The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Minnie82

Yayyy been waiting ages to post this...would love a badge

!The date of your lightbulb moment 12/12/13
b. Debts at their highest around 42k
c. Debt-Free Date 25/9/19
d. Your one perl of wisdom. Just breathe, and be honest with yourself
e. Links to the!MSE guides!that helped you
f. Which forum threads helped you - dmp support thread and DFW board.

Cant believe we've done it. Nothing but the mortgage now. Wow!

clearmydebts

Minnie82 wrote: »

Yayyy been waiting ages to post this...would love a badge

!The date of your lightbulb moment 12/12/13
b. Debts at their highest around 42k
c. Debt-Free Date 25/9/19
d. Your one perl of wisdom. Just breathe, and be honest with yourself
e. Links to the!MSE guides!that helped you
f. Which forum threads helped you - dmp support thread and DFW board.

Cant believe we've done it. Nothing but the mortgage now. Wow!

Amazing stuff well done!

westiedog

1. Around November 2008.
2. £75,000 ish
3. 11 October 2019
4. Dont bury your head in the sand.
5. All of MSE.
6. DFW.

bexybest

I have just paid off my last credit card - incredibly happy.

Long time MSE lurker. My brief story is as follows:

I've always done quite well for myself and followed the uni/graduate job path, but a lot of student over-spending debt came with that. I got my first credit card to clear my overdraft when the bank realised I'd graduated and hiked the interest rate on my overdraft. Low and behold I went back into the overdraft along with more credit card debt and an expensive BMW 5 series on a lease. And then I bought a house so suddenly I had all the bills that go along with being a homeowner.

Roll forward three years, had a payrise to £45k pa but always found myself empty at the end of the month. Christmas 2018 I had a serious lightbulb moment that I wasn't going to be able to move house/move in with my partner/start a family unless I got myself sorted.

I started tracking my spending on Spendee App - everything was catagorised and analysed at the end of the month. I setup minimum payments for the 1st of the month on my credit cards, giving myself 12 months to become debt free. I cut back on everything, starting shopping in Aldi and revisited all my areas of overspend. I was on plan and I even managed to book a cheap holiday so I didn't really feel like I was missing out on my 20's.

Anyway due to some horrible neighbours (I'd never buy a new build again due to close proximity to neighbours) I decided to sell my house and move back in with my parents for a year. I had a couple of months of double-paying as I didn't want to live in my house anymore - that stopped any further debt repayments for 2 months. But the house sale completed last week so I've paid off my credit cards in full (I'd got that down to around £3.5k so wasn't too bad) and the rest is sitting in a saving account until I work out what my plans are.

Turns out accountants are very good at dealing with businesses money - not so much their own! Lol

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - Christmas 2018
b. Debts at their highest - £9.5k
c. Debt-Free Date - Today! October 2019
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - Track everything you spend

MallyGirl

westiedog wrote: »

1. Around November 2008.
2. £75,000 ish
3. 11 October 2019
4. Dont bury your head in the sand.
5. All of MSE.
6. DFW.

Congratulations - enjoy the feeling

MallyGirl

bexybest wrote: »

Turns out accountants are very good at dealing with businesses money - not so much their own! Lol

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - Christmas 2018
b. Debts at their highest - £9.5k
c. Debt-Free Date - Today! October 2019
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - Track everything you spend

Congratulations - now you can move forward

BronzeBearess

I’m so inspired by all these amazing stories, well done to everyone!!

smallchanges19

I cannot tell you how good it feels to be typing this.

I had my initial LBM in May 2013, I didn't have the money to pay that weeks rent and even Wonga wouldn't lend my £200 for 7 days. I had not missed any payments but my total debt of over £56k was no longer manageable. I sold some jewellery, paid the rent and called step change. They were brilliant and once I had explained my situation to them I could finally see a way forward. I started a DMP in June 2013 with an expected DFD of December 2025. It was all made much harder by the fact that my husband wasn't (and still isn't) aware of the debt so everything was being done in secret.

I plodded on, increasing the monthly payment each year to bring the DFD closer until by the end of 2018 I had the debt down to a little over £20k. It was on seeing Martin in the TV and finding the DFW board that I had my 2nd LBM. I had got into the habit of putting away money for car ins etc so that they could be paid up front but I was cruising. I didn't have a proper budget, I was still having coffees out several times a week, take-aways were all to regular and I wasn't making enough effort to clear the debt.

I wanted to get to my DFD as soon as possible and my OH's decision to retire in the summer was my perfect cover for instigating some MSE into our lives. I started to think about every penny I spent, amazed that even while in a DMP I have still been so easygoing with money. We still treat ourselves to a coffee out now and again. It's a fairly cheap wat to spend an hour or so on a Sunday morning people watching and I couldn't justify stopping complete to my OH. Today, for the first time since I got my first credit card 36 and a half years ago, I can finally say that I am completely debt free. Not only that but I have money saved for Christmas and have pots started for all the annual expenses, holiday etc.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - May 2013 and Jan 2019

b. Debts at their highest - £56,700 - 10 different accounts

c. Debt-Free Date - 18/10/2019

d. Your one pearl of wisdom - Make every penny count. Even the smallest changes add up over time.

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you
NA

f. Which forum threads helped you - Been a secret lurker since the new year and several of the diaries including (but not exclusively) Put way your purse & become debt-averse, finally debt free after 34 years, wading in treacle and many others have both inspired me and dispensed invaluable hints and tips. The DFW forum in general has been an invaluable resource,

Sorry for waffling on but I have no one else to share this with and I feel like shouting from the rooftops.

The next stage is to start saving hard so I can think about semi-retirement in the next few years.

ponypal

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: June 2016
b. Debts at their highest: £10,000
c. Debt-Free Date: July 2017
d. Your one perl of wisdom - get someone to hold you accountable, and if you can overpay with no penalty DO IT!
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you: MSE helped me choose to switch my loan to another provider, I was able to get a much better interest rate and saved a lot in the long run!
f. Which forum threads helped you the No Spend Diaries and other people's debt diaries. I also got really into Youtube Budgeting videos
g. I did not have a debt diary but I did post this when I got out of debt and got some interesting tips: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5663881

katius

Finally!

a. The date of your lightbulb moment Feb 2016, started with a DMP with step change after servicing the debt for years but not making a dent
b. Debts at their highest £22,082.61
c. Debt-Free Date 21 Nov 2019
d. Your one pearl of wisdom.Dont hesitate in asking for help, the sleepless nights and stress this causes are horrendous
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you Reclaiming PPI via the guides on here meant just over £1000 was paid off one debt
f. Which forum threads helped you Debt free wannabee, debt free for Xmas and debt free roll of honor
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it I did not but i did post occasionally on debt free wannabee