Checking In

Rob_K

hello all!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say hello to you all- I've been reading this forum for many months and drawing much inspiration from the stories I've read here- it's such a friendly and supportive community. However I never seem to have got round to registering so I can add my own story or comments!

I have to say if it were not for this site there's a good chance I wouldn't have reached my lightbulb moment at all, though I have always been a bit scared of debt- a healthy fear which has kept me out of too much trouble!

I'm 24 and left uni almost 3 years ago with about £1000 overdraught and maybe another £1000 on my credit card. I got a very decent job after uni and lived at home for the first 3 months, managing to save about £3000 before moving into a flat with a friend.. that's of course where all the problems started- I bought a £2000 plasma screen telly without credit, but suddenly my outgoings were much higher than my income. Of course I just buried my head in the sand and didn't really think about how much it was all costing me. Just that I was living in the moment, making my monthly payments and not worrying about it.

So I sold my car which, living in the middle of london, hardly got used anyway (and which I owned outright) and used the £4000 I got from that to pay off my debts. "Great," thought I, "I can start spending again!" Inevitably I ended up with no car, a load of cool music and recording equipment (which I do still use all the time, so I don't feel toooo horrible about the expenditure) But it did put me right back to square one (£5000 in the red with nothing else to sell)

Largely inspired by what I'd read here, I moved out of my flat last september to somewhere a bit cheaper, and closer to work so I could cycle in- immediately I was saving £150 a month! I got quite a big payrise around the same time- and the money I was earning which probably would have been soaked up by ever more frivolous activities was paid straight into my credit card. I'm now paying off an average of £400 a month on a 0% credit card and will be debt free by September!

So I just wanted to say thanks to all for all the tips- I've found encouragement in your stories even though they weren't directed at me. And now I've introduced myself, maybe I'll see you around these very forums!

Cheers all! :beer:

Lewby

Welcome Rob.

This is a great site, full of inspirational people. It's so good to see people reach their Debt Free Day and when you've had your lightbulb moment it becomes your focus - TO BE FINALLY DEBT FREE!

It's so nice to think about one day having your wages come into the bank and all of it sitting there, waiting for you to spend it on whatever you want .... not servicing debt for things you have bought and forgotten about because it was so long ago!

Glad you've joined the forum - September is not too far away!

Lewby xx

bydganwil

Rob,

Great name!! I am in a similar position to you. At the end of last year having visited this site a few times I realised how much money we were haemorrhaging. At the time we owed in the region of £20k.

Thanks to this site we now live on a reasonable budget and will be debt free by June this year.

Good luck, you should have some tidy savings by this time next year!!

Rob