Do you have debt and how did you acquire it?

[mrsshears]

Recently i noticed when reading various threads the amount of people that say they have debts which got me thinking about where these debts come from.
Feel free to tell me to mind my own

£600 left on bank loan
£250 overdraft
£20,000 student loans
first two will be paid off at Christmas last one is like a lottery money amount to me i doubt i will ever earn enough to pay it and i don't really care

About 15k student loan
£1000 overdraft
£750 loan
£500 credit card

DP has
3k student loan
£1700 overdraft
£1350 credit card
And owes his brother £500

:(

About £1500 left of student loan
£10,500 of a personal loan
Mortgage
£1,500 credit card
Owe my Dad £25,000 (house deposit)

The mortgage and house deposit are sort of separate, although we're only just managing to pay the interest due on those two amounts.

The student loan should be finished within the next 2 years (would be this year but mat leave starting in November going to scupper that).

Personal loan and credit card is a combination of living beyond our means and unexpected big expenses (computer repairs, replacement microwave, car repairs etc) that we arent able to save for.

Currently going through a massive, massive adjustment to prepare us for the huge drop in income which we're about to suffer from mat leave (am the breadwinner).

Only a small mortgage (and our mortgage lender is my parents). I'm terrified of debt. I've never lived beyond my means, even when my means were miniscule.

That said, I'm 39 and I do realize that things were so much easier financially for people my age than people ten years younger than us. (No student debt, housing more affordable and prices rose after buying, etc.)

We have a mortgage and an unsecured loan that came with it from the days of 110% northern rock mortgages. We did spend the unsecured part of sorting the house out, damp proofing etc. We also have some credit card debt that we ran up when times where tough. It is a downward spiral though once you start using credit for every day stuff.

Student loan, which I don't count as normal debt as its income contingent..

Apart from that, nada. I have a credit card that I clear every month just to give myself a credit history.

I used to be shite with money in my twenties. But I had a fucking good time spending it. Cleared all overdrafts when I got pregnant.

Each month we have credit card of between £50 and £350 which we pay off-no other debts.We use cc for online stuff and this month I bought a bicycle

Up until March this year we had:

Me:

£15k Loan

Husband:

£20k Loan

£5k C/Card

All of this debt was down to our exes spending above our means (I took 40k of debt from my ex).

Now all repaid - took 10 years for me to repay all the debt I took with me that my exh racked up on C/cards etc.

Husband brought the 25k from his relationship with his ex and we just lived off of naff all for five years to repay it all as soon as possible.

I have 6K on a consolidation loan. Had twice that a couple of years ago. Companies throwing credit at me as a student meant I lived outside my means - spending to the max and repaying the minimum.

I tried to reconsolidate a couple of times before but never took out a loan big enough to cover everything - all the time I had several debts it was easier to just add a bit to them. I also have suffered from depression and shopping became a coping mechanism. This time, I have taken out a loan that covers EVERYTHING, but the repayments leave me enough to still live comfortably. I could have taken out the loan over a shorter period but with my mild mental health problems (mild enough to be a problem, not severe enough to medicate), it is important that I allow myself some spare cash.

I also have a massive incentive this time - I cannot afford to have a child until this debt has been paid off.

About 5,000 on personal loan.
That's it.

We only took out that loan march this year to help us pay for a bit towards the wedding and buy a new car, couldn't fit DS2 (born april) in the car we had. I know sounds crazy, but a tiny C2 VTR, hardly any boot or back space!

mortgage and overdraft.

Not a penny BUT I made the decision when I sold my flat to relocate that I would use the profit to clear all my debts (about 43k including mortgage) and live debt-free rather than buy another place. So I am happily debt-free but no longer on the property ladder - in private rental instead. Saving slowly (verrrrrry slooooowly) for a deposit.

I think I've got about 9k of student loans which I haven't even started paying off yet, but I might never have to because you only start repaying them when you're earning a certain amount p/a and the job I've gone into is unlikely to ever pay enough! Silver linings and whatnot...

mmmm where to start
$266,000 mortgage
$9,000 in 1 cc ( Thanks ex h for dragging me back to court every couple of years and thanks awesome lawyer who doesnt bill,just cash or cc)
$5,000 in another cc ( thanks Ds1 shitbox car and Ds2 for crashing his 6 weeks after I buy it for him plus charging his down payment. They need them for college, no buses here)
$9,000 in car loan for Ds2 car
$8,000 left on my car loan
$900 medical bill
$400 water bill
$1000 store card
Are we including Dhs's debt too :o may aswell die for a sheep than a lamb no? :o

