Debt

True. I was just pondering. We have to have savings in case of lack of work and I'm always surprised at how few of peer group take the same approach. Generation Y seduced by easy credit, perhaps?

I have less than £1k in savings. I am not a saver. ETA - unless I am saving FOR something.

This is us too!! We have a joint account that we use for all our bills, holidays and evenings out etc. I've set up all the direct debits we need for bills, set up direct debits from each of our personal current accounts so that we have the money to pay these bills and I forced him to pay off his credit cards *nagging wife*

He doesn't know the pin number for our joint account so he can't spend any of the money ?

Could be - there's certainly less stigma attached to credit/debt than there was in our parents' generation I think.

I was surprised by the number of my friends who have no savings or pension because they are of the view that 'they'll get around to it eventually'. I try to put something away every month even if it's just a small amount. Like one of above posters said, it's so much better to split your money up at the start of the month than leave it and hope there's some left at the end.

I've got about 4k left on my car to pay off and about 2k on a credit card. It's interest free for 20 months though, so I've set up a regular payment to pay it off.

I hate that £100 of my hard earned money goes on paying it off every month, but it was my own stupid fault for going a bit wild and spending when I didn't have the money.

OH has definitely tamed me. I give myself a personal allowance now and also save money every month so that I don't get into the same sort of debt again.

This. If I didn't set some aside at the start I'd have nothing left to tick away at the end! It would all be 'invested' in things I don't need!

We have our mortgage (but we're hopefully going to get shot of that when our house sells), we have a 17k loan (was for home improvements) and car finance (down to the last two years).

I have about £250 left on my credit card, H has just over 2k on his (eek!).

I does worry me, especially since I've had my hours and wage cut, which is why we need to get rid of our mortgage. H's CC has massively high interest, and I keep asking him to look at swapping to a lower interest card to help us out, as he pays say £80 off it, and the interest is £60 so not really achieving anything.

I really think if you have that much student loan debt yet that much in your savings you should not be allowed to borrow anymore.

Flora got married towards the end of her course, so any wedding money will have come after she accessed loans.

And, students loans should be available to anyone who wants them, not means-tested. They aren't a benefit! True, your bank may be unwilling to sanction a loan if you have 20K in savings but this is a loan for students to pay for studenty things to pay back when they get a job from their studenty endevours.

Are you joking? Student loan is totally different to credit card loans, car finance etc. If you want to study at university you have basically no choice but to take these loans. We do NOT pay any money unless we are earning enough to afford the repayments.

What should myself and EF do, use our savings to pay off our student loans rather than put them into getting a roof over our heads? That would be ridiculous, considering the generous terms of the student loans. At the moment they're sitting at 0.5% interest and last year it was 0% IIRC.

I understand wedding money and money earnt though work should be kept as savings, but she has said they save money from her loans and from OH grants, that is the part that I think is wrong. Why should they be saving tax payers money ? Exactly, the reason is as stated by MrsJ, the generous terms of the student loans.....

I've certainly not got precious about it, but I was definitely not going to risk the idea of never having any children while I spend the next 6 years or so paying off my debt. Being in the black is not important enough to me to risk being childless.

Maybe Chippers thinks things are worse for me than they actually are, maybe my initial post was a bit dramatic?

My debts are approximately 20% of my take home pay so it's not THAT bad but I always seem to spend beyond my means.

I have spent the last few hours drawing up an action plan and have worked out how to curb my spending and try and reduce my debt. It will definitely help when we move house because our outgoing will be reduced substantially.

I've never been very good with money if I am honest and have had one form of debt or another since I was 18. I've been selling lots of stuff on eBay recently and have made £170 over the last few weeks! I dread to think what the items I have sold cost me in the first place though and I'm probably still paying for most of them.

What would your solution be? Make less money available?

These are loans, not free money at the end of the day... they are paid back with interest, albeit the interest does not make a profit. My loan in first year didn't even cover the rent for my halls of residence - I was lucky to have parents who could afford to help me out, on top of a part-time job. I don't think making the loans smaller will encourage anyone into higher education.

If Flora and her OH have been prudent and managed to save money then good on them. They will still be paying back that money if it came from a loan. Some students are not able to stay with parents during the holiday, some have other reasons for needing every penny of their loan plus whatever they get from any part-time jobs.

Good for you Panj. I am sure that when Baby Panj turns up you will be even more motivated ?

Panj, same here. Just dont think about it ?

Once I go into SMP, everything that needs to come out of my accounts will be covered by the SMP + £100 or thereabouts (we have around £4k saved for while I am off which is plenty as SMP will only be for 7.5 months). H's wages more than cover everything else. H's eldest son also leaves full-time education in July so we will be better off in that respect as his maintenance payments will stop.

While I am off, I am surrendering my cards (H is going to hide them from me at my request) and any purchases that need to be made will be made from H's account which will obviously make me think long and hard about what I actually need as opposed to what I just want, want, want!! ?

I've had a thought of a little business idea I could work on while I am off too, just to make a small amount of extra cash.

This has never happened to me and I have been a mum for 11 years now!

Agree with Trickers. I'm always buying myself stuff, but due to Mummy guilt, I then buy my kids something more expensive than what i bought myself.

