How do you maintain being debt free? What are you strategies?

mcpitman

Brenster said:

My excel spreadsheet is my bible, i have it set up to cover everything, including my allowance for spending everymonth, when i get paid, it gets updated, when i withdraw £20 it gets updated, when a direct debit goes out it gets updated, it also forecasts 12 months into the future, based on everything i know....holidays, birthdays, christmas expenditure etc....  I find it satisfying knowing that if i stick to my spreadsheet, i could have £x amount in 12 months, and it shows a logical / realistic route how to get there.
I think this tool has been learned from getting out of debt and has benefitted in the transition from debt to savings. 

This.... and this with bells on.

I'm not debt free yet, but not struggling anymore and Excel helps me target myself for savings so I don't rely on credit anymore for Christmas, Car insurance etc (annual stuff) as I used to.

maisie_cat

I personally find that behaving as if you have less money than you actually have helps. I agonise over buying things and tend to buy quality rather than "buy cheap, buy twice (or thrice)". I don't buy new clothes unless mine have holes, we don't have foreign holidays or new technology. Many people I know have acquired debt as a result of lifestyle choices and needing to feel good, even for a short time, rather than subsistence needs. The main thing is to be happy with your lot in life, the best things in life are not things.

findingthisdifficult

I'm not quite debt free, I have 7.4k left to get rid of excluding my mortgage.
My tips would be

• Keep reading on here, I find that keeps me on the straight and narrow
• I maintain a super basic spreadsheet which has all of my bills detailed, every payday I allocate the money where it needs to go.  Would like to make this a bit more clever but I am just not techy enough.
• Check all bank accounts every day sometimes twice (I have 5 accounts)
• Mark up when insurances/annual reviews are due so that you can shop around
• Having separate bills account and spending funds has also made a massive difference

Sharon87

I'm not debt free yet, but I am definitely on the road to becoming debt free.

My plan for in 2 years - which is when I plan to be debt free - is to have a large emergency fund - 3 months of expenses at the minimum. I currently pay off around £300-£400 on my credit cards each month. So I will put this into different savings account - emergency fund, my help to buy ISA and savings for holidays/fun things and large ticket item replacements (laptops/phones.etc).  I also use YNAB to help budget and this has been the best purchase I've ever made, it took me a while to get into it and I had a couple of false starts, but I've been using it since 2016 and my debt has gone from over 15k to now just less than 10k and my debt hasn't increased in almost a year, so I'm doing something right.

I have created new good habits whilst paying off my debt and I plan to stick by them. No taxis unless necessary, barely any takeaways, less eating out/drinking out.etc Covid-19 has helped somewhat in this aspect.

I think having a goal in mind is always a big psychological help, whether that's buying a house, being mortgage free, saving for early retirement or even a long holiday. 

aimeemum

Not quite debt free (just under £2k left to go) but starting to move forward and creating a buffer and sinking funds for predictable expenses. Every payday the money is divided up and transferred to each account on a zero-based budget. 
Every purchase we may is weighed up and considered. I try not to use the CC for anything unless it's an emergency/necessity, and then pay it off as quickly as possible. 
I stick to a budget for everything - food, fuel, additional spending, saving, debts.....it's all planned!