The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Mysteek

The date of your lightbulb moment
May 2014
Debts at their highest
Somewhere between £42k and £45k. Forgot to add into the original figure the tax I was paying back through my salary over the last 3-4 years.
Debt-Free Date
24 March 2016
Your one pearl of wisdom
Difficult to think of only one and don’t want to risk offending, but I would think the most important thing is to change attitudes towards money and debt and to take responsibility for your actions and not become a victim. You have the power in your hands to do it (coming on here made me realise this in myself). Take control and don’t let yourself be controlled.
Links to the MSE guides that helped you
Too many to mention
Which forum threads help you
Frequented the Debt Free Wannabe forum more than any and had to have my daily dose to keep me going. Some amazing people on here to take inspiration from and so many willing to give up their time to offer help, support and advice. Have started on some challenges this year which is helping me to keep motivated.
Debt Free Diary
I do have a diary but it’s so boring I don’t think anyone will be interested in reading it, but if you do want a cure for insomnia then it is “I Wanna See the Light” (sorry don’t know how to link it)

takingcareofthepennies

After 13 years, I am finally debt free, and planning to stay that way.

The date of your lightbulb moment:
I've had so many! The wake up call was (a) meeting my thrifty other half who is very good at saving and had little sympathy for my situation, (b) realising I want to have kids and will need money in the bank to do that and (c) one too many sleepless nights worrying about how to make repayments.

Debts at their highest:
£16k plus £12k student loan

Debt-free date:
Today, 24 March 2016

Your one pearl of wisdom:
Read MSE every single day. If you're tempted to go online shopping (my biggest downfall), go on Debt-Free Wannabe instead. Although I've hardly posted at all so far, reading the forum daily has really helped me stay on track. Thank you MSE!

Ronoir

Today is the day - I made the last payment to our one remaining credit card about ten minutes ago. So, finally, after having got an overdraft at 18 and not once being in the black since, I am Debt Free!

a. The date of your lightbulb moment

Like many, the lightbulb flickered for me on and off for a while.

I got into debt at University with reckless spending, knowing that I was going to a fairly decent job afterwards. What 20 year old me did not comprehend (33 now) was that 'fairly decent' meant I could have gone through university and had the privilege of leaving with little to no debt and could have saved money early in my career and generally been comfortable throughout - and well placed now (although absolutely not 'rich').

What it did NOT mean is that I should spend the following ten years blowing money on the sort of budget that I could probably only just afford now; throwing holidays, lots of booze and cars etc. on credit cards, consolidation loans etc. etc. - all familiar stuff to lots of us here I suspect.

Because I never quite took on so much debt that I sank, I was able to make my minimum payments and still keep up the act that this was all fine. This meant I never had a catastrophic moment of rock bottom, just a creeping embarrassment that whilst all of our friends were buying houses and were doing well - we couldn't afford to invest for our future because I had this millstone of debt around my neck.

When a financially savvy younger sibling was able to buy a lovely house on an income quite a bit less than mine, and we weren't anywhere near being able to afford one, it gave me the kick up the back side to get it all paid off and get our financial life back on track. This was around 2011/12.

b. Debts at their highest

Just north of £37,000 (about 100% of my annual salary at the time) - mostly a tangle of high interest rate credit cards with a 'consolidation' loan chucked in. We had shifted the money about, talked about paying it off, 'this was the year' etc etc so many times, that it took us a couple of weeks to figure out what the actual extent of it all was.

c. Debt-Free Date

Today - 25th March 2016.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

We finally started to get a grip of it all in 2011/12, when the sibling bought the house and we realised our debts were above £35k.

I spent a couple of periods working overseas around this time and all the money earned was pumped into getting the debt down in big chunks. Pretty miserable using bonuses to just throw into the black hole of debt, rather than something nice like a holiday having been away from home for 6 months, but this was paying for the sins of the past and actually wasn’t as difficult as we thought it would be in the end. My wife and I went camping with our dog, or took holidays at home visiting free museums etc., rather than the holidays and activities we had slapped on credit cards in the years before.

But we really kicked into high gear last year – and this is really the one thing that radically change the way we saw money – we bought budgeting software. At the time we had been paying off our debts for a while, and had them whittled down to about £17K. We had dumped all the extravagant spending and were in that phase where all the big wins had been made, we just had to get on with living on a restricted budget. Not the time, therefore, to spend £30 on software that was just really a posh spreadsheet that we probably could have built at home with a bit of effort (although it would not have been as pretty).
However, because the one I was interested in had a 30 day trial I thought it couldn’t hurt. I wasn’t wrong!

