One Year On From My DFD

SunderlandBlackCat

Hi Everyone

It's a year today since my DFD so I thought I'd post about how things have gone since becoming debt free in the hope someone can use something from it.

For those that don't remember me, my debt at its worst was around £20,000 towards the end of 2001, although thats just a best guess since I didn't have a LBM until I ran out of both credit & cash several years later, after 2 consolidation attempts failed.

As I didn't know much about bailiffs & debt collectors etc at the time, I sold almost everything I owned on ebay & car boot sales as I thought they would be taken away anyway for less than I could sell them for.

Drastic as that was it did allow me to pay off a couple of my smaller but higher APR card debts & at about the same time I discovered the MSE site & Martin's article on the credit card shuffle & this forum where I learned about the magic of snowballing.

Thus began a cycle of snowballing & balance transfers until finally all my remaining debts were low enough to be covered by a single balance transfer from a new Virgin credit card to my current account & on that day I got the courage to register on the dfw forum.

One of the plus sides of it all was that I was working a ridiculous amount of overtime, even when I wasn't beng paid for it (because staying at work meant lower gas & electric bills + there was nothing to do at home), but work interpreted that as me being amazingly committed to the job & promoted me accompanied by a decent pay rise which allowed me to really start hammering down that last card balance & on 21/05/2007 I finally had enough in my pay packet to pay off the remaining balance & still have enough to not go back into debt before the next payday.

So now on to the last year.....

I had thought that the 1st thing I would do would be to replace the inflatable sofa I'd been living on since the initial furniture sell off but I still haven't. It's actually quite comfy & the MSE habits I developed make me begrudge paying for things I don't need.

Instead I decided to continue on as if I was still in debt until I'd built up a disaster fund of 6 months of household bills. Once I was close to acheiving that though an opportunity came up to go in with a mate 50/50 on a "Fixer Upper" house & paying my half of the deposit gobbled that disaster fund up & I had to take out another 0% card to top the amount up.
Renovating the house MSE style without getting anyone else in to help has kept the cost to an absolute minimum (Fire surround for 99p from ebay & collected it to avoid P&P, Coloured kitchen mixer tap for £20 that would have cost £150 new. Enough emulsion to repaint an entire house for £40 by buying a magazine costing £2 which included a voucher for a free tin of emulsion for £11)

As of last weekend the house is renovated, on the market & the CC was paid off this morning. From next month I'll be building up the emergancy fund again (although this time I'm definitely going to get some proper furniture) & when the house sells I'm going to use that money to pay a chunk if not all off the mortgage on my own home.

I hope this doesn't come across as bragging as it isn't meant to. I used to get a lot from people who'd been through it posting their success stories & I really hope this comes across as an example of how valuable the lesson's learned & habits formed while getting out of debt can be when you apply them to taking things forward once you're debt free, because even just 3 years ago there was no way I could even imagine being able to do any of this.

If I'd never been in such debt, I'd never have learned any of those lessons & even in the unlikely chance that I could have raised the money, I would never have built up the DIY skills necessary or the drive to find the absolute lowest cost for quality materials. I'd have wasted loads on the most convenient options.

Just 1 year on from my debt free date I'm now in a stronger financial position than I've ever been in in my life, even stronger than before I got into debt & it's almost all down to the things I've picked up from other people on this forum.

Thanks again to everyone from the board who helped me

immoral_angeluk

Wow you've had a busy year! Well done though and glad things are going well for you!

TurnaroundSue

What a brilliant read! Well done and it is good to hear of your success from being £20k in debt to hopefully being mortgage free also. Congratulations and thanks for posting - it really has inspired me and hopefully will inspire others too!

jak

That is amazing. I'm (hopefully) nearing an end of my DF journey and have come from owing £12 K, 4 years ago. I should pay off my EVIL credit card next week and by the end of next month, all other debts should be cleared!
You should be so proud for re-educating yourself. It's such a hard process but well worth it in the end!
J
X

andan

Nice to hear a positive story, especially someone whose been through the mill, come out the other side and still been determined to continue working hard towards their goals and dreams and creating a nice life in the process.

Definitely time to get a new sofa though!

arthurdick

well done , it does not come across as bragging, in fact, it comes across as very helpful, very good advice.. and well done on getting the house done up for that little amount of money.....it just shows that if you put your mind to it, it is possible .....a very good read...giving myself, and i think others, a positive outlook, some goal to aim for.... i just hope that i could do as well..good luck for the future and enjoy your comfy sofa

mizmir

Fantastic to hear about a year on - and really encouraging to know it is possible to become debt free and stay that way! Good luck with the house sale - and enjoy yourself - you've earned it!

MrsTinks

Well done you! But.. buying a new sofa?? :eek:
FREECYCLE!!!! :rotfl:

smithywilko

It's so good to read these kind of updates, bit like the where are they now programmes on TV after you've watched a programme a year before about someone making a life-changing decision! You have inspired me to keep up the momentum... I think we have another 12 months to go until ours is cleared so I can hopefully be in your shoes in 2 years time!

Boggles1234

Fabulous to see that clearing debt can be done.

I hope in 12 months time to start building a pot up to put into a house so I am using your post as my motivation.

cat4772

SBC

Wow, what a busy year you've had. It really is good to hear what's been happening in your life this past year and how you've applied your debt-free lessons.

Keep up the good work and do please keep us informed and updated. It really is motivational for those of us with debts!

Cat.x