The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

sazzles01234

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - 17 march 2020
b. Debts at their highest - it’s fluctuated a lot but I think just over £12k
c. Debt-Free Date - Today 24/06/2022
d. Your one pearl of wisdom. Check everything and know exactly how much you owe, look at interest rates, and budget budget budget.  
e. Links that helped you everything on here about interest, budgeting, saving money 
f. Which forum threads helped you the challenges… NSDs and pay off debt by Xmas. And diaries, reading everyone else’s journeys and taking tips and advice from them. 

Really never thought I’d see this day😆😆 

shell16

sazzles01234 said:

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - 17 march 2020
b. Debts at their highest - it’s fluctuated a lot but I think just over £12k
c. Debt-Free Date - Today 24/06/2022
d. Your one pearl of wisdom. Check everything and know exactly how much you owe, look at interest rates, and budget budget budget.  
e. Links that helped you everything on here about interest, budgeting, saving money 
f. Which forum threads helped you the challenges… NSDs and pay off debt by Xmas. And diaries, reading everyone else’s journeys and taking tips and advice from them. 

Really never thought I’d see this day😆😆 

Amazing work well done!  I hope to be on here at some point too! If everything goes to plan no later than September 23......here's hoping! :lol

Suziebabe

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - December 2013

b. Debts at their highest - £31,992.06

c. Debt-Free Date - 30th June 2022

d. Your one pearl of wisdom. After you've got into a rhythm of checking your accounts, the hard slog sets in ...  Stick with it, whatever happens - don't lose track of your end goal of being debt-free, no matter how hard it gets you will get there! In the early days the total seemed enormous, so I did myself an electronic 1% grid so I could cross off each 1% / £319 as I paid it off and see progress (I tracked which month/year I cleared it too.)  A number of times I had to go and 'uncross' some of the 1% because something had happened to take my total debt back up (e.g. lost track of interest-free dates, or work expenses had racked up on the 1 CC I used for travel) - it nearly broke my heart each time I had to uncross the 1%, but it properly galvanised me, it never went back over the highest point, and I always got me back on track

e. Links that helped you - in the early days, the no-spend challenges really made me tackle my "frittering" habits 

f. Which forum threads helped you: breaking it down into manageable 1% chunks helped me face it

Next trick ... staying this way long enough to get mortgage-free!!!

rancid-a

Hi everyone.

I guess it's time for me to post in this The Debt Free Roll Of Honour thread.

a. The date of your lightbulb moment: May 2022

b. Debts at their highest: At it's highest, about 20K

c. Debt-Free Date: Today, 15 July 2022, no more weekly payments were taken today.

d. Your one pearl of wisdom: Try to SAVE for anything, I am & I will never do CREDIT again.

f. Which forum threads helped you: Sealed Pot Challenge

Here goes, with a brief history...

I had never been able to hold a job down for very long when I became unemployed back in 2003, I was fired and it was 100% my own fault. It still hurts when I look back and I'm sure my life would have been a bit different if I had managed to keep that job.

I remember feeling utterly helpless back then and called into a local CAB office to pour out the details of being fired from work and not being able to continue making payments to the companies I owed money to (HSBC Mastercard, BarclayLoan & HFC Bank). CAB helped me write letters and gave me advice on what to do whilst the default notices started to arrive. It was a starting point and there was a slight relief that one one would be out to get me or take away my possessions.

Minimum payments were set up whilst I looked for another job, but it took nearly two years before I found one. A factory job. I didn't like it and didn't think I would stick it, but I tried my best.

I started to save and treat myself to a holiday abroad every year, it gave me something to look forward to, an escape from the job that I hated, ultimately though, taking holidays just slowed down my payments. The 3 debt agencies I owed thousands to, left me alone, only requesting a statement of affairs every year or two. Monthly payments were small but I never missed any as far as I can remember. One of the debt agencies (Central Debt Collection Services - Barclays in house recovery team) never contacted me at all for over 15 years. Amazingly, Barclays cancelled my account with them but left my Visa credit card open to use - and I did - but responsibly.

In 2018, I was still employed by the same company, one of my debts, (HFC Bank) ended. It meant I had £50 a month to spread elsewhere so I visited Barclays Bank and they helped me contact CDCS and we set up a standing order so I could pay more money & weekly too.

In May 2022, I made an attempt to work out how much I still owed to CDCS (it was a really good guess actually). I noticed the amount was exactly the same as the amount I had saved for an upcoming holiday I wanted to take in October, £2300. I guess that's when I had my lightbulb moment and decided to end the final debt that I owed. The holiday can wait another year, maybe less as the weekly payments to CDCS could be put into my savings account.

Contacting CDCS over the past few weeks has been an absolute pain. At one point, I just wanted to carry on as normal and take the planned holiday, but I persisted. I wrote two letters to them (unanswered), On my third visit to Barclays Bank, one on the customer reps managed to get someone on the phone from CDCS (after being put on hold for 20 minutes). The settlement figure was given to me, £2000. (it was now less that the amount I had saved because it took weeks to get in touch with them).

I told them I would call into the bank first thing Monday morning and settle the amount. And that's what I did.

It's now a few days later, Friday and no payments have gone out of my bank account today! The difference between the £2300 & the £2000 will probably be put in my holiday tin for next years holiday.

