The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Aryndeneth wrote: »

The date of your lightbulb moment
Sometime in 2006. Having been paying the bare minimum I realised I had to take control.
Debts at their highest
£21,000
Debt-Free Date
TODAY!!!
Your one perl of wisdom
Start now! Whatever you need to do to improve your situation, start today. Draw up your SOA, admit your problem to someone who can help, post on the forums for the first time, increase a minimum payment if you can. Do it now. The minute you take that first step, you're in control not the debt!

Congratulations

I like your words about control. Very wise

HHx

Lens

The date of your lightbulb moment: November 2009

Debts at their highest: £8000

Debt-Free Date: Today

Your one perl of wisdom: I set rewards for myself at each mile stone. After the first card was paid off a (cheap) holiday, another card and so on. Also (as said above) the hardest part is actually starting.

Paying off my debts has taken longer than it should have. I paid off all the credit cards (which was about half of it) then I just had a loan left to pay. I intended to save up and get it paid off ASAP, as per advice on this site. Mission on. Having saved enough, I found myself in the swing of things. I ended up continuing to save until the loan was paid off by the original direct debit payment schedule. Now (symbolically) I've managed to get £8000 in my savings. Very happy with myself.

For the past 3 years I've been doing an extra part time job 3 or 4 nights a week. Finally I can quit, and get all my evenings back.

Will keep saving until a can afford to buy a property.

Thanks to everyone on this site for the inspiration.

L

gothrockchic1

Lens wrote: »

The date of your lightbulb moment: November 2009

Debts at their highest: £8000

Debt-Free Date: Today

Your one perl of wisdom: I set rewards for myself at each mile stone. After the first card was paid off a (cheap) holiday, another card and so on. Also (as said above) the hardest part is actually starting.

Paying off my debts has taken longer than it should have. I paid off all the credit cards (which was about half of it) then I just had a loan left to pay. I intended to save up and get it paid off ASAP, as per advice on this site. Mission on. Having saved enough, I found myself in the swing of things. I ended up continuing to save until the loan was paid off by the original direct debit payment schedule. Now (symbolically) I've managed to get £8000 in my savings. Very happy with myself.

For the past 3 years I've been doing an extra part time job 3 or 4 nights a week. Finally I can quit, and get all my evenings back.

Will keep saving until a can afford to buy a property.

Thanks to everyone on this site for the inspiration.

L

Well Done, enjoy your new debt free life :T:beer:

lindann_2

a. The date of your lightbulb moment;
2003


b. Debts at their highest £8.000
c. Debt-Free Date November 2012
d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Seek help like we did when we realise that we could not cope with the amount of debt, so we get in touch with Pay-plan, get knowledgable about money, here on the forum, learn that when you borrow money in any debts cards,loans, banks. there is a price to pay, eg interest charges, . Do not hide head in sand. Once you start to take control via a free dmp, you will find that You will get through the tough times.

Make sure you pay your priorty debts first before all others, like council tax; rent/mortgages etc..

Shamed of being in debt, but proud to acknowledge that we did something about it before it got really out of hand, how we handling debt collectors even if they are very nasty and not helpful show a bit of dignity but sticking to the rules which we learnt about being hasselled. Also using the law on our side when we got one debt stop because they could not find our credit agreement so it got cancelled.
Understand that Dmp are there to help us, that there is help out there. good luck everyone..

from this day make sure you know where every £1 is going on, make sure you have a reserved of money which you can use if needed and to pay it back

gothrockchic1

lindann wrote: »

a. The date of your lightbulb moment;
2003


b. Debts at their highest £8.000
c. Debt-Free Date November 2012
d. Your one pearl of wisdom.

Seek help like we did when we realise that we could not cope with the amount of debt, so we get in touch with Pay-plan, get knowledgable about money, here on the forum, learn that when you borrow money in any debts cards,loans, banks. there is a price to pay, eg interest charges, . Do not hide head in sand. Once you start to take control via a free dmp, you will find that You will get through the tough times.

Make sure you pay your priorty debts first before all others, like council tax; rent/mortgages etc..

