What Have You Got That I Haven't?

ceridwen

Well - at least mine wasnt down to me so to say. Is that a consolation or a curse? - not sure. It was because I bought an old dump of a house (dump as it was - I had to scrape for every last penny literally to get it). I did the rewiring and kitchen and ran out of money at that point - but the house still needed £thousands YESTERDAY - roofs dont hang around and wait for when its convenient to replace them for instance! So it was the house - coupled with getting lumbered with having a paycut. Like I said, I dont know whether to regard it in a positive light or no - that at least it wasnt down to my own stupidity spending on consumer goodies I couldnt afford (as I havent done that much spending on consumer goodies - holidays! what are they? - had very few of them for instance).



So - in 2 words - my debt boils down to one thing "poor salary". The only consolation to that one is that I've had to become so good with money because of that factor that, once the debt is paid off (any second now at last) that I will almost be left wondering how best to use the freed-up salary I will have.

I am personally very good with money (could be better - rate myself as 9 out of 10 on that front) and I have never taken over anyone else's debt (my mind boggles at the thought of doing that!).

Badger_Lady

Mine was caused by paying someone else's living expenses:

I fell in love with an older man who suffered from depression (he had been healthy at the beginning of the relationship). He lost his job, refused to see a Doctor and therefore couldn't claim any kind of welfare / benefits.

I was only 19 at the time and working 40 hours a week on top of full-time university (which I eventually had to quit); I had no luxuries or extravangances, and remember collapsing in tears at a supermarket once when we had nothing to eat and my Debit card was declined. So I got a credit card. Then I got another one. And then another one...

I finally started paying everything off when I kicked him out 3 years later - somehow life was a lot less expensive! Plus, with advancing years came more work experience and higher wages - I'm now earning literally double what I was earning then, with half as many people to pay for :-)

Triker

My debt was accrued mainly for two area's firstly and the largest area was day to day living expenses, food, petrol, childcare, clothes for children and us (George and Matalan-sale stuff- though not Next and Marks and Sparks), car, education (6 years at uni with 2 children isn't cheap). Oh and mortgage.

The second area is luxuries so there have been 3 foreign holidays over the last 7 years (all taken in school holidays when prices are very high), car loan so I could travel the 100 round trip to get to work daily in a fairly decent car, christmas and birthdays and quite a few meals out. Also doing up my house in order to sell so we can pay off the debts.

To show for it, well nothing really, memories of the holidays, I suppose. Oh and my degree and other qualifications.

Gemmzie

The depressing thing is we have nothing to show for it except maybe a few bits of DIY on the house and my parent's cars. The rest just comes from living on a fantasy income amount and the two years when my father wasn't working.

My debts from buying a car, health costs and learning to drive.

immoral_angeluk

What have you got that I haven't?

A whole heap of debt, financial worries, stress, ridiculous monthly outgoings....

Shineyhappy

Why am I up to my ears in debt? Well the OD and ccs on signature were due to uni/ex bf but then as I had paid a lot of it off, I needed to find 2k quick to pay off exs non payment of the mortgage and 10k to buy him out, so I guess my answer is a 2 bed flat and getting an idiot out of my life for good.... priceless I would say

Idiophreak

I've got a couple of degrees, a nice car and some debt that I've built up just trying to have some sort of life whilst paying back the first two

newlywed

Ok - nothing much really,

New shoes (too often), new clothes, leather jacket, lots of CD's (about £80+ a month on that), going to gigs, festivals, beach holidays, ski holidays (sometimes a ski hol and beach hol in same year), buying jewellery, eating out, petrol, days out, weekends away, presents, M&S food for lunch each day, books, more clothes, etc etc.

Then I got married and suddenly had to pay all the bills as OH had no work, had to buy all the food and (having lived with my parents) had no real idea how to do budget food shop (didn't pay enough attention to my mum's shop as she always does budget). Didn't meal plan so food was wasted.

Had to take out cash on cc to pay the rent so we wouldn't lose the flat, credit cards to pay the petrol (or I couldn't get to work) and credit for the food or else we couldn't afford to eat and feed his kids.

So really, just overspending, bad planning and having no idea of how to budget effectively and absolutely no idea how much all the cards added up to altogether.

fistfullofdollars

I'm sorry but the OP does seem quite smug. However, it is a good question.

Me: University, then setting up home without going back to the parents. 100% bad money management in the first 4 years since graduating! My fault for putting my head in the sand for so long. It should have been paid back by now but as others have said... other things come up. Now I have control of my finances things have really started to look up. I've paid 19.9% of my debt off since my LBM (May '07) purely from my salary alone. I had ebayed stuff before my LBM to make ends meet. Havent got anything to ebay now.

Living within my salary is one, but I'm so fortunate that I have been able to maintain my debts and not have the hassle of charges, and DCAs. I burried my head in the sand about an unused Lloyds TSB O/D for 4 years. I thought it would have been sold to a DCA but it haddnt. God knows why not. To scared to find out. It wasn't at its limit but just nothing much paid in. I was very lucky and only found out my accident. Dad opened a statement as the statements had been going to the parents addy since uni. That was deffo the trigger to getting lots of piddly debts tide up and a hunt for the best rates.

I know I'm paying interest, but I want the security of LOB rates, not tart around.

Gone are the Lloyds o/d, Egg, Barclayloan and Barclays o/d. I only owe money to 2 creditors now (excluding the mortgage). Telling my wife the true amount also has given me a big kick in the bum and keeps me on the straight and narrow.

Sorting out my finances has meant we could buy our 1st house together without taking on ANY more unsecured debt. Stupid thing was we had 10% house deposit in savings. The good lady wife is totally unsecure debt free. My goal is to be the same.

Re the OP. Its doesnt matter how you got here (i.e. the past), its what you are going to do to sort it out. Also, learning from the journey to become DF.