The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

murphy_m

answer

I got a letter from 1st credit ltd po box 278, Reigate, RH2 7WB. saying i owed them money from 7 years ago in my last house. this is a scam as the address is only a po box number. i have reported this to the office of fair trading where they will investigate so dont send any money to these people as they will just rip you off. anyone can go to a po box number and take your money. if it was a genuine company it would have a proper address not a po box number.

peter

hannah:-)_2

a. The date of your lightbulb moment

First lightbulb went off Oct 06, but after a slow start had a bigger brighter bulb go off in May 08. Worked my butt off for a year and a half to reduce the amount I owed, then paid the rest off with redundancy payout (which felt a bit like cheating :-/)

b. Debts at their highest

Highest debt Oct 06 £23,319 (May 08 £21,717) Under £15k by the time I was made redundant

c. Debt-Free Date

End 2009

d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Be a dork about money - write down everything you spend otherwise you'll never know where the money goes! Oh and keep this site close of course!! :-)

Now I'm in credit (a lil' bit), I feel like I did just before my first lightbulb moment and really need to get my head round how to stay in credit!

danandgeorgie

:jWell done Hannah:j:cool:

savingmummy

Lightbulb moment: May 2007

Debts at highest: £3500

Debt-Free Date: 26th Jan 2010

Pearl of wisdon: Using a SOA. Keeping it updated. Only buying what you NEED! Throwing everything at debts. Stopping ALL luxeries for the time being.

MoodyBlues

Well done savingmummy!

rictus123

Well done sm!

savingmummy

Thank you

Should of added 3.5k is not a huge amount but i am a sahm so have no income. Hence it taking so long BUT i did it was hard work!!!
NO going back ever x

rictus123

It is a fair amount, im owe just over 2 grand and im thinking thats a lot! Its only 2 months wages though.

charlie2517

Lightbulb moment: 1st October 2007

Debts at their highest: £21,000

Debt-Free Date: 5th February 2010

One pearl of wisdom: Literally every penny makes a difference, do not be afraid to pay off what seem like teeny amounts of your debt it adds up to pounds!

Radarjet

LBM - Oct 2008

Debts at highest : CC of about 15k

Debt free date : 19th Feb 2010

Pearls of Wisdom :
Log into online banking every day even if you’re dreading it.
PAD – I didn’t often post on the thread, but I followed the principle most days in one way or another.
Make your money work harder for you.
Buy true bargains in bulk either to use, give as presents or sell.

Eg I took a gamble and spent £159 in Borders on its last day at 90% off, read each book once so they were all for personal use and then sold them on Amazon. It has brought me in £460 so far since Jan 1st with about 100 books still to go.

Same principle went for Woolies the year before and other closing down sales since .

I bought 3 sets of knives off a WVM in a carpark for £100.00 and sold each set for £115.00 each.

I haven’t bought a full price present for ages.

It's true that you have to have a bit of money available to do these speculative purchases and I know I am very fortunate to still be in fulltime work and when interest rates came down on the mortgage I was able to channel some of that into c/card payments and big bulk buys.

Now to turn my attention to home improvements that have been totally neglected for several years and bringing the mortgage down.

Sending good vibes to everyone else on this journey. One step - then another.