Has BR changed your life?

Legacy_user

Hi peeps,

Im just wondering here, for those of you that have gone bankrupt, has it had a positive affect on you. Ie Are you a different person than you where before ? Has it had unexpected positive or negative side effects ?

Again, just intrigued to know

savagevixen

I am not a different person, but life is so much better and we are much more careful with money.

wherediditallgo

I'm not a different person as such, but I do look at life differently. I've never been one to keep up with the Jones', but now I really do look at my spending & I don't worry if I can't afford to buy what friends have or go where they go. It's more important to me to have peace of mind than to have a home cluttered with things I hardly ever use, or a purse full of credit cards. Before going BR, almost every letter at my home that was addressed to me was in some way about debt. Now almost every letter is a freebie I've sent off for & forgotten about. It's a good feeling.

madoldbat

No Im not a changed person but like Savagevixen and WDIAG I can relax knowing Im in controle of money not the other way around.I am in no great rush to get credit again.Spent most of my adult life coping and paying and having nothing to show for it but sleepless nights and Prozac.
So now its old fashioned save to buy anything out of the ordinery after a lot of thought and do we realy need it or just whant it.
We explained to the kids rite from the start what was going on and involved them in our new decision making.We whant them to understand and controle their money not go mad when the first tempting offer drops on the mat for their 18th birthday:mad:

PixiePie

madoldbat wrote: »

We want them to understand and controle their money not go mad when the first tempting offer drops on the mat for their 18th birthday:mad:

Having not had this from my parents (not that I'm blaming them, children don't come with a guide book after all), it's the one thing I will do so so differently if/when I have children - now we're in a world that has credit as a matter of course and it's no big thing (unfortunately) being the thinking, there is no way I want any child of mine to go through what I have - if I can save them from debt hopefully the rest won't be a problem. In this country if you have nothing I truely believe you can still get somewhere (if not as far as it used to be), if you're in debt you are totally and utterly scuppered on every front...

tallyb1

I am a lot more careful with money, I wish I had known some of the tips from this site when I was in a position to actually do things with my money. Most importantly i've learnt that when you borrow a large sum of money i.e a professional studies loan of 20k on the back of finishing my degree you can never guarantee what the future holds and you should never presume you can pay it back - anything can happen, for me it was illness, from now on if I want something I save rather than borrow.
The disadvantages are bigger than I thought: not been able to have gas/elec accounts, being unable to rent a house through an agency, the obvious such as lack of credit and ability to get on the housing ladder without a very large deposit
However its a relief to get NO post from financial companies, to be in credit, to be restricted when buying for example over the net (No credit card)
Without my supportive family and friends I wouldnt be here, such was the extent of the illness and now the effects of being unwell i.e the bankruptcy
The worst thing was the shame I feel towards my family who have worked hard all there lives hardly using credit, they dont say anything but I know they are upset

allofadither

BR hasn't changed me as a person, but it made me face up to a very uncomfortable aspect of my life...debt. I've not felt any real negative impact of being BR, but then I've not had to own up to it....yet.

I'll be honest and say that the hardest part for us as a family now is living without credit. I was very good at robbing peter to pay paul and credit cards made that easy to do.

Our post BR budget is extremely tight and whilst we've done all we can to trim down outgoings and increase income it's hard going. Going BR hasn't made life any easier really, it's just made us live within our means (if that makes sense).

NekoZombie

Yes, I'd say the same as dither. I've found that BR has forced me to be very careful with money - scarily I still run short every month and spend a couple of days living on baked beans. Tempted as I am to blame my OR for being tight, I just need to live within my means - I'm hoping BR will eventually teach me this lesson. I'm half way there, I'd say.

wherediditallgo

Hi Neko,

Has your sister paid back any of that money she borrowed from you & your nan yet?

That's one of the things going BR has definitely taught me - I've learned to say "no" more, not just to myself but to others too. I don't go into the nitty gritty of why I don't want to spend/give/loan the money, I just say "Sorry, I can't afford it" & move on to something else.

NekoZombie

Hi wdiag

the short answer: NO.

the long answer: No, because the bank have taken away her overdraft. :rolleyes:

Like I didn't see that one coming