Veering Off At A Tangent: I hate to be boring, but in our younger day it was impossible to get credit without parents' consent, credit cards did not exist, and there was definitely no Bank of Mum & Dad.
So, if a bill arrived, or for some reason we were skint, we went out and sold stuff. It was usually LP's as they were instant cash, and although letting some of them go was regrettable, getting through a fix was more important.
Now there are credit cards, which are something of a double-edged sword in that they can help and also drop you in it.
There are also places advertised on TV like wonga.com who say you can borrow until pay day. But have you seen the APR? Something like 2468%. One of them only equates to 10% per week, but they're banking on us not paying it off, and losing more money. Just like the fatal credit card nightmare of just paying off the minimum amount - it knocks-on to BIG financial trouble.
But our offspring are not used to going out and selling stuff for cash. And we had a few things, a bit of gold, some silver, and a few old postcards. So rather than leave it until we snuff it, we sold it to two buyers and moved it on; so we will enjoy the dosh.
And I don't think they have the savvy to make something out of nothing, so it's gone, and we're happy.