The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

dave8204

I've been debt free for years. When my marriage went down in a blaze of glory I was left with £6000 of debt,not complaining as that's life but it didn't make re-starting my life any easier.I had to be frugal for a few years to pay my debts and the habit has stuck and served me well.I enjoy life,don't feel I'm missing much,do what I want and go where I want to go,being mortgage and debt free I've been saving roughly 60% of my income (just below the National Average apparently) for my retirement.Now,despite appearances,I'm actually a lot better off than most and can start to do things I've always promised myself to do.I'll be going on a 3 week holiday to Asia this Summer,which is costing me more than I've spent on new clothes for the last 10 years and I'll be dropping my saving to £500 a month which will mean I can renovate my flat without borrowing.
I do appreciate not everyone is in a position to do what I've done and not everyone lives the way I do but it can be done.As with my advice on the Mortgage Free thread my advice is to chip away at debts no matter how small the amount.Just as debts snowball the longer you pay off what you can the easier it gets.Think about what you actually need rather than what people are trying top sell you or your neighbours have and you'll get there quicker.
I do have a credit card but it's strictly for emergencies,I can replace my transport for example right away rather than waiting for money from ISAs etc to come through. I use it to pay for my petrol then settle up in full every month to keep it active.

Arian_Woman

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - back in 2004
b. Debts at their highest - £12k
c. Debt-Free Date - 2011
d. Your one perl of wisdom. Know what your fixed outgoings are & do research to see where & how you can reduce them. Only buy what you really have to with cash & be a credit card tart paying as much off as you can.


My debt started when my marriage failed. I had no income, no financial savvy & no clue as to what running costs would be.
I had a little bit of savings & an ISA that I had to cash in so as to get by. I was so afraid of spending anything so I only bought what was absolutely essential until I could get a handle on what my outgoings were going to be.
MSE was a lifesaver for me & I read loads.
When I met my new man he too had debt & was pretty useless at managing his money. By then I had quite a bit of savvy so managing the finances became my job. I saved £100's on car insurance by shopping around - he had been paying the man that came round for years! I also had no qualms about being a credit card tart & took the longest & best deals I could find.
It took a while but was so worth it, we are now a couple & debt free - we even save every month & only use the credit card for our own convenience & pay it off each month.

MrWillyWonka

The date of your lightbulb moment
May 2013

Debts at their highest
£29,023.76

Debt-Free Date
23rd February 2015

Your one perl of wisdom.
Life is too short for regrets, learn from your mistakes.

Links to the MSE guides that helped you. Which forum threads helped you
The whole forum!

Today is the day I have been waiting for! Finally its here and my net worth is positive.

Due to overspending and not getting paid enough (maybe!) this cumulated into a debt. My wife and I were fortunate to get a decent pay rise in new jobs which allowed us to pay off £29K in 22 months. We could probably have been debt free before Christmas but we did fit in two holidays in those 22 months. We are perhaps lucky or just caught ourselves in time so that we were never struggling (minimum payments were about £500 a month, we paid off an average £1300 a month).

Do I regret it? Absolutely not. For one good reason, I'd rather be in debt and learn my lesson in my 20's than later in life with children, mortgage and nearing retirement. This is perhaps the price of the lack financial education in schools; I remember getting my first ever credit card at 18 and withdrawing cash and defaulting, all because I didn't understand the charges and didn't realise I could have set up a direct debit (which I didn't know what it was). If we were struggling then perhaps I would have regretted it.

The next step? A mortgage... and I'll still be an avid fan of YNAB.

Ellieseleven

Fantastic achievement in a relatively short space of time Mr Willy Wonka...Well done!

dalleDF

Hooray! Can't believe I finally get to post here. Have been in debt my whole adult life and finally I'm not anymore!

The date of your lightbulb moment
So many over the years. Most recent one was in 2013 when I was trapped in a payday loan nightmare, living in a flat I couldn't afford and using credit cards to buy food. I got a credit union loan to get myself out of that situation.

Debts at their highest
Around £15k but I have run up that amount more than once.

Debt-Free Date
Today! 25th Feb 2015

Your one pearl of wisdom.
Budget your butt off! I found YNAB to be a massive help, wish I had discovered it years ago. Also, embrace a minimalist lifestyle and ebay everything that isn't nailed down!

Links to the MSE guides that helped you
The credit card shuffle, balance transfer stuff, and stuff on credit unions.

