Has anyone else stuggled with debt?

[Chrido81]

I would class myself as a dyspraxic who struggles with instant gratification. Amongst other traits, I need quick rewards. I feel my work life is so volatile sometimes that I seek quick rushes to keep me "level".

I have issues with spending money. I will think nothing of spending £1000 on a new laptop for example, despite the fact that I haven't planned the repayments. I think thats clearly a combination of of instant gratification coupled with planning of thought difficulties.

I was once over £10,000 in debt, only able to pay it off through an inheritance. So I wonder if anyone else has issues spending money without any plans on how it would be paid back?

[Dan]

I would class myself as a dyspraxic who struggles with instant gratification. Amongst other traits, I need quick rewards. I feel my work life is so volatile sometimes that I seek quick rushes to keep me "level".

I have issues with spending money. I will think nothing of spending £1000 on a new laptop for example, despite the fact that I haven't planned the repayments. I think thats clearly a combination of of instant gratification coupled with planning of thought difficulties.

I was once over £10,000 in debt, only able to pay it off through an inheritance. So I wonder if anyone else has issues spending money without any plans on how it would be paid back?

I'm also quite bad with money indeed. When I worked, I had tonnes so I got into bad habits, along with a lot of drug taking, which are obviously expensive too.

One thing I find is that I am often afraid to even check my balance due to being worried about what I'll find out, so I ignore it. I just force myself to do this now and it has helped quite a lot.

[MusicL22]

I would class myself as a dyspraxic who struggles with instant gratification. Amongst other traits, I need quick rewards. I feel my work life is so volatile sometimes that I seek quick rushes to keep me "level".

I have issues with spending money. I will think nothing of spending £1000 on a new laptop for example, despite the fact that I haven't planned the repayments. I think thats clearly a combination of of instant gratification coupled with planning of thought difficulties.

I was once over £10,000 in debt, only able to pay it off through an inheritance. So I wonder if anyone else has issues spending money without any plans on how it would be paid back?

I completely understand with the instant gratification I didn't know this was a problem with me until researching etc. It is so irritating isn't it? I feel like I need replies right there and then, I get shaky and sometimes I get a bit crabby with one particular person.

As for debt when I was younger when I was about 18, I didn't look at bank statements I just bought stuff without actually checking anything. So I ended up overdrawn.

[Tom fod]

I feel I'm lucky in the sense I was brought up to be debt averse. I think in this day and age it is so easy to see and order stuff instantly and sometimes we use this as a mechanism to try and cheer ourselves up or we'll see something we like and think If I don't buy it here and now it will be gone and I'll miss out!

I have a pretty big pile of unwatched DVDs and unread books and I'm a bit of a hoarder too but luckily other than my mortgage and the small amount I put on my credit card at the tail end of last month it's something I'm lucky I don't have to worry about. Not driving and not having to run a car helps too!

[Monique]

I was also raised to be adverse to debts and to avoid credit cards etc... But I also definitely have issues with being super impulsive!

Video games, tech and art supplies are my downfall, even when I dont use or have no time to use them I still buy them!

Been trying over the last few months to be really strict with myself. As soon as I get paid each month half of it immediately goes into my second account which I have forbidden myself to touch. I've taken the debit card for that account out of my purse and don't have the card details saved anywhere on online stores.... and so far it seems to be working!

I find that as soon as I move my spare money, out of sight from my current account, I'm not as tempted to spend it impulsively any more. I even switched from physical statements to online banking only, for my savings account, so I am not tempted to spend money like I would be getting sent bank statements by post. I hardly if ever look at my balance on that account. Sounds a bit over the top but it's really helped.

And credit cards are a big nono for me now, learnt my lesson there. It took me just over 2 years to pay off my maxed out card (thankfulky it was 0% interest for 2 years anyway) and it immediately got banished to the filing cabinet, can't trust myself with that thing!!

[bookworm]

Always worry about this now have my own flat. My support workers say I should pay all my bills by direct debit. My parents say paying by direct debit could mean I have problems if I overspend and can't afford to pay my direct debits. It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

[Shadwell]

Always worry about this now have my own flat. My support workers say I should pay all my bills by direct debit. My parents say paying by direct debit could mean I have problems if I overspend and can't afford to pay my direct debits. It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

basically my view is to pay everything up front, like the one year I worked out if I paid everything by DD the amount they wanted, then all the companies combined were charging me what turns out to be a holiday each year, just because I wouldn't pay them up front.

so I am very wary when it comes to anything by DD, I always look at the full year compared to DD.

but what you can do is say right I want x-amount of money for this, that, and the other, plus a little spare each month, open a 2nd account, and use that for DD's, and then set up one payment per pay day to go into the 2nd account, or the day after. then say I am not allowed to withdraw more than x amount on the payday. so then the payment is made into the 2nd account the following day.

use cash not card, it is way easier to stick to a limit if you got cash in your hand than paying by card. give your parents the card to the 2nd account to look after. that way there is no way you can spend that money without going online, and doing a transfer.

so there are ways around it, if savvy, I just think your parents are concerned more about if it is setup to your main account, and for example, and easily done is you pay for shopping by card rather than cash, then easy to loose track of where money has gone, or how much you have spent.