Scrimping Back to Happiness

Squidgy66 · 27 February 2013 at 5:12AM

Hello folks,

I read some of the posts on here in my long journey to becoming debt free. I finally started to post on the site today, so thought it only fitting to share my story with others in a hope to prove that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I, like many others, was on the receiving end of the late 90's and early 2000's credit give away. I worked for an airline at the time and trips away on the old plastic mounted my debts up at a fairly rapid rate. I fell into the paying payments off with other credit cheques trap until I realised that I had no more credit left and my monthly minimum payments alone were more than my take home pay.

In 2007 I bit the bullet and sought help via the national debt helpline. I was put on a repayment plan and managed to clear nearly 50k of debt in around 4 and a half years. It wasn't easy and, I won't deny that it got me down at times, but it now feels like a lifetime ago I was in that rut back in 2007.

I got married last October (all paid for in advance) to my beautiful wife who joined me towards then end of my journey (dating on a budget!) and we are now both debt free and in the process of buying a house. If you are in the process of trying to become debt free then stick with it. It is possible and by heck you feel a completely different person at the end of it.

If I had to give any advice - if you are on a debt management plan - make sure your repayments (mine were from Payplan) go into your respective accounts a good few days before the 'due' dates. I was defaulting for years on two of my accounts without realising and that left a nasty black mark on my credit rating.

On a final, and slightly ironic, note. The day when my final payment went out I expected to experience some kind of euphoria. To the complete and utter contrary, I slunk into a deep dark hole mentally for several days afterwards into what could only be some form of depression. Thankfully, the internet helped me prove I wasn't losing it and this can be quite a common occurrence when you reach a major life goal. It may have seemed a bit of an anticlimax at the time, but I look back with pride on what I achieved and I hope those reading this going through the same thing can take some comfort from my words. Keep the faith people. It is possible and YOU, and only you, CAN do it.