We’re debt FREE!!!

loken152

I just feel the need to shout from the roof top that we are now debt free. Its taking two years but we have done it, we had few times when we were tempted to use some form of credit but we managed it get through. I feel the need to share our story.
We where like any other normal family, we had credit cards, personal loans and car finance all were manageable. We had just got married what we paid for with savings and we had our second child. I wanted to change my car and we wanted to have a big family holiday to Disney world. I had planned to take a large loan out 25k to pay for the car, holiday and consolidate some of the rest. I had been to the bank and been approved and had the money in the bank. We sat down that night, looked at the paper work and looked at the monthly payments what didn't seem to be an issue for me. But my wife got upset and said that she would really like us to be debt free and went to bed.
Anyway that night i sat down with the computer, found myself on youtube and stumbled onto Dave Ramsey. I watched hours of his video’s and i found it very straight talking to the point. When to bed hours later and couldn’t sleep due to conflicting idea i had running round my head. When i got up for work i i was still thinking about it. Luckily for me it was a very quiet day at work and i was the only person in my department and had very little work. I made a spread sheet and worked out when we would be debt free if i followed the Dave Ramsey plan what is basicly a debt snowball.
I worked out it would take two and half years. i Spent that night watching and reading more about the Dave Ramsey plan, I was sold. The next night i talked to my wife about the whole situation and this plan. She was happy that i had chosen to get us out of debt. She was happy to give it a go, knowing it was going to hard but it would be for the greater good.
The next day i contacted the bank and told them that i changed my mind. Luckily for me it was the same provider that the original loan was with.
After that we sat down and worked out all of debts in total was 18k. We had some saving nothing massive but we kept 1k for emergencies what was needed and used the rest to clear one of the smaller debts straight away. We started to right a food plan once a week and only brought the food we needed to make each meal instead of buying what we wanted. We wrote out a written budget each month and stuck to it. God we had become weird and boring..........:(
The first few debt's tumbled away and it felt like we had made good progress:). During this time my wife lost her job whilst on maternity leave. So down to just the one wage, time to tighten that belt a more:(. Down to the last three debts, one credit card, car finance and a old loan. Around this time our fridge freezer gave up :eek: and we needed a new one :mad:. Thank god we had an emergency fund. After topping the fund back up we continued with the plan. A few months later one of my neighbour reversed into my car :mad::mad::mad::mad: and it become a insurance write off. So after clearing the remaining car finance i was left with X and i brought a cheap car to run around in until we finished this plan and saved to buy a replacement.
So that clear one of those three, so back onto that credit card and knocked that one out of the park:D. One left, i started to save money into a saving account to pay off the loan, it recently came to point we where 1k sort of clearing the debt and we talked about using the emergence fund to help clear it. I wasn’t happy with this at first. But the wife just found a new job that worked nicely around us all as a family so we knew we had a second income. Two months later, after she brought a couple of wage slips in and i added a bit more to the pot we used the emergency fund to help clear that last final debt!!:D:j:D:beer:.
So now we plan to build the emergency fund up to six months worth of house hold bills and then we plan to change our world and families by saving and never going back into debt. I feel like i needed to share this with you all, as we had a couple of bumps in the road and we still managed to get to the end. So if anyone else is on this journey too, chin up and keep plucking away at those debts end will come and it will feel great. As Dave Ramsey would say, it's your money and its up to you to tell it what you want it to do for you. Not for your money to tell you! Well something along those lines.

dizzybee

well done.x

dcouponzzzz

Well done for reprogramming capitalist society out of your habits! As difficult as kicking an addiction Congratulations and long may it continue

tori.k

Congratulations, well done

parsniphead

Fantastic story. Well done. You must feel so good this morning.

I'm another Dave Ramsey fan.

YOURE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEE. :T

Ilona

Great story, a source of inspiration to others. Thanks for posting, onwards and upwards from now on. well done.
Ilona

whattodo1967

Congratulations well done, cannot wait till I can post that I am debt free. Enjoy it

EssexHebridean

Brilliant post! Congratulations and well done for taking your destiny into your own hands, taking control, and improving your future.

12months

Well done loken152, that's fantastic I haven't heard of Dave Ramsey so I'm away to look him up - I need all the help I can get as I start my own debt free journey.

All the best :wave:

tealady

Congratulations.
Now dont forget to put yourself on the roll of honour

bugslet

Auto correct it's a nightmare

God we had become weird and boring..........

I think that was meant to say we had become exceptional and organised;)

Well done:T