed another £5k - but this time at 6.1% apr rather than 29.9% apr!!), and hopefully this will all be gone this year.

I can't honestly say what the £17k was spent on, because we had nothing, literally nothing. We lived in a grotty, damp flat in a really rough area and ran a VERY old and beaten up C reg Fiesta.

I got pregnant a few weeks after we got married, and that was sort of the trigger for us to turn things around - I took over the finances and we agreed on a very strict budget, which gave us about £20 per week for food, and nothing at all for going out/entertaining/clothes etc. We worked horrible shifts that meant we barely saw each other (we would usually cross paths at the roundabout at the bottom of the road), and threw everything at the debts. It's been hard going at times, but we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The things that have set us back along the way have really just been runs of bad luck, like household appliances ganging up on us and all breaking down at the same time, or the car needing major repairs, or losing jobs when we weren't entitled to redundancy.

We are both so much better with money now, and have learned our lesson - we're going through another rough patch financially at the moment, but I feel fairly confident we will never go back to being in debt like that again, whatever happens.

:beer: I spent lots of mine on bottles of wine with the girls, good food, evenings at the theatre, and nights out dancing in impractical shoes. Plus all the gorgeous new outfits I needed for these activities of course, and sparkly lip gloss.

Then there were all the holidays where we rented some massive place in Devon or Cornwall with a pool, and filled it with friends and family for a fortnight... _party_

And the trips away when we didn't take all of our friends and family and it was just the two of us. :smileyhea

Ooh and the gigs...lots and lots of drunken sweaty gigs watching the latest up and comers - or some old favourites... and feeling 17 again. (well 27 anyway! )

Then there was the year (2005) where we went to 16 weddings and hubby reckons cost us £16k in gifts, hotels, travel, hen/stag weekends and new clothes...

Then there's the massive hole we were left in when hubby's business failed... my private medical treatment... (chances of survival doubled with the private treatment) Granny's roof....and a sizeable contribution towards my dad's new titanium hips - cos he was going loopy waiting for the NHS to get around to him and we couldn't bear to watch him suffer.

So I dunno.. I hate being in debt, but I do feel that we got our money's worth. :rotfl:

Love Jacks xxx

Oh and teeth straightened, £2,180, actually thinking abouit it I may not have paid all my bill yet????