The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Former_MSE_Andrea

Huge congrats sourcrates

sourcrates

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Huge congrats sourcrates

Thank you andrea :T

emmaglet

I'm so pleased to be posting here!
I joined MSE as a student at university, and whilst I've always had a money making/frugal streak to me, it is only within the last year that I've been able to knuckle down and focus on my debts after finally landing a job that paid decently.

My debt free date is today, 2nd June 2014. I got engaged in November and I was determined that I wouldn't be getting married (next May) in debt.

My one bit of advice is that you CAN make extra money. The "make £10 a day" challenge is great, people are consistently making £hundreds extra each month from surveys, eBay, smart phone apps, etc. Yes Qmee may only pay you 8p for an internet search, but 8p make £s and £s pay off debt.

I am so pleased to know that I can now go ahead and plan a wedding debt free!

dubs57

Congratulations to everyone on here! You are all very impressive and all your advice and help on the forum has really helped me so much already. I look forward(a long way) til I will be joining you on this. How exciting to be FREE!!!:j

Former_MSE_Andrea

Fantastic news emmaglet! Congratulations

Our 50 Wedding Tips guide and Weddings Forum board should help you next

pigpen

Lightbulb moment: October 2006

Debts at highest: £23.447.35.. plus a few thousand to cover deed transfer and divorce fees..

Debt free date: 6th June 2014

Pearl of Wisdom: sell everything; ebay, gumtree, car coot sales are your friends, I have a lovely relationship with my local post office staff, focus on one at a time (snowballing calculator was a great help at the start) and keep track of every penny and where it goes.

I still have 16-17 years left on my Mortgage but I have now free'd up £700+ a month by paying off my debts!!

katy_ann

Congrats pigpen!! Very well done to you!

Former_MSE_Andrea

Such great news pigpen! All debt-free announcements are wonderful but when it's a really long-standing forum user it's even more heartening and inspiring!

Can I persuade you to join us for #dfwbloggers on twitter this evening?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2014/03/10/dream-of-being-debt-free-youre-invited-to-our-dfwbloggers-party/

araminta

a. The date of your lightbulb moment
End of 2009 when I contacted StepChange (CCCS as they were then) because my minimum payments were only just covering interest payments and I couldn't see a way out of the mess I had got myself into. I had been spending beyond my means for most of my adult life, nice cars, holidays, clothes etc.

b. Debts at their highest
£26k in a DMP plus £5-6k run up on Very whilst within my DMP - very very silly and because of this I would say my true lightbulb moment didn't actually come until Oct 2013 from which date I have cleared just over £12k in debt.

c. Debt-Free Date
7th June 2014

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Look at money as a way to freedom and security not a means to buy more material goods that don't actually make us happy.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you
None in particular but looked through many

f. Which forum threads helped you
Payment a Day and Pay all your debts by Xmas 2014. I found making a payment a day really spurred me on and meant I could see a difference being made to the amount outstanding each day, also once the money was out of my account I couldn't spend it on anything else. I set myself little challenges like taking lunch to work each day instead of buying it and paying £2.75 off the debt each day I did it and always having 10 items for sale on ebay and paying the proceeds from that straight off the debt.

g. And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it
I didn't have my own but was so inspired by other peoples, they really spurred me on and encouraged me to keep going.

My plan now to start building some savings so I can choose to have the future I would like rather than one spent paying debt built up purchasing things I didn't need. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone else, it is a fantastic journey, so many lessons learnt along the way that have given me a whole new outlook to money and restraint!!:beer:.

dubs57

:TReally great news! Some of your ideas are excellent especially the lunch one using the money to put directly towards your debts. I think I will try it myself.