So that's me. Debt free after nearly 20 years - and there's nothing to pay on my Barclays credit card - although they do keep raising the amount available on it 

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to The Sealed Pot Challenge thread, it's been very helpful to me over the years, It's run by the wonderful Sue-UU. Her thread is now in it's 15th year and is a great place to start if you are thinking of saving some money and need some encouragement.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6308134/sealed-pot-challenge-15/p1

PS.

I'm still in the same crappy job - 16 years(!)

purplehappy_sammy

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - 19th sept 2019

b. Debts at their highest - £15896

c. Debt-Free Date - Today 28/7/22

d. Your one pearl of wisdom. Keeping spreadsheets and tracking all spending. 

Which forum threads helped you - lots I dipped in and out of so many! 

Wickedphantom24601

Finally my turn to post🍾

1. The date of your lightbulb moment: April 2020

2. Debts at their highest: About £8000

3. Debt-Free Date: Yesterday, 3rd September 2022

4. Your one pearl of wisdom: Work out your outgoings e.g. on a spreadsheet and then budget the rest across the 
 month. 

5. Which forum threads helped you: DMP mutual support thread and multiple others that I dipped in and out of.

So proud of pulling my head out of the sand and getting it cleared. Next up - saving for a deposit for a house!! 😊

[Deleted User]

Read your long story, well done. Get rid of the credit card too, you don’t need it . Best thing I ever done was cut it up. 

GZA1981

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - June 2019

b. Debts at their highest - Just shy of £40k

c. Debt-Free Date - 22nd September 2022

d. Your one pearl of wisdom - Track your money, you can't be in control if you don't know what is coming or going

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you - Numerous, explore them all!

f. Which forum threads helped you - Lots, plenty of advice to read even if you don't choose to post

g. And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6322638/40k-10k-5k-3-7k-2k-to-debt-free/p1

Financial_Disaster

The date of your lightbulb moment
October 2018 - A bad relationship break down lead me to sorting my life out

Debts at their highest
£18,000

Debt-Free Date
01/05/2022

Your one perl of wisdom 
Don't bury your head in the sand - know your spending
I started an Excel Spreadsheet which records every penny I spend, this helps me track where I am going wrong and how I can improve the following month. I had formulas set so that it tallied up certain spends to show me how much i was sending on Clothes/ Meals out/ Alcohol etc so I knew where I was able to cut back

And if you had a debt diary on the Debt-Free Wannabe board (DFW), a link to it
I did have one but it was under my nickname so I had it removed as it was easily found on Google when searching my nickname


My next challenge is to try and get a mortgage alone, just months after a DMP during a cost of living crisis

redlaces

a. The date of your lightbulb moment
August bank holiday weekend 2018, following a breakup that catalysed my taking action once and for all. 

b. Debts at their highest
£15,343.28 when I began, although I did have a car loan thrown in there (£6k) since my beloved car gave up the ghost part way through - so over £21k repaid overall. 

c. Debt-Free Date
29th October 2022, after 1520 days

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.
"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what isn't so" ~ Galileo Galilei.

My Excel sheet became my best friend over the journey. What originally started as a very scary exercise in actually putting down ON PAPER what I owed and to whom, eventually became a game. First it was just an occasional way for me to record my balances and % repaid. No pressure to fill it in, just a tracking mechanism. Then one day, a couple of years in, I decided to add my cash balances, to calculate net worth. Then came debt free date, repayment rate, not to mention GRAPHS! I found myself excited to update my balances just to see the "repaid" figure shifting 0.1% closer to the total. 

e. Links to the MSE guides that helped you 

• The debt and mental health guide has been fantastic and I have re-read it on more than one occasion.
• "Boost your income" on my more productive days
• Bank account guides, credit card guides (for 0% transfers), etc - pretty much any big financial decision I've made has not taken place without consultation on the best deals according to MSE
• The debt spiral image is 100% burned into my brain, that illustrated perfectly what my future would have become had I not taken action.

f. Which forum threads helped you
Honestly there are so many. While I haven't been an active poster, I have been lurking on these forums for about 8 years and over the years have implemented many of the principles. No spend days really helped me internalise the idea of being thrifty and NOT SPENDING MONEY JUST BECAUSE IT'S THERE.

Seeing other people's stories - and others helping them out of sheer kindness and compassion - is utterly humbling and I have learned so much useful, practical information from reading the threads.

One thing that sticks out is that, no matter your motivational style, there is something for everybody - that might be competing against yourself in the "Make £10 a day" challenge, mutual accountability in the Triathlons, PADing, putting your new debt-busting knowledge to the test by helping those new to the journey when you are a few steps in; you name it, it's here.

The 1% challenge also helped me a lot, although I never stuck to it from start to finish, it helped me pay off a few chunks more than I otherwise would've. What I often did instead was look at my current balance, calculate 1% of that, and use that as a sprint target to pay off from extra payments as soon as possible. Seeing the 1% get smaller and smaller each time I did it was a real motivator.
Old style gave me great meal inspiration too - especially when I was living alone and cooking for one.

Basically - this entire forum is an absolute goldmine of experience, wisdom, motivation and energy - huge thanks to everyone who contributes.