The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Caracal

Date of Lightbulb Moment - I realised there was an issue for a couple of years before really acting on my consumer debt, but properly started cracking on with it in August 2019.
Debts at their highest - Around £3.5k credit cards, plus £10,000 HP car finance
Debt Free Date - 22.1.21
One Pearl of Wisdom - Stop trying to justify purchases that aren't essential, and really think about everything before you buy it! Leave credit cards at home so you aren't tempted.
Forum Threads that helped me - the whole DFW forum has been so inspiring! 
Signing up to MSE Credit Club was a real shocker, seeing the percentage of debt used and debt to income ratio was a wake up call. I never had really large debts at all, but I also had absolutely no reason to be in debt in the first place. I had a stable job and earnt more than I do now, yet still dipped into my overdraft and credit cards each month. I avoided paying any CC interest as I was fortunate to get 0% offers, but the debt was so unnecessary in the first place as it was just money being frittered away.
I'm now torn between being cross with myself and being proud of myself, I think I'll just enjoy a combination of the two!
My job situation changed hugely because of COVID and I now earn much less than before, but I have learnt to survive on much less money that I had been. I check I can afford things before I buy them nowadays, rather than just buying it and hoping for the best. I have kept my card open for emergency spends only, and am now building up a strong emergency fund and savings pot for buying a house one day!

Singlespeeder

The date of your lightbulb moment: March 2019
Debts at their highest - excluding mortgage, £45,000, including mortgage £90,000
Debt-Free Date: 01/02/2021
Your pearl of wisdom:
Keep a Diary of some kind. I use a notepad and write everything down, all my thoughts and plans. It helps.
Get an Emergency Fund.
Stop using credit of any kind.
Budget and save for 'Annuals'

Simmo71

Date of your lightbulb moment:  November 2014

Debts at their highest:  £44,769

Debt-Free Date:  Today, 2nd Feb 2021

Pearl of wisdom:  Whatever you do, don't bury your head in the sand. I wish I'd taken action earlier.

Forum threads that helped:  This one, it gave me a regular boost when imagining life beyond debt. The stories on here have been so uplifting and encouraging and I couldn't wait to 'ring the bell' once I'd reached the finish line myself.

I'd been in debt to one extent or another since age 18 when I went to Uni, but never to unmanageable levels until a nasty cocktail of redundancy, ill health and a big drop in income sent me descending into debt in my late 30's. The main problems started when my income was nowhere near enough to even pay the mortgage, bills and normal monthly expenditure. The credit card debt started to build up until I eventually entered into a DMP and then buried my head in the sand for a few years. I'd changed careers and was back to having a good salary and the monthly payments were comfortable so I just put it to the back of my mind. I've never been a big spender so living a modest lifestyle without much disposable income was fairly easy; I had no idea how I was ever going to pay off such huge debt but I wasn't bothered at the time. Then in late 2014 one of my debts got sold on and the buyer got a CCJ against me which would've pushed my outgoings too far for comfort and that was my lightbulb moment. I spoke with my insolvency practitioner (and read loads on here) and decided an IVA was the way to go. It's been hard work over those 6 years, living modestly, keeping everything tightly budgeted, only allowing myself small 'luxuries'. And here I am now, 6 and a bit years later, in my late 40's and...    DEBT FREE. What a feeling

Watson87

Date of your lightbulb moment:  November 2020

Debts at their highest:  £7450

Debt-Free Date:  28th January 2021

Pearl of wisdom: Don’t fall in the trap of consolation loan.
Initially i had a small loan just under £3000, changed the jobs with much higher income but in the same time changed the house. I thought I could handle the situation, but no, the worse decision were to apply for payday loans with very high interest kept lying to myself I will pay everything by the end of the month. The end of the month came and end up with another payday loan. The debts spiralled out of control. Lot of sleepless nights and worried how I will pay. De light bulb moment came on 21st November (my mums bday) made ,e realise this needs to come to an end. I the same day I phone step change and I didn’t even realise my debts were over £7000. Signed into DMP, the best decision.last few month increased the monthly pay towards double and finished almost an year earlier. Now the money which usually were going towards debts are going into my savings account starting the end of this month.

doingitanyway

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 and enjoy your debt free life

