DFNLWs - what did you do next?

Mort

Kepi wrote: »

Hello!
As a family we are starting our debt free journey next month. This month we have had been to the Fringe in Edinburgh and stayed with family and the whole of our short break we didn't worry about money!


My daughter is starting comprehensive in September and looking forward to Christmas without the DMP payment. I am still not sure how I feel about it all? I am not sure it has sunk in yet? We have been on the DMP 8 years. Anyone experienced this?

:beer: Well done Kepi. Yes it feels odd at first but you should eventually get used to not being on a DMP. Just sit back and enjoy your success. But you may still have a journey ahead of you, any defaults will be on your credit file and will take 6 years to come off. I repaired my credit rating by getting a credit card using it once a month to fuel up the car and setting up a direct debit to pay it off in full each month.
Well done again.:T

datlex

After I became debt free, I used the money I was paying to debts to put towards a deposit. I am currently a mortgage free wannabee. I am using the same techniques in relation to money now that helped me get out of debt in the first place. I am saving for everything I need doing on my property. Means sometimes I will have to wait-e.g. for new kitchen- but at same time it gives me time to consider my decisions.

katsu

It is our 10 year DF anniversary, and I'm so happy that we found Martin and this site so many years ago. It transformed our money confidence and we went from people who didn't open bank statements to people who enjoy opening savings accounts (well, at least I did, DH thinks going to the bank is a chore! )

In the last 10 years we have become MFWs and become MF too - one year MF now!

We did this by:

* not increasing our lifestyle with extra income. This had the biggest impact on helping us get MF. When I earnt more I saved a lot of it. I increased my pension contributions and also saved money in the bank to pay off the mortgage.
* we stopped borrowing money for eg cars or work on the house. We saved it all up first and although that meant eg driving old cars, it meant our money goes further as we don't have repayments with interest on top.
* we kept our money saving mindset. We don't think about other people or what they have, we just think about what we want and what we need. We didn't "need" to do up our house straight away, we just would have liked to.

Other things that we have kept doing:

* reading the guides here and other forums like savings and investments, so that we opened regular savers to use some of our income/savings
* selling and charity shopping things we didn't need. Facebook marketplace is better value than eBay so you can declutter and get some extra £. When I lost my job I started in the loft and made my way down through the house to find things to sell. I was surprised how quickly it added up. Also as a higher rate taxpayer use the Gift Aid for a few extra £ back from HMRC.
* kept shopping for clothes in charity shops/outlets. Very rarely pay full price for clothes.
*using topcashback as often as I can for shopping online.
* keeping up surveys - to be honest I do this a lot less and only do it from time to time, but those vouchers are a good motivation and when I have been out of work or needed to cover christmas gifts then that motivates me.
* use things until they wear out, from older computers to clothes.

More recently I have got into mobile phone apps like: Shoppix, Receipt Hog, SnapMyEats, ZipZero and Shopmium. I'm not making much from them but again it helps cover little treats.

I also redeem my points on loyalty cards when I have enough for a transaction instead of saving them. Keeping my money in my accounts helps me generate tiny amounts of interest which is still better than nothing.

Now my next challenge is to learn about investing so I can decide how to best invest my pension funds and think about whether to have non-cash savings.

Also to find new hobbies and friends whilst keeping my spending relatively moderate - does present some challenges!

mrsplinter

I originally became debt-free in January 2009 and posted on the roll of honour. Here's my update.

Saved throughout 2009-11 and had enough for a 10% deposit became a first-time buyer at the end of 2011. It was quite a shock after buying to have very little in savings and started again. I had to borrow some money for things like a boiler. Also, mortgage interest rates were much higher then mine was over 5%. This came down but by 2014 Barclaycard was offering a money transfer with an interest rate that was lower than my mortgage. So I took the cash and overpaid my mortgage.

By 2016 I had £13k in credit card debt at 0% interest but felt I had taken my eye off the ball with regard to debt. I saved and took advantage of every 0% no-fee card, so by the end of 2018 I had almost enough saved to pay off the remaining balance on my credit cards. However, I decided to do up my house so added £19k to my mortgage and borrowed more from credit cards at zero and low-interest rates. This left me with £22k in credit card debt at the start of 2019 and few savings which was quite daunting. Since then I've paid off the debt which accrues interest and then started saving. As of this week, I reached £15k in debt and £15k savings, so a net of zero and a milestone.

