What's Changed?

Swinstie73

Great thread Squirrel. I agree with all the other posts and would like to add that everything nowadays is just to 'easy' to get. Not only are people getting into debt more but things that have changed can also be applied i.e. putting on weight.

Years ago, yeah some people were overweight but most people had a very frugal eating style and were generally slimmer than they are these days, what I've noticed and would love to go back to is that we would have a Chinese meal once a month for a treat, we'd have turkey with trimmings at Christmas, steak pie at New Year, Haggis (cos I'm Scottish) for Burns Day, my Mum would make us home-made chips and wrap them in newspaper. Now, everything is available whenever, wherever you want it. Remember when shops used to be closed on a Sunday, even on Boxing Day (I think they did anyway), now shops are practically open 24/7.

Frugal is the way forward..

MilneBay

Really interesting thread.

Aside from everything already mentioned, i would suggest the following:

1) Shopping as a hobby - it is common for young girls (and probably lads nowadays) to spend their Saturday afternoons as teenagers trawling round the shops, then as we get older it is a coffee with friends, then the shops, then lunch etc, etc. All the time encouraging us to spend (now very thankful that I've never seen this as an appealign way to spend a day!)

2) Student loans. The first taste of financial freedom and living away from home come with being handed a credit card and a large (interest free) overdraft, not to mention the student loan to fund study costs. I've noticed many threads on here talk about getting into debt from student days when suddenly the interest kicks in on the overdraft and they find themselves shelling out £2 a day just to cover it. But I think aside from the practical side of repaying student debt, psychologically it gets you used to the big debt numbers at a young age and having a £20,000 student debt is 'just one of those things everyone has' therefore borrowing a bit more after you graduate seems the norm.

Just grateful for this site. Reading people's experiences of debt and how easy it is to get into trouble has really opened my eyes and I'm starting to make more of a provision for redundancy, changes in circumstances etc so thank you DFWs for all the great advice readily available on here. MB