Most of our debt was from stupidly buying and selling our house. We bought our first house in 1992, (I did not work) things were really tough, we not entitled to any benefits and it was hard bringing up 3 kids with one wage. We ended up overdrawn at the bank and the bank charges just spiralled, we got a loan to get rid of them. We then moved house as the area went really downhill, we were there for 10 years and had to sell the house at a loss of about £10,000. We got loans to cover this, then bought our next house at the height of the boom and had to get 120% mortgage as we had no money for survey or stamp duty or fees. We tried to buy about 6 houses before that one and we always ended up getting gazumped or something else would go wrong and we had already forked out about £500 a time on a survey! We never had fancy clothes or holidays, it is only in the past 2 years, that we have actually been abroad for the first time in my life on holiday, as a friend lent me her apartment. BIG lesson learned there, I will NEVER entertain the idea of buying my own house ever again!
