The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

simonleblank

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - June 2004 (When my OH found out! Spent the next few months in the spare room) Everything turned out OK though.

b. Debts at their highest - £37,500 (Ended up borrowing money from freinds as I was having difficulty in meeting payments) These were the first debts I paid off though.

c. Debt-Free Date July 2007 - The company I work for was taken over. I had a sharesave scheme that was then paid out early. £2,500 of it went towards the final payments of my debt.

d. Your one perl of wisdom. Cut up ALL of the Credit Cards. Sell everything bar the house. Use the 3 "F"s , Focus, Focus and Focus. Also, be prepared to act on advice given on this site, others have been there even worse than us!

e. Do not be afraid to say "I [EMAIL="CAN@T"]CAN'T[/EMAIL] AFFORD IT"

f. Don't hide it but tell your close freinds of your problems, they will understand

g. Now that I am debt free, I am not prepared to waste money again. My extra money will go towards both my Mortgage and Pension

h. Stay focussed and you can do it as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zack_2

Lightbulb moment: January 2005

Debts at the highest: £7300

Debt-Free Date: Today, Wednesday 24th October 2007 (I have £112, IN CREDIT, in my bank account today - and some cash in my pocket, too...)

Pearl of wisdom: Don't ever give up. Ever. You may only be able to pay off small amounts at a time, but as you approach the end, it all comes around very quickly and all the loose ends tie themselves up nicely.

Kruger

a. The date of your lightbulb moment May 2005
b. Debts at their highest £7000
c. Debt-Free Date TODAY 31/10/07
d. Your one pearl of wisdom, well I'm going to say three,

#1 Remember Martin's No.1 Mantra - DO I REALLY NEED THIS (repeat to fade..........)

#2 For anything you must buy shop around, check cashback sites, and squeeze as much profit as you can from any transaction, ask for a discount, dont be pressured by sales staff - dont be afraid to walkaway and think about it, consider secondhand, freecycle/gumtree/ebay/supermarket ad boards/local paper.

#3 If debt is making you depressed, speak to someone you trust about whats going on.

Its a great feeling knowing my money is all mine now, its been a long and often stressful 10 years of debt repayments, since I stupidly agreed to a Barclaycard and Barclayloan a week after my 18th Birthday :rolleyes:

Big Thanks to Martin and the team at MSE Towers :beer:

sideshow_matt

a. The date of your lightbulb moment SEPTEMBER 04
b. Debts at their highest £22000
c. Debt-Free Date 31/10/07
d. Your one pearl of wisdom, Just keep plugging away. It starts off very slowly, and can be disheartening, but the lower it gets, the less interest goes on, and it starts to fly down. The last 6 months have been ace as it was been really chunking down every month.

moyra

light bulb moment in august 2004
debts at £16,000 between myself and husband
debt free nov 2007


visited this webiste in 2004, and realised we werent the only people in the world who had debt, visited the C.A.B, got free advice and they worked out how much we could afford to pay each week on a protected trust deed (iva i think it is south of the border) Well 3 years down the line i've come home from work 2 a luvvly letter saying i'm now debt free and so is my husband
i'm now hoping the money we used to pay towards our trust deeds can be transferred to a savings account & to get a lovely holiday in the 1st time for years :beer: :T

bellsbells

Date of lightbulb moment - Aug 2006
Debts at highest - £5900
Debt free date - 2nd Dec 2007

I had been paying off my debts for a few years before I discovered this site. It was a real revelation to realise that I did not have to do this at the banks speed but my own. As soon as I realised all the things I could do to not only speed up my debt free date but save lots of money my lightbulb moment well and truly happened! My debt was a mixture of overdraft, loan and credit cards. My first job was to apply for 0% deals (via a cashback site of course!) and get my debts shifted so I was not paying any interest. This included a few months of spending on my CC so that money could sit in my bank account cancelling the overdraft that I was paying interest on. About five months into my journey I had my first eureka moment when my debt became interest free. From then on I have thrown as much money as I could at the debt using all the tricks this site has taught - from Martins guides to the ideas posted by the many wonderful people on this site.

Pearl of wisdom - even if you only lurk keep coming to this site for inspiration, advice or just to be with other people who know where you are coming from
- give yourself a treat every now and again to stop yourself from going potty

Finally I would like to say a huge thank you to this site and all the wonderful people on it.

Good luck to everone out there and I hope that very soon you are adding your story to this Roll of Honour!

Dumbledore55

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - February 2005
b. Debts at their highest - £22,500
c. Debt-Free Date - 21st December 2007 - my birthday!
d. Your one pearl of wisdom. - when you have little hiccups, don't beat yourself up, get back on track as soon as possible and just adjust your debt-free date. Read the threads of other Debt Free Wannabees, there are lots of ways to make little bits of money that gradually eat away at the debt.

e. And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=43050

Thanks Martin - without your site and books, I'd still be in a mess. I've passed the books on to friends but will NEVER stop using this site and making the most of my money and value for money!

Ten year plan to get mortgage free starts today!:T

tiamai_d

a. March 2004
b. Over £14'500
c. 15th December 2007
d. Speak to a debt adviser at your CAB office, especially if you can't afford to feed yourself OR pay off the debt!
e. No diary, sorry.

We were lucky, OH got a fair redundancy settlement and we used most of it to pay off our debt. Not many people are as lucky. But we struggled along for a few years before that happened, with the help of CAB.

kipwilliams

a) december 2006
b) about 44,000
c) 20th december 2007
d) budget, budget, budget!
e) nope

I got a big redundancy, moved back rent free with my parents, got a new job with a pay rise and sold my car....got there fast, and realise i was lucky.

:beer: :j :beer:

Dumbledore55

Well done everyone - don't forget to add your balance to the total MSEers have paid off their debt this year.

Link here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=637547