How to avoid going into debt for as long as possible

What are the biggest money sucks as you go through life?

Education
House
Car (plus fancy & new equals fancy and more expensive) & other depreciating assets (motorbikes, boats...)
Credit cards (not intrinsically expensive but certainly a doorway to debt if wrongly used).
Frittering - big and little.

No one told me anything about managing my money when I was young so I feel I was pretty lucky to get to be as financially secure as I am. Had a few false starts along the way, especially when I was first married. However we worked hard and learnt how to budget & now its all okay.

I believe I have taught the kids well but only time will tell. This is what we did (right or wrong).

Education - follow your heart but you don't have to go straight to uni to get a pointless degree just to please me. You also don't have run up tens of thousands of debt.

Ahdel works four days a week and studies two days a week. Points count towards an OU degree but he also builds up the all essential portfolio of his work during the course of the course.

Jamal is trying to get into the merchant navy. If he does this he gets sponsored through three years of university & he gets paid a pocket money sum during this time as well.

House - will cost a bomb in this country no matter what however house ownership is a part of our culture so we expect to buy at some point. I am encouraging saving up of a massive deposit (my niece worked five jobs and her partner three jobs to save their £40k deposit - it can be done). We will help, plan and encourage as required. Maybe starting off by buying something between us so they can build up some equity. We would generally prefer not to rent as it is too close to just chucking money away.

Car- Saving up in advance for car & insurance. Setting aside money fro MOT, car tax and repairs - planning for tyres etc.

Credit cars - avoiding at all costs. I can only hope they stick with this.

Frittering - The biggest battle. Ahdel & Bonnie still fritter but for Ahdel we control it by doing his budget and having a fritter allowance. Jamal is the perennial student and can control whatever little money he has scrounged to the penny. He is however the past master at frittering other people money away.

I have tried and the world is quite a hard place, so hopefully I have made a difference.

Oh, oh, oh forgot to mention I also explained the importance of regular giving to those less fortunate, in goods, in acts and in cash.