The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

nephilim

Lightbulb moment: April 2017

Debts at highest: £23500
Debt-Free Date: 3rd May 2020
Pearl of wisdon: My best pearl of wisdom would be to pay off your smallest debts first if possible, and use the money from that to pile into the bigger ones. Using various calculators and excel spreadsheets, I figured out that doing this actually saved me 2 years from my debt payment plan! I had to sacrifice nights out, holidays with my children, and even driving for 3 years (so as not to have any outgoings with a car and walking/using public transport everywhere). All in all, it was worth it!

Unicorn_cottage

a. The date of your lightbulb moment:
Sometime in 2016
b. Debts at their highest
£20k+
c. Debt-Free Date
January 2020
d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
Keep going! The relief you will feel when it is all gone is amazing
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you
Worked through all of Martin's advice step by step!
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/
f. Which forum threads helped you?
The Debt-Free Wannabe forum is a fantastic resource!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6049608/5582-54-0/p1

jamie130

Hi everyone! 

So even the fact I am writing this post brings me an enormous amount of joy and pride. I'm 31 years old. I've been in progressive debt since I was 20 there or there abouts. 

It all started when I became a homeowner. This in itself was excellent but I didn't plan well for legal fees, surveys and then the single lad lifestyle thereafter. 

So here I am now nearly 12 years on, debt free and able to share my story. 
The date of your lightbulb moment: July 2019 - Whilst driving home from a day at the beach with my wife in passenger seat. 
Debts at their highest: £22,000
Debt-free date: (will be) 20th May 2020
Your one pearl of wisdom: DO NOT BOTTLE IT UP - My biggest mistake throughout this entire debt journey was keeping it to myself. During the build up of the debt, I met my now wife and had a baby. Both events which didn't come cheap and actually added to the stress (although wouldn't change those parts for the world). What I found was that you can ignore it and ignore it but the stress will always be there and the worse it gets, the more it drags you down. It got to a point for me where I physically couldn't go on. My debt was mainly built up of credit cards which all had interest sky high on them. Every month, I would get paid from my job, pay off the minimum payments and then as the month went on and I ran out of money, I'd end up spending on them again. A vicious circle. 
Anyway, in July of last year, the weight on my shoulders became too heavy to cope anymore. I turned to the internet to see if anyone else was in my position. I was so scared to tell my wife. I honestly thought she would turn on me. Turns out though, I wasn't alone. There were hundreds of people in my position. The only answer though was to tell my wife. 
I remember the day well. We'd gone to the beach with my wife's family and had a really nice day out. By this point I'd been trying to find the right moment to tell her but it just never seemed to be. 
On the journey home, my son fell asleep in the back and we were travelling through countryside roads. A nice scenery. It was now, for some reason not known to me, I decided to tell her. Anyway, it just kind of fell out in the end. I started by saying "babe, I have something to tell you". This was quite tactical as it turned out because she instantly knew it was serious and assumed the worst like I was over the side or something. So when I told her I had a large debt and couldn't cope, she surprised me no end. She instantly got into supportive mode and could clearly see how much this had been dragging me down. 
Long story short, since that day, we have managed to put both of our wages into clearing the credit cards (which began by my wife taking out interest-free balance transfer credit cards knowing that by the time our debt was cleared, the cards would still be in their interest-free period. These paid off the high interest credit cards. We then began a finance spreadsheet so we could work out exactly how much we needed for bills, social events and living expenses and then everything else went into the debt. Less than a year later, the debt is completely cleared. 

This whole journey has been a real wake up call to me regarding money management and how you shouldn't bottle things up. Your better halves are called that for a reason. My wife was extremely supportive and there's no way I could've done this without her. I can never thank her enough for this and believe me, when the time is right and the money is there, she will get a nice holiday as a thank you! 

I hope this story has been a little inspiration for anyone struggling out there. Just know, you're not alone and support it out there. Do not let debt drag you down. 

beanielou

Jamie. An awesome amount to pay off in less than a year. Well done. 

Debtfreeforever

A. DATE OF LIGHTBULB MOMENT: several (Dec 2015, finally April 2016) but clearly not bright enough 😉

B. DEBTS AT THEIR HIGHEST: £56,173 😳

C. DEBT FREE DATE: 3rd August 2018

D. ONE PEARL OF WISDOM: 1) Clear on WANTS and NEEDS 2) This will end, I know it’s tough, but it will end. Short term pain for long term gain. 3) you will sleep so much better once you are out of debt

I used to love reading the Debt free of honour and dream of that moment and now I actually got savings, after being in debt for at least 15yrs.

thank you so much to this forum, it helped so much.

mrsmoneypenny90

jamie130 said:

Hi everyone! 

So even the fact I am writing this post brings me an enormous amount of joy and pride. I'm 31 years old. I've been in progressive debt since I was 20 there or there abouts. 

It all started when I became a homeowner. This in itself was excellent but I didn't plan well for legal fees, surveys and then the single lad lifestyle thereafter. 