Shamed of being in debt, but proud to acknowledge that we did something about it before it got really out of hand, how we handling debt collectors even if they are very nasty and not helpful show a bit of dignity but sticking to the rules which we learnt about being hasselled. Also using the law on our side when we got one debt stop because they could not find our credit agreement so it got cancelled.
Understand that Dmp are there to help us, that there is help out there. good luck everyone..

from this day make sure you know where every £1 is going on, make sure you have a reserved of money which you can use if needed and to pay it back

Well Done :T

TakingControl

It's finally my turn :j

The date of your lightbulb moment
November 2009

Debts at their highest
£45000

Debt-Free Date
It was suppose to be 2015 but instead its 14/11/2012 - TODAY

Your one perl of wisdom
Start your journey today and budget every month and keep either a spending diary or spreadsheet. Review after each month and see where else you can save. Be frugal for shorter rather than comfortable but in debt for longer.

gothrockchic1

TakingControl wrote: »

It's finally my turn :j

The date of your lightbulb moment
November 2009

Debts at their highest
£45000

Debt-Free Date
It was suppose to be 2015 but instead its 14/11/2012 - TODAY

Your one perl of wisdom
Start your journey today and budget every month and keep either a spending diary or spreadsheet. Review after each month and see where else you can save. Be frugal for shorter rather than comfortable but in debt for longer.

Well Done!! Great advice :beer:

InsertWittyName

The date of your lightbulb moment
Around August 2011

Debts at their highest
Circa 2008 they were £24k!

Debt-Free Date
21st November 2012

Your one perl of wisdom
I have a few:

• Treat yourself when you can proportionately. If you clear a £500 debt and close the account down, celebrate (but keep it proportionate and low key )
• The two greatest efforts you can make is to decrease your outgoings and/or increase your incomings. A combination of both is ideal. This past year I budgeted the family so we were comfortable, but not extravagant. Alongside that I started self employment (on top of the regular day job) and increased our income significantly. If someone is willing to pay you to do your day job then someone else is generally willing to pay you to do it on an evening and weekend too :T
• When it starts to get you down, accept it. It's a hard slog, but keep the end in sight (refer to the 'proportional' treat above )
• Don't go to extremes. Eating beans and toast for 9 months instead of eating sensibly to achieve your DFD 1 month earlier is not sustainable!
• Offer your experience and advice to others :A
• In line with above, listen and learn from others too.

And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3452363

Better_Off_1983

a. The date of your lightbulb moment- March 2012 when Aqua said they would up the interest rate and that the balance could be paid back in a 'reasonable' time because I chose to close the account and decline the interest rate increase. To me, a reasonable time to them could be 6 months instead of years! So I just paid it off in 5 months! That was an £800 balance.

b. Debts at their highest £30,000 - £7.5k of which was PPI!!! I was in debt from the ages of 20-29! So my 20s was tainted.

c. Debt-Free Date 21st November 2012- I planned to be debt free 2 months before my 30th in April 2013 but I did not want to go into the new year in debt- I got loads of money back in PPI and used that to pay everything off.

d. Your one perl of wisdom- budget as much as you can, monitor your bank account especially if you are £££ better off a month and save where you can.

e. And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it - I didnt unfortunately, I found my debt a bit of a burden and and embarrasment. In previous posts, since becoming debt free, I happily list all the creditors and the balances.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Better_Off_1983 wrote: »

a. The date of your lightbulb moment- March 2012 when Aqua said they would up the interest rate and that the balance could be paid back in a 'reasonable' time because I chose to close the account and decline the interest rate increase. To me, a reasonable time to them could be 6 months instead of years! So I just paid it off in 5 months! That was an £800 balance.

b. Debts at their highest £30,000 - £7.5k of which was PPI!!! I was in debt from the ages of 20-29! So my 20s was tainted.

c. Debt-Free Date 21st November 2012- I planned to be debt free 2 months before my 30th in April 2013 but I did not want to go into the new year in debt- I got loads of money back in PPI and used that to pay everything off.

d. Your one perl of wisdom- budget as much as you can, monitor your bank account especially if you are £££ better off a month and save where you can.

e. And if you had a debt diary on DFW, a link to it - I didnt unfortunately, I found my debt a bit of a burden and and embarrasment. In previous posts, since becoming debt free, I happily list all the creditors and the balances.

Congratulations.

Re your light bulb moment, they really do loan you a brolly in fair weather and take it back when it rains don't they?

Good luck for your future

HHx