To be irritated by people on C4 news taking out payday loans

[SilverSixpence]

I am at people taking out loans to buy brand new fridge freezers and playstations from Bright House instead of buying secondhand/doing without if they can't afford it. 8 year olds are old enough to understand they cant have the latest thing if their parents can't afford it. If your kids are influenced by ads just turn them off! Isn't this basic common sense?

No MissWinter, but tinned and dry goods are not lethal to children either. I'd rather expose the children I do have now to that lifestyle for a couple of months rather than pay quadruple the price for a base spec fridge and make their life worse long term.

Well apologies leftkidney but I would rather make sure that my child eats properly and healthily than make them eat food that is filled with god knows what. They may not be "lethal" but they are not a very good alternative for children on a daily basis either.

Not sure how it is making their life worse long term... I would doubt many parents would see their children go without their essentials in order to provide a household appliance however essential it was. It's the parents that go without.

The British heart foundation's starting price around here for a sofa is £190.

The one that sticks in my mind was a two seater fake leather thing with a rip down the back it was sagging and filthy and smelled bad,I would have been ashamed if I had of donated it. If I was skint I would rather pay a tenner a week to get a clean one that would last even if I knew it would cost 4 times more than if I had cash up front.

And going without a fridge and freezer the supermarket a bus ride away daily shopping being much more expensive is much less doable than finding £8 a week.

I'm not broke but I'm also not so far removed from the real world that I don't understand these things a few posters on here are clearly comfortable all that glue your sniffing can't be cheap.

Sockreturningpixie Amen to that.

That's fine MissWinter and maybe that's where we differ, we may have different ways of prioritising, however I am usually quite sceptical of people who claim such things cannot be done. I would say though that plenty of fruits and veg keep without a fridge, and bread,cereal, rice and even cheap tinned stuff like baked beans can be considered to be part of a good diet.

Not sure how it is making their life worse long term

What I was getting at there was that if you take two families with the same situation, one uses BrightHouse and the other does the 'go without' method, by the time family A finishes paying their loan on the fridge, family B will have been able to buy a fridge, freezer, washer and have a few quid in savings, ie they are better off long term, and family A can never catch up assuming no other variables.

Well leftkidney with a child who suffers from health problems I would put a healthy diet first. You are right there are the items you describe as being part of a healthy diet. But you cannot live off those items independently and indefinitely if you want a healthy diet.

And for people like me to do daily shops where the supermarket is a bus ride away this would equate to £21 a week in bus fairs. Or even if I was to do it every second day it would still be approx £10 a week which means that the person would struggle to save anyway and this would be the amount they could save (also the amount the would pay weekly to Brighthouse). What you seem to neglect hugely is the right to choose. You are in a position you could choose not to and even trying to put yourself in the position of others is clearly impossible given your response. The people that need these services (in a lot of cases) do not have the right or the resources to make that choice it is their only choice.

Do you seriously think given the opportunity the majority of people would choose to pay 3 and 4 times as much as what the original items cost?

You live in a dream world if that's what you think. I would like to make it abundantly clear I have never used the services of one of these shops but I can wholly understand why one would.

'Do you seriously think given the opportunity the majority of people would choose to pay 3 and 4 times as much as what the original items cost?'

maybe not but I have a friend who recently bought a car on finance when he had enough money in the bank to buy it outright.
The idea of paying only x amount per month seemed preferable to him than taking several grand out of his bank account.
I asked him what the interest rate was on the finance and he said he even didnt know.

I suggested he put the money in an ISA or use it to pay off some of his mortgage but he's not interested.

Even though he has money he'd rather rent out someone elses money than use it.
I think that's as daft as owning a property but instead of living in it leaving it empty and renting somewhere else to live.
He doesnt appear to see it like that

So he had the ability to choose? My point is not everyone does. It is vastly different from what is being discussed and another fabulous example of the ignorance of posters...

Bloody poverty pimps hate companies like this.Im unemployed myself and would have to use Brighthouse if say my cooker or freezer broke down as its easier to pay £10weekly impossible to pay infull all at once.

Do you seriously think given the opportunity the majority of people would choose to pay 3 and 4 times as much as what the original items cost?

I don't believe I ever said the majority, although the facts we do have are that BrightHouse are a very profitable and expanding business due to their popularity and the majority of their sales could not be argued to be necessities (only 20% are household appliances, and less than this will be out of any sort of necessity).

I am inclined to believe that many people would pay well over the odds for items they could easily have much cheaper, as I come across such people all the time, and have family who drive me mad with their stupid financial decisions. Obviously living a life of opulance and decadence myself, most (but not all) of these people I have come across in my life have not been "poor", but waste money and plead poverty anyway. If high income people do this in large numbers I see no reason to believe low income people are any more financially savvy.

A few months back our cooker broke. It was a really bad timing for us, and we could not afford to buy a new one. We could only afford about £60-70 for a second hand one, or we could buy on credit. Those were our choices. We scoured eBay, gumtree and local charities for 4 weeks, existing on a very restricted diet, until we managed to find one for £60.

It was an incredible stressful and depressing time. Our 4 year old would turn his nose up at food he wasn't used to, as parents we ate the same things over and over so we could afford to give him more choice.

By the time we got the 'new' cooker we were very near to breaking point, but we felt it was the right decision for us as a family in the long run. It was an uncertain time for us financially, and we couldn't be sure we would be as to keep up with credit repayments. We are lucky enough to have no debt at all and were reluctant to start down that path.