Ok depressed now

£15k to pay for private assessments and legal costs for DD (SN). Well worth it as it led to a funded place at a private SN school, which would cost well over that amount over the course of her education and covers all the therapies and specialist help she needs.

we have loads. we moved house and had to pay to get a few things done so its mainly as a result of that but has just added up as instead of having enough to start paying it off, we end up having to pay something else every month as something always comes up. we will pay it off eventually... this is all on 0% credit cards

our previous landlady owes us a lot (whole deposit which is a few grand) so that really does not help the situation!

we owe a huge amount to family friend too which they leant us for buying house, so if they need that urgently we will hav to get a personal loan or something so we can give it! but luckily so far they are saying no rush for it

i have student loan too,its 14k i think - saw the statement the other day. but not worrying about that for now, i dont work and if i do start to work and earn over the threshold then shouldnt be an issue to pay it back. dh has paid his whole one back now which is really good

we are still paying for some things which we got on the credit like the sofas too

dh is working and also starting a business on the side so we are hoping that will be successful and help pay it all off but it will take a while. its worth it not to be in rented anymore with such crap landlords and conditions as we have had in the past, and being shifted around the whole time with no security

YABU to post this in AIBU

We've moved this to Money Matters

Moving into a house where the boiler broke, roof started leaking and kitchen appliances all broke within a month...December no less.
£6k on cc to sortit all out.
It's a0% interest cc but still...it's a lot of money.
Will take us years to pay off.....:(

Up to our eyes in it, mainly through living a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade wage . We both had huge debts when we got together, some of that from our previous partners, also have house maintenance bills which we couldnt afford due to paying huge repayments, then we ended up using cc's for basics, petrol, food, etc until we realised we were one bill away from a financial meltdown. We are now living on a budget we consider manageable, whilst paying our debts back at an affordable rate, although it will take us until we're both 50 to pay everything back. We have hit rock bottom, so now feel like we're on our way back to some sort of normality. Credit stinks.

Worst debt I ever got into was separation-related. ExH had run up big overdrafts and left me with a mortgage I couldn't really afford. Paid most of it off with 18 months or so of severe austerity measures and budgeting, rented out a room in the house for extra cash and then was lucky to get a promotion at work.

I feel I need to TESTIFY!!!
£7,500 loan (will be paid off 2014); holidays and maternity leave x 2.
£2,000 CC; moving expenses (paid off 2013?)
£500CC; wedding (paid off by Xmas?)
I am ever the optimist... I've even inherited money which reduced the debt mountain (& then in a haze of relief/happiness added to it).
So far, so good BUT after 7 years of frugal living (packed lunches at my desk) & not going out, have blown money on Olympic/Paralympic tickets, a cashmere jumper and a new bicycle. Did I need these things? Could I afford them? Have had a massive fall off the wagon, I always thought that I could single handedly save the economy with my expenditure, but clearly not. Looks like my realistic targets might shift a little. I was hoping that DH might help a little with some of the expenses we co-enjoyed but although he's happy enough to spend my money, he's very disinclined to spend his own!

The toaster and iron are in cahoots (sometimes ganging up with the kettle). The washing machine and dishwasher are also joined telepathically in some way (like pilot whales all beaching up together).
Our cooker is going through a long painful (noisy) death.
Both houses we bought had boilers which were proudly nursed by (1.) son of a plumber (2.) a plumber IN OTHER WORDS (1.) not working properly (2.) condemned after British Gas came to service it.
At least the crap car is still going.
I just haven't figured out how much to budget for all this 'planned' obsolescence....

Say it sister!
I hear ya!
In the last 6 months I havead to replace the following:
A boiler
Part of a roof
A microwave
A Hoover -twice -long story!
An oven
A gas job
Work top
Sink
Fridge freezer
Dining table and chairs
Tumble dryer
Sigh.

it's no wonder I have no money.

And isn't it strange how stuff breaks just after the warranty runs out?

Yes indeed. We have a fleet of vacuum cleaners... one fell out of the loft hatch as DH was hoovering the rafters (duh?) Maybe it jumped?

I am now sounding a bit mad...
... the thing is I never expect anything to go wrong EVER. And it's more hassle bleedin' fixing things than replacing them!

I think you used to be able to buy white goods in the Co-op on HP for thrupence a week out of your family allowance...

I think the trick is to BUDGET (shouting to self: split personality)

Ah...family allowance...those were the days!
Dh broke the dyson hoovering up bits of brick, nails, plaster etc
He broke the Electrolux doing the same.
He broke the Henry hoovering up a puddle of water from the floor of his car.
Sigh.
Do you see a pattern?
He breaks kettles with alarming regularity too.