Wish I'd found this site sooner

GreyPilgrim

I guess I could describe myself as a debt free wannabee. Debt has existed around me since way before I was even born as our family was always close to the breadline, and it really is just a constant cycle. Over the past couple of years my wife and I have focused on getting rid of all our combined debts - we had a total of about £12,000 at the time we got married (which I suppose isn't much in by comparison to a LOT of people situations). It's daunting and depressing, and it feels like a mountain you're never going to be able to climb.

We really hived things down to a minimum. Did sensible things with credit cards debts and loans, lots of balance transfer tarting, live off another credit card and pay it off each month in full so it doesn't incur interest, and so that salaries sit in the bank for a month before we pay off the cc.

Got extremely anal with every single purchase - logged it on a spreadsheet so that we can see how much we were spending each month. Also put the combined debts total on a spreadsheet so that we could see it going down month on month - this helps me because I can actually SEE it (but my wife doesn't seem to feel it helps her).

Now we're down to £1,800. Should be debt free by the end of July 2006. I can't express the excitement I feel at the prospect of being debt free for the first time in my life - to know that all my salary is going to be mine and not to be out of my account before it's even gone in there and I can even begin to consider things like 'savings'

I don't mean to rub anyones face in it (if thats how this comes across then I'll certainly remove it...its my first post here and not sure of the 'house rules') I'm know there are people here in much worse situations...I just wanted to say it's achievable. Keep chipping away at it. Make as many savings as you can on everything you spend because even a couple of pence on shoppng items makes a hell of a difference when you apply the principle to everything, over the space of a couple of years.

Pointless post, I know - I just wanted to give my two penn;orth and to say that what I've seen so far seems really informative and helpful.

**purpleprincess**

Not pointless at all! Welcome!!!

Rikki

Well Done. :T

It would be nice for other people if you could tell us about the changes you made to your life style to achieve this. We are always looking for new ideas.

JAMIEDODGER

great post! inspiring! i bet you cant wait until you are debt free!!! well done to both of you xx

GreyPilgrim

Rikki wrote:

Well Done. :T

It would be nice for other people if you could tell us about the changes you made to your life style to achieve this. We are always looking for new ideas.

Well thanks! I was worried as soon as I posted that I was blowing my own trumpet!

Quitting cigs was the biggest thing! Getting sensible with credit cards. Balance transfers, paying off the high interest loans first, paying the bare minimum on 0% transfers.

Set myself learning goals too...languages (not going too well), programming stuff - anything that could persuade me to stay at home in the evenings and do stuff rather than blow money in the pub. And if I want to relax, three cheap bottles of wine for a tenner go a lot further than you would imagine - the same time spend drinking beer would cost a lot more.

Buy loads of cheap stuff for work lunches rather than using the canteen or sandwhich shops (I have a draw full of sainsburies super noodles...need to vary this though as they get bland really quickly...!)

As I mentioned, I got really anal with the online banking. I grapherize EVERYTHING...every transaction. I like seeing how much I have at the start of the month, and to make that graph line go down as slowly as I can each month. Sad I know but it helps me focus on it, and it makes me consider every purchase.

I also think the 'live off the credit card each month and pay it off in full' is a sensible move. It's only a tiny tiny saving, probably - but thats the key I think. Every saving, no matter how small, is a saving and multiplied over the course of x years really helps.

Jaymz

Welcome and well done on your progress so far

GreyPilgrim

Well thanks for all your support and encouragement. I'm sure you've all got something similar but if it helps I'll post up those spreadsheets I put together with a few notes on how to use them. It really helped me stay focused. But then I'm an anorak by trade...

Take care guys, and I wish you all well in getting to where you want to be.

System

I wish I'd found this post earlier as well!

sanfrancisco

Good stuff. I love hearing success stories. You should hang around and start giving advice out to newbies that come along. You sound like your an old debt free wannabe hand!

blt

Well Done!!! :t :t :t :t :t

Peppa_Pig_5

Well done on getting this far GreyPilgrim. It certainly keeps me motivated when I see people getting their debt down. The sooner mine has gone the better.

Peppa
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