What Do You Tell Your Friends?

MonkeyGirl

As some one else said just say what you feel comfy with. My family asked me if I'm in debt I was honest and said yes but only on the credit card. When they asked how much I turned round to them and said exactly the same to them. They haven't asked since, as they know that I will argue with them as I feel they dont need to know by what amounts just like I don't need to know if they are in debt and if so how much by. As long as you are now starting to deal with debt I wouldn't worry what your friends think to be honest. Good luck with your debt problems and you have made the right step by joining this site .

MonkeyGirl

*Louise*

My immediate family know I have some debt - a lot of them have debt as well.
My family know how much of a difficult time we went through at one point, it was having to pay a mortgage and live on measly incapacity benefit for nearly 2 years that mucked us up in the first place. :mad:

Not the kind of thing I would discuss with friends though, even though my situation isn't actually all that bad.

rainbowseeker

I've only just recently woken up to the huge debt I'm in (complicated and emotional story, will save for another day) and so the only person who knows is my kid sis. I say she's my kid sis (I'm 36, she's 29 and still looks like a 21 year old student, drat her hide!!), but I swear there's a wizened little Indian sage living in that head of hers, she's more like my older sis. But no, I'm way too ashamed to tell anyone else just yet. I'm just treading water at the moment trying not to sink, and the emotional exhaustion of just dealing with things and facing up to the fact of how I got myself into this mess is immense enough without worrying about the dissapointment and worry for my family if they knew.

JAMIEDODGER

i am not in a huge amount of debt (thankfully). i have 2 creditcards with under £600 on each, and a small loan i got for my pc (£300 left) and a £5000 car loan (on year 2 out of 5). i would like to be debt free and am doing my best to do everything to get there.

my friends all know about what i owe, and i havent been out since october because i would rather pay the money off the debt than spend it in the pub. they all understand, although i think many of them think im a little barmy and obsessed at times lol....but.....when the debt is all gone, i can go back to going out again, until then im gonna keep hammering away!!!

tattooed_lady

When I was paying off my debt thru CCCS, I told my sister about it but didn't dare tell my mum as she is such a worrier. In the end, I told her when my last payment was going to be made (after 6-7 years lol). She was pleased we paid it off but I could see how freaked out she was about the whole thing so I'm really glad I didn't tell her at the start!

Some of my good friends knew we didn't have much money but I didn't really share with them the whole extent of our debt.

I think the worst thing was when I was a member of the committee at my son's playgroup and to do this you needed to be a signatory of their bank account. Of course, once the bank credit checked me I was turned down (hadn't realised they would credit check me) but to top it off the bank wrote a horrible letter saying that basically I was not suitable cos I failed credit check blah blah - felt like some sort of fraudster of something!! That was the only time I felt really scummy about it all.

pixie1

I told my friends late last year that 2006 would be a thrifty year and that I had spent far too much on going out etc so its no great surprise to them that Im watching the pennies a little, but then i dont go out very much anyway.

I agree with what someone else has already said, if anyone mentions renting, say youre waiting for the housing market to settle a little as youre affriad of ending up in neg equatey (SP) should they prices start to fall.

nearlyrich

Just a quick view from the other side of this, one of my long standing and very close friends had a bad time with a messy divorce and lost time at work, her earnings went down and her overheads increased massively. I knew she had some financial worries and from time to time I bailed her out and gave her advice on how to tackle things, at her invitation I must add. One day she called me and asked me to go over, she was almost £30k in debt on CC's and loans and overdrafts and she could not handle the stress of the nasty calls because they were all out of control.

She had a black bin bag of unopened post, going back 2 to 3 years, we went through it and took out the stuff that needed dealing with, we wrote letters, we did a budget based on what she was actually earning ( she was still spending like she was earning twice as much and had her ex's money to rely on too).

It's about a year on and she is much happier, she is living within her means and with full and finals and her divorce property pay out, has cleared the debts. I wish she had told me sooner how bad it all was because we could have sorted it out and saved her months of sleepless nights and worry.

Lottiepots

I have told my family and close friends how much debt we are in, though at first was scared to tell my parents as I though they would be really disapointed.

To work colleagues and others I just tell them that after an expensive honeymoon we are trying to save a deposit for a house...

r-world

My husband and my brother know but I'm way too ashamed/embarrassed/humiliated to tell anyone else. I'm dreading that my inlaws will find out. I'm known as the person that always dresses well and has the best of everything so I'd just look like the mug who went into debt just to look good...

halloweenqueen_2

Since then (Aug 04) I have worked really hard and my £24000 debt :eek: is now £8800.

Well done pineapple, thats quite an achievement:D