The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Nargleblast

Well....the Nargle' s only been and gone and done it. Today the last payment for our joint IVA has come out of the account. We are debt free, apart from the mortgage.

Lightbulb moment - 2008, when OH and I took out separate DMPs. Early 2009 we worked out we would be about ninety odd before everything was paid off, so switched to a joint IVA.

Starting debt in IVA - £97,480

Yes. I know. Ouch, ouch and triple ouch. Caused by life events (both of us been divorced years ago, change of career meant loss of income whilst training, unexpected arrival of son who is now six foot tall and 17, banks throwing money and increased credit limits at us). Also by financial meltdown in 2008 when everything went belly up in the financial world.
And a healthy dose of our own stupidity - we believed we could have anything we wanted as long as we made the minimum repayments.

It has been tough but MSE has been our lifeline. The DFW and IVA boards, the Old style forum, and my main haunt, the NSD gang challenge thread, where I have met such a random bunch of wise, witty, lovely and totally bonkers people who have inspired me to keep going.

Thank you all in MSE land, and thank you Stepchange for your lovely, wise, helpful staff.

Today we go to the bank to tidy up our finances, then a celebration lunch at Cafe Rouge, using a £20 voucher obtained by using £5 of Tesco Clubcard points - well, once a MSE-er, always a MSE-er......

Nargleblast

Oh, I forgot my pearl of wisdom ....STOP BEING AN OSTRICH.
There is no magical Debt Fairy who will make your debts vanish, you have to get your head out of the sand and face them.

beanielou

So chuffed for you nargleblast :j :j :j

Ellieseleven

Well done Nargleblast, I'm so pleased for you:j

Ellie xx

CrazyKitten

Lightbulb moment: November 2014

Debt at highest: £1500

Debt-Free Date: 5th August 2015

Pearl of wisdom: Keep a spending Diary and you will soon see how much you spend and how to cut down!

Sagaris

I didn't realise this thread existed - so a bit of a backdated one for DH and me.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - two of them really - probably around 2005 - when I found out DH had a pretty large debt (26k) from credit cards and a loan before he met me - and no financial acumen (well not much anyway! Second LBM when we wanted to get married - I was going to get a consolidation loan to pay my 12k credit cards off and a bit more on top for the wedding - and thought 'hang on a minute....that's not very MSE'

b. Debts at their highest 26k DH and 12k me - 38k (gulp)

c. Debt-Free Date September 2013

d. Your one pearl of wisdom. Snowball, pay highest interest debts first, grow to love spreadsheets and track all your repayments - I found it very satisfying to see the amount coming down! It helped me to stay focused on the task in hand.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you Reading other debt free diaries and seeing that anything is possible - very inspiring.

f. Which forum threads helped you Too many to mention! But the debt free diaries and old style boards were a mine of information.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it I didn't keep a diary - I wasn't that disciplined!

As a result of paying back the debt, DH's improved credit rating (he paid his debts off via CCCS/Stepchange on a DMP which I did on his behalf - the worry of it all had made him ill - so I administered it but it was HIS money - very important to both of us, that bit!) we are now moving into our first property together - it means so much to both of us, knowing that we will never get into a financial mess again, and both have good credit ratings thanks to the help of this site and the people on here, and making sensible financial decisions.

However desperate you think your situation is, there is always a way out - it won't be overnight, but it takes time to learn new habits and get out of the ones that got you in the mess in the first place.

Thank you everyone! :beer:

Lwsi

On the 1st of April 2009 when I first made a spreadsheet of our debts which were a mortgage, home improvement loan, 2 car loans, overdraft and 3 credit card debts, my oh and I owed a total of £76572! This has been reduced as a result of - endowment maturity, oh receiving a redundancy payment (thankfully he was immediately re-employed), my compensation payment for voluntary exit from employment and my pension lump sum, and in July 2015 the total was down to £7000. I was lucky enough to win £8000 in a raffle so on the 31st of July we became debt free and we will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on the 14th of September with a clear conscience and, as our chicks have flown the nest, we are now beginning to save. No more debts for us!

Nargleblast

Well done Lwsi, it feels good, doesn't it?

ShopaholicNumber1_2

Lightbulb moment: August 2010

Debts at highest: £35,000

Debt-Free Date: 1st July 2015


Pearl of wisdom: There will be times when you feel like you won't make it (you will), there will be times when you feel like you are taking one step forward then two steps back and there will be times when you just want to go out and blow all your money to cheer yourself up (it won't!) - but don't give up! Just keep going, every payment is one step closer, stick to your budget then one day you will get there.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Way to go everyone! 55 MSErs have cleared their debts so far this year!

Can we beat last year's 92? I blooming well hope so!

If you see someone clear their debt give them the link (mse.me/debtfreeroll) and remind them to post on here!