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What caused you to get into debt?

B

Britanica

New member
We have all been in the red from time to time but in terms of your biggest debts, what caused them to happen?

For me, it was when I lost my job. I needed to use the money I had saved to live off of for a few months till I found another job. By then, my credit bills were piling up.
 
Early on its because I didn't give much thought to paying the piper later on. It became addicting, instant gratification buying things I wanted even when I didn't have all the money right then.
 
I didn't have saving money as any sort of priority. Not even a paltry $5/week was put away. I spent it as fast as I made it. Then, like Britanica, I lost my job. Unemployment payments weren't enough to cover my bills and with no savings I was sinking fast. I ended up getting on the debt roller coaster by taking a cash advance from my two credit cards. Add that the the already large balances on the cards and even after I got another job it was all I could do to make the minimum payments on the cards.

On top of that, I didn't take it seriously enough to really scale back on my lifestyle. The debt piled up because I kept using the cards. "Oh this won't be a big deal, its only a $20 charge!" Those charges added up. The straw that broke the camels back was the month the minimum payments were more than I could make! I ate noodles, rice and beans, balonga sandwiches and not much else for 3 weeks, to squeeze in making a payment before the late grace period!

After that I cut up my cards, and started looking for help online. I found this forum and some blogs after a while, after I had already started my road to getting out of debt, and they've been a godsend giving me positive reinforcement that I was on the right path. I've learned that if you live leaner today, and pay cash as you go, in the long run you'll actually live a better life than one with debt.
 
My husband and I started making better money, and then started spending it like it was growing on trees. We lost touch, basically. Weren't we supposed to have all this stuff, dine out all the time and so on.... hadn't we finally "arrived?" Next thing you know we had a pile of debt, couldn't account for where all the money went and decided it was time to get back to reality and do something about it.
 
When I was younger I turned to credit cards too much until it became a habit. It didn't seem too much at first. The balances crept up over time but so did my income. Then the balances started growing faster than my income and like a dumming I kept spending on credit until it got to be a mountain.
 
Honestly... When I was at my worst, gambling and over spending. I loved to gamble. I plaid the lotto frequently. I overspent and used cards telling myself I will pay most of it off each month and ended up doing the minimum payment since I knew I could. After about 3 years of this, I ended up with nearly 15 grand in debts. My gambling didn't help. I had to actually get help for that, it was an addiction for me at one point.
 
Well, long story short... My ex and I didn't save. When we broke up, I had nothing to my name and couldn't even afford to pay half my bills. I moved back in with my parents (which was fun) and it took me 5 years before I was able to get a place. Never go into debt for or with someone else. It makes it much worse.
 
Without getting too personal here, I was just careless. I never learned to manage my money from anyone. My own parents went into massive debt a number of times when I was growing up.
 
Poet said:
Without getting too personal here, I was just careless. I never learned to manage my money from anyone. My own parents went into massive debt a number of times when I was growing up.
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Same here. Both my parents have struggled with money since the 90's. I remember when I got older, I started to notice it more and more. By the time I moved out, they had filed for bankruptcy twice.
 
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