Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Yes, Blackcats, I think you & I actually seem to have operated quite similar (non) systems regarding money, back in the day. I lived in constant dread of my card being 'stopped', especially in the 2nd half of the month, but always blamed the bank for this misfortune, calling them all the (unprintable) names under the sun for their sheer scroogeyness of spirit.
F x

welshspendthrift

@Blackcats and @foxgloves your stories really resonate ! I used to look at what credit I had left as spending money .. that scares me now that I thought that way!  So much spending on wants rather than need, being far too generous with DD , spending on food takeaways and holidays that I really couldn’t afford! Looking forward to holidays in the future which are saved for, even if it is a tent / camping holiday ! 

foxgloves

Welshspendthrift - Yes, exactly that! We used to be the same, especially Mr F before we combined our finances. If we were thinking of buying some or other large item, I'd ask him how much money he'd got & he would answer in terms of available credit. So '"Yeah, we' ll buy it. I've got about £400" would invariably mean he simply had £400 left on a card before hitting his credit limit. What a ridiculous way to go on! The credit boom in recent decades normalised such thinking & did people no favours in terms of understanding the difference between 'wants' & 'needs'.
F x

foxgloves

.... & in other news. Braved the scales for the first time since the Spring. 
OH. MY. SWEET. GOODNIGHT!!!!!!!
3 X lockdowns, 1 x Christmas, Way too much baking.......
It's official.
I have turned into a sofa. 
F 😕😕😕😕😕😕😕

Four_Seasons

You and me both!! x

DawnW

Me too!  Hoping to feel more motivated to do something about it when the weather improves.

Blackcats

I took my watch off when I last weighed myself to try to reduce weight but I don't think it made much difference 🙄

Humdinger1

foxgloves said:

Still thinking about bad habits during The Spendy Decades........ I was never tempted by expensive designer gear, so none of my debt involved £800 handbags or shoes. I have always considered these overpriced nonsense. My problem was consistently overspending my income on lots of smaller things twinned with zero interest in budgeting. Having no savings put the cherry on the debt cake because as we all know now that we are sensible, no emergency fund means that emergencies will be dealt with via borrowing. It's that classic toxic mix. Frittering £50 at the garden centre, on a new top, a top-up shop, a takeaway with a couple of bottles of wine, a few fancy bits & pieces for the home, a DVD multi-offer with a couple of paperbacks......it was the sheer persistence of these purchases which built the debt. Do it 4 times (& I could do that in a week or even one city centre trip) & that's £200 gone. Do it another 4 times, that's £400...... & even though I worked full time, this behaviour then builds to the sort of deficit which it isn't possible to claw back with a month of economies. Yes, those regular £50 fritters were dangerous because of their frequency. £50 didn't feel like a lot of money. It wasn't. But multiply it by 10 such fritters & that is £500 completely & utterly gone......as had my salary by the middle of every single month, from exactly this behaviour!
F x

@foxgloves may I chip in here with my (now mercifully paid-off) mountain of debt story?! So, I started as so many of us do with a growing idea that because I had a well paid job that fed my sense of importance and blossomingego,  I deserved anything and everything I liked the look of.  Back then, 25 years ago, I was in sales - sadly, one of the careers most suited to encouraging entitled jaunts to enable living in fantasyland.  A cunning wheeze was to pay work expenses on a credit card but keep the repaid expenses in my current account.   I built up a credit card bill of 20k not once, not twice but THREE times...and even then I didn't have my lightbulb moment.  That came about 8 years ago when 2 clients went bust, bouncing cheques worth 100k on me.  I was relying on that money to run and grow my business.   Rather than go bust myself, I paid it all back. That was plainly the size of the lesson I needed.  Now I've changed career entirely; though making far less money,  never spend what I can't pay back in the interest free period on credit; have a reassuringly large EF; most importantly, have my feet on the ground. Being now married to a sensible man who's still wearing shirts bought secondhand 30 years ago has helped enormously but I do think that you have to be ready for the LBM before you can have it.  I'm not interested in impressing anyone with external possessions (never was actually but that led to so many arguments with Ex husband) and am so grateful to you and similarly minded travellers here.  If the pandemic had happened 10 years ago, what a mess I'd have been in.  I'd have been up there with Boris! 

Pixiehouse55

Helloo Mrs f and gang. Vaccine done last Wednesday. Achiness in my legs Thursday afternoon and a headache. Friday Saturday and Sunday arm heavy and achy. Apart from that all fine,
Well I am very happy as apart from our mortgage ive got our credit cards and store card paid off. So  happy, I never thought I would get to this stage with all debts paid, such an amazing feeling. Will now start paying the money that was clearing credit cards on to our mortgage.😊😊.  Touch wood John still OK. In next Wednesday for the next Dialitation.  Indo hope itvworks as he is getting fed up of liquidised food bless him. Take care everyday and keep safe. We have to still stay safe for 22 days after having the vaccine. 2nd vaccine in April  xx

foxgloves

It must feel like a positive step to have had the vaccine, Pixiehouse. Goodness knows when we'll get ours. Mr F has been re-designated as 'keyworker' but isn't expecting to be vaccinated any sooner. I'm a few years older than him, so am in a slightly higher priority group.
Brilliant news on having cleared all your debt. It does feel like an annoying weight off one's shoulders when it's gone, doesn't it? I'm sure snowballing that money into mortgage overpayments will be worthwhile.
F x