Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Humdinger - That's an interesting story. Yes, there was a lot of 'entitlement' around regarding status, spending & debt. I wasn't interested in 'keeping up with the Joneses' - I think I'm too much of a Lefty for that, but I definitely had more than a touch of 'I've studied hard for my degrees, I earn a professional salary, I should definitely buy this..... & this..... & this...... oh & a lot more of this too, while I' m at it'. None of that would have been a problem had I kept my spending to my own money. It was the fact that I had routinely run out of that by mid-month EVERY month.
The important thing, Humdinger, is that you put in the hard yards paying it back, have learned your lesson & won't return to those behaviours. I just couldn't return to my old bad habits now. I value the security of having a decent emergency fund far too much to let things slide.
F x

carrielovesfanta

Blackcats said:

Oh yes indeed I'm a veteran of far too many public sector meetings.  I like the "straw man" agenda that you described but you haven't allowed time for creating your mission statement and team values proposition 😱.  The best/worst ice breaker I ever experienced was being given a tub of pink play dough and being asked to sculpt something we dreamed of .... well I'll say no more but I was on a table of very naughty ladies who did not approach the task in a very mature way.  

foxgloves said:

Lol, Blackcats. I was once given a pile of craft materials at a training corse & told to create something which represented how I saw the future of a particular initiative. I duly delivered a collage of somebody flogging a dead horse. I don't think it did my career a lot of good, to be honest, but it felt very liberating.
F x

Late to the party here but just caught up with these gems
@Blackcats - it would have been my reaction to playdough certainly

foxgloves

Hellooooo Tuesday Frugalistas,
Have felt a bit lacklustre all day.....not a lot of energy, ever so slightly headachey. Was just starting to convince myself I must be going down with something or other, when I realised that this is none other than a reaction to cutting down on sugar, unnecessary food, etc, as it is Day 2 of tackling my multi-lockdown metamorphosis into a sofa. I always feel like this for a few days before the positive effects of healthier eating kick in. That being said, I haven't exactly been sitting around. So far, I've done two loads of laundry, with a 3rd load just undergoing an extra spin, I've turned the sevilles I prepared yesterday into 9 nice cheery jars of marmalade & while that was pre-cooking, I prepped the fruit for the 2nd batch which is now soaking overnight, ready for cooking & jamming tomorrow. I've done a bit of admin - really with a view to being nicely up to date for tomorrow, which is my Big Budget Day. I've ordered two birthday gifts - one is more expensive than usual as it's for an 18th, but I have sufficient money saved in our Present Pot, so that's fine. I've also cashed out of two survey sites, one for a £5 J*hn Lewis voucher & one for a £10. I chose these as I know I will be getting at least £15 of JL reward vouchers from my 'just for points' credit card, next time they pay out, so it seemed sensible to maximise those, rather than have small amounts from several places. 
We have postponed our home improvements project until we feel more confident about having people in & out of our home, but we do have a garden job which needs doing. It concerns a boundary, so I've discussed it with our new neighbour & we are going to go halves on the cost. I've been in touch with our local 'go to' gardener to request a quote. If it can be done, halving the cost will obviously be a positive.
It's a dull old day here today. The pond & bird bath have barely thawed. The birds scoffed their mealworms really early & hung around forlornly in the hope of pudding. Only our blackbirds seemed pleased when this tuned out to be apple cores.
Started a new audiobook today - a crime novelist I like, so will crack on with that shortly as I am going to do a round-up of any salady bits which need using up, to serve with fajhitas tonight. I am doing veggie ones, using black beans, cheese & peppers, onions, garlic & home made fajhita spice mix. I think I might have enough cabbage & carrots lurking to make a bit of coleslaw too.
Then tonight, it will be sitting by the stove watching a bit of TV, reading & knitting another square for my blanket (44/144).
OK, off to get that last load of laundry onto the heated airer.
Stay cosy all. I've got my big cardi on today as it's a chilly one.
F x

Sun_Addict

I did laugh at the thought of you turning into a sofa 🤣 You won’t be the only one looking to shift lockdown pounds, there’ll be a fair few going down that route. At least you’re tackling it head on now. Sounds like you have a very cosy evening in store.

IzzyBee

Another one chuckling at you turning into a sofa good luck we can only but try have a cosy evening 

Pixiehouse55

foxgloves said:

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

Yes I feel so different now its all cleared. I think it one stage it was topping £20000. Blooming scary.  Shouldn't take too long to get our mortgage down.. my friend had the vaccine same night as us and she was poorly in bed till Sunday. Just headache and generally achy all over. Hope Mr F gets his soon. Our service users will be called by their GP when it's their turn to have the vaccine.... 

foxgloves

I know, Pixiehouse55, it IS scary looking back. We owed around £35,000 at the peak of our debt. Apart from my perpetual overdraft, I didn't really even regard it as debt, as with two full-time professional (tho not enormous) salaries, we never had any problems making all our monthly repayments. We just thought of them as general monthly bills. But those monthly payments were what triggered my LBM....... a whinge to myself about why we never had any spare money to do some of the bigger things we wanted to do as well as nothing for emergencies (even predictable ones like car bills) led me to add up all the money each month we were paying out on loan/credit card repayments & that was the wake-up call! There turned out to be absolutely no mystery to it. We had simply bought too much stuff on credit, taking out consolidation loans every few years but never addressing our ridiculous behaviour. 
Ah well, that's firmly in the past, I'm pleased to say. 
F x

welshspendthrift

Your experiences certainly sound familiar , I certainly thought everyone spent on credit cards didn’t they , it all became just what I did without really thinking about it, of course it got to a point it was a problem and lightbulb moment happened. I am now about to get a pay rise and before I would have thought about what I could spend it on but now actually looking forward to paying more off the debt! I’m told there will be some back pay too so could be enough to pay off one of the cards😀. Also some extra work will be paid too (will be hammered by the tax man no doubt but still a bit extra to throw at the debts. 😀

foxgloves

Oooh, wouldn't it be nice to use it to get rid of one of the cards, Welshspendthrift? That would feel motivating too. Yes, you are right that buying on credit became completely normalised. In fact, as I wrote about in a previous post, my bank at the time frequently pestered me with phone calls to have one of their credit cards, despite the fact that my account had obviously been overdrawn (often unauthorised) for two decades. Further evidence was the neverending flexiloan product I also had with that bank. I suppose my overspending was a plus point for them, where taking out a credit card was concerned. I lived on credit  but could always make the monthly minimum payments plus a little bit more. Therefore lots of nice interest for them plus doubtless a bit of commission for the person who got the sign-up. One woman was really quite snotty when I repeatedly said I didn't want their card. She said that pretty much everyone takes advantage of it, which I think is the problem, isn't it?! Many of those people will have had much less ability to meet the monthly payments than I did.
Even the 'interest free credit' deals on big furniture items, etc, can be an issue as what those notices really need to say is 'interest free debt' to really hammer home that this will be another sizeable payment every month for a significant period of time.
The instant gratification era facilitated by debt really hasn't done us any favours.
F x

foxgloves

Have definitely woken up with Lockdownitis this morning. Hoping a bucket of coffee will help me turn this around. The day is yet young........
F x