It has forever changed the way we deal with money. Every penny is accounted for, future expenses are saved up for (next year’s car insurance etc), we are never financially surprised anymore – we know exactly what’s happening all the time. Everything we had done up until that point had been done on a bit of a wing and prayer, but now we knew we couldn’t afford x, y and z, despite what the account balance said, because it wasn’t in the budget! I could go on and on – it really has changed the way we look at money. I’m a bit loathed to mention it by name as I don’t want to appear to be a shill for the company, but it’s one of the big ones! (Having said all that, I believe the product in question has just moved to a subscription based service and changed some of its features which has altered it quite a bit, so I’m not sure if I could recommend the current version anyway as I don’t use it).

Long story short – budgeting properly changed our lives. For us, budgeting by doing an SOA every month and then not sticking to it did not work! Doing one and then sticking to a budget was crucial.

If I was allowed a second pearl is would be this – being frugal can genuinely be hugely rewarding, and not just financially. Finding bargains, bartering for everything, discovering the German discount supermarkets etc, have all not only saved us money but made our lives better. We eat better with batch cooking from fresh food now, we don’t drive the car as much, we don’t booze so hard in bars and pubs etc – all things done to save money that have had a knock-on effect and make life better.

e. Links to the MSE guides/threads that helped you

I have lurked on MSE for a long time, so different things have interested me at different points.
It is always the Debt Free Roll of Honour that gets clicked on first when there is a new post thought!

Debt Free by Xmas 2016 has been brilliant in the final push.

The “What small DFW things are you doing today” threads are great too. For those that post there – there’s plenty of people enjoying your posts that don’t write themselves – please keep it up!

A huge thank you to the team at the website and all the hundreds of people whose threads, comments etc. I have read here over the years, particularly as I haven’t really added to the community myself! I’m sure there are lots of people out there who have used this place to sort themselves out like me who don’t write much, but are definitely reading lots…

Now off to start sorting ourselves out for a house!

:money:Thanks to Martin, the team at the website, and all of you who post!

Ron.

tizerbelle

The date of your lightbulb moment

29 October 2013

Debts at their highest

£14,185.02

Debt-Free Date

16 March 2016

Your one pearl of wisdom

YNAB (or whatever envelope based budget system suits you)

singhini

Lightbulb moment: April 2011

Debts at highest: £95,000

Debt-Free Date: 20th July 2015

Pearl of wisdon: its been said time and time again; keep records of what's your paying and when the money goes out of your bank account. look through the list and ask yourself "do you need it or can you survive without it in the knowledge that your saving the money instead".
I think hard about every single penny I spend and often do without (because often you CAN do without). I have no shame in buying supermarket own brands. im 42 with no mortgage, no debt of any kind and savings. "a little sacrifice adds upto a happy earlier retirement"

Ellieseleven

I come here for inspiration and to keep me motivated and I'm never disappointed by all of your achievements;)


Congratulations and Well Done to you all...my turn is not too far away now:p


Ellie x

diamonds

Just a pop in to say hi, keep up the hard work, congrats to the DFW's who got there and report my status on 31st March.

For the newbies who maybe missed my previous posts:
Paid last debt off Dec after 10 years and 25K (was major ill for half them years and had to pay minimal)


11 months of saving and today (well yesterday 31st) I have exactly 5K savings :j


Payday on 1st April too....I'm no April fool

The car plan is off and I'm going for a mortgage next Feb, living off £50 a week aint easy, food & bus pass (built up the gas and electric to see me through to next spring last year) but I will have a minimum £12000 Feburary next year as planned before extras (switching, cashbacks, rewards and interest) with a £700 emergency fund over this period = thats approx a third deposit on a 1 bedroomed fixer upper in a decent area here :T



Keep swimming peeps and stay :cool:



Mental health - tears nor anxiety around debts does not pay them (those in dire straits) money does, so absence from work does not help you or service debts. Keep your head and debt repayments as high as and keep calm and carry on. Keep shining :starmod:

fermi

Fantastic progress so far this year. Hope you all can smash the 2015 record. :j

Former_MSE_Andrea

Wow, I am so, so proud of everyone who's cleared their debts in March!

There are now 22 of you on the 2016 Debt Free Roll!

Keep them coming everyone! If you're not quite there yet don't forget to stick your countdown in your signature to keep you, and each other spurred on when you're chatting

Bettyboo85

Hi...I just joined today.

Thought I'd read everyone's success as £8k of debt and 4 years to clear it feels like it's going to take forever!...BUT...

After reading everyone's advice I am going to make a spread sheet, budget and always keep cash in my purse and rarely use my debit card. I am also going to set up a savings account and save little and often (even if it's just pennies!)

I will be debt free and will be adding my name in 4 years (sooner if I can!)

Thanks all for inspiring me!!! You are all amazing and I'm so glad I found this site and that I'm not alone xxx