www.iva.co.uk

Read this and all I could think is how much of this spending is done on credit:

http://news.sky.com/story/1029886/chris ... -predicted

Saw it on TV - I may well do some later but it won't be on credit!!

Good on you Niobe. I've just been talking to a tenant at work and they were saying they have put nearly £1000 on credit cards this Xmas!

I remember those days myself but guess most people don't see the light unless they end up in a situation like most of us did.

At work yesterday all i saw was credit cards and bits of plastic to pay for the big shops, me sat there thinking hhhmmm that post christmas bill is going to be a killer!!

Post Iva i seem to of kept my christmas spending the same as it was during my iva, online shopping ive already had about 20 sales emails! crazy!!

My missus works in retail and she ha said the same thing that a large proportion of the transactions she has taken were on credit cards. It seems the country needs to learn the lesson all of us have learnt already.

The sad thing is that the Government are reliant on people spending on credit to keep the retail economy going otherwise the economy would be even worse. Plus Economists say it is bad for people to pay down debt and save, they need us to borrow and spend. It's madness.

Just bought a new memory foam mattress on the vanquis card but will use Feb and march council tax money to pay it off(pay our council tax over ten months). The rest of Xmas was funded by cash. Felt good.

Can't wait for it to arrive. This old mattress is lumpy and hard.

Paul

Excellent plasticdaft. Once you have had memory foam you can't go back!

Well I succumbed as I'm sat at work with nothing to do and £110 of Amazon Vouchers burning a hole in my Amazon Account that it's taken me all year to save from doing surveys.

I have splurged it on a Kindle Paperwhite that I have always wanted. Means I can read lots more at work. I'm going to have a run off the clasics seeing a sost of them are free lol. I quite fancy reading all of Charles Dickens works.

A new mattress is on my wish list for when the IVA has finished.

I'm lucky I got a moving allowance at the start of the IVA as I'd just split from the now ex-wife and literally had nothing other than my clothes and a TV lol. So I used that to invest in a good bed on sale as I knew it would have to last. Everything else I got second hand or cheap but seeing as we spend a third of our lives asleep that was the one area I would not compromised on.

Cannot believe this is my 6th cash only Christmas with no credit card in sight....boy it feels good to low no enveloped in next weeks post !!! Already started my 2013 savings account for Xmas....£50 a month!

Well done everyone....you can be proud and smile !

I've followed a sensible suggestion on here and opted into the Tesco Clubcard Savings Club and will be topping up a bit each time when I do my shop so that hopefully I'll have enough by Xmas 2013 to buy all the Xmas Food and Booze and a few little presents.

Thinking about it Xmas 2013 will be my first debt free Xmas in my WHOLE adult life (Got into debt as an 18 year old student and never got out!)

Can't wait!! [:D]

I shall be getting my new terramundi jar shortly so will be putting stuff in there. Managed to save a fair bit last year so will be treating myself to a new tattoo.

Ooh Niobe...not sure I could go through that ...does it not hurt ?

I have one on my ankle and that was fairly painless.