What triggered your "lightbulb" moment?

Garnet_Gem

Did something specific happen to make you want to stop spending and get your finances under control? Mine was wanting to go on an expensive holiday with my friends, thinking i couldn't afford it and then realising that i could if i stopped buying stupid things.

Skint_Catt

Just knowing that all the money I'm paying on debts could be going in savings and then spent on nice things without paying 'extra' in interest. I'd walk a mile to save 5p but then pay 14% interest or whatever on my credit card - so what was the point?!

Catt xx

Shineyhappy

Funnily enough I had had faint flickers for a while now, but one day I was on the BBC message boards and a poster recommended this site, (Barney if you are reading this then a huge thanks).

I followed his link and read through a few of the debt diaries on here and it just clicked that I am in a lot of debt, ok most of it is related to my home, but I am now financially on my own and if I f^&k it up, then I loose my flat.

Debt seems to be something that is considered normal now and it wasnt really until I came on here that the real LBM hit. It isnt normal to hand over a large chunk of your salary to pay interest to make companies richer. It is wrong and as such I will try to reduce all my debt (inc my mortgage) as much as possible.

southwester_2

Mine was when my gambling got bad and the lies and deceit that was going on was making me a nervous wreck and not sleeping etc, moody plus the big thing I realised I was depriving my son of things for the future

immoral_angeluk

My LBM came when I was 6 months pregnant and had just been forced to take out a 24.1% car loan because we couldn't afford to buy a cheapo one outright and our credit rating wasn't good enough to get anything better. i realised that unless we sorted something quick we were going to get into a massive hole we would struggle to get out of, especially with a new baby on the way.

ifstar

Although I haven't had much of a debt problem - I used to end the month in my overdraft but nothing too drastic. I still feel I had a lightbulb moment that has enabled me to actually be able to put money away in savings rather than just fritter it away each month.

I had looked at this site a while back but hadn't really read much in the way of articles so I didn't really learn anything. A few months back I stumbled back across it and read a few of Martin's articles about how to be not paying as much for things like insurance and this really stuck a cord as I had just managed to knock £240 of my annual Virgin bill (this was before the Sky 1 issue). I bought the Money Diet book and read it over a weekend and this literally opened my eyes and from there I created my budget and spending diary and this has helped me cut out loads of unncessary spending.

onamission_2

when my OH opened the envelope with the court papers from HSBC. He said justifying himself "it looked important"
BIG WAKE UP CALL. Had flickers up to that point but was avoiding phone, letters etc up to then.....

1_step_closer

Good question.

Fear and a head in the sand attitude kept me from really looking properly and I kept saying we couldn't afford stuff, then spend £30 here, £12 there....well they added up so I made a strong cup of tea and totted everything up. Cried!

I am much better now - still have the odd moment - but much much better!

Hope78

A few little flickers suddenly exploded into one! I realised that depite a great salary I was ending each month -£1000 also would like to move out or buy parents' house buy realised there's no way I could afford a mortgage never mind be accepted for one. Sad thing is my parents' house would cost about half my total debts! Also one day soon I'd love to meet a significant other but just not willing to burden anyone else with my load.

GirlRacer_2

My LBM happened when I realised how much more money I'd have spare if there were no debts to pay.

newleaf

We went on a month long holiday 'down under'. My husband was told just before we left that he faced possible redundancy on our return. He wasn't bothered, he's not in debt and has savings. He was also confident he could get another job without too much trouble.
However, whilst we were away I had a long hard think about how we would manage if he couldn't get another job, and I knew we couldn't do it.
At the time my debts were around the £15K mark. I hit the limit on my credit card whilst we were away. I saw a really beautiful vase in an art gallery, which I wanted to buy, but I couldn't have it because I had no credit left and no money. I realised that, despite earning a very good salary, I was paying out all of my money in bills and debt repayments as fast as it landed in the bank, and still spending more on my cards than I was paying off.
Also, I am not getting any younger. I have less than 10 years to go before retirement and I realised I needed to get myself sorted out before then.
So, after months of flickering, my lightbulb came on fully. I had 'sort of' heard Martin on Jeremy Vine, but hadn't paid much attention ('he doesn't mean me..') but I started listening more closely and followed his link to this site approximately a year ago. I am proud of how far I have come in such a short space of time. If you had asked me 12 months ago I wouldn't have thought it possible, but it's all thanks to Martin and to this site. :T


(Oh, and my lovely, lovely husband bought me the vase for my birthday )