I'm now debt free!!

foxgloves

Big congratulations to you!! We were also debt-free in May this year, & you are right, it is a fantastic feeling. I just absolutely don't care that I no longer buy myself treats all the time, the big thing that matters to me is that every bit of money we now spend belongs to us & not to a bank or credit card company. How I wish I'd learned how to budget years ago. It's such an important lifeskill. Bad money habits can be changed, though, & lots of successful people on here are proof of that.

Shineyhappy

Congratulations! It is such a great feeling and a relief, I hope that you have given yourself a really big pat on the back!

J_Devon

Congrats on the Debt Free-ness :j

I know the feeling, and its brilliant :beer:

Keep up the effort, it can be all to easy to slip back in if you're not careful

ss3n08

Thats really inspiring. How did you get there?

kiote

Thanks everyone, its been a long tough year trying to get through all that debt. I've been lurking behind the curtains on this forum taking advice all the way and so I guess its only right to share what worked for me.

The most helpful thing for me was (and is) being able to live at my mums paying minimal rent (she'll be getting a nice bottle of whisky this christmas). Its not ideal but it alowed me to focus all my money on repaying the debt.

Perhaps a bit more usefull is the notion of rounding down. If you're big on the internet banking like I am then its very easy to do, every time I get paid I round the amount down into my savings account, this week I got £206.16 so the £6.16 goes straight in. Same for when you spend, if take a tenner out and spend say £7.20 in the shop, the £2.80 goes straight in a pot (which is really heavy now) and same thing happens on the internet when I use my card. This also helps prevent against making unnesessary purchases because you start to see everything priced at £10 (yes I would put £9.30 in if I bought a £0.70 chocolate bar!)

Save for everything - I worked out my car cost about £650-£700 a year to run (tax/mot/ins/service etc) so £15 a week into a seperate account means I don't get caught out by a large expense and I also get to make a modest amount of interest on it (1% on £300 won't take you far but it sure beats paying 15% to the insurance company for monthly instalments)

Finally I also made sure I manage every payslip - in the past I'd get paid and go spend (usually more than I earned) with out checking it. Now every week I make a list starting with things that have to be done, moving down to what I'd like to do (a typical list would be House £40 Loan £80 ISA £25 Car £15 Petrol £30 Social £40) I'd then add all that up, subtract it from my wage and what was left over could then be used how ever it was needed (more often than not it would end up in my ISA - handy on those bumper pay days)

hope there is some usefull info in there for anyone still working towards the goal.