living beyond means/no sense of responsibility

olias

Just a random rant really.

In the last area we lived, my wife and I knew a couple who had been kicked out of more homes than you can shake a stick at for unpaid rent. They were on keys for their gas and electric due to unpaid bills. They then bought a £15000 car on finance (repayments £350 pm) and surprise surprise were threatened with repossesion within six months for not making payments. The thing is this couple had no kids and were on a joint income of about £35000 pa.

We moved and met another couple who were in a similar position. Unpaid rent, unpaid bills, pleading poverty, yet they owned and drove 3 cars (untaxed and uninsured) and would think nothing of going out on the lash every weekend, takeaways every night and spending thousands on their hobbies. They were on benefits yet ran an online business which was making a healthy profit but decided the taxman need not know.

My wife has now become aquainted with another girl through her hobby, who despite being nearly a year(!) behind with her rent, has had 4 cars this year, takeaways and pub every night, and has just been showing off to my wife the new gear she has just bought for her hobby (several hundred pounds worth)

Is this just the way people are these days? All the above are in the 20-30 age range (myself and wife are in our 40's). We have always paid our bills, rents and mortgage on time and would be mortified if we were behind in payments. We have always gone without to make sure bills are paid and have delivered yellow pages, worked taxis till 5am, done washing up and emptying bins, all to make sure we could pay our way.

I just don't understand it. Anyway, rant over.

Does anyone else have any views?

Olias

webmasterpolo

Hi Olias

There are some who do act like this, perhaps a higher percentage now than in the past. But it's still the minority. It's just a shame people think they can get away with acting this way, they will cost the tax payer a fortune, especially if they raise children to do the same.

-Web

PS I'm in my 20s

kr15snw

I have a friend like this. Its now a running joke between our group of friends as shes known for saying.. "I cant afford to come to the pub as I couldnt even afford to buy a coke Im so poor, oh by the way have you seen my new £250 diamond ring I just bought???" Or other similar sentances.

It annoys me as I work my !!! off to pay bills and survive and have very little to have fun with. She however has missed countless rent bills, owes thousands on credit cards, behind on all her bills etc etc etc but if you went into her place you'd think you were in a gadget shop. Brand new tv, dvd player, surround sound system, xbox 360, wii and ps3 and a million games and dvds! And all the time she still claims poverty!

Tiglet

This is a well-known phenomenon. It's explained perfectly here

(link contains sweary words, kiddies)

justjohn

This is also very apparent with some of the posters on her, i am 39 maybe we are just old school LOL

kr15snw wrote: »

I have a friend like this. Its now a running joke between our group of friends as shes known for saying.. "I cant afford to come to the pub as I couldnt even afford to buy a coke Im so poor, oh by the way have you seen my new £250 diamond ring I just bought???" Or other similar sentance

I say this sometimes but a do pay my debts and do not shirk them

Lip_Stick

there are people who get away with ripping the system off, but they're generally the ones who don't brag about it. To not be caught, they have to be quite careful with things. I find it strange that in all these cases, the people had takeaways or meals out every night. For one, I'd believe, for all of them? I think someone is having a laugh.

Swan_2

Tiglet wrote: »

This is a well-known phenomenon. It's explained perfectly here

(link contains sweary words, kiddies)

LOVE the Mash :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

olias

Lip_Stick wrote: »

there are people who get away with ripping the system off, but they're generally the ones who don't brag about it. To not be caught, they have to be quite careful with things. I find it strange that in all these cases, the people had takeaways or meals out every night. For one, I'd believe, for all of them? I think someone is having a laugh.

Actually my post only mentions this for the 2nd and 3rd couple. There is, however, a link. There seems to be a general a general trend among what seems to be a significant section of young people to both have an inability to budget and prioritise spending, and to expect everything now. The ethos seems to be, 'why should I bother planning a meal/cooking/working out a budget for food - I can just buy a takeaway - nevermind that I haven't paid the rent'.

Olias

catieeb06

I wish to interject.

I'm only 21 and every month when I get paid I plan my budget. I budget for food, for rent, for my mobile etcetc. I even budget for my driving lessons.

Anything left I have fun with. Which may involve a takeaway or two per month. Or a DVD etc but that's it.

I take care not to rack up any debt that cannot be paid off at the end of the month.

oldnewstudent

Hi there,
I would just like to say that as a 30yr old mum of three who lives with her disabled partner on benefits (boo hiss i know) that this matter is not age related. I believe that most of the problem is that everything is too easy these days and that people are not expected to take responsibility for themselves. We have as a couple just finished repaying nearly £25000 worth of debt which was accrued due to our own stupidity and was re payed by my self working part time and looking after three young children and a lot of hard work and commitment on the behalf of myself and my partner to live within our means and prioritising our debts first before ourselves. We as a couple knew that however easy it would have been to declare ourselves bankrupt it was never an option for us clearing our debts has been the best thing we've ever done together and we feel tighter as a couple due to this. I am now half way through a degree course as i intend to repay my debt to society by earning my own money and paying my taxes (argh) :j
Oldnewstudent

Absinthe_Fairy

I don't think it's fair to put it down as an age thing. I'm 24 and a couple of years ago I was chatting at work with my then manager (who was in her sixties) about paying off my graduate overdraft (I hasten to add I had savings as well, so could have paid it off straight away if I'd wanted), and she said "Don't worry, everyone lives in their overdraft". :eek:

Most people I worked with seemed to feel the same.