Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Pixiehouse55

Helloooo Mrs Foxgloves and Gang 
Reading all your past Christmas spends Mrs F. You and I were very similar. I can remember one year we had hardly any money, credit cards were high, topping the overdraft and then... the nice credit card man upped Mr p credit card limit! Yes saved by the bell. Went out buying presents more decorations( that we didn't need) Stupid amounts of food. Plus we both spent about £150 on each other for Christmas. I had a new outfit every Christmas, and that's how we carried on, getting deeper and deeper in debt. 
I look back now and wondered how or why we done it??. 
Then the alarm bells rang. £25000 on cc and overdrafts had to go. 
3 years  down the  line and we had cleared it all. How stupid were we. We are so much happier, relaxed and enjoying life now. We havnt brought any presents yet this year  as we don't know when  we are seeing any of our family.
Squires is well and truly up and running. We  are on the outskirts of Wolverhampton now. By Saturday we will have to do a food shop and some Christmas decs for our Narrowboat. Not a tree can't have that with 2 big dogs, no room lol. We will have lights and some hanging decorations. 
Fingers crossed we will be  in Surrey on Christmas Eve unless the weather gets bad and we can't move. 

Lovely reading what you have all been up to and organising  your Christmas's 
Will pop  back in  soon
Take Care and Keep Safe. Xxx

Sun_Addict

Wondering if it was the same garden centre where a few years ago we were tempted into their lovely grotto only to emerge with a rather expensive fibre optic tree, begins with W 😉Spent many a happy hour and a lot of money in that place 😆

foxgloves

Hi @Sun_Addict, no not the 'W' one, though if you mean the one I'm thinking of, I have certainly flashed a bit of cash there when I lived in a more southerly part of the county. I was referring to one beginning with 'R'. I am also feeling the lure of a big one beginning with 'E', as I've never been there at Christmas. I think I could go just for coffee & a look round now, as I resisted temptation last time I was there. They have nice handbags but I know Mr F has bought me one for Christmas because I chose it, so I don't think I'd be tempted. They have some lovely things though.
F x

foxgloves

@CL21 - Hello & welcome to my dfw diary. All contributions welcome. I agree with you that the best Christmas decorations are the ones with memories attached. In years to come, you'll be holding some of them up & saying to your daughter, 'Why on earth did we buy this one?' & all the memories will come back.

@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - Sorry to hear that your sister has a disabling illness, especially if that means you don't get to see each other as often as you'd like. The cat decorations sound lovely. Before my Mum became desperately ill 3 years ago, she designed a knitting pattern for a tiny cat Christmas tree decoration. She copied it out for me & I will try making them at some point. I've only this year been able to complete some of her unfinished craft projects as it made me feel too sad, but I would love to have some of these little kitties & will try out the pattern at some point next year, I think.

@Pixiehouse55 - Yes, I know what you mean about credit card spending limits being increased! We didn't even notice this until we started paying off our debts. I suppose the LBM made us more aware of the ways in which banks & card providers try to lure us into spending more. Mr F kept getting regular letters from his card providers which pretty much said 'Dear Mr F, We know Christmas can be expensive so that is why we have increased your borrowing limit to £xxxx'. I think this was because the fact that he was paying it off & no longer using it to borrow had raised some sort of alert their end. They don't really want people paying their balances at the end of each month, do they - not nearly as much profit in it for them. 
Sounds as though you are proper canal boat people now! You'll be painting your own barge ware next!
F x

QueenJess

I always used to get irritated that my credit limit automatically went up. I always rang up and asked for it not to change unless I requested it. It was hard work and they kept saying “but if you want an increase later, we might not be able to give it to you depending on your circumstances “. Yes… that is how responsible lending should work!

foxgloves

My Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 8 - Christmas magazines................ x about 103!
Oh my life, I used to have a bad magazine habit back in the day. I have said before in my diary just how many I used to buy on a regular month, but I went into overdrive from November when the December Christmas editions started coming out. I should start by saying that every year, my Mum would give me at least one December gardening magazine, Woman & Home, the Woman's Weekly Christmas crafty special & at least one other Christmas mag.
I have actually sat & made a list before typing this, of all the titles I would then buy for myself:
BBC Gardener's World
Radio Times (all the December ones up to New Year)
Period Living
Good Housekeeping
BBC Good Food
Homes & Antiques
Country Living
Ideal Home Christmas
A couple of other Christmas specials of my choice (usually cooking, craft or interiors)
A knitting magazine chosen for the pattern & free gift on the front (a fat robin on one occasion who will soon be sitting on top of my piano!)
These days, if I wanted to buy all these mags, they would have to come from my Personal Spends. That is £100 per month, so a very good deterrent because when it's gone, it's gone. It does not get topped up from other parts of the budget just because I've been foolhardy. So this year, I have Period Living magazine (I have a subscription for that, which was quite a good offer), I have the Waitrose Christmas food mag which was free & December Country Living mag which my sister bought & sent to me when she'd read it. We are buying the December thru to New Year Radio Times because I like to read about whet is going to be on TV over the festive season. I don't like the cheaper TV mags because I don't watch soaps or dancing contests & am not interested in what pass for 'celebrities' these days. My sister also sent me a Christmas mag last month. I just don't have the same drive to buy magazines any more. I still enjoy reading them, but am actually quite ashamed of the ridiculous amount of money I must have spent on them during the Spendy Years. I don't know how I ever found the time to read them all, but I always did! I am not going to annoy myself by trying to add it all up retrospectively, but I think we all know that would have made quite a decent chunk of savings. If anyone had raised an eyebrow at all my magazine buying in the past, I'd have said "It's my money, I spent it as I like", but it wasn't really my money, it was technically the bank's money. One of the biggest benefits of our post-LBM monthly Personal Spends allocation is that it really makes us think about what we want to buy. So do I really need multiple magazines telling me how to cook a turkey & smell gorgeous in a black dress? I do not!
I reckon there'll be some more ex-magazine addicts on here........ @Onebrokelady, I'm looking in your direction......
Ah well, at least I found my halo eventually.
F xx

Sun_Addict

I’m also a magazine addict. I have 5 monthly ones on subscription but 4 of them are purchased with my Clubcard points, the other on a good deal. I would never pay the full cover price these days, absolutely extortionate 😱

I will say I’ve been a magazine addict since I was a child, that’s where my pocket money used to go. 

I’m the same with books, although most of them come from the local charity shop at 30p each or via a work colleague. 

I just love reading.

foxgloves

Quite right @QueenJess! It speaks volumes about the fact that Mr F was regularly getting these 'increased spending limit' letters when we had over £30k of debt, excluding our mortgage. We had 2 professional salaries coming in & never ever missed any payments, so I suppose we were just 'cash cows' to finance providers. Not any more, though. We only use credit cards for loyalty points which mount up into vouchers. They are paid off in full every month. 
F x

foxgloves

Me too, @Sun_Addict. Always loved them as a child, also books. I still read all the time. Love our local Oxfam Bookshop, & the library of course. I always have a pile of books waiting. Can't bear the thought of having nothing to read!
F x

QueenJess

I love books too. I have many a happy childhood memory of spending hours in second hand bookshops with my family to the extent that I don’t like new books and have only bought second hand ones for years.

I love books so much that when I bought my house I had a spare room and converted it to a library to fulfill a childhood dream! Floor to ceiling shelves in a red/dark wood and some comfy big chairs.