Wanted - Inspiring Stories

Spendalot_2

Would love to hear inspiring stories about how people have managed to tackle their debts and how they have managed to do it.

How did you set and stick to your budget? What was it like to go 'cold turkey' and how long did it take to get into your new way of spending?

Also interested to hear, how people came to their lightbulb moment - at what time did you realise you needed to tackle your debts?

Also how open are you to other people about your financial status and the amount you owe?

soon2bjobless

Ok – deep breath – here goes……(long)

In the past (pre-frugality!) we had 2 good incomes and spent how we wanted - no debts - didn’t really need to keep an eye on the bank.

Got preggie with 3rd (pleasant surprise) 9 years ago, left work, DH's income from fishing got smaller and smaller - continued to spend but made an attempt (quite half hearted) at looking at bank statements etc. Eventually got deeper and deeper (bought luxuries like a top of the range caravan, new jeep to pull it etc – classic “things-will-get-better” and we can afford it) into debt.

Crunch time when DH had a really bad year with hardly any wages and then due to depression didn’t work for a year - got deeper and deeper into debt - head in sand - the whole lot.

Realised how low we had got when I was buying groceries on the credit card and we had more going out than coming in – getting bank loans just to pay bills at one point!

With the help from an American site called Frugal moms where I had lurked for a while I faced up to our debts and made the first step of adding them all up – grand total in the region of around £23-24,000 (not including the mortgage!)

That was so painful – I couldn’t tell anyone how much debt we were in - I was so ashamed – even after doing this it took me months to do anything about it.

First step was to stop spending – its amazing how with no money you can still spend (due to credit cards)

But when I did I really went for it – I went back to work and we claimed WTC.

We sold the caravan and jeep (on hire purchase) and got an old Volvo (still going yet – fingers crossed!) – sold as much as we could of stuff we didn’t need.

Got clued up about interest rates (we owed 9 credit cards and 4 catalogues – one of the catalogues was nearly 30% interest!) – moved to 0% interest ones

Using a snowball debt calculator (theres a link in this site for the one I used) I calculated which debt to pay off first with the interest rates - then when the first one was paid off I snowballed the re-payment for that one onto the next one.

I stuck religiously to it and threw everything at that debt - spent nothing unless it was urgent - tracked every penny - never handled cash - it was all done through the bank.

We had been spending around £150 every week on groceries – cut it right back to between £30 and £40 – made my own soap gloop, cooked everything from scratch etc.

It was really hard at first – anyone who has had a lot of debt will know about that feeling of being different from everyone – but the turning point was when I started making frugality fun. Instead of feeling depressed because we had to do this (and couldn’t wait until the debts were gone and we could feel normal again) I turned it into a kind of game or hobby. I would cost every meal I made and set myself targets to make things cheaper.

Gradually the debts got smaller and smaller and the great day came – 1st December 2003 we were completely debt free!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we have stayed that way - my whole attitude towards money changed and now we lead a lot less stressful life as we don’t keep up with the Jones’s or are drowning in “stuff” bought to make us feel better.

Sorry for waffling on but I hope this post can help someone – even just knowing there are other people out there with debt problems helped me a lot.