Luxuries

[Shining]

Can't remember when we first got internet but it was definitely dial up, children were young I know that and eldest is 28 now, it's how I got into teaching because I took every course going and then did teacher training, gave me a career x

[kallis3]

My first dial up was with Which - cost me a monthly fee and money for each time I logged on - could never have spent as much time online as I do now!

[Shining]

Mine was Tesco....phone always engaged and had to ration the children to so many minutes each as all 4 were home then. Marvellous now we can all be here and logged on without thinking about it!

[kallis3]

I went from Which to Netscapeonline and then to AOL. I only left AOL as it became too expensive. Did BT - dreadful service and now with Sky which I totally recommend.

[Shining]

I'm with Sky and find them ok, dips in and out at times which annoys me but think that's the area I live in. x

[kallis3]

I've no problems at the moment. Have had to reboot the router sometimes but nothing like the way I did with BT. I have more BT routers here than you can shake a stick at!!

[Foggy]

I started with AOL when it was version 1 -- went with them through to 8 ( I think), Had to have a dedicated phone line put in (superhighway I think BT called it) then switched to sky on a TV, phone and internet package, and have had very little problem with them.

One slightly amusing little glitch was when ( as we found out later) all the local phone lines went down. I called Sky on my mobile and told the girl my line was down and therefore I had no internet connection. She asked which would I like to be fixed first and I had to explain that, with no phone line it wouldn't be possible to fix the broadband --- took a few minutes to sink in !

[kallis3]

We had a seperate phone line put in for AOL and then switched to BT. When we did that then we got rid of the dedicated line and had BT total broadband and so had a different number (great when ignoring creditors!) We are now back on our original number and with Sky for everything.

[Struzzo39]

Our luxury is a rare takeaway other than that its the smiles on our kids faces as all money goes on them if any at all going spare.

[lem]

same for us Struzzo, it's rare we get anything for us, we spend it all on the kids in one way or another as i am so determined for them not to suffer from our mistakes.

[Shining]

I always maintained I didn't want daughter missing out because of my IVA and although she's older and does understand all about the IVA I think it did marginally affect her.

[lem]

I think it's bound to Lesley as your lifestyle just isn't the same when you're living it and getting into debt, then going into an IVA, it's bound to change to a certain extent.

I don't believe in showering my kids with gifts and rubbish, I don't want them to be materialistic, but if I can just maintain that they can go on school trips, try to have a normal xmas and birthday for them etc, then I'm happy, daughter has a scout camp coming up in March which is £45, I have suggested that I will pay half and she has to fund the remainder out of her pocket money which I think is fair (luckily she agrees)

[plasticdaft]

Without doubt our trust deed has affected our 14 year old son. Every summer he has stayed at home while friends have gone off to spain etc etc,and the 2 holidays he had to florida were had when he was under 5 so while he remembers bits of them its pretty vague.

We have spent money on him,he has attended soccer training camps during school holidays and really enjoyed them,and gets money paid into his bank account so he can go to the cinema etc etc,and gets his xbox and playstation games at xmas and birthdays etc. I just wish we had managed more holidays away as a family.

Paul

[Shining]

I wouldn't say its done her any harm though as she is very frugal herself now, she is just starting out in life and getting ready for uni and I do think she manages her money very well.

x

[kallis3]

I would like to say that my daughter and stepkids have learned by our mistakes but they haven't.

Stepson is in a DMP, stepdaughter in an IVA and daughter has just been bailed out from payday loans by future son in law!!