What is your most embarrassing financial confession?

On_a_mission23

Mine's got to be using my credit card like a cash point, it started just a £100 here and there and before I knew it there was £6000 on there. And what's worse is there's nothing to show for it, I spent it on absolutely nothing.

LianneH

all of the above, but a few that stick with me out of the others....

I remember telling my mum that I wasn't going to stay for dinner that I had something in the fridge, all I had that night was cheese on toast - to proud to admit it!

I also remember going to a friends birthday party and pretending that I had forgot her card and present, I couldn't afford to buy something til pay day! (probably could afford it then either!).

Good thread... I feel cleansed now!

Vikipollard

Running up £10k credit/loan debts without OH knowing, having to 'fess up and him being guarantor to the loan my bank gave me pending payout from my divorce. All good so far?

Except that on the payout from my divorce and pay off of the loan, I let my bank persuade me to keep a £4k loan (why...I was still £8k in the black..?). Fast forward a mere 3 years, and my credit card is maxed out, and I've rearranged my loan with the bank to £7.5k. I had circa £20k debts which OH did not know about. Telling him was, as you would imagine, a moment I would like erased from memory.

5 years and two months down the line of my 6 year IVA now...

Naomim

Inheriting £45k at 18 and by the age of 37 nothing to show for it and in debt.

I did buy a car and have a couple of holidays but nothing extravagent then.. no idea what I did with it:eek:

Naomi x

SOT2011

Mine was when I remortgaged my old house to replace the original draughty and rotten excuse for a conservatory.

The new conservatory wasn't a bad buy as it definitely helped me sell the property when I wanted to, the embarrassing thing was that I added a few thousand extra to the remortgage so I could "treat myself a bit".

Totally unnecessary spends quickly followed and that money was all gone in no time, with nothing to show for it except I am in effect still paying for it on the mortgage so I dread to think how much that silly spending will end up costing me!

PM1CAS

When my son was six weeks old and I was off work I rang up a well know hair/trichology centre in London and paid £1000 for a treatment they ad previously quoted me for!! It included quite a few visits but didn't work.

I also took cash out on a credit card just to have some cash in my pocket and to buy a chinese on a Friday night!!!!


I'm cringing now...

buffster_2

As others have said, I took out loans to clear credit cards and then maxed out the credit cards again. I never really had to worry about making the payments, but circumstances meant I has to get debt free by the end of this year which I did.

But I can remember sitting in a boring lecture in college 20 years ago doing hand written calculations (no excel spreadsheets then!) working out how to pay off a ridiculously high APR loan. 20 tears later, that's me debt free and realising that with the amount I managed to pay off his year I could've had a relatively new car or paid off half my mortgage!

i'm another one who has nothing to show for what I've spent. I would run up parking tickets, not pay them and then end up paying 3 times the original fine when the council passed the debt on. So, so stupid!

Plumjam

Two come to mind.

1. Getting my first ever credit card to buy bits for my first ever flat. First thing I bought was an exercise bike which I never used.

2. Letting a friend book a foreign holiday which I couldn't afford. I bought clothes on a store card and then took them back to get the cash (in the old days before they refunded to the card) to pay her for the holiday. Then did the same all over again to get spending money for the holiday. That 2 weeks cost £250 for the holiday and £250 in spending money. Dread to think how much it cost me in real terms.

Mort

A useful thread?

Bump

Giraffeseeker

Booking a holiday on a whim for me a 2 sons, then a few months later changing my mind and booking a holiday with OH and his kids for the same week, thinking I'd *just* lose the £125 deposit on the first holiday, but actually, I hadn't read the T&C's properly and I had to pay out £700 for a holiday I never actually took. When the last installment of £80 bounced on my CC x 3 times, they wrote and said they'd not persue it as I had paid the rest off and I was obviously in financial difficulties. AND even then it still took me 5 months to have my LBM