Pleased With Myself!

NoMoneyNoSense

In my late teens and early twenties, I took the buy now pay later approach to life, credit cards, loans, loans to pay loans, credit cards to take money off of and such like.... I bought clothes, went out a lot, gambled online and in the betting shops.... basically a to hell with it attitude. :beer:

About 4/5 years ago, I hit a brick wall.... a night out, the last of my money off of a credit card spent in a boozy (but lots of fun!) haze... I had no money for a taxi.... A long cold walk home through the night (8 miles in sub zero temperatures) caused me to take a proper look at myself. :mad:

I woke up later that afternoon and spent a hungover and quite depressing afternoon looking at my finances..... When I totalled it all up... it was a smidgen over £70k in unsecured debts.

Although I had (and still have a little bit) a care free attitude, I didn't want to go bankrupt or find loopholes to get out of it.... I played.... I owe.... So it's off to work I go. I owed the money and I was damn sure I was going to pay it back.

Well today after having a £9k credit card for years, I've finally hit my first milestone..... one card payed off!:T

I'm currently at £23k left to go, and 22 months worth of £1,200 a month payments left. :j

I've bobbed and weaved, contacted the banks, consolidated loans into very favourable rates, written letters and such in order to make the whole thing manageable.... but 22 months to go and every penny of the money and the interest will be paid off!

The best two tools (apart from my brain) I've used were the Snowball Calculator - whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx and usiing the Egg Money Manager - egg.com (you can use it if you open a savings account - £1 deposit required) to see all of my accounts on one screen.

Apologies for the boring ramble, but I wanted to share my first milestone!

Gettingtherequickly

That is fabulous, so much so quickly. Well done, it feels so good when you can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel:T

shortstop

Hello

I'd just like to say well done in realising your situation was not good and working hard to get rid of your debt instead of finding an easier route to go down.

22 months isn't that long a time and you'll be able to keep your head held high and say you paid it all off.:T

YORKSHIRELASS

Well done you! You have got to celebrate those milestones and keep patting yourself on the back. For me its going to be a long hard slog but I just keep telling myself that every small step gets me a tiny bit closer to being debt free.

slowlyfading

Well done you! :j

mummum2

Fantastic achievement so far! be very proud of yourself! :j:beer:

lamarsi

well done its a fantastic achievement!! your tail is very similar to mine, only I was a little older before I woke up, I now only owe my mortgage and bank of mum and dad every time I pay something of I feel like shouting in the street!! lol!

scattydove

Great achievement Keep going!

tattooed_lady

wow! That's fantastic and really inspiring! Well done! xx

downsizer3

You should be proud of yourself. You tackled it head on and you're starting to see the rewards.
Good for you. :beer:

Takeaway_Addict

well done!