The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Well done! That's an amazing amount i recommend joining a savings challenge on here when you're ready. Its a lot more interesting seeing your money grow.

Heh, been meaning to write on this for a while now, the teases of badges made me realise I should explain my situation a bit. I don't recall my lightbulb moment, it was about six months after I was made redundant. I lost my job in the city back in June 2008.

I haven't owed anyone a penny since December 6 2012 when I paid off my last debt to HSBC. At its worst I owed just over £27,000 and was earning minimum wage, living in a room in a shared house with 4 other guys who'd all lost the jobs and their other halves.

Fortunately though, I managed to get back on my feet with some sympathetic bosses giving me a chance and somehow managed to meet the most beautiful woman in the world who, after 8 months together clearly bumped her head on her way to dinner and agreed to marry me. The wedding was a struggle to pay for and got me into a little debt but it simply had to happen, couldn't let her go! Used soooo many MSE tips to get it all for under £9000 or so. That was in 2011.

Everything now is focussed on saving and rebuilding my credit lines so that I'll be eligible for a mortgage one day and have a nice chunky deposit.

My one tip would be that no one ever got rich by spending money. My boss is very rich. He wears an old casio watch and drives a crappy old saab. If it doesn't need replacing he won't replace it, he definitely lives on the 'want or need' principle.

I prefer to make as many days a week into No Spend Days - and I'm honest with myself. I had a voucher for a restaurant today, wanted an NSD but we spent 33p over the cost of the voucher (heh). Foolish! Blew one of my NSDs. That's the key though, forward planning, keeping the spending down and being totally truthful and realistic with your budgetting.

Great post Trajal and words of wisdom. Can relate to your boss, I have a friend who has money but you would'nt know from how she shops. Well done on being DF. Best wishes for the future and good luck on saving for a mortgage.x

The date of your lightbulb moment - April 2012, and fortunately MSE was the first website I found in my blind struggle for help. I can't believe the amount of support, advice and well wishes I've received on the DFW board and throughout the site. So many of the posters on here are absolute angels and give their time, knowledge and experience freely to help others. Even when I've thought people could have been a little more tactful, the advice has been excellent and I have managed to save and make money in ways I never thought possible before. Myself, my husband and our little family are now able to have a much better quality of life, even though the debts are history.

Debts at their highest - Around £12,000 and rising rapidly thanks to poor decisions and extortionate APRs. I found myself paying for the basics (as well as everything else) on expensive credit following a relapse in my bipolar disorder and my husband having a serious accident on our honeymoon. Before too long I was at the edge of my credit limits and was struggling to make even the minimum payments. My husband knew we were in trouble, but had no idea of the extent, and him finding out 'accidentally' was one of my greatest fears. I felt that it was all my fault, due to my illness, being off work sick and having a much lower income - but I reached the stage where I could no longer cope with the situation by myself.

Debt-Free Date - I have cleared out my savings, but as of today the final debt (car finance) has finally gone - 2 years and 6 months earlier than expected! It feels amazing to have finally cleared everything, and to be able to use financial products to my family's advantage rather than the bank's.

Your one pearl of wisdom - Talk! So many of us, including myself, hide our financial woes and fear that others won't support or understand us. Talking to others on here got me the tailored help and advice I needed, and gave me the courage to share with my family. Although my family were disappointed about the situation, and annoyed that they hadn't been able to intervene when I was unwell, they were very supportive and loving - making paying back the debts even more of a goal and much more achievable. Sometimes the debts can feel overwhelming, but talking helps to put things into perspective and relieve some of the worries. There's no debt situation which is unsolveable.

And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it - It's not been updated for a little while, but it's here

The date of your lightbulb moment
March 2004. I'd just been paid a couple of weeks before, but realised I had no money for petrol, and all my (many) credit cards were pretty much maxed out. I had no control over my money whatsoever and couldn't have told you what money I had (or not). Thankfully I chanced upon this site, and found plenty of advice on what to do about my situation, as well as seeing that I wasn't alone. Moved onto a DMP with CCCS, and then started on the journey to being debt-free.

Debts at their highest
£55,000. That was store cards (x5), credit cards (x4), overdraft (£3500!), and loans taken out to consolidate other loans (a common story). I'd been refused a new consolidation loan a few months prior to my LBM, but hadn't twigged that there was an issue. Total head in the sand.

Debt-Free Date
May 2007. Despite being on a DMP and having the collective wisdom of MSE-ers, I still worried endlessly about the communications I was getting from debt collection agencies, as the debts were bought on and on and on, down the chain. CCCS were amazing, but as we know, debt collection is big business and they rarely play by the rules. I had approx 2 years of the DMP left to run at that point. Managed to persuade my mortgage company to provide a remortgage (thankfully lots of equity in the house) and used that money to clear the remainder of the debt. It's not something I would recommend to do, but it worked for me (and I was fortunate that the house market shot up so high that my mortgage was quite far removed from the valuation).

Your one pearl of wisdom.
My problem was spending money on "things" that I really didn't need -- DVDs, games, clothes, etc -- but wanted at the time, especially if it was on offer and therefore a "bargain". My pearl of wisdom would be to ALWAYS give yourself at least 24 hours between finding something you want to buy, and buying it. I operate that policy as often as I can and find that, having slept on it, I don't need to buy the "thing" after all.