Changingtimes

The date of your lightbulb moment - November 2018, enough was enough, I was in a circle of borrowing to live, and borrowing to pay back. I was depressed, I felt sad, something had to give, my light bulb lit up and I got myself into a DMP.
Debts at their highest - £22,500
Debt-Free Date - 12th March 2021                                                   
Your one perl of wisdom - dont let debt beat you, you can beat it! Stop the circle  - If I did, anyone can.  Be Strong.
Which forum threads helped you - Debt Free Wannabe - and the people - very supportive.  Everyone been there and done it and offered invaluable advice.  I had a couple of wabbles they picked me up again. I stuck with it and in March 2021 I am proud to say I am so proud of myself and I even have a few quid in the bank.  If you, like me fell into the pay day loan, high interest borrowing traps put complaints in I did, I won them all. I have all my redress back which is now mine to save.  Never had savings (well for a long time) - Do it, stick with it, and it will be worth it in the end.

Alice_in_Poorland

Date of lightbulb moment:  October 2010 
Lightbulb moment: Took a trip to the local supermarket car park in my lunch hour to call the bank to extend our overdraft, the answer was no and I cried my heart out. 

Debt figure at the highest: 35k
Debt Free Date: March 2021
Pearl of Wisdom: Be honest with yourself, and write everything down. Becoming debt free was like a 2nd job for me, just a few minutes every day keeping a check on everything. Don’t try and follow the neighbours/friends and if possible I wouldn’t recommend a car on finance. Meal plan and shop accordingly. Don’t be afraid to say no to expensive events. I have had plenty of steps backwards but with all the support on the forum that has put me back on track. 

I am quite nervous about the future, frightened I’m going to regress but I am looking forward to doing all the things we have put on hold......and having the cash in the bank to do it. Xx

Treedom

Hi all

I used this forum lots soon after I had my Financial Awakening.  Sat on the rocks in a Cornish cove in my late 40s contemplating my £27k+ debt, a mucky divorce, no savings, a tiny pension pot and living in a big pile of a house that was falling down and to be sold in the divorce proceedings.  These stories really inspired me.

I've held off on writing about my experiences as I wanted to move on from being debt free to building an emergency fund, then some small investments, a pension and some decent savings.  I had no idea if I would manage that. It didn't look good if you looked at past performance and the way my ex and I spent money like water plus being on a much reduced income.  I did turn it around though!

a. The date of your lightbulb moment   August 2014

b. Debts at their highest; £27k (excluding mortgage)
c. Debt-Free Date 6th October 2017

d. Your one perl of wisdom.  Keep up the momentum.  Even small payments are steps towards the target. 

e. Links to the mse guides that helped you

Plenty.  I used the 0% credit card idea to shift as much of my debt on those as I could.  This saved me loads.  I then chucked every penny at the interest paying debts and for most of my journey wasn't paying any interest on the debt. And that was thanks to MSE. I also shopped constantly for bank accounts/utilities/insurances and saved must be well over £1000 in the years since I've changed my ways and not just let myself be fleeced. 

f. Which forum threads helped you.  So many.  But I loved the diaries, I found the roll call inspirational and the small challenges.  This takes time to change your mindset as much as anything else.   

Rich Dad Poor Dad was a book which really helped me.  Pay yourself first was the key message which stuck with me and I do that.  Maximising my tax free contributions to my work pension before any salary hits my account.  Then I put something into my long term ISA and move money out into small investments based on the budget I've worked out before I pay my bills.

I took on a small part time role for extra cash.  Rejoicing in the extra money you get from not paying National Insurance on second jobs.  Thanks to this forum.  That's an extra 10-12% every hour   Was also starting a separate self employed side gig.   The business got struck down by Covid for now.  Instead of lamenting, I took on another part time job immediately and was rather glad I did as I doubt if get it now that work is getting harder to find.  I really do think my whole approach changed fundamentally and that was in part to MSE.  Mr Money Moustache is brill too...if you're in debt treat it as if you're on fire!!  I agree.

