The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

diamonds

Just a wee update people, having cleared my long haul of debts in Dec the gods being as they are rewarded me when I didnt need it the most, when I'm debt free!


Still I am not grumbling in the slightest


Had a un-notified payment of £1850 into my account today from a government dept :eek:

Between Dec and Jan my car fund has doubled and currently my TSB has over £4000 in it, will need to find another 5% savings rate this weekend :rotfl:


At this rate I will be able to buy a brand new Dacia come summer with a full warranty and not a second hand car :T



I'm so happy I would swear if MSE didnt edit it out automatically



Love to you all

Ellieseleven

diamonds wrote: »

Just a wee update people, having cleared my long haul of debts in Dec the gods being as they are rewarded me when I didnt need it the most, when I'm debt free!


Still I am not grumbling in the slightest


Had a un-notified payment of £1850 into my account today from a government dept :eek:

Between Dec and Jan my car fund has doubled and currently my TSB has over £4000 in it, will need to find another 5% savings rate this weekend :rotfl:


At this rate I will be able to buy a brand new Dacia come summer with a full warranty and not a second hand car :T



I'm so happy I would swear if MSE didnt edit it out automatically



Love to you all

Brilliant news! Well done and here's to a happy debt-free life:)


Ellie x

diamonds

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Brilliant news! Well done and here's to a happy debt-free life:)


Ellie x

Thanks Ellie (thanks to fermi and Jan2015 for the thanks )


Got another £250 in my account today, apparently I was due £2100 I did not even know nor ask for it, government dept actually handing cash due to me without asking :eek: I've checked it all out today and yup 100% legit due it, not a error :T



Keep chugging along DFW, I've been there, the other side is springtime

AshB123

The date of your lightbulb moment - 11/08/2015 (My 25th Birthday)
Debts at their highest - £2,500
Debt-Free Date - 06/01/2016
Your one pearl of wisdom - The light at the end of the tunnel DOES get closer eventually.

Keep on looking on The MSE website for hints and tips, it helped me, just use the serach function and type in anything you want to find advice in.

mc2705

I never ever thought I would get here, but here I am!

I have been constantly in debt since I was 18, I am 36 now and finally can say that I am debt free (other than a mortgage which I don't count in the same way).

a. The date of your lightbulb moment:

I don't know the exact date but when my wife announced she was pregnant a couple of years ago, it brought home to me that I needed to sort myself out. She lost that baby, but I carried on with sorting out my finances.

b. Debts at their highest:

At its highest it was around £30k, but I succeeded in reducing that about 5 years ago. At the time of my lightbulb moment it was around £12k, half of that was credit card debt and the other half a bank loan that I had.

c. Debt-Free Date:

5 Feb 2016.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom:

I made myself a spreadsheet with all of my incomings and outgoings and (this is important!) was realistic about what I could afford to get through the month and how much I could afford to use to pay down the debts. I realised I was wasting a lot of money on going out, buying take aways etc and so shoved as much money as I could each month to pay off the credit cards, once they were paid off I put money away in a savings account until the savings balance matched my loan balance and then paid it off.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you
f. Which forum threads helped you
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it

The last three questions have the same answer! I didn't have a diary and there was no specific guides/threads that helped me. The forum overall was very useful and gave me some great tips and ideas, but I wouldn't be able to single out an individual.

2spicy

WE MADE IT !!!! ...

Its been a long 7 years, weve shared the journey with lots of people on the moneysavingexport forums.

Highest Debt - £75,688 .00

LBM - Oct 2008

DFD - Feb 2016

Pearl of Wisdom - Being debt free you have to learn how to play the game..... Creditors will chase for that extra payment, they can be relentless but adopting the stance "I dont have it, so you cannot have it" is the best mindset to be in.
....... You have a right to live, before your creditors have a right to be repaid.
Dont live like a church mouse, keep the extras (Haircuts / Pets / Glasses / prescriptions) to make life a little easier.

The odd bottle of wine or box of chocolates will help remind you your human.


Special thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support Threads. a valuable resource and source of support.

Serafine

MSE on Twitter suggested I posted here.

Lightbulb moment: 26th March 2013

Debt free date: February 9th 2016

Highest level of debt: £5,000

Pearls of wisdom:
- Used MSE budget planner (an eye opener!)
- Changed bank and cashed £150
- Created a book keeping spreadsheet (colour-coded categories)
- Reviewed my finances entirely
- Cancelled what's useless, haggled what I needed to keep
- Budget everything
- Printed MSE motto and kept it in my purse.
- Took advantage of 0% balance transfer credit cards

Now I keep it going and start saving ;-)))))
Thank you Martin I owe you my sanity. Really!
:T

CapricornLass

Well, I've finally achieved it - debt free! I was made redundant and I've used the money not only to pay off the remaining £200 I had left to go, but my mortgage as well. :T

Date of lightbulb moment - July 2006, when my husband came home and told me he had chucked in his job and we lost 2/3rd of our income overnight.....

Debts - I'm not sure what they were at that stage, as that was pre-MSE days for me. However, in 2009, I had over £6.5k of debt, there was the mortgage, and my husband had his own debts too.

Debt free for me - 31/1/16

Pearl of wisdom - Several things. 1) Its the little things that will trip you up, i.e. you have to budget for paying the debts off! Four years it took me to learn that lesson. Duh! 2) Life has a habit of throwing you curved balls, expect it and try not to be too hard on yourself when it knocks you off course. Just pick yourself up and keep going. 3) Do everything you can to keep positive - being in debt is depressing. 4) You must change your behaviour, i.e. stop spending thoughtlessly, and question every penny you spend. Otherwise you are back where you started, in debt again. 5)You will finally Get There!

Guides that helped me - the snowball techniques in the guide to tackling credit card debts, and sorting out my utilities. Also, the importance of keeping a rigorous budget that includes EVERYTHING. YNAB is my best friend!

The Debtfree Wannabees and the Old Style boards were the two that helped me most, although I have probably used most of them at one stage or another along the journey.

Wish me luck with the next stage - remaining debt-free!

Former_MSE_Andrea

8 debt-frees this year already! Mahooosive congratulations everyone... keep them coming

Jcooh

Well done all to who have become Debt-Free I plan on joining you all shortly - before the year hopefully!