Today, we have a 2nd hand cooker, it a bit smoky but it works, and we are in a more secure financial situation again so have been as to begin saving again, so when the next appliance packs up we will not be in the same position and will be able to buy new straight away in full.

Those 4 weeks were hell, I never want to be there again.

No they couldn't which brings me back to an earlier point I made. If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do? Do you tell them no and break their hearts at Christmas or do you end up buying from a place like Brighthouse?

I am sure that the people not within the situations of buying essential items or the above example are the one's that make the choice. If people choose to be "stupid" then I am not one to judge them but whilst discussing the actual reality of people being in dire straits you have chosen to turn the conversation toward choice and not essential.

As for family who drive me mad with their stupid financial decisions I fail to see what it has to do with you if they make stupid decisions, on their own head be it. At the end of the day it is a decision they made not one that was taken away from them.

I fail to see what it has to do with you if they make stupid decisions

Nothing other than my usual compassion for fellow human beings who I don't like to see waste opportunities for a better life

In terms of what is essential that's always open to interpretation, but I've always had a lower threshold of what I consider essential to my life and am naturally frugal so I will always fall on "actually you probably can work round that" side of things.

And even well off people get asked by their kids for Xmas presents they can't afford, it is foolishness in any case to buy them regardless. The sickening psychological pressure of debt is not worth it IMO.

fabulous example of the ignorance of posters
fukk off with your calling me ignorant

compassion for human beings Interesting given some of your posts.

Lazysuzanne I say it how I see it so I wont "fukk off" your post was ignorant.

"If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do?"

Well for a start I have never told my DC that Santa is so magical that he can grant any wish no matter what the cost. The magic is that he delivers gifts while they are asleep. And that he exists.

Where would you draw the line writing to him? A polo team? Harry Hairstyles rolled in honey?

My young DC don't request specific things but expect some nice presents if they are good and if they express a certain wish and it is doable, they might get it, but letters to Santa are just asking for trouble.

DC3 is a teen and she has some things from her requests but by no means -even half all of it - that's the surprise, what she will or won't get.

I am much poorer than I was last year and have been absolutely skint in the past but have always held onto these principles. I'd do the same if I won the Euromillions.

Spend what you can afford.

And put your Christmas Tree in a corner surrounded by furniture. Pile anxiety is instantly decreased

missw If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do? Do you tell them no and break their hearts at Christmas or do you end up buying from a place like Brighthouse?

not getting what you want for Christmas is a good lesson. why on earth would you want to teach children they get whatever they want, just because they want it? life is not like that!

my parents had little money when i was young. i remember getting less than anyone else at school for Christmas. i don't think that was a bad lesson. someone always has to get the least. what i do regret is the stress created in the household by my parents arguing lots about how they were going to manage.

I have been very poor at times. I have used provident, cash converters and pawn brokers.I haven't used brighthouse or georges (too much of a rip off).
Just to share my experiences (not to judge others)- I did my washing by hand and bought a spin dryer for £15 from my local 2nd hand shop.Hand washing is time consuming, but it does get the washing clean.
My 2nd hand shop also has a 'club' where you can pay for things weekly (or as you can afford) and get them when you have paid for them.
I also bought a new fridge from there for £100 (with an ice box). It is big enough for a weeks shopping for 4 people .
I wouldn't dream of getting into debt for console s etc. That's just silly, IMO.

If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do? Do you tell them no and break their hearts at Christmas or do you end up buying from a place like Brighthouse?

Break their hearts? Seriously because they didn't get a playstation.
Well my kids have been begging for a DS this year, no way can we afford one, they have got lots of presents from the car boot for s third of the price. I 've been buying stuff since the summer so it hasn't been too much of a shock at xmas.

Last year they begged for a xbox. Did their little hearts break? No, they were chuffed with what they got. Seriously if their happiness depends on what they get for presents I will have fucked up a bit in teaching them what is important in life.

I get the fridge, but not the payday loans for presents.

I can completely understand why people use Brighthouse for washing machines, fridges. They may be a rip off but it would probably be a false economy to go without a fridge washing machine for a few months while saving for a new one (you would pay a lot for food/laundrette etc. I understand why people buy young children Christmas presents as well.

I don't understand those people like DH's relatives who seem to automatically buy things on credit. MIL would do that even if she had money in the bank! We couldn't convince her to save money first.

If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do? Do you tell them no

Yes.

Totally, Friday.

Well sorry I disagree, we were not brought up to be greedy as children but we were brought up that we could choose one present and the rest was a surprise. Obviously as children our taste wasn't hugely expensive but if my daughter asked for something specific I really would have a hard time explaining to her why her friend can get X from Santa but she couldn't.

Maybe I am a soft touch but if in this position I would use somewhere like brighthouse or similar if it was do-able.

Misswinter if you can afford £10/week (or whatever brighthouse charge) then why can't you afford to put that away weekly during the year? Or buy supermarket saving stamps or amazon vouchers?
My friend has your attitude. She wanted a dining table set in brighthouse that would have cost £800. The exact same set was £300 in Argos.
She might as well have took £500 and burned it. Purely through not having the mental discipline to wait and save for something she didn't really need in the 1st place.
I managed to talk her out of it.

"If DD or DS writes to "Santa" for a present which you cannot afford what do you do? Do you tell them no?"

Yes, like Friday, we do.

But we have never done the writing letters to FC thing - the 'big' present at Christmas comes from dh and I, and if one of the boys has wanted something we couldn't afford, we said 'No'.