How did you get into debt

steve700

My debt was at its highest about 4.5 years ago when I took out a £22,000 (incl. interest) car loan, whilst already having a couple of grand on Credit Cards.

I've been able to pay it back as planned but it is so much nicer now, knowing that the car (which I intend to keep as I've already suffered the loan interest and depreciation ) is paid off and I just have my kitchen to pay for.

£4760 and counting down...............;)

In_Search_Of_Me

steve700 wrote: »

I wouldn't have the heart (or the nerve!!) to treat a girl like that;)

Very good to hear it - he sounds like a right one!! You just keep on as you are then!!

In_Search_Of_Me

Pure stupidity in my case! Managed to get through uni (5 years of it!) relatively unscathed by working through and then got a well paid job & just went nuts!! Didnt budget at all & just got what I wanted. Got a very cheap flat (now mort to the hilt!) and just kept increasing mort, taking out loans, colsolodating until I realised that CC repayments (minimiums of course!) were a bit tight. Tried to get another loan & was refused and had my sickening "oh sh@t" lighbulb moment. Cried for 2 days. Paid off over £6000 (with just over £1000 left on CC) and then lost it again (felt secure but shattered!)...I'm back again & right on track (see diary!). Its been a rollercoaster ride but great to share the ride with people who get it!

ltm07

Hi,my debts started in 1999 after splitting from my ex. I bought a house for £34k & put down a deposit of £1700. Trouble was i was trying to live life as though i was still at my parents! After living at my new house for about 6 months i met my current partner,who i am still with. She was also struggling as a single mum with a part time job. We were together for 3 years before we decided to sell my house for £60k & moving into our current home together,which cost £75k. By this time we had about 10k in debt between us & instead of paying the debt off with some of the profit from my last house,we decided to live like King & Queen on the 10k that we were supposed to pay our debts with! Went on 4 holidays that year & a massive shopping spree in London! We have had alot of work done on our house & i worked everything out a couple of months ago & to my horror we were £34k in debt! We've managed to get it down to £32,666 & i have signed up to the whatsthecost.com website,thanks to another poster on here. My take home pay is £265pw & my partner's is £809pm. Worked everything out & we can just cover everything. Luckily i can do plenty of overtime,but at the same time it's all work & no play & we are in a situation where if i do too many hours then i'm tired & ratty all the time & if i don't do many then we're more or less skint for the month! I will post my soa on here one day this week as i have a busy afternoon ahead of me. All the best & it's nice to be able to chat to people who are in a similar situation.

Penny2myName

Furnishing houses. plain and simple. Ran up catalogue to furnish the kid's dad's home, when i left I only took the cot and the debts i has ran up with me. Had to furnish and carpet own place then, most was done through a social fund I will openly admit. 18mths and two break ins later my mum talked me into moving closer to home as with three young children and two break ins within a fortnight she was worried for me. So I took a high door to door lender loan so i could pay for a deposit and 1st months rent on private. Gave up my council house and moved to present village. Got a job covered cost of evrything, then council sold the land from beneath my employer (truck stop cafe thing). She's out of a business, we're all out of a job and I'm back on the dole, in the mean time i had just moved into a new council house that was coal fire. Spent a year getting it how i wanted, had paid off the extersion loan, and I had a house fire ( no insurance). Replace all furniture again as everything was smoked damaged/clothes/toys/soft furnishings. Ran up a few peoples catalogues to the hilt. finally last year only had about £500 left on my own catalogue, everything else was cleared, was working full time and decided i finally wanted solid decent furniture not flat pack will last two years stuff (plus kids respect furniture more) got myself a whole new bedroom EVERYTHING wallpaper furniture carpets the lot. (due to start paying it in Feb 08 but its included in debt total) couple of months later thinking how nice my bedroom was looking, took a walk into DFS Dinning for a table and chairs i have wanted for last 5 years on my birthday £800 just under, yeah can deal with this, only just over £1000 was my thoughts. Unfortunately as i was killing time whilst DD was having her kick boxing grading me and son went into the other DFS showroom the suite one. One very expensive sofa later. I managed to go in one day from £500ish debt to just under £6k, So every day the three main rooms I go into I see my debt, and use my debt. Unfortunately i then had to give work up back in Feb which is what has made things so tight for me, so kids no longer do martial arts or swimming.
I am using alot of the DFW challenges to teach me to save, so then i wont relie on credit as i will have the money there for anything I need (two bedrooms and lots of carpets still).

