The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

fudgecat

Today I made a final payment on my MBNA balance transfer Credit Card.  For the very first time in 43 years of marriage DH and myself can declare ourselves officially debt  free ( I am not counting general shopping cashback cards as they are paid in full at the end of each month).

seventh88

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: I think it was a series of moments across a year
b. Debts at their highest: £8017
c. Debt-Free Date: 26th August 2020

d. Your one pearl of wisdom: I look at things now and think 'will this actually make me happier?'. The answer is often 'no' - I'll get a small amount of joy from it when I buy it , a little boost, and then it's forgotten about and my happiness returns to it's previous level. I try and buy now and ask 'will this actually make me happier and keep me happier in a years' time?'. This helps me to shop for 'me', and not to try and keep up with trends, status, what I think I should have, what I think others have etc etc. Status isn't worth it, it really isn't. And it's all subjective anyway. What you perceive as 'cool' others don't, and vice versa etc.

Huge thanks to everyone on this forum for helping me feel less alone in my journey. X

MerseyLad

I have today posted this thread in the forum CLICK HERE

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - September 2009
b. Debts at their highest - £32k
c. Debt-Free Date - 10th September 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom - Open up about your debt and speak to someone. Whether thats someone you know and trust/love, or someone totally random [including people on this forum]. Sharing the burden and "unloading" is the start of the journey. 

qa83

a) light bulb moment, I think it was April 2014
b) debts at highest £58,184.43
c) debt free date September 2020
d) one pearl of wisdom - Basically it’s OK to ask for help and let Stepchange do their stuff. But you have to open the envelopes to be able to do that. 

I cannot believe I have made it. Stepchange quite literally saved my life. I learned to budget. I lost 5 stones because a couple of years in I started to feel better about myself. I learned to cook rather than eating out of the freezer.  That meant new clothes as I was shrinking, but I used charity shops rather than buy new. I would food shop in the evenings when they’d done the reductions. I would buy Christmas presents in the sales when I could afford them. All of these things, and so much more, I will carry on doing. Even if I could get a credit card I don’t think I would. I can save up now. 

beanielou

qa83 said:

a) light bulb moment, I think it was April 2014
b) debts at highest £58,184.43
c) debt free date September 2020
d) one pearl of wisdom - Basically it’s OK to ask for help and let Stepchange do their stuff. But you have to open the envelopes to be able to do that. 

I cannot believe I have made it. Stepchange quite literally saved my life. I learned to budget. I lost 5 stones because a couple of years in I started to feel better about myself. I learned to cook rather than eating out of the freezer.  That meant new clothes as I was shrinking, but I used charity shops rather than buy new. I would food shop in the evenings when they’d done the reductions. I would buy Christmas presents in the sales when I could afford them. All of these things, and so much more, I will carry on doing. Even if I could get a credit card I don’t think I would. I can save up now. 

Well done 

RavenRae

I have been waiting 12 years to write this!! 
I don't know when the date of my lightbulb moment, I remember the deep dark feeling of sickness when I realised I could no longer use my credit cards to buy food and petrol and going into a blind panic!  I called Egg - that day was my 'lightbulb' moment if you like!  That day Egg very calmly went through my expenses with me and suggested I got myself into a Debt Management Plan.  I can't remember if Egg or MSE suggested Payplan.  But I went to them and never looked back.

At their highest, my debts were over £40,000!  I have no idea how we managed that, it's like growing old, it happens gradually and when you're not paying attention to what you are doing.  I have no excuse, my ex-husband has no excuse either.  We were irresponsible with money!

My Debt-free date - TODAY.  3rd October 2020
Only spend on a credit card for security on purchases and pay it off in full each month, if you can't pay it off save it up.
I don't have a diary or links to here.  I have practically lived here for the last 12 years, reading on ways to save money, earn extra money, I'm totally addicted to the comping site.  

