Borrowing to soar at Christmas

lemonjelly

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8385958.stm

According to save the children at least.

What concerns me the most, is that it is reported that borrowing will be to cover things like warm clothing, fuel bills, & food :eek:

Now, the warm clothing I'm less convinced about ( wear the same stuff, but several layers. That's what I do).

Fuel bills feel like they have been creeping up, & to me that appears to show no signs of abating. I think the higher heating costs will be a bit surprising this winter.

Food :eek:

Is this because of debts being paid off? Or because the money is being spent elsewhere?

Particularly worrying is that it is heavily implied that people in this situation will turn towards the high % lenders, thus incurring higher costs.

Thoughts?

abaxas

Went to the pub last night.

Someone was complaining about earning £200 pw and not being able to get by. Sadly he was on to his 3rd pint.

Sympathy was hard to find.

PasturesNew

abaxas wrote: »

Went to the pub last night.

Someone was complaining about earning £200 pw and not being able to get by. Sadly he was on to his 3rd pint.

Sympathy was hard to find.

I'm on about £9k and doing fine ... I wasn't down the pub ... case proven.

PasturesNew

The issue I have with these "surveys" is they are just answers to questions, without substantiation. Ask anybody if they'll struggle and they might say yes. Get an SOA from them and for a lot you'll see why.

A lot aren't struggling through lack of money, but from poor budgeting and overspending on non-essentials.

kabayiri

The whole concept of Christmas may make sense on a religious front, but it is less watertight on an financial basis.

All the TV advertising is about inducing a short-term feel good factor. There is definitely a feel of "sod it, just enjoy the festivities now, and worry about paying for it later".

Against this backdrop it is little wonder that the harsh realities of budgeting get pushed aside.

inspector_monkfish

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm on about £9k and doing fine ... I wasn't down the pub ... case proven.

i'd be down the pub everynight if i was on £9k a week :eek:

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

The whole concept of Christmas may make sense on a religious front, but it is less watertight on an financial basis.

.

The religious concept of christmas rarely comes into it, but if it did we would see that spending is not mandatory.

It would be interesting to know, not that we ever could, how those who regularly attend church fare in comparison to general poplace on Christmas debt. Or how many people who go into painful debt at Christmas attend Christmas service, for example.

The forecast is for a wet, mild winter. wet is certainly so far proving true, mild will help a lot of people if it follows this prediction.

kabayiri

lostinrates wrote: »

It would be interesting to know, not that we ever could, how those who regularly attend church fare in comparison to general poplace on Christmas debt. Or how many people who go into painful debt at Christmas attend Christmas service, for example.

My kids are already in for a shock!

Christmas morning service at a local church, followed by helping out preparing for some gathering they have lined up in the hall next door.

It will do them good, and make us all appreciate the day a bit more.

lemonjelly

lostinrates wrote: »

The religious concept of christmas rarely comes into it, but if it did we would see that spending is not mandatory.

It would be interesting to know, not that we ever could, how those who regularly attend church fare in comparison to general poplace on Christmas debt. Or how many people who go into painful debt at Christmas attend Christmas service, for example.

The forecast is for a wet, mild winter. wet is certainly so far proving true, mild will help a lot of people if it follows this prediction.

The concept of christmas has been ridiculously skewed.

The problem with such surveys is we don't know how the questions were phrased, or the social breakdown of those who were surveyed. Bet you'd get slightly different answers from a survey of middle managers earning £35k+.

What bothers me about these survey results is the following:

1 Turning to lenders who give credit at the high end of charges/interest

2 it is implied that it has to be done for necessities.

3 (& most worrying) is the denial by some of their own ability to cope or manage. Though food/fuel costs may have risen, it is unlikely that in reality borrowing needs to occur for these factors.
Socially we're now too quick to apportion blame elsewhere. Borrowing is likely to happen at christmas this year due to a combination of greed (I/we want x, y & z) and/or the assumption that the good times have to go on. It is like we can't have a good time/holiday without spending ridiculous amounts.

Well, I'm making everyone a calender this year, like we did at school! So there!:D

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

My kids are already in for a shock!

Christmas morning service at a local church, followed by helping out preparing for some gathering they have lined up in the hall next door.

It will do them good, and make us all appreciate the day a bit more.

I hope you have a lovely day I'm sure it will be.

I think the idea of a fmaily centric day of love and no shopping etc is very valuable indeed, but it doesn't have to be Christmas day, or once a year, or all about over eating and too many gifts to recall in a list when you get back to school.

Peelerfart

I don't understand why people keep bringing up religion at Christmas time !.

I'm off to CSL and DFS to see If can borrow money to buy lots of sofas,
nothing down and four years to pay WOW, now that's what Christmas is about.