The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

wihising999

how can we do that?

Iamdebtfree

a. The date of your light-bulb moment: circa Jan 2016
b. Debts at their highest: £35K+
c. Debt Free Date: end September 2019/no DMPs or anything similar -did it all by myself (that is not to say that I paid off £35K in three years..long story. I'm a loser and an idiot - do not be like me)
d. Your one pearl of wisdom: DO. NOT. EVER. GET. INTO. DEBT. Just don't. For anything. No matter how much you want it. It's not worth it. If you can't pay for it with ACTUAL money that is yours - not with invisible 'free money' from a piece of plastic - DO NOT GET IT. No holiday or gig or restaurant is worth it.

DrSpendingLittle

DrSpendLittle said:

The date of your lightbulb moment
Mid August 2017. I'd just done another credit card shuffle and was shocked at the balance of one particular credit card. I had only £70 in the bank and most of the month left. I decided there and then that enough was enough, I was never going in my overdraft again and I was going to sort the debt mess out. In Dave Ramsey's words, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired!

Debts at their highest
£13,985.17

Debt-Free Date
29th March 2019

Your one perl of wisdom.
Give every £ a job. Tell it where to go and when but be flexible and realistic - paying off debt is a marathon, not a sprint, so go at your own pace and work with your own particular personality strengths. I'm very much a logistician and I love organising stuff (I am fun, honest!) so for me, YNAB was heaven sent. It really did change my life. One final pearl of wisdom - spending money today that you don't have is borrowing from your future self so respect her and be kind to her today.

Links to the MSE guides that helped you
Nothing in particular - I did look over the ISA guides and have latterly been using the moving house guides. But with regards to debt, I focused mainly on the forums (see below)

Which forum threads helped you
The DFW boards and Debt Free Diaries. I'd like to give a huge shout out to the wonderful Enthusiasticsaver who has been part of my diary since day one and without her encouraging and supportive comments and advice I may have abandoned my debt free journey. Also, a huge shout out to the many people behind the diaries I have kept up with along the way who have kept me going in this wonderful network of like minded people, especially redofromthestart HHOD wishingthemortgageaway TOPM WannabeFree starmummy babystepper parsniphead to name a few.

And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it
Yup, it was the most important part of my debt free journey. My diary is here.

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:T:T:T:T:T:j:j:j

This is my old diary / username / debt free declaration.

I have had to create a new account and a new diary to get back onto the forum as the forum update has locked me out of my account and my email update hasn't worked work   

It is possible to have my debt free badge back? Pleeeeeeeeease

£13,985.17 in 20 months! 

doingitanyway

Iamdebtfree said:

a. The date of your light-bulb moment: circa Jan 2016
b. Debts at their highest: £35K+
c. Debt Free Date: end September 2019/no DMPs or anything similar -did it all by myself (that is not to say that I paid off £35K in three years..long story. I'm a loser and an idiot - do not be like me)
d. Your one pearl of wisdom: DO. NOT. EVER. GET. INTO. DEBT. Just don't. For anything. No matter how much you want it. It's not worth it. If you can't pay for it with ACTUAL money that is yours - not with invisible 'free money' from a piece of plastic - DO NOT GET IT. No holiday or gig or restaurant is worth it.

Great advice and congratulations. You are no loser. You paid off £35,000 in 3 years. You faced up and dealt with it. It makes you a winner in my book, be proud.

ditty1234

Am just reading this thread for inspiration. And yesterday I paid a private debt to my ds that I owed him from Christmas. So one little thing gone. 

monetxchange

Lightbulb moment - 5 May 2019
Debts at their highest - £37,500
Debt-Free Date - 6 March 2020

Your one pearl of wisdom
Start to work with your money instead of fearing it. Know every single penny that comes into your account and give it a job. The day you get paid, allocate a budget for day to day spending like groceries and petrol, put aside money for yearly 'one offs' like car insurance and dentist, calculate to the pound how much you need left in your account for bills and then immediately get the leftover thrown at the debt. Once it's gone out of your account, you can't spend it! Getting a spending account like a Monzo or a Starling where you can also have savings 'pots' for upcoming expenses, one that's separate from my direct debits current account, has revolutionised my money habits.

Which forum threads helped you
Debt Free Wannabe is a wonderful resource, from the diaries to the forum. Kind and welcoming people in all kinds of positions working together to support each other towards a debt free life

panik27

Lightbulb moment - 20th August 2019 - Had a stressful few months of working 80+ hour weeks back to back and thought why was I working this hard to just sit in debt and nothing to show for it
Debts at their highest - £22,000 
Debt-Free Date - 1st March 2020
Your one pearl of wisdom 
Budget budget budget. I took 3 months of bank statements and categorised everything.
1. Cancel all subscriptions - reinstate if you use but remember to cancel. (I probably saved about £100 per month with this - forgot I had some on credit cards I barely used)
2. Categorise every expenditure and see if there's a cheaper alternative. (I went from smoking normal cigarettes to rolling tobacco was a saving of like £240 per month)
3. Personally I took out a short term loan to consolidate debt - was easier for me to tackle 1 big problem. Also psychologically not being in my overdraft constantly helped
4. Review your expenditure every month - I was surprised how much money I just !!!!!! away without realising and keeping monthly track validates your actions and it gets addictive. The first few months are the hardest but eventually it'll becomes habit and easier to maintain.
Good Luck everyone with their goals

BabyStepper

The date of your lightbulb moment
March 2018 
Debts at their highest
£21,228.07
Debt-Free Date
29th March 2020
Your one pearl of wisdom
Be persistent, be realistic, spend less than you make and learn financial strategies for life, not just for paying off debt. ( 4 pearls of wisdom...)
Links to the MSE guides that helped you
All of them helped me. I don't make any financial decision now without checking the guides on here and asking the team on my thread. 
Which forum threads helped you
The debtfree diaries and matched betting threads.
My debt diary 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5865681/tidying-up-the-mess/p1

Edinburgh4a

The date of your lightbulb moment - Beginning of 2017 after moving to Scotland and withdrawing cash off credit cards to make minumim credit card payments! 
Debts at their highest - £13k
Debt-Free Date - March 2020 - Began DAS with StepChange in June 2017. 
Your one perl of wisdom - I budgeted using weekly cash envelopes to begin with as I wasn't left with much to play with each month. 

This is the first time I've been debt free since turning 18 and am now 36 years old. It feels amazing; definitley worth the hard work to pay everything off.

beanielou

Edinburgh4a said:

The date of your lightbulb moment - Beginning of 2017 after moving to Scotland and withdrawing cash off credit cards to make minumim credit card payments! 
Debts at their highest - £13k
Debt-Free Date - March 2020 - Began DAS with StepChange in June 2017. 
Your one perl of wisdom - I budgeted using weekly cash envelopes to begin with as I wasn't left with much to play with each month. 

This is the first time I've been debt free since turning 18 and am now 36 years old. It feels amazing; definitley worth the hard work to pay everything off.

Well done