Which forum threads helped you
Challenges like the no spend days, use up all your toiletries challenge, no more buying books, up your income, payment a day. Looking at the advice forumites gave on people's SOAs helped me as well. And all of the debt diaries.

And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2179077

CAN I HAVE A BADGE PLEASE??? so exciting!!

Idollic

Lightbulb moment: 2013

Debts at highest: £7100

Debt free date: 27th February, 2015

Pearl of Wisdom: If you can't raise the ceiling, lower the floor!

I had always been a big saver and had savings into 5 figures. Then in 2009, I went to university and my savings started trickling away. By 2012, as a postgraduate student, I had accumulated £7100 worth of debt on a credit card and 2 overdrafts. I made the minimum payment month after month, even missing a few payments in the process. I spent many days and nights in fear as my rent was always overdue and my bank's collections department kept ringing me and sending letters for exceeding my overdraft limit and late credit card payments.

After university, my dream of landing a job in my field didn't materialise, and I spent a year fervently job searching. In 2013, I decided to retrain to improve my prospects, and landed a job where I was able to make a small dent into reducing my debt. My turning point came in November 2014, when I landed a well-paid job, which meant that I had £2000 spare after my bills. I immediately started paying off my debts with the entire £2000 per month. I felt such an immense sense of relief when I cleared the remaining balance yesterday. I will never again put anything on credit that I can't afford to pay for with cash. My focus now is on raising a substantial emergency fund and saving a big deposit for a flat.

Well done to everyone who has made it! Your stories have been a great inspiration. To those still seeking inspiration, remain informed, focused and committed. One day at a time!

xxlouisexx56

Light bulb moment - june 2012

Debts at highest - £4000

Debt free date - 2nd March 2015

I got made redunadant on maternity leave with my dd2. Dd1 was at a special school for children with autism and was struggling so it was decided I would be better off at home and I didn't look for another job. I was paying a hefty amount in repayments but my totals never went down. I was only covering the interest. I couldn't go on like that
So my partner took out a credit card and put all my debts into one on that and I've been paying it off ever since. Not one late or missed payment.
We are now saving to get married next year and take our girls on a fabulous holiday.

NO MORE CREDIT OR STORE CARDS!!!!

spot3

I wasn't sure when my actual debt free day would be, but I've had a lovely email from Stepchange and it's today!

a. The date of your lightbulb moment
14th February 2013, I'd taken out a £100 payday loan in the previous September and it'd rolled over one time too many. I realised that 'faking it until I made it' following the end of my marriage was costing too much and not working. It had to stop.

b. Debts at their highest
Approx £7000

c. Debt-Free Date
2nd March 2015!

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Make your budget realistic, I set mine far too low and it's been a very tough couple of years.

f. Which forum threads helped you
I'm a fully fledged member of the DMP mutual support thread community. I read this for a while before joining in and the information and support has made the whole process much less scary.

Other things I have learnt:
- Creditors aren't always ogres - I'm much more confident dealing with them and other situations but I couldn't have done that without Stepchange in the beginning.
- I've developed an aversion to spending more than £1 on shampoo, and I can't bring myself to change up from value brands of pasta!

I couldn't have done it without the DFW forum x

sourcrates

spot3 wrote: »

I wasn't sure when my actual debt free day would be, but I've had a lovely email from Stepchange and it's today!

a. The date of your lightbulb moment
14th February 2013, I'd taken out a £100 payday loan in the previous September and it'd rolled over one time too many. I realised that 'faking it until I made it' following the end of my marriage was costing too much and not working. It had to stop.

b. Debts at their highest
Approx £7000

c. Debt-Free Date
2nd March 2015!

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Make your budget realistic, I set mine far too low and it's been a very tough couple of years.

f. Which forum threads helped you
I'm a fully fledged member of the DMP mutual support thread community. I read this for a while before joining in and the information and support has made the whole process much less scary.

Other things I have learnt:
- Creditors aren't always ogres - I'm much more confident dealing with them and other situations but I couldn't have done that without Stepchange in the beginning.
- I've developed an aversion to spending more than £1 on shampoo, and I can't bring myself to change up from value brands of pasta!

I couldn't have done it without the DFW forum x

Well done Spot !!!!!!!

miss_corerupted

Light bulb moment - Feb 2007 (I finally got free of ex boyf and his spendy ways)

Debts at the highest - £50k (secured loans on mortgage, credit cards, loans etc)

Debt free date - summer 2014

Pearl of Wisdom - Get rid of ppl who scab off you

Forum - Was debt free to start off with now mainly old style