I'll pay off the credit card debts when the 0% deals expire in September and November. In the meantime, I will continue to save until I have a decent emergency fund. Then I will start overpaying more mortgage, although I sort of have been throughout as I remortgaged in 2018 and shortened the term by 18 months. It's now in two separate parts, because of the additional borrowing, and it would be great to pay off the mortgage advance ASAP as that will feel like another milestone, as I will be left with the original borrowing.

powellypowelly

Since my DFD in Jan 2015 I've done a pretty good job of staying debt-free, I haven't carried over any CC/OD balances even for a single month. I took a car loan which I paid off in 12 months and I've been very lucky that my job wasn't affected by COVID.

....BUT....

It's become clear to me that I'm fundamentally bad at controlling my spending, and I don't think it will ever get better. Whenever I stop focusing on the spreadsheet things head south. I have just learned to watch out for it going wrong and quickly react to get on top of it. I've put in place regular savings which go out as soon as I get paid, and sometimes I have to dip into this to cover monthly overspends. The dark days are behind me thank god, but the journey doesn't stop with a DFD. We are who we are!

backinbusiness

I started "A Thread For After Debt" after I became debt-free, however it was closed.  Any chance of a resurrection?  
BiB x 

DjangoUnchained

running cheap old cars, that i buy outright (£500)no loans  just as reliable.  cheaper to insure. Pay the insurance off in one go as spreading it seems to add about 20%, at the moment its quite easy not spending much as nothing is open and nowhere to go.

CapricornLass

Life after debt free - I achieved debt-freedom in Jan 2016, and mortgage freedom at the same time.  I've since retired from work three times, helped my eldest son to pay for his masters degree (he got a distinction too, so well worth it) and paid his rent when he was made redundant and DWP took 7 months to pay him any money,  helped the younger one keep his little business afloat during Covid (NOT a good time to start your own business) and managed to stay mostly out of debt.

The rising cost of living means that this is getting harder.  I've noticed that I'm now starting to carry over money on my credit card, so I will be working to make sure that it is cleared and remains clear.  Fortunately for me my state pension starts in January, but I will go back to keeping my spreadsheets and keeping tabs on what is being spent where.  I suppose the lesson to be learnt there is that you have to be on the ball and keep an eye on things, and be prepared to take action as soon as you notice that things are sliding.

MovingForwards

I became debt free in 2019, had a diary in the DFW section.

Had a new diary running as I was saving for a mortgage, completed my purchase in 2020.

Been saving and overpaying the mortgage ever since. While I started a diary in the MFW section I felt more at home with my second diary elsewhere on the forum and have stayed there ever since.

I'm currently working PT and self-funding my studies.

Since buying my home I've maintained its not running the full term and set a maximum end date as 31/12/2029.

Jack06019

Being in debt feels like it happened to another person... it's now 11 years since the IVA was paid off.

I earned a lot and spent even more in the 1990s and 2000s, then we moved and were on a lower income but couldn't shake off the old habits. The crunch came with a terminally ill relative, spent a fortune on travelling to see her in her last days. Had no option but to take out an IVA.

It was a fantastic education in being frugal, watched every penny and cut back spending everywhere.  Number one question - do I need it? Now I rarely go into shopping centres but I do a lot of shopping at the car boot sale, I know that a lot of people come back with a load of tat but I only buy what I need. Clothes, toiletries and garden supplies are top of my list, I used to get books but there are fewer now. Sometimes I see some good books, especially academic ones, that I know will sell on Ebay; bought one last year for £1, sold it for £17. I grow as much food as I can; I made a compost bin out of 3 free pallets, just needed 4 angle brackets to hold them together and I got those for 60p at the car boot, and now I've got a load of lovely compost for all my pots.

I took out a loan on 2021 to upgrade the car that had become a money pit, got that at 3% interest and have shaved off 8 months already with overpayments. My credit rating is rated 'excellent'. 

It's liberating to go through that and become debt-free (apart from the small and manageable car loan); I can still remember the dark shadow in my mind when I used to think about my debts, though that's so long ago it's now a fading memory.