Themaccas Are.......debtfree!!!!!!!!!!!

southernbelle

Congratulations! That's a big amount of debt to pay off in a little time, well done!

themaccas

No not yet joined the roll of honour, will go and do so!

southernbelle

You've shamed me into action! My debt is so small in comparison, there is absolutely no reason why it can't be paid off soon. Will go for Xmas as that's as good a point as any!

count_rostov

You can be really proud of yourselves, that's a great achievement. And what a good idea to involve the whole family - this experience must have helped your children learn how to stick to a budget and live within their means.
Congratulations!

clearmydebts

Congratulations!

You have done so well and your post is so inspiring. I won't have my debt cleared as quickly as you but it has re-motivated me to keep on track.

bobble_hat

Congratulations, it's great to hear the success stories and share the journeys. :T

I am still lurking after paying off my debts and this board and all you lovely people keep me on the straight and narrow.

A huge WELL DONE!

andys15

themaccas wrote: »

Yes I can hardly believe it. 2 years and 5 months later after a sh*&load of debt, we have paid back every last penny:T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T
I started my debtfree journey in January 2006 having just come back from wintersales shopping. I saw our shopping bags piled high and just had a lightbulb moment:o I realised that all the money we had spent had all gone on credit cards and that we were looking at around £300-400 worth of extra debt for things we thought we needed but really just wanted. That night I couldn't sleep so came downstairs to look at our bank account online but got too scared. Found this website instead then the rest is history.

Since January 2006 as well as paying off our debts we have also had a holiday to New York, camping holiday to cornwall, refurbished our house to sell and move to a new home which we did last month, put DS1 through his driving lessons - he passed first time last week too:beer: !!! The first 18 months were amazing and in the first 12 months we cleared about £20K off our debt alone. In the last 12 months we have slogged it out a bit as we have been spending on getting our old house up to standard to sell after renting it out for 4 years and then buying a new house. However we have continued to pay off our debts as much and as often as we could.

The things in our favour was our earning power between OH and myself (although we had a big debt to go with it!) and that we got the whole family on board. OH and I were both very eager to clear the debt and as it started to go down it gave us tremendous encouragement to keep going.

Our life