For those who are debt free...

gingerfurball

How long did it take for you to stop feeling anxious about money?

DH and I are now DF (thank you God!!) but even yet I still have a feeling of dread when I get the mail or check my online banking...it's ridiculous!!

Maybe I have just felt tension over money for so long that it'll take time for me to relax about it!! It's as if I'm waiting for some unknown debtor to come and pull the rug out from underneath me!

Can anyone relate to this...or am I just mental!!:rotfl:

suki43

Hi Gingerfurball,

Well, I am still in debt so can't relate directly, but I think debt has been a major part of my life for so long, that it has become a habit of mind, and will take time to decondition myself out of the debt mindset.

I think this will lessen in time for you to a point where you are just careful with money, rather than anxious about it.

Well done you for being DF!

Suki

mjdh1957

I've been debt-free for a few months now, and I still get a bit anxious at times. Though it's not a serious anxiety and I find I'm getting more relaxed about it as time goes by.

I'm determined never to get into debt though, so I still think about money a lot. But that is partly because I now enjoy planning and making things happen that would have been much more difficult when I had the debt.

oops_a_daisy

I have only been totally debt free for a couple of weeks but have had savings in excess of my debts on 0% for a few months. Even though my debts were on 0% I still HAD to pay them off to feel that I was totally debt free I slackened off on the shopping challenges though so I constantly feel that I am overspending even though Im not in debt anymore. Even this morning I have saved £2.50 per month on my TV, BB and home phone by making a phone call to Virgin so the DFWannabee ways have not totally left me Im glad that I am now more aware of overspending and that I will never get myself into a situation where I am getting bank charges and using a credit card half way through the month. I still check my bank account daily which I think is a good thing - even though my BF thinks Im mad

gingerfurball

I think that is probably the issue...I was spending someone elses money before!! Now I'm spending ours! And I don't want to spend any of my money!!

I'm tighter now than I ever was!!

We were visiting my daughter in England and took the kids "ooh" shopping (window shopping was the only shopping we did before!!) and my DD saw a lovely pair of shoes and was oggling them...she knew not to ask and I walked away.

I then realised that we could really afford them and I asked her if she wanted them...she was so delighted!! I had a tight band around my chest...I just don't like to spend money anymore but my DD was so happy!!

chevalier

I think that being aware of spending is no bad thing. To still do the do I need it or want it thing in your head, is a good thing. It stops me spending on 'stuff'.

Once you have an emergency pot saved (usually suggested to be 3 months worth of salaries) then maybe you can ease up a bit.
chev

Plum_Pie

After over a year of being DF, I still can't quite believe it. I still have moments of nervousness in banks, when opening letters ...almost as though I forget I'm DF!

It definitely takes a long time to relax.

no_debts_no_more

I've been debt free for a few years, and now feel concerned (worry is a bit too strong a word) about money all the time. When I had debts, I never worried about money too much, which is probably why I was in debt in the first place!

I'm forever checking the state of my accounts through online banking. I don't get a feeling of dread, but I worry about some required expenditure sneaking up on me if I leave it for a few days. Mail with bills in always feels unpleasant even when you can pay it. You go from feeling flush and able to treat yourself, or get your savings account over some threshold, back to square one.

I now even have savings, and was able to pay cash for £7K of motorbikes last year. Even so, I worry if my CC bill goes much over a few hundred, as I might struggle to pay it off in full - even though I have ample savings sitting there, it feels as if it's not "my" money, as they're earmarked for other things.

This ties in with being more money all-round conscious. I'll um and ahh about buying all sorts of things. I won't be buying the sander that was cheap in Tesco as Iwaited too long & they removed them from stock! I would have used it this weekend too. I also make do and mend a lot more, and do more MS DIY activities like car servicing as well as the B&Q kind.

The best thing is that having changed my spending habits overnight (I had a fixed date to get debt free by - the beginning of my wife's maternity leave), I've managed to put almost all of what I was putting into debt repayment, into saving. Which has translated into being able to just buy the things we absolutely need, and makes it easier to put off buying the things we merely want.

LJD1_2

Hiya
We hope to be debt free at the end of the year. I'm selling everything I can to make this a possibility as I really want to be debt free before we're both 40 (next year). I'm not sure how much I'll change as then i'd really like to pay off our mortgage before we're 50 so reckon it's going to be long haul. Saying that, it'll be so nice to be overpaying the mortgage and paying less interest rather than being charged it.

Gingerfurball - love the name!