So here I am now nearly 12 years on, debt free and able to share my story. 
The date of your lightbulb moment: July 2019 - Whilst driving home from a day at the beach with my wife in passenger seat. 
Debts at their highest: £22,000
Debt-free date: (will be) 20th May 2020
Your one pearl of wisdom: DO NOT BOTTLE IT UP - My biggest mistake throughout this entire debt journey was keeping it to myself. During the build up of the debt, I met my now wife and had a baby. Both events which didn't come cheap and actually added to the stress (although wouldn't change those parts for the world). What I found was that you can ignore it and ignore it but the stress will always be there and the worse it gets, the more it drags you down. It got to a point for me where I physically couldn't go on. My debt was mainly built up of credit cards which all had interest sky high on them. Every month, I would get paid from my job, pay off the minimum payments and then as the month went on and I ran out of money, I'd end up spending on them again. A vicious circle. 
Anyway, in July of last year, the weight on my shoulders became too heavy to cope anymore. I turned to the internet to see if anyone else was in my position. I was so scared to tell my wife. I honestly thought she would turn on me. Turns out though, I wasn't alone. There were hundreds of people in my position. The only answer though was to tell my wife. 
I remember the day well. We'd gone to the beach with my wife's family and had a really nice day out. By this point I'd been trying to find the right moment to tell her but it just never seemed to be. 
On the journey home, my son fell asleep in the back and we were travelling through countryside roads. A nice scenery. It was now, for some reason not known to me, I decided to tell her. Anyway, it just kind of fell out in the end. I started by saying "babe, I have something to tell you". This was quite tactical as it turned out because she instantly knew it was serious and assumed the worst like I was over the side or something. So when I told her I had a large debt and couldn't cope, she surprised me no end. She instantly got into supportive mode and could clearly see how much this had been dragging me down. 
Long story short, since that day, we have managed to put both of our wages into clearing the credit cards (which began by my wife taking out interest-free balance transfer credit cards knowing that by the time our debt was cleared, the cards would still be in their interest-free period. These paid off the high interest credit cards. We then began a finance spreadsheet so we could work out exactly how much we needed for bills, social events and living expenses and then everything else went into the debt. Less than a year later, the debt is completely cleared. 

This whole journey has been a real wake up call to me regarding money management and how you shouldn't bottle things up. Your better halves are called that for a reason. My wife was extremely supportive and there's no way I could've done this without her. I can never thank her enough for this and believe me, when the time is right and the money is there, she will get a nice holiday as a thank you! 

I hope this story has been a little inspiration for anyone struggling out there. Just know, you're not alone and support it out there. Do not let debt drag you down. 

Reading this actually brought a tear to my eye. Lovely to hear that your Wife was supportive and you have worked together as a team to resolve this problem. Enjoy your official debt free date tomorrow, I think a bottle of fizz is in order 🥂

ChampagneSupernova36

Lightbulb moment - January 2017

Debts at their highest - £6223.42

Debt-Free Date - 1st June 2020

Your one pearl of wisdom. 

Do not bury your head in the sand... open the letters and answer the phone calls. Do not ignore the situation and don’t be embarrassed to contact charities like step change, they were not judgemental and they well and truly saved my bacon. It easy to say this now I am on the other side, but I was too ashamed to face my problem head on at first and so many accounts went into default... this will remain on my file for a couple more years so is definitely good advice.

I kick myself on the occasion, because I had all these debts and actually not much at all to show for it... it’s a hard lesson to learn but one mistake I will never make again is living on credit and beyond my means because honestly it just isn’t worth it.

anna_mcgrail

These stories are so inspirational!

GlasweJen

I've dipped in and out of this forum for almost a decade looking for advice for my friend who came to me in tears one day because she'd been refused a credit card and she needed money. Unknown to everyone she had masses of credit cards with low limits and high APRs that she was using to top up her min wage income and, because of a learning disability, she didn't realise that paying the monthly bill wasn't actually bringing down how much she owed. 

My friend knows I post on this forum on her behalf by the way. She doesn't post herself because her learning disability makes it hard for her to ask the questions she has about her finances. 

Now I'd never needed debt advice before, I had a credit card and I understood how to pay it but I didn't know how to pay £15K off on a £10K salary. We made a list of questions together and I posted here, we got excellent advice, we contacted CCCS and her creditors. We set up a payment plan, I realised that she wasn't spending the money on anything frivolous it was basic living costs and huge interest so I had her benefits checked (thanks ESA), we made a plan to get her out of the mess.

My friend is now in a better job, she has a small pot of savings, she made her final payment to Stepchange in February and she has a better understanding of her finances going forward thanks to a college life skills course for people with learning disabilities and a bit of learning the hard way. 

Thank you everyone, I feel like I've been on this journey with her and it's been tough. I've helped her where I could and I've asked so
many questions of you all but you've always answered and been so helpful so giant thank you from us both and I promise we won't be back. 

The date of your lightbulb moment: 
November 2011
b. Debts at their highest
£15,500
c. Debt-Free Date
February 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom.
Keep up good communication with your DMP company (make sure you use a reputable charity)
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you 
I can't link on this new forum but we started with the Stepchange tool and worked from there. 
f. Which forum threads helped you
Reading other peoples diaries helped and a mixture of different forums really. She enjoyed the use up challenges: particularly using up beauty products and little things like saving particular coins (50ps)
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), No diary, see above 

TrushTush

The date of your lightbulb moment:
01/01/2020
Debts at their highest - £10k (excluding mortgage )
Debt-Free Date:
15/06/2020 21:50 precisely! 
Your pearl of wisdom:
Dave Ramsey’s method - I didn’t follow it to the button but the state of mind helped, and having the whole family on board. We’ve failed in the past because my husband wasn’t on board. Even my kids knew what the aim was (in an appropriate way for their ages -  they’re 10, 12 and 14 ) and were excited to help.