snowy1961

:beer: 6 years ago I was homeless, addicted to drugs & booze and on the edge of a mental breakdown. I spent 18 months in recovery- got myself clean & well, signed off the sick and got myself a job.
Instead of helping me make this transition our social security system is the reason for my debt, they overpaid my benefit, (housing, council tax) to the tune of £2.400, thanks guys- I was only earning £160 a week & I struggled big time, frequently choosing between petrol or food, my wieght went down to 6 stone - had to run round in the shower to get wet- I changed jobs, worked 13 weeks without a day off & collapsed thro' exhaustion,back on the bloody sick again, but not for long, picked myself up and got another job- hey hey - they overpaid again, £800 this time.
I've been doing this job for 3yrs & I love it,:rotfl: I'll be out of debt by November.
Its taken me longer to solve my debt problem than it did to beat my addictions!

Quincifer

Funnily enough I first got into debt by working in a bank!
You get special staff deals so I was a bit blinded by a bargain when I took out a loan for £1000 (stupid amount I know, shouldn't have ever bothered). Then I got a credit card to earn myself referral points at work towards commission haha! Then when I moved I needed to pay three months rent in advance to the tune of £700-ish and help pay of my fella's uni tuition fees (£500) so increased my overdraft from £100 to £1500 (god knows why I did it this much).
It was only then that I realised I had no will power to actually pay it all off. I kept paying off my credit card and chunks of my O/D but then going back into it again. It has been like this for about 3 years.
Decided in february that the best thing for me was to consolidate because then I have no choice and can't dip back into it!
Am currently saving towards paying it off early too, fingers crossed!
xxx

SarahNeedle1872

Easy for me..... Pre LBM - took on some of OH's debt and spent on CC. Moved into unfurnished rented house, so £5k loan for deposit/furniture/consolidation, then put another £3.5 k on CC, and used £500 OD.
Post LBM - saving at high interest to pay off 0% CC and OD using challenges/money savings advice from here. Long live Martin, MSE and the ladies and gents who frequent this forum!:beer:

Sarah x

kezia

Several years ago we took a bank loan out for a car and a computer. Then we were offered a bigger loan to pay off the first loan and and buy a few bits for the house. At the same time the bank offered us a c/c which we rather stupidly accepted. That was the start of a rather steep hill of debt mostly involving us taking out a loan to pay stuff off before spending on the c cards all over again :mad:

Still we learnt our lesson and are working towards paying our debts off with the great ideas and inspiring stories you guys post.

Debby_2

Hi Laura,

I just thought I would share how I have got into debt. I think it was when we moved into a bigger house and the mortgage payments were rising pretty fast around 1985/6. We were both managing to work but not earning enough to cover all the costs and were offered a credit card. It helped us to stay in our home but then I fell pregnant with our second child and had to give up work as childcare costs were more than I could earn and you didn't get help then.

We have always struggled and I reckon it has been because we are around £3000 short in wages each year. I have always kept it a secret from my husband. He left the finances to me. I used to spend money on the children and say it was from my sister or other family members but I never ever splashed out. My husband was made redundant and he was given £1000 pay. We bought a touring caravan and to this day that is how we holiday. It's a bit delapidated now but we still manage to have fun in it.

But it got worse when my children went to university. My son managed to get student loans so is in debt to the tune of 8,000 even after me paying for his car after selling our home. That was the 3rd time we had bailed him out. Another reason is paying for my daughter to live in a flat in london She is doing a drama degree. She got a scholarship but her living costs are paid by us (We earn 32,000 between us just above the threshold). Luckily she doesn't have any debt because we pay it all but it is a struggle and now we don't have our own home and are living in rented accommodation the options are getting smaller as we have no collateral to see us through.

I'm hoping that when they finish university (both have 1 year left) we will then be able to start paying something off alot quicker but it is getting me down now and I am too ashamed to ask for help.

I read everything on this website and tried to apply for a credit card swap but they refused and I think it was because we have only been in this house for 6 months and I have a feeling the last tenants were bad payers so we have a bit of a record to clear before we can even do that. My whole wages goes on the credit card bills and my daughters rent and food. My husbands pays for everything else.

He now knows about the debt and feels he is also to blame for leaving me to struggle. We are thinking about cashing in the endowment we had on the house to pay a chunk off but wonder if we should struggle for 5 more years when it matures anyway. We may get a bit more and have enough to pay off everything. Another avenue to explore I suppose.

Anyway thats it really. Suggestions would be nice if you have similar problems to me.

O Foolish One