SORT YOUR OWN LIVES OUT

Posh and Becks have been blamed for plunging celebrity-obsessed Britain into record levels of debt.

While soccer star Beckham and wife Victoria hardly dent their bank balance, the rest of us owe over £158billion on our credit cards.

A study that brands Britain "The Posh and Debts Society" says consumers are stuck in a vicious circle, splashing out on expensive goods to impress friends, then getting stressed out because they can't afford them.

Yasmeen Khan, of Datamonitor, which produced the report on major trends of 2002 and blames stars like the Beckhams, said: "Consumers are buying goods to make themselves feel as though they have arrived and are living the high life.

"But attempting to be posh is not necessarily matched by bank balances with record levels of debt.”