The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Ali-OK

Late to the party as always :rotfl: but I'd like my badge

a. Date of lightbulb moment

October 2013 - a realisation the Interest Only Mortgage had to start having capital payments thrown at it, at the same time I still had CC debt accrued from going SE which was finally providing me with a decent income. It was time to knuckle down and ditch the debt

b. Debts at their highest

£14,860.94

c. Debt Free Date

10th March 2015

d. One Pearl of Wisdom

Read diaries, challenges, everything on how to save/budget, etc and action every one that appeals to you. Throw the extra saved, earnt, found money at the debt.

f. Which forum threads helped you

DFW diaries and challenges, MFW, Old Style Board and grocery challenge

g. And if you had a diary on the DFW board a link: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4797975

Still adding to it as I continue saving and being a MFW

johnboyinsole

a. The date of your lightbulb moment April 2013
b. Debts at their highest £16823
c. Debt-Free Date 13/04/2015
d. Your one perl of wisdom. No matter how boring you think it is, make yourself a realistic budget. Break goals down in to 3 month goals and change your mind set to believe that this is a permanent (but not bad) change. Keep telling yourself that the things you can't buy today would be forgotten about tomorrow anyway.
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you. None, just the forum. And thanks to YNAB for the excellent budget software too.
f. Which forum threads helped you Deft-free-wannabe and mortgage-free-wannabe.

[Deleted User]

Well done all, you are awesome! Looking forward to joining you September 2016

Daerve

I'm just 11 days away from being debt free since my early twenties. :beer:

a. The date of your lightbulb moment, July 2012.

b. Debts at their highest, £30'000

c. Debt-Free Date, 25/04/15

d. Your one pearl of wisdom. When consolidating debts ensure you destroy any existing revolving credit such as credit cards. I remortgaged to clear the debt then promptly ramped up another 15k within 2 years.

melwright

Can't believe it, but I'm actually here - just made a payment to get rid of the last thing...

a. The date of your lightbulb moment June 2007
b. Debts at their highest £75838 :eek::eek:
c. Debt-Free Date
15/04/2015:beer::T
d. Your one pearl of wisdom:
Review budgets & what you are doing regularly - we started off putting our monthly budget into envelopes, then when we felt empowered moved to just a cash pot, now we can be 'trusted' to use the debit card.Appearances are deceptive - those that seem to have the most probably don't or probably owe the most.
Appreciate time rather than money.
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you:
Probably most of them at one stage or another
f. Which forum threads helped you:
DFW - lovely, friendly & non judgemental

Former_MSE_Andrea

Huge congratulations melwright and everyone else who's cleared their debts!

Time_to_face_the_music

I love this thread, it's always inspired me and now I can't believe it's my turn.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: 10th January 2012, I think lots of people's lightbulb moments come just after Christmas. The bills come in and you think how on earth can I pay these. We had already robbed Peter to pay Paul for months, spent every spare moment trying to make some extra money to pay off debt but only managing to scrape together minimum payments, sold everything of value, including to my heartbreak and shame, my dead mum's jewellery. We just couldn't do it any more and my LBM was like the bottom literally dropped out of my world but it was exactly what I needed and my head was well and truly out of the sand.

b. Debts at their highest: £82,344 - I thought it was around £50,000 and was still convinced it was in the £70,000s when I started here

c. Debt-Free Date: Today 17th April 2015

d. Your one pearl of wisdom: Can't be just one! Never forget your debt is yours, even if you use a free service to help you deal with your debts, you need to keep absolutely up to date with exactly what is going on every single month and keep on top of it. If you are in a DMP, don't rest until every single penny of interest and charges is frozen. I knew from the start that I wanted to pay back every penny we owed but interest was another matter. If you are confident and you can run a spreadsheet, deal with your creditors yourself. Our debt really started to turn around once we self managed our DMP via the wonderful NED CAB DMP website.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you: I didn't use any MSE guides but searched the site so much and learned so many things.

f. Which forum threads helped you: I couldn't have done this without the DMP & Mutual Support Thread and the Payment a Day Thread.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it: I didn't have a diary but poured my heart out on the DMP & Mutual Support Thread. If I had a diary, you would have heard about our shortfall in our endowment which meant we had to also find that and become mortgage free during this DFW journey. You would know about my 2 redundancies in 12 months which emotionally flattened me but actually helped financially. Oh and all about our car disasters and the house that caused this debt still being like a building site!

OK that's me done before I go all Oscar acceptance speech on you and everyone looks embarrassed then falls asleep! But I can't leave without mentioning my twin HH - I couldn't have done this without you, my gratitude for your support is never ending.