I've gone from having no clue what I had and spending until the card didn't work, no clue what my budget was, to quite the reverse.  I use different savings pots for different purposes.  Building up a pot with a budgeted £150 monthly sum to cover irregular but to be expected expenses like car tax, insurances, Oil refill, water bills etc so that I can always pay in full when due without having a headache.   I've gone beyond a six month emergency fund and now have a few small investments and a pension pot which will provide a simple but sufficient retirement I hope.  I left it too late and don't earn enough to have done more but I'm delighted with how I turned my own carcrash around by learning to live simply.  Lentils are a good friend I have discovered!

And the best thing of all is the freedom.  It's utterly brilliant.   You can do it too.

g. And if you had a debt diary on the  (DFW), a link to it

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi everyone
I'm so delighted to be able to post on here!  I've had varying levels of debt since i split from my partner in 2007.  Debt just became a fact of my life.  I felt that as i was managing it, it wasn't a problem.  But i hated paying to CCs each month and that i had no savings.  I remember taking a phone call from the garage while in work to say my car repairs were going to cost nearly £700 & going to the loo for a little cry    As my DDs got older, i increased my hours at work and in 2016 i had the opportunity to do some additional work through a self employment job which i continued until Covid put a stop to it.  Even with my extra income i was still building up debt till i realised i had to do something about it once and for all .....
It has been a combination of increasing my income as much as i could and being careful in all areas of spending - i usually buy clothes from charity shops, not been on holiday since 2017 (but we have had theatre trips & concerts & days out - remember them?!), getting the best deals on utilities etc, but i also increased my employment so i had a FT job, PT job and 2 lots of self employment.  I still have a FT, PT and one self employment role as i want to overpay my mortgage and build up some savings...
a. The date of your lightbulb moment - October 2018
b. Debts at their highest - £10,800, excluding mortgage
c. Debt-Free Date - 16 March 2021
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - just keep going, however small, all steps forward are progress towards the goal of debt free.  
e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you - the 0% balance transfer info, I've used 0% CCs all the time, moving the balance to a new deal when the old one ended, i regularly change gas/elec suppliers & broadband etc.  Use all the info on the MSE website to get the best deals you can for everything  
f. Which forum threads helped you - love the NSTs , Pay off your Debt by Xmas, debt free diaries, 
I wake up everyday feeling a huge sense of relief that i don't have any debt!!  It is so worth it to get to that position
good luck!
Deni xx

ThatKiss

It's been a long time coming, but on Friday I was able to pay off the remaining balance on my credit card meaning that, mortgage apart, I am now debt-free!

I'd previously been in debt pretty much from the point I turned 18 and got a student overdraft. I paid that off in full when I started working full-time, but then added credit cards and cars to the mix, eventually paying all bar the car off just before buying my flat in 2016. 

I didn't quite get the balance right in terms of learning to live completely independently and over the first year in the flat ran up debts of around £11-12k on a combination of too much nightlife, uncontrolled spending on clothes etc, and ultimately just failing to balance the books. I did have some recognition of the issue and traded the car in for a less expensive model, but it was December 2017 that my lightbulb stopped flickering and fully popped on.

Despite the debt I was in a decent position, no missed payments or adverse credit history, so I was able to shuffle onto 0% credit and reduce my outgoings, though it still felt like I was treading water and could do more. Around November/December 2018 I decided I didn't want to have to shuffle at expiry of the 0% periods (I had multiple balance transfer end dates over two cards) so increased my payments and ultimately got everything paid off before interest came due.

I hadn't initially taken my car into account as part of the debts, but the balloon was due at the end of last summer so rather than hand it back and start another finance agreement, I opted to pay the balloon - I saved roughly half and refinanced the rest via 0% money transfer. On Friday I made the last payment to clear this balance, hence now being debt-free

Next month will be the first I see the benefit, but I'm now aiming to save for a proper emergency fund in the first instance, and build pots for annual expenses such as MOT, insurances etc. Subsequently I want to get some home improvements done and then get my classic car restored!

The date of your lightbulb moment

Initial - Dec 2010

Second - Dec 2017

Debts at their highest

~ £12000

Debt-Free Date

26 March 2021

Your one pearl of wisdom

I'll sneak in two: Don't push too hard to pay off debts - it's tempting to live like a monk and throw every spare penny at your debt but that's not sustainable, especially over a longer period. It's also important to review and adjust the budget every three months or so.

Which forum threads helped you

A variety of debt-free diaries kept the motivation going!

My debt diary

Driving Down Debt (starts 2012)