My final piece of advice for those who are struggling but not told anyone, get it out in the open and now, believe it or not, that darkness inside will ease, it's not going to be easy, but it will become more manageable as you go on.  There is help out there.  You got this.
Thank you, Martin, MSE Staff and MSE Forum Family.
xx

galileangoatee

The date of your lightbulb moment: Probably when I used up my student overdraft in its entirety in my first couple of weeks at university in 2005 (not because I was bad with money, but because I was literally poor!). I realised I would have to claw my way out of it for years to come. This got worse when I graduated as not only did I have a huge loan to repay (about £35,000, as I'd done 2 courses) but also I had to buy a car to get to work, and had to borrow about £9,000 from family just to keep my head above the water. Then a few years ago I bought a house, and owed another large chunk of money to my family.

Debts at their highest £70,000 (excluding mortgage)

Debt-Free Date 1 October, 2020 - the only money I owe is my mortgage, and I also stooze on a credit card but have savings built up to pay for it. All other debts are now PAID! The relief is brilliant after years of struggling.

Your one pearl of wisdom It's never too late to start chipping away at it. And believe me, it is chipping away (unless you're very lucky and get a big inheritance or win the lottery). It may feel like despair and a dark lonely road, but you will get there. Inspired by the frugality and sensible approach of the people on MSE, I started a "net worth" spreadsheet where I documented in granular detail every single thing I had or owed. Every month I'd religiously update it. It was very painful at first. But after 12-18 months, I reflected back and saw how far I'd come in that short space of time. This gave me the motivation to keep pushing on. I still keep the spreadsheet now. But instead of tracking how much I've paid off, I'm now able to track how much I can save. I'm so proud of myself for coming this far, all by myself (with a few loans from family). IT IS POSSIBLE! 

Paulapips

Lightbulb moment was November 2017 when I realised we couldn’t afford the minimum payments on our cards, or have enough money for Xmas that year.

highest debts were around £82,000 all credit cards and loans, with absolutely nothing to show for it, no nice car or house improvements nothing, odds and sods, spend without thinking about it, tenner here twenty there, once I added up was around £300 in a few days on nothing really. Thought my debts were around £40,000 not double that. 

Debt free date was today huzzah... trust me it would’ve been years and years on a dmp but my husband nearly died in June and luckily pulled through after emergency open heart surgery. So lucky we had critical illness cover, which has paid off the debts (full and final payments) and enough to ride us through until he can work again thank goodness. 

One Pearl on wisdom, hmmm this is hard, there is always a solution, one thing this past few months have taught me when I thought I was going to lose my husband, I’ve never felt this this dispair so much in my entire life, I never though about money all I cared about was wether he was going to survive all not. Before stepchange all the debt companies I rang were completely lovely. Don’t be ashamed to confront your inner demons regarding debt. Realisation is the first step to getting yourself out of debt. 

Broke_Kitty

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - November 2013. Until that point, I'd been using credit cards to spend money on everything from food to fuel and clothes. Realised it wasn't sustainable, finally, and started looking into what I could do to break the cycle.
b. Debts at their highest £13,120.17
c. Debt-Free Date 16th October 2020
d. Your one pearl of wisdom. It's okay for your journey to be non linear, you will suffer setbacks. I was due to be debt free within two years, but I had to move out of my mum's house and start renting for both of our sanity, and I also lost a job and my home in the same month once, which was an expensive thing to come out of the blue. But what's important is that once I had my lightbulb moment I handled money responsibly. I never paid a penny in interest again, and I considered every single financial decision and purchase carefully.
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you The best bank account guides were bloody brilliant the past few years. I made £800 just from switching offers!
f. Which forum threads helped you Just reading the forum generally when I first started my journey was a huge help! It really helped to shift my mindset.
g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4825031/broke-kittys-debt-diary/p1

BalanceTransferDude

Hi all,
I've been following this thread for a long time and honestly, it's been a huge motivator for me during some despairing times with my debt. 

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - October 2018
b. Debts at their highest - £19,000 (all on credits, mostly 0% terms that I'd bounce around different cards)
c. Debt-Free Date - 23rd October 2020
d. Your one perl of wisdom - put every penny aside and keep chipping away at the debt. What I found most helpful for me was setting up a spreadsheet which I tracked every debt and penny coming in so I had a clear path to when I would be debt free.

So happy that I could clear the last bits of my debts yesterday - all my credit cards are at £0 balance now, including PayPal credit, etc. 

Good luck to everyone - it's such an amazing feeling when you're finally debt free.

BTD