Thanks

twistedhazel

Hi, I have been lurking around here for a few months and decided that it's about time that I said Thank You to everyone. I had a flickering of the lightbulb around September of last year but my real LBM was in January of this year. I was offered a promotion to cover maternity leave for 6 months and decided that the extra wage would be used to try to clear some of my debt. That led to me actually totting up all of my debt (argg!) and being truthful about the fact that overdrafts do indeed count as debt! Grand total of around 12000.

Since then with the help and advice from this site I am now sitting at less than 10000 for the first time in 6 years and am well on my way to getting rid of this debt forever. I have had a total change in attitude and have stopped wasting money. I have had more no-spend days than spending ones, I haven't spent a penny on new clothes or toilettries (although I will have to buy toothpaste and other essentials soon as I'm nearly through my stash of them) and I've been meal planning and cut my food bill by 50%:D

I have also been asked to continue in my current role for another 6 months and although I'm not enjoying it very much my new MSE brain told me to just suck it up and get on with it. The benefits far outweigh the fact that I don't like the job as I'm away from home for around 7 days every month, so that's 7 days of not driving to work (saves £35 petrol) paying for food etc etc plus I get more money in the bank each month.

I am currently aiming to be Debt Free by next Christmas at the latest but not sure whether or not that's realistic. I have budgeted very little for winter fuel and although we do have a good stack of firewood (lucky us we have an open fire with a back boiler so free hot water with the fire on) if we get a winter like this years was it wont be enough. Anyway my goal each month is not to accrue more debt as this is absolutely do-able - that way every month where I see a good reduction feels brilliant and if I only manage a few quid it wont feel like I've failed, ergo I should stay nice and motivated.

Anyhoo sorry about the ramblings the upshot of this is to say THANKS to everyone who posts on this site, both to offer advice and to inspire us that we're not alone - I genuinely believe you've changed my life

saorsie

That's fantastic Hazel and well done you :T

People say that this site is life-changing and stories like yours prove that it's true

-s-

GeorgeUK

Hi Hazel - great to hear you are making such an impact in the debt. Well done for sticking with it and not adding to the debt now you have more money available. It's quite easy to take your eye off the prize when that happens. Congratualtions.

twistedhazel

No chance - this extra money is my kick start to sorting it all out. I dread to think what rubbish it would have been spent on if I hadn't starting lurking around these forums!

andrea1968_2

Well done you. It's a brilliant feeling just knowing that the end of money troubles isn't too far away - I thought the £17000 I had would never go down, but with a lot of perseverence and the help of the brilliant snowball calculator I'm down to just under £6000 and I'll be debt free next March.

Keep up the good work and it will start to go down by big chunks which spurrs you on even more.