The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

hermanni · 29 April 2013 at 3:50PM

The date of your lightbulb moment

2005 Loan that had just been toppd up again when I changed the car, had been ongoing since 1994.

Debts at their highest

£16,700

Debt-Free Date

01/07 2010

Your one pearl of wisdom

Pay cash, Will need to change my car in about 18 mths, now putting £300 away every month, with savings will give me £7000 cash to spend.

Make a list of things I need, wait 48 hours, and end up deleting most of them.

skintchick · 30 April 2013 at 9:58PM

Just found out about these badges. I've been debt free for years now, was one of the original DFW Nerds (I chose my number of 23 as it was special to me but I was earlier than that!). Can I have a badge please?

The date of your lightbulb moment

Don;t really remember now, think it was around 2004 when I got my first job in London.

Debts at their highest

£3,000

Debt-Free Date

February 2007

Your one pearl of wisdom

Don;t use your debit card like cash. If your purse is empty then you can;t afford it, whatever it is!

Also, if you want something, wait at least 24 hours before buying it and see how much you want it then.

carrielovesfanta · 1 May 2013 at 9:09AM

The date of your lightbulb moment

June 2010 just after our wedding. I knew that I had to tackle the debts head on. I had a second one about a year later when I realised I wasn't making much headway

Debts at their highest

£10490.31

Debt-Free Date

30/04/2013

Your one perl of wisdom

Be Boring - track EVERYTHING. Spreadsheets are your friend!

No debt free diary

Moneymash · 1 May 2013 at 9:13AM

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

The date of your lightbulb moment

June 2010 just after our wedding. I knew that I had to tackle the debts head on. I had a second one about a year later when I realised I wasn't making much headway

Debts at their highest

£10490.31

Debt-Free Date

30/04/2013

Your one perl of wisdom

Be Boring - track EVERYTHING. Spreadsheets are your friend!

No debt free diary

Carrie, your debt-free day was yesterday...:j too busy celebrating to post aye?... I would be the same.

Congrats on your achievement

Gordon_Hose · 1 May 2013 at 11:24AM

The date of your lightbulb moment - February 2008.

Debts at their highest - £17000

Debt-Free Date - 15th March 2013

Your one perl of wisdom - Get everything in writing and don't believe a word Debt Collection Agencies tell you. Use complaints procedures to the full if they step out of line. Avoid speaking to them on the phone. Negotiate full and final settlements where possible.

amber03 · 1 May 2013 at 11:24AM

Hope you had a little celebration yesterday, carrie, well done on becoming debt free, enjoy.x

saver03 · 4 May 2013 at 1:27PM

The date of my lightbulb moment 14th December 2006

Debts at their highest £21,947.17

Debt-Free Date 12th April 2009

I would advise everyone to do an honest SOA and then look at ways to improve it so you can throw all your extra money at your debts

HeadAboveWater · 9 May 2013 at 11:17AM

(Apologies for being a bit vague on the specifics

)

The date of your lightbulb moment
Sept 2005 I think. I had actually applied for a loan to replace my car plus put all my credit cards together into one monthly payment. Not entirely sure if you can call it a proper LBM or not considering I was putting myself into more debt, but the theory was there!!

Debts at their highest
Approx £20k

Debt-Free Date
Originally December 2010. I had made my final payment to the bank of mum a few weeks before Christmas!

Unfortunately I went off on WRS in January 2011 for over 4 months and I had to borrow from her again, but June 2012 was my last payment to her

Your one perl of wisdom
Cash! Cash! And cash!
Never carry your debit card with you. Work out your budget for the month, and give yourself an 'allowance' every week for groceries, fuel, treats, etc. Lift this money in cash and make it last. When it's gone, tough!!

And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it
Nope. Just have my 'every day dilemma' diary for keeping myself in check now!!!

lbnblbnb · 11 May 2013 at 2:44PM

a.The date of your lightbulb moment
February 2012. I had some debt, began to worry about losing my job and was watching a very dear friend go through a divorce largely caused by ignoring money problems until they became unmanageable. I decided I wasn't going down that route.
b. Debts at their highest
£8000. It may not seem much compared to some but I began to realise that it was getting worse, month by month.
c. Debt-Free Date
October 2012
d. Your one perl of wisdom.
Track your spending - I used the Account tracker app by Graham Healy. It was so useful to have it on my phone to always check my account. A budget is ESSENTIAL.

pumpkinlife · 12 May 2013 at 11:21AM

Date of lightbulb moment - Early 2008, we found out we were expecting. We were living in a studio flat, working long hours in rubbish jobs; and knew that we wanted better for our family. The flickering bulbs of the previous few months turned into flashing neon hazard signs. I found MSE and we set to it.

Debts at their highest - over £8000.

Debt-Free Date - Today! We could have done it years ago, but have had a final credit card sat at 0% for years now and have been ploughing money into an ISA instead. Today we had enough and just paid it off. It wasn't costing us anything in interest, but it feels amazing that finally all of our money going forward is our own!

Our Pearl of wisdom - Pay off debt little and often, even if that means taking a couple of bags of coppers to the bank each week. Have a tally on your wall of your balance going down. Psychologically it spurs you on to make savings wherever you can and pay off more and more.

Congratulations everyone; and best of luck to all the DFW, you will get there! And thank you Martin and your team, I hope you realize what a difference you make to people's lives :beer:

The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

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