No Accounting for Taste

I am delighted by my decision to take a full two weeks off work at Christmas time this year. Looking in a leisurely fashion at the articles on line about "what you have missed over the holidays" when I don't have to get back on the train until Monday has proved as much of a boost as the holiday itself.

But reality and normality do have to bite at some stage, and this morning's little nip was sitting down to straighten out my accounts for the last days of 2013. Ouch - I spent a lot of money in December. None of it on me (except for a couple of books and a new pair of headphones for a tenner) but a lot of cash swam out the door in the run up to Christmas.

Anyone who knows me will gather that I am quite picky about tracking these things - I've kept proper accounts for my life since about 1995 - originally through MS Money (a great program - why did they discontinue it?) but latterly through spreadsheets. I usually sit down on a Sunday morning, sort out any bills that need to be paid, and check account balances etc. Bank statements and credit card bills get filed away and the next week can safely begin.

Writing this down makes it seem slightly weird behaviour - mildly OCD'ish I guess. But its roots are from being a student and (genuinely) forgetting about cheques written and bills due and spending the money twice.

By the way - I come from a time when there were no student loans. Tuition was free and there was a grant / and or parental contribution for maintenance. Everyone moaned about how much the value of the grant had been eroded, and it would have been hard to live on the grant alone. (Well, not hard to live - hard to live as a student would want to.) But I graduated with a modest amount of overdraft debt. About £600 I think. Even with inflation, that is some way short of £27,000 for tuition alone.

Then, on joining the working world, I needed stuff - like suits and shiny shoes, and flat deposits. And I wanted stuff as a reward for being a working man - like a car (1982 Ford Escort 1.3L in canary yellow since you ask) and a synthesiser.

Easy, I thought. Get a loan, deal with the OD and get the cash for the car etc. My bank was delighted to lend it to me.

Then I wanted (not needed) more stuff (a Commodore Amiga to link to the synthesiser), and was starting to want to go out and spend cash on just going out (student living was all about cheap beer, and cheap clubs - not so much of this dressing up and spending monstrous amounts on drinks with umbrellas*). So I started getting into a bit of debt at the end of the month, then the middle, and then got to that point where I was in the black for about two days when I was paid.

Easy I thought (again). Rework the loan, borrow some more and I'll be fine. So I went to see the bank (Midland Bank in Ipswich). And I got to see the manager, who much to my surprise said "No". I remember the conversation even today. "You can't borrow your way out of trouble" she said. "You need to learn to budget and live within it". And then she said that "you can find other people who will lend you money, but you need to learn to save up for things".

And I listened. And I had about three months where I spent very little and straightened myself out. And started to understand where my money went, and what I could and couldn't control.

Result: I learned to budget, and avoided a debt trap that so many others have fallen into, almost solely because of a bank manager with a more old-fashioned attitude to lending. I can't imagine her career went terribly well in the lending-target-driven 1990s and 2000s. But she helped me to learn a healthy and prudent attitude to money. And if my accounts-driven partial OCD comes with that, it feels a reasonable price to pay.


* I never actually drank any drinks with umbrellas OK? Allow me some artistic licence here.