Friday, February 17, 2006

Getting into Debt and Crafts


Anybody watch today's Oprah? I just caught a bit of it whilst passing a few minutes before going to collect Jesse from French School.

The subject was debt. I am always floored by amount of debt some families have. If I can't afford it, I don't buy it. The only reason I have credit cards is convenience and they get paid off totally each month. And we are not a rich household. We have an average income, none of our vehicles are new (or even newish).

One of the families on Oprah had a lady that enjoyed crafts. She is what I would call a stash-aholic. Here the link to the page

Quote from Oprah's site: Marnie's obsession with crafts is also digging them deeper into debt. Marnie admits she buys on impulse, a habit that resulted in her owning $1,000 worth of beads and $1,500 worth of scrap-booking supplies. "I feel really guilty about spending the money on [crafts]," Marnie says, "but, at the same time, you cannot always just focus on everything horrible in your life." $1500 of BEADS GULP!!!!

I think many people get caught up in the latest online obessions. I see it on crochet and knitting lists all the time. One person talks about something and then everybody wants it. And I bet 90% of them don't use the pattern, yarn or accessory. Ebay is another place that tends to make people lose all sense of realitly. They bid and bid and bid. I have seen patterns that I sell for $4.95 CDN go for $20 US on Ebay.

Easy credit is worrying. It is so easy to get credit cards (especially in the USA) and easy to get loans that promise they can consolidate your debts (but only tell you in the small print that their interest rate is 40%) etc etc.

Please note, these are just my thoughts and views and I don't mind if people don't agree with me. I just couldn't live that way myself.