The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

*Mari*

a. The date of your lightbulb moment:
September 2008
b. Debts at their highest:
about £18,000
c. Debt-Free Date:
28 October 2014
d. Your one pearl of wisdom:
Don't give up, there will be ups and downs just keep focused on the end goal!

Now I'm focused on saving enough to have a decent emergency fund and paying off my mortgage :-)

Former_MSE_Andrea

Well done *Mari*

mizmir

Light bulb moment
There have been a few. I joined MSE back in December 2006 and have dropped in and out since then on a regular basis. My last and final one was January this year - when I realised how much our debt had grown and that we were in serious trouble. In the end we took advantage of a relocation to sell our home and move into rented accommodation - and we have used the proceeds to clear all our debts so we start afresh. Never again will we use credit!

Debts at highest
£60K give or take.

Debt-Free Date
28/10/2014

Pearls of wisdom
Stick with MSE and particularly DFW. I dropped in and out and each time my debts got higher. Those who stuck with MSE got debt free many years ago. Dropping out isn't going to help. To get through this you need support - and I know of no better place to get it than the DFW forum.

Threads that helped
Lots - the challenges over the years have helped me save and make extra funds. But the most important threads have been the diaries - so many inspirational ones. Thanks to all whose journeys have helped and inspired me - and for all the support over so many years.

Debt free diary:
The latest is https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4865014

Dizzy_Ditzy

I did it :j

My name is QoC and I am debt free :j :j

My lightbulb moment was in May 2008. I had flitted from minimum wage job to minimum wage job, shopped like an idiot, smoked expensive pre-made cigarettes and basically lived a lifestyle I couldn't afford. I'd had an overdraft for ten years and had lived off it for that amount of time

I actually took the time to read my bank statement that month and saw that my bank were charging he £1 for every day that I was in my overdraft :eek: I don't know why, but it made me see red a little bit. I didn't see why I should be paying my bank for access to what I saw was my money. It was only then that it dawned on me that it wasnt my own money at all and I was living my life effective on credit

At its peak, I think my debts were around £5000. I was too scared to check it properly I had debts on household bills, provident loans coming out of my ears and owed my parents about £3500.

I started trying to claw it back by switching to rolling my own cigarettes (it was a huge deal to me at the time and giving up wasn't an option). Doing this saved me about £25 a week. I stopped going to the pub so much, and if I did, I took my own vodka amd just bought diet coke. I quit the twice weekly takeaways and gradually stopped spending so freely.

After a couple of months, I had £100 left of my overdraft the day before payday.

Around the same time, I'd found a job that had paid me more than I'd ever earned before, and while it wasnt classed as a well paid job, it was well paid to me.

I contacted companies like the water company and to licensing to arrange to pay monthly rather than quarterly/annually respectively. I came to an arrangement with my parents to pay them back.

I did telephone banking three times a week and wrote down every single transaction so I knew where I was with money.

Then I found MSE amd it turned my life around completely I found ways of buying things I needed for less, and after four years, in September 2012, Id managed not to use my overdraft for a whole month :j :j :j

I was finally, finally spending my own money :j :j

I've carried on in the same vein ever since. I've got progressively more and more of my own money than I've ever had.

And then, I got a brown envelope through the door. It was from the department for work and pensions telling me that I apparently owed them money from fifteen years ago. I stupidly thought that they couldn't chase me for money that old and ignored it. I blocked their number on my phone so they couldn't ring me and hid every letter that they sent me. It was like I'd gone back ten years and was burying my head in the sand

I had anothe lightbulb moment in September just gone. They weren't going away and if I didn't pay them, they were just going to take it out of my wages anyway.

It was just over £250, which I paid off three days before payday on 24th September 2014. That was it. I was finally free.

I can quite happily stand on the rooftops and shout it out loud :j

My pearls of wisdom- always be honest with yourself. You're not helping yourself if you don't know where you are.

And never, ever think that a way of life is beaneath you. Don't be scared to be at the supermarket at reduction time. Don't be afraid to shop in budget supermarkets. Don't be afraid to buy well in the sales if it's what you truly need.

Threads that have helped me- old style money saving, grabbit, health amd beauty money saving and so many others, especially "The Elite" on the "gone" subsection of grabbit.

I'm sorry, I've rambled

I'm off to update my signature

Sunshinemummy

Fantastic QOC.. I must be hormonal as it made me a little teary xxxx

Ellieseleven

LionessInWinter wrote: »

I love reading these, they give me hope

Me too! they help to keep me on track, knowing that one day it will be my turn to post here;)

LionessInWinter

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Me too! they help to keep me on track, knowing that one day it will be my turn to post here;)

You've done great so far, keep going :T

wackynut

a. My lightbulb moment was Jan 2012 (when I joined mse)

b. Debts at their highest - Around £5000

c. Debt-Free Date - I've now been debt free for about 9 months

d. Your one perl of wisdom. - Join mse and read the experience of others. Budget and ask yourself 'do I really need this' before you buy. I got into coupon shopping which really helped lower my weekly shop. I haven't done a normal weekly shop for over 2 years.

*Robin*

[Effective] Light bulb moment:
July 2012

Debts at highest:
£17K give or take.

Debt-Free Date:
05/11/2014

Pearls of wisdom:
Keep plodding...

Threads that helped:
So many inspirational diaries, whose authors have been a greater support than they'll ever know, and to whom I will always be grateful.

Debt free diary:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4125515

Fortune_Smiles

Well done Robin. It really brightened my day to see your post here.


Fortune x