The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Melmoneysaver

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - Around summer 2007
b. Debts at their highest - £16,000
c. Debt-Free Date - 29th December 2010
d. Your one perl of wisdom. Don't bury your head in the sand like I used to and keep coming to this site, my DFD would never have been so soon if I hadn't taken advice from the wonderfull people here that have helped me knock off at least 2 years from my DFD, it feels wonderfull to be debt free and i'd reccomend it to everyone Also, do shop around, a LOT for everything, I've knocked loads of my grocery shopping just by going to B&M, lidl, aldi, before going to the supermarket to get the rest, it realy does save you money

Good luck

Jinx

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - 11th November 2004... just after my birthday...
b. Debts at their highest - 21,612.51
c. Debt-Free Date - 25th March 2011:j
d. Your one perl of wisdom - they cannot get what you do not have and do everything in writing!! And stick with MSE - its addictive
e. And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it - don't have one, just files full of paper relating to my debts....

Swinstie73

Well done Jinx, I'm right behind you, be posting here myself in a week or so once final payments made!

mollythewestie

Today is the day :j We are finally debt free :j (Well apart from our mortgage, but we will work on that next :beer:)
- Lightbulb moment: 01/01/10
- Debt at its highest: £6436.39
- Debt free date: 25/03/2011
- Pearl(s) of wisdom:
Keep a record of ALL your incomings and outgoings as well as purchases.
Embrace the OS ways and do a grocery challenge each month.
Before making any purchases, think "Do I really need this?!" 9 times out of 10 the answer is no .
Log on to MSE every day to keep motivated.

No diary from me, but I have been following many others on here and been inspired by you all :A

rustysmart

A couple of days late in posting, but officially debt free!! :j

I hope any of the following can inspire others just like this website has done and will continue to do for me...

a. The date of my lightbulb moment
September 2009

b. Debts at their highest
£15,061.37 - combination of credit cards, overdrafts and loans

c. Debt-Free Date
23rd March 2011

d. My one pearl of wisdom.
Not sure I can end with just one!
- I list every credit and debit on my spreadsheet which developed over the course of my journey, now looks very pretty and calculates things for me!
- Any 'extra' money you can make creates a great feeling, whether that is mystery shopping, eBay, Music Magpie or Amazon - every little bit helps.
- It helped me to focus on one debt at a time. I also ditched the credit cards. I was fooling myself by transferring balances but then adding to them over time.
- Lastly, follow every word on this site - it's amazing!!

e. My Debt Free Diary - CLICK HERE

Lula-Hula

LBM : started flickering around December 2007; for real in April 2008 when I started reading the DFW board

Debt at highest : £7,800 & maxed out

Debt Free Date : 1st April 2011


Pearls of wisdom :

1)
Savings funds for future bills will help, it wont happen immediately but persevere & they will work & also serve as an emergency fund along the way.

2)
Dont be afraid to retreat for a bit & change your plan of attack if it isnt working for you

3) Never give up - there is always someone here to help you.

solventsoon

Well done Lula:j:j:j
I've been following your diary for a while now (yes, a lurker:o) and really pleased to see you finally made it.

Enjoy being debt-free, I'll be there in a couple of months and can't wait:D

spoon x

dave1961

Hi All,
Thought I'd post today, as this is the 8th anniversary of my light bulb moment, so here goes.

a. The date of my lightbulb moment
3rd April 2003. Had just lost my job, took a part time job as a doorman, fortunately my darling wife still working in a good job. I sat down and worked out how much money we had wasted since we got married in 1990...that was a real shock. I decided at that point that we needed to do something about it.

b. Debts at their highest
43K unsecured and 65K mortgage

c. Debt-Free Date
December 2009, although we offically still have a mortgage, it pays us interest...a whole 19p for feburary, whahooo !

d. My one pearl of wisdom.
Like most who post here I can't name just one, so firstly, belief, in those darkess of dark moments you've got to beleive you can do it, fortunatley for us when one started to doubt the other slapped them out of it ! If you haven't got that type of support, these forums a godsend, so just keep believing.

Make every penny count! I called my debt "the enemy" and we attacked the enemy with our "attack fund", this is the fund we found by making savings and used this to pay off our debts one at a time. By the time we attacked the mortgage we had an attack fund of £2000 per month...you should see a mortgage fall when you can hit it with 2K a month.

Thirdly the first steps are the hardest, we called our first year the "year of pain" this is the year when your getting your attack fund together. During that year we had nothing, did nothing, bought nothing we didn't really, really needed. This gives you a new mind set, which you really need to go from wasteful and debt ladened, to debt free.

Hope this helps someone ! And remember, believe you can do it, and you will !

skijam

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - March 2008
b. Debts at their highest - £24,948
c. Debt-Free Date - 30th March 2011
d. Your one pearl of wisdom - I took the radical step of moving to the Middle East on a tax free salary as I was getting nowhere paying off my debts. This enabled me to maintain a decent lifestlye whilst sending back repayments to the UK. Fortunately I was in a position to move and I enjoy travelling. I realise his solution is not for everyone. However, if you are young and single, I'd recommend it!

Swinstie73

OMG I have been reading this thread for ages, just waiting to finally post

Light Bulb Moment: October 2008

Debts at highest: £14,571

Debt Free Date: Today, 4th April 2011

Pearls of Wisdom:

My pearls of wisdom reflect my DF Diary titles – Handbags & Gladrags – realise and accept the reason for being in debt, for me it was simply spending beyond my means on, ‘stuff’ such as Handbags & Gladrags, not to mention, extravagant holidays, going out, weekends away etc. Once you are you no longer in denial it makes it easier to sort it out.

Learn to budget and spend within your means, which I did when I was Living My Life But(t) N.A.K.E.D. For me, it was important to still have a life, I was in a new relationship and didn’t want to jeopardise that by being ‘tight’ so I found a way to continue paying of my debt whilst still managing to have a life – with a few non-essential spends along the way.

Once nearing your debt free status, start saving, as I did in Drop Debt Diva – Plus Sized Debts to Plus Size Savings, I have a few things I want to do now I’m debt free, namely get some (probably quite expensive) dental work done, but I will save as much as possible for this and work out a plan to pay for it. I would normally just have stuck it on a credit card, but from now on, if anything goes on the CC, it will be paid back the next month, 3 months max if it's a big purchase. If I need to buy anything which can’t be paid over 3 months, then I’ll save until I can.

Remember, with some determination and loads of support from MSE, it can be done, never give up.

Debt Free Diaries:- As above.