It's not really clothes, it's everything else!

My top tip (and I haven't read the whole thread so apologies) is to pay cash rather than with credit card. If you actually have to hand over a tenner for something it makes you think a bit more about what you're spending the money on and whether you actually want it, whereas with a credit card its easy to think of it not being real money.

We were doing really well, then OH's business went tits up, my work dried up due to recession I got another job then got made redundant 8 months later. we were on the verge of signing bankruptcy papers this time 3 years ago. At one point we were just under £100k in debt

Luckily a self help forum - Legal beagles - helped me sort our debt out we both got new jobs, I claimed back missold PPI(and yes it really was mis sold) and also got back bank charges and this helped get us back on our feet.

I currently have little bits on CC cards that I am paying off and OH has car loan and we have the mortgage.

We watched every penny we spent, we accounted for everything. We have monthly Income and outgoing spreadsheet s and like JoJo we wrote down the figures on the credit cards and how much we were paying off each month.

I am currently paying off a small loan I took out before marrying H. From when I bought my house on my own. Apart from my mortgage that's it.

We have a mortgage, which on current payments should be cleared 2022 and a smallish credit card with £2k on which is paid off slowly (min payments on time) just to keep a constant credit, which we were advised to aid uor credit score.

Hubby is fab with money. we've never had so much(when I say this, I mean disposible income, and in comparison to what we had 5 years ago)!

I used to be terrible with money. I had about £12k worth of debt when i met hubby (i was really frivelous with it, spending on cards and taking loans like they were going out of fashion! and, i had absolutely nothing to show for it apart from lots of hangovers! we cleared that, tightening our belts and hubby being uber cash smart!

I then developed a nasty gambling habbit, driving up another £7k in debt., which after a horrifc time, us splitting up and me driving myself to attempted suicide (this is very personal, but I always admit it to remind myself of what a state i got to and to keep the gambling fairy away!) we cleared this and at the end of it was a proposal!

we spent £21k on out wedding and honeymoon which we did without any debts. I was so proud of us finally being in a position to do this! Now, we manage to save a healthy amount each month, pay extra on our mortgage and enjoy some treats too!

I'll NEVER get in to debt while I have the choice! it was the bain of my life and quite frankly, the "nothing" I had to show for it was so depressing too!

As for others... each to their own! Who am I to criticise?!!

Always feel liberated after reminding myself of the above!

Zero! Not even a mortgage.

And we've been like this since 2008 when we paid off our debts.

We also have a nice savings pot (even after just spending £5500 on a car)

Until I went on mat leave we were big savers. We'd save my wages and live off Mr GBs (and then go on lots of lovely holidays!) ?

We don't have a mortgage or any ongoing loans or credit cards, BUT we are working through paying off H's old credit cards and overdraft. Last year absolutely ruined us financially through a combination of the wedding and the mess we got into with estate agents. We also have naff all in the way of savings but we've been going over and over our monthly spendings to trim back bits here and there so as of next month we've got a plan to put bits aside and H has also signed up for his work shares scheme which will work out to a nice lump sum in a few years.

I don't have any debt but only because I got myself into such a mess when I was a student, it's ruined my credit rating (which I'm surprisingly happy about because it at least means I can't get myself into any further trouble!!). I have very little common sense when it comes to money and spending, so I'm best off with it taken out of my control.

That's pretty common amongst my friends although it tends to be the women who are the higher earner.

Wow, some very judgemental opinions on here ? I guess having a mortgage to pay off must mean I'm a bad person for having a child and a baby on the way...

We have our mortgage which is now being paid off by the tenants renting it which really helps us out (although there is the worry of it being without tenants sometimes, touch wood it hasn't happened yet). H had CC debt which I paid off when I found out I was pregnant with baby no. 1 as I just didn't want it hanging over our heads. Unfortunately not everyone is fortunate enough to be without debt. I also overheard some women discussing how awful it is to have children when you don't own a house recently- I mean seriously?!

Do you mean you've paid it off?

Mortgage? Nope, not got one. Renters!

I hadn't realissed it until we moved things around to live out of one account!

It's certainly helped being able to make a decision to not to return to work. We've been saving my SMP to help the savings pot and to ensure we could live of his wages.

I'd rather have a mortgage for a property that I will eventually own than rent a property that I have limited rights to and could be turfed out from with a few months notice. Unless these lucky people own their house outright of course...

The only debt we have is an overdraft and now that I am pregnant this has gIven us a kick up the buttt to get them paid off. They're not much, but I hate saving so like to waste all my money every month!

I'm lucky that my H is so clued up when it comes to credit as I was bung everything on a credit card and just hope for the best. I am hopeless when it comes to money.

Mr Cricks is the one who tends to move the money around (ahem, I'm banned after my mishap!) and he's fastidious at making sure every transaction is genuine. Every so often there'll be a:

Him: Does 'Hix' mean anything to you?

Me: Erm, yes, that was me.

Him: How about 'Macs'?

Me: Erm, yeeeeeep, me again.

Him: £35 in the deli? Really?

Me: But the salami *is* amazing, I know how much you like it.

Him: grumble sigh grumble *presses PAY*