TTFTM x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I love this thread, it's always inspired me and now I can't believe it's my turn.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: 10th January 2012, I think lots of people's lightbulb moments come just after Christmas. The bills come in and you think how on earth can I pay these. We had already robbed Peter to pay Paul for months, spent every spare moment trying to make some extra money to pay off debt but only managing to scrape together minimum payments, sold everything of value, including to my heartbreak and shame, my dead mum's jewellery. We just couldn't do it any more and my LBM was like the bottom literally dropped out of my world but it was exactly what I needed and my head was well and truly out of the sand.

b. Debts at their highest: £82.344 - I thought it was around £50,000 and was still convinced it was in the £70,000s when I started here

c. Debt-Free Date: Today 17th April 2015

d. Your one pearl of wisdom: Can't be just one! Never forget your debt is yours, even if you use a free service to help you deal with your debts, you need to keep absolutely up to date with exactly what is going on every single month and keep on top of it. If you are in a DMP, don't rest until every single penny of interest and charges is frozen. I knew from the start that I wanted to pay back every penny we owed but interest was another matter. If you are confident and you can run a spreadsheet, deal with your creditors yourself. Our debt really started to turn around once we self managed our DMP via the wonderful NED CAB DMP website.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you: I didn't use any MSE guides but searched the site so much and learned so many things.

f. Which forum threads helped you: I couldn't have done this without the DMP & Mutual Support Thread and the Payment a Day Thread.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it: I didn't have a diary but poured my heart out on the DMP & Mutual Support Thread. If I had a diary, you would have heard about our shortfall in our endowment which meant we had to also find that and become mortgage free during this DFW journey. You would know about my 2 redundancies in 12 months which emotionally flattened me but actually helped financially. Oh and all about our car disasters and the house that caused this debt still being like a building site!

OK that's me done before I go all Oscar acceptance speech on you and everyone looks embarrassed then falls asleep! But I can't leave without mentioning my twin HH - I couldn't have done this without you, my gratitude for your support is never ending.

TTFTM x

Morning

Bit of a repeat of my post on DMP but for the record......

Many many congratulations Twin. So very pleased for you that I want to cry myself. Update. I just have cried!

You have been wonderfully inspirational to many; me included. You have given tirelessly to others on a consistent basis and made a big difference to many people on the threads. Am in awe at your focus. You've cleared the debt in record time, unbelievable how quickly you have dealt with the issue and you must have one of the best track records here at getting and interest stopped and not reinstated. I have no doubt that had we met earlier I'd have had the courage to go self managed etc earlier and be in a better place financially sooner. However, instead I got something more valuable, something money can't buy- true friendship and the support that brings. So huge thank you from me.

Here's to your next chapter.

Big hugs HHx

NorthernMonkey1

Dear NorthernMonkey
ACCOUNT NUMBER xxxxxx

Thank you for your payment reference no. xxxxx. Your payment details and account status are detailed below:

• Payment method: UK Visa DR
• Settlement payment: 163.74
• Card payment charge: 0.00
• Total amount paid: 163.74
• Account status: Settled in full

OOOHHH Yeah.

Down from about £16-17000 5 years ago (I don't know the full amount, I was too scared to add it up)

Karen777

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I love this thread, it's always inspired me and now I can't believe it's my turn.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: 10th January 2012, I think lots of people's lightbulb moments come just after Christmas. The bills come in and you think how on earth can I pay these. We had already robbed Peter to pay Paul for months, spent every spare moment trying to make some extra money to pay off debt but only managing to scrape together minimum payments, sold everything of value, including to my heartbreak and shame, my dead mum's jewellery. We just couldn't do it any more and my LBM was like the bottom literally dropped out of my world but it was exactly what I needed and my head was well and truly out of the sand.

b. Debts at their highest: £82,344 - I thought it was around £50,000 and was still convinced it was in the £70,000s when I started here

c. Debt-Free Date: Today 17th April 2015

d. Your one pearl of wisdom: Can't be just one! Never forget your debt is yours, even if you use a free service to help you deal with your debts, you need to keep absolutely up to date with exactly what is going on every single month and keep on top of it. If you are in a DMP, don't rest until every single penny of interest and charges is frozen. I knew from the start that I wanted to pay back every penny we owed but interest was another matter. If you are confident and you can run a spreadsheet, deal with your creditors yourself. Our debt really started to turn around once we self managed our DMP via the wonderful NED CAB DMP website.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you: I didn't use any MSE guides but searched the site so much and learned so many things.

f. Which forum threads helped you: I couldn't have done this without the DMP & Mutual Support Thread and the Payment a Day Thread.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it: I didn't have a diary but poured my heart out on the DMP & Mutual Support Thread. If I had a diary, you would have heard about our shortfall in our endowment which meant we had to also find that and become mortgage free during this DFW journey. You would know about my 2 redundancies in 12 months which emotionally flattened me but actually helped financially. Oh and all about our car disasters and the house that caused this debt still being like a building site!

OK that's me done before I go all Oscar acceptance speech on you and everyone looks embarrassed then falls asleep! But I can't leave without mentioning my twin HH - I couldn't have done this without you, my gratitude for your support is never ending.

TTFTM x

waaaaah! so so so pleased for you!! I am so very pleased to read this. Been off the net for a few days and this has just warmed my heart and been a fab post to come back to. well done well well done. I might do a little cry too