When it was leaked our wise Prime Minister was proposing to tell us to pay off our credit card debts (Oh what a clever man) the nation was outraged – and no bloody wonder.
Yes we may have a part to play in all our borrowing and spending but there is only one culprit to point the finger at – the lenders.
Let me take you back to those some years ago now when I was the delightfully nonchalant age of 18. I was sent a letter from one of the many evil credit card companies offering me a piece of fantastic plastic with a limit of £5,000. Let’s be frank, offering £5,000 to someone who has just legally been allowed to consume their first Cosmo is on par with offering the Middle East some nuclear weapons - plain old stupid.
I however, being the sensible 18 year old I was, politely declined (this had no reflection of the £2,500 overdraft I had already secured with the bank or the £14,000 student loan I had been awarded for the entirety of my studies.)
But Really? Shouldn’t someone have been monitoring such acts of horrid borrowing and lending? Ah yes that’s right, there was supposed to be - our previous Labour government, but instead they encouraged people to borrow and furthered the path to greedy which the banks so respectfully followed. After all why not; ultimately that’s exactly what the country was doing itself; racking up millions upon millions of debt and for what exactly, I’m still not too sure. (Probably to cover all the MP’s expenses – I certainly wasn’t the one having duck ponds built in my garden at the gratuity of our government.)
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| Sir Peter Viggars and his beautifully pituresque duck pond claimed on expenses |
We, the perhaps not so innocent public, were sucked into this credit lending frenzy and now we are being brutalised by our next government to simply pay it all back.
Okay, so David didn’t end up actually telling us to “pay it all off,” he cleverly reworded it on the advice of his spin doctor to “The only way out of the debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That’s why households are paying down their credit card bills.”
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| The route of all evil? |
And I’m sure we are all trying, but as times get tougher, so does meeting our repayment deadlines. And I’ll be the first to put up my hand and admit that although I might start the month paying back a generous £200 to that horrid bill that drops on my doorstep detailing my minimum repayment, outstanding balance and what little is left to spend, a hard month’s graft usually requires me to spend that money on making me feel like all my hard work is actually paying off.
Where’s the fun in all work and no play?
In reflection I should never have started the whole borrowing conundrum that now floods my financial woes and its only now that a horrible realisation sinks in that maybe dear old mummy does sometimes talk sense: “Well don’t buy it if you can’t afford it,” but mum, I’m a student, I can never afford anything.
And yes, take me away in the hand cuffs now – I’m god damn guilty! I have a guilty, utterly filthy pleasure for FAHSION. Ah Fashion, you have killed my bank balance. Most girls will agree that there is no better feeling than purchasing a new dress for a night out, or that pair of shoes you’ve seen winking to you through the glass shouting, “yeah that’s right, I would make your feet look slimmer and your legs look longer.”
I’m a hopeless case of an impulse buyer. I see it. I want it. I’m pretty sure I actually need it in my goal of reaching 100 pairs of shoes.
I’m no Carrie Bradshaw, I certainly wish Manolo Blahnik’s were spilling from my closet, but my magnetism for Kurt Geiger still ensures that I’m utterly, flat out, a big broke joke.
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| The gorgeous Sam Edelman Lorissa Shoes I want as my next purchase |
And I have tried to limit my spending but it doesn’t help that the shops are becoming more and more expensive… I picked up a dress in Topshop the other day and it was £65?? Topshop, you bad, bad supporter of this current recessionista movement!
What also angered me is that whilst Mr Cameron is giving us all a lesson on how to deal with our debts and curb out spending, his wife, the fab Sam Cam, is wearing some of the best labels around and rubbing them in our poor little faces as she meets and greets the worlds A-list. Her adoration meets mine for Christopher Kane thus why Prime Minister, why, can’t your wife start charitable donations of her free designer gowns that she can blatantly afford and I can’t???
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| Kane\'s S/S 11 Collection was a huge hit with Britains 1st lady |
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| Sam looked fantastic at the Scottish Fashion Awards in Kanes design |
THUS all my anger towards these past few days has made it clear that action must be taken! Over the next week I am going to aim to prove we can do it on a budget – let’s not be unrealistic we all have ‘needs’ but maybe we can just slice them by cutting out the fat price tags?
I put myself forward as your recessionista ambassador credit crunchers! Over the weekend I am going to rummage high and low and find for you some high trend bargains that will maybe ease the pain of the thudding statement(s) landing on a door step near you.
