Romanian style credit card

I grew up in a communist, third world country, where the phrase " carrying plastic" has no other meaning, but that you caring around a bunch of plastic items! I always tell my husband A that he is lucky he married someone who at the age of 24 had no idea how a credit card works! At least not the conventional ones.
While Romania, much as the rest of the Eastern European countries, is today getting more and more Westernized (you know, McDonald's, Starbucks, credit cards, bank loans...)I realized that as I was growing up, we did have a form of credit card. It was called "borrowing money" from friends and family. In perspective, it was the best deal ever, nobody would ask for interest! Normally in our culture you were either someone who always had to ask money from friends and family, either someone who always had the money to give (I have no idea how some people afforded to lend money to others during the communist years and even much after, but that is another story in itself).
Even today, I still have friends, who I would ask how were they able to afford a certain thing (strangely that is not a crass thing to ask in my culture) and they would say "oh, I borrowed some money!" I actually have friends who would rather take a vacation/buy a new perfume/new clothes than budget for food. And savings? Who are you kidding? There are way to many things to do now with the money I might or might not have, so who cares about tomorrow!

Just a little glimpse into where I come from!