What is the best piece of advice you got regarding sorting out your debts

Norfolk_Jim

Never give up

ElmerFudd

Thanks OP for making this thread. A number of things have helped me over the years (particularly the last few months). The first thing which has helped me the most is keeping an ongoing spending diary. I have made monthly spending diaries in the past but never stuck with it for so long. It has proved very useful and has helped me tidy up my bad spending habits (even the "odd" coffee is a spend I can ill afford right now). The second good piece of advice was to move my debt about. I always thought it was only useful if I could get 0% BT deals for long periods of time but now I find it useful for even 9 month deals at 0%. On top of this I have purchased things on my other credit cards (with lower APR's) which frees up more ready cash to pay on the high APR card. This form of moving the debt around has saved me a ton of money so far (not just on balance transfer fees but also on payments to the cards). I am still in the process of moving the debt around, but I am hoping that once I have done this I can get my bad CC down to under 9k and my debt free date will drop significantly. I am constantly on the look out for new opportunities now too which means that my income has risen somewhat more than I would have expected this time last year.

tesuhoha

The best piece of advice I got was a whole bookful of it.

I had been in debt for a long time and thought it was impossible to get out of. I was walking through W H Smith one day and I saw Martin Lewis' book 'The Money Diet'. I think that was my lightbulb moment when i bought that book. However, if anything stands out it was the section about loyalty. I had been loyal to banks and companies for years for no good reason. There is no friendly bank manager any more. I found it very difficult to take this on board but it is true. I have only just realised that I am still doing the loyalty thing with Nationwide and have just saved almost £200 by taking out a different insurance.

My debt was paid off with a series of 0% credit cards as the one thing we had going for us was a good credit score. We now only buy things when we have saved for them/can afford them. We have one credit card now which is paid off every month.

kaz0705

Asiacat wrote: »

5. Cover the danger zone. Basically means look at your weekly schedule and look not only at what you spend but when you spend it. Once you take into account sleep, work and travelling you probably find there are only 8-10 hours a week when you are actually spending money.

For most people this will be Saturday afternoon and 1-2 hours on certain evenings.

Once you have pinpointed the danger zone simply find something else to do instead, exercise, play football, jog, surf the Internet, make love, read, catch up on your DVD collection anything but tour the shopping malls or pubs.

8. Learn to live on 80% of your salary.

9. Always ask for a discount they can only say no.

10. Define the areas where you waste money (library fines, late payment penalties, food thrown out as it's gone past it's sell by date, lottery etc. ) And each day write out "I have wasted______so far this year." . Focussing on this figure every day will help you eliminate waste completely.

Number 10 is a terrifying thought but one I'm going to take on board. I have definitely saved money by doing a monthly big shop but, by blinding ordering it for payday, have- this month- thrown loads out as we had lots of things going on so weren't at home to eat everything. Has really annoyed me!

Number 9 falls under my 'if you don't ask, you don't get' school of thought. My Dad lives down south but is originally from Glasgow so always asks for a 'Scottish discount' EVERYWHERE. If you do it with enough charm, no one minds you asking!

My DFD is now less than a year away so I'll certainly be taking No6 on board!

And Number 5- a revelation! Absolutely right! My 'danger' period is probably Thursday nights- drinks or food (or both) after work celebrating 'the new friday'... Will be interesting to sit down and work out my danger points...

So, whilst I came on here to share the best advice I'd been given, I think it's fair to say I've just learnt some more tricks! :T

I guess the main thing I could offer as advice is that old adage about 'those that mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind'. Part of the hardest bit of starting a DF journey is a lack of understanding from friends and relatives- and a reluctance to share.

I've been really open with people and, in this day and age, no one judged me. Plus, my boyfriend and best friends have been really supportive. Yes, it's hard when you're missing out so good support is essential. And if you can't get it from friends, you'll always get it from MSE!

OH! And another thing would be: stop looking for the easy way out. I know when I joined up it was to ask about getting the best 0% deal and how I could improve my credit score so I could get one without realising that, frankly, it wasn;t going to happen.

I'd never defaulted or caused gone over my limits or anything so spent a lot of time whining about how all I needed was just ONE 0% BT to get things sorted.

Well, life isn't that simple and it's the tough times that teach you the most lessons so get cracking and start learning!

chuckley

its only money...

foxgloves

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that when you go into a shop & there's a big sign saying 'Interest-free credit', remember to mentally rewrite this in your head as 'Interest-free debt'......obviously paying back a loan where there's no interest is better than paying it back WITH interest, but at the end of the day, it's still buying something I can't afford outright, & will mean me having to pay out usually quite a big amount of money every month for a good while. I wish all such signs had to say 'Interest-free debt' legally, as I think fewer people would be suckered into having stuff they can't really afford.