What do you have to show?

Gillby1

My debt started with my car loan. I transferred it to credit cards at 0%, then kept on spending on the cards. The debt started at £4000, and went up to £6000 over a couple of years - so i was paying off £200 a month, but spending £300! I'd be really careful all month, then suddenly get desperate clothes shopping urges! :eek:

I also used the cards for christmas and birthday pressies, car expenses and any unexpected costs. If i ran out of money in my bank account i'd use credit.

I can honestly say that, although i was only earning £13K a year then, I loved my women's magazines and felt i needed to keep up with all the people i read about. I'd see all the lovely clothes and accessories and feel i wanted them too! I felt like everyone else was earning loads more than me, and that i had to keep up. Why is that? So i do have clothes and shoes and bags, but wouldn't wear most of them anyway. :rotfl:

I've learnt my lesson now though (and discovered Peacocks and Primark!).

8pnoodles

Umm... lots of stuff that I've since sold for a quarter of the value? Sure there's a lesson there somewhere...

Also almost half of a wedding and a honeymoon to Cuba (we split our debts pro rata when we split up), the means to live when I was unemployed for a bit, being a student for ever and having no money (although that was no excuse, I could have done things a lot cheaper) and that warm fuzzy (angry!) feeling that I've also taken on some of my other half's debts because it's easier than arguing about it.

If it wasn't for the wedding, and actually that whole relationship in general, I'd no way near have been in this much debt.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Thinking back, I never EVER got a credit card, or personal loan until I started planning that ****dy wedding. :rolleyes: I had a couple of store cards, both with only a £250 limit on each (high APR I know but life would have been simple if that was the only debt I'd had!). And I had around £3K of an overdraft a good few years ago tat I'd paid off completely with a graduate loan, and paid off the loan at ooooo £50 a month.

Now I'm £9250K in debt and have a huge loan and credit card, paying off a minimum of £330 a month. :eek:

Never again!

earthboundboy

I've got my laptop which is always in use. Same as everyone else though - at some point we started spending slightly more each month than we earnt, consolidated into loans then ran the cards up again, holiday / xmas / bdays etc etc. All the expenses we never used to budget for.

The only other thing I actually *own* in full and is worth more than a few hundred quid is my Akai sampler which I SAVED UP FOR!!!! (If only I'd done that with everything else!!)

rprinter

Good Thread! I DO have something to show for a lifetime in debt, since having a Barclaycard thrust opon me when my Saturday job at BhS started paying by BACS into a new bank account. £4.72 a week I got paid for half a day. And Barclays gave me a credit card with a £500 limit. That was where it all started for me 20 years ago!

Anyway, debt always forced me to find better paid jobs until one day I started my own company. I now employ a dozen people in a nice profitable company where I'm my own boss. I have a nice detached house (with a nice mortgage too ) a great family and lots of other things I wouldn't have, seriously, if I hadn't had been forced into bettering myself through being in debt.

Now I pay myself a decent whack but yes still in debt! But this debt is now easily managed and is all due to money I had to put into my business in the early years, and which I am now able to pay myself back for, and I in turn I am paying back my debt incurred through this.

Like everyone else here, I'm using the tips here to budget and spend less all round, at home and work, in order to pay debt back quicker and save interest.

Tondella

No item could be worth the feeling of having £24k of debt over our heads. However most of our debts arose from travelling to be with each other (never less than half the british isles) and my OH is a bargain at £24k (I'm sure I could have got him for a lot less though!)

James240

had lots of drink fuelled nights and a £4000 car but that was it, majority spent p!ssing it up the wall literally .....

ms_london

James240 wrote:

had lots of drink fuelled nights and a £4000 car but that was it, majority spent p!ssing it up the wall literally .....

James, how you doing? Where you been? Not working I hope ;0)

Your debt is coming down at a swift rate, well done!!!

Have a good weekend, catch up soon. xx

idiot_3

sod all. although i am sure i own half an arcade or bookies somewhere ...... :rolleyes:

HannahD_2

My debt also stems back from being a student, when it didn't matter how much I spent in the bar each night. Unfortunately I didn't get out of my student days when I became a working woman.
Nevermind, I can't turn the clock back and have no regrets about my student life. Plus I would never have found everyone here if I hadn't got myself into this trouble!
If I could do it all again I'm sure I would do it differently, but I would not change my life now for anything......even being debt free. I got myself into this mess, I've got to get myself out.
I've a wonderful family and a gorgeous boyfriend, who all know about my debt, everyone is happy and healthy. What more could I want.

Yuck, how soppy..... pass the bucket!!!!!!

Willsnarf1983

idiot wrote:

sod all. although i am sure i own half an arcade or bookies somewhere ...... :rolleyes:

lol like it mate ;op


i have very little cept this computer...its a nice computer but not 8k's worth


Will