The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

ruby_eskimo

a. The date of your lightbulb moment

25th December 2013: the day we decided to start planning our wedding and I decided I didn't want to start married life in debt. I'd been in debt when I left uni in 2008 and managed to pay it off in a couple of years but then it had slowly started creeping back up again.

b. Debts at their highest

£3,194

c. Debt-Free Date

24th September 2014

d. Your one perl of wisdom.

Leave the debit card at home and take out cash according to your budget. When you only have £100 to spend on misc things throughout the month, you find yourself not really needing that new top or mascara quite as much as you thought.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you

Can I just link the whole site?

f. Which forum threads helped you

No buying unnecessary toiletries, old style threads, meal planning, virtual sealed pot and lots of diaries like Dinah's ultimate threads.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it

I had a few but they weren't very interesting!

flyingmamma

So happy to be able to make this post... I lived off a credit card for a year 12 years ago as my income dropped and have been repaying min repayments until I got advice from mse. The first thing I did was call cc company and ask for a reduction to apr... 30% reduced it to 9 % ! Just for asking! That was 10 years ago and I've been repaying since.switching to 0% when I could helped too!

Lightbulb moment July 2008
Debts at highest £13500
Pearl of wisdom ... Don't pay min on cc that's how I lived in denial for years!
Old style board helped me be frugal and gave great tips and support... Thanks to all!!
Debt free date today:) 30 sept 2014 and it feels amazing!!

flyingmamma

Thanks for my badge feels like such a sense of achievement to finally be debt free now going to set my sights on a good savings pot and becoming mortgage free by the time dd1 finishes primary school! 6 yrs Without this site I would most likely be still in debt so MANY thanks .

Former_MSE_Andrea

Well done flyingmamma! What you've achieved really makes us feel proud!

You probably headed straight to the Mortgage Free Wannabe board but in case you've not seen them yet our Mortgage section has had a big revamp recently and our Savings section will hopefully help too

Moneymash

Ring the bell! Shout 'I am debt-free', and stand up and dance. The journey is over...as of yesterday I am debt-free! :j I am so happy the struggle is over, that was a long hard slog and I can remember every single painful step.


a. The date of your lightbulb moment

21st April 2011, after I found this site and finally tallied it all up. However, my first over payment wasn’t until June 2012, the most frustrating thing ever!

b. Debts at their highest

£26,000 back in February 2010. I had been without a job for six months and I was using my credit cards to live on.

c. Debt-Free Date

30th September 2014

d. Your two pearls of wisdom.

Always keep your paperwork. Years ago I rented a TV (yeah you could do that), when I went to Uni, I gave back the TV and paid all that was outstanding and got rid of all the associated paperwork. About a month later I got a letter from the TV rental company telling me I owed them £10, most annoying as I knew I didn't! However I didn't have the paperwork to prove it. I phoned the company and the woman I spoke to said ‘ Don’t worry love it’s only £10 I’ll write it off’ In my head I’m thinking oh no you won’t I don’t owe you any money and you’ll look through my records and you’ll see that! Fortunately the voice that came out of my mouth was ‘Oh thanks’. Obviously it still urks me to this day as I am writing about it (Of all the debt I owed I didn't owe that £10). Ever since then I have kept my paperwork. As we've seen with bank charges, PPI, CPP, incorrect loan information and interest charged these companies do make mistakes, and don’t always operate fairly. You’re halfway there making a claim and fighting your corner if you've kept your paperwork.

Always investigate your finances. I had to submit a form with some information, however I had assumed it would cost me to submit this form, and I just didn't have the money so didn't bother. I kept getting letters which I ignored. Some months later I opened a letter and realised I was being fined for not submitting the information. If only I had investigated, to submit the original information wouldn't have cost me anything and it resulted in a fine of £375. This fine would have only been £150 if I had opened the letters sooner, as I was being fined by the month. I would have paid nothing at all if I’d had investigated the form in the first place.

Another situation was when I attempted to get some PPI back on a loan I took out back in 2001 (yeah cheeky I know, but I still had the paperwork, so why not) I got some feedback from some Negative Normans, and If I’d listened I wouldn't have pursed it but I did. The bank sent me back a prove -it-letter (meaning prove my sick pay and redundancy would have covered my loan repayments). So I investigated and found that my sick pay and redundancy wouldn't have covered my loan repayments. However during my investigation I found that I had been given the loan during my probationary period of my job, which invalidated my PPI. Not only did I get my PPI back on that loan, but because I took out a second loan and used some of that to pay off the first loan ( yeah I know the signs for the beginning of debt hell were there all the way back then) I got a small refund on that loan as well.


e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you

The PPI reclaiming guides, made it easy and straightforward making a claim which resulted in just over £2000 back.

f. Which forum threads helped you

I joined a little challenge group called pay off £3000 in 150 days, there were only the 3 of us and thanks to a PPI refund I completed the challenge in 120 days and that was my highest interest debt. Following various Debt diaries was good as it makes you realise you are not the only one going through hell to get out of debt. NSK challenges (the ones I did) made me track my food spends, which tended to be my downfall as food for the most part my only treat.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it

No diary it would have been far too depressing.

moohound

Well done to flyingmamma and Moneymash on their new debt freedom


Quote No diary it would have been far too depressing:rotfl:

Former_MSE_Andrea

And congrats Moneymash too!

Yay for all our Debt-free wannabes!

Don't forget to link to the guides and forum threads you've used so others can read and use them

stevecarpman

I have a really good excel sheet that I am happy to share with everyone. The reason my excel sheet works is that you can see the whole year ahead, plot in expenses, and really see where you will be in 12 months. Seeing that far ahead really gives you a good feeling inside and makes you work even harder to achieve your debt free goals .

Ellieseleven

Fantastic advice Moneymash and very well done on becoming debt free:j

Ellie xx

MerchantMariner

a. The date of your lightbulb moment
September 2011
b. Debts at their highest
£13,000
c. Debt-Free Date
7 October 2014
d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Get YNAB - it has changed my relationship with money forever.

Looking forward to becoming a saver and seeing my credit rebuild slowly, though the defaults will be a long-lasting reminder of a difficult time. Hope to buy a house in 4-ish years when the defaults go, which is plenty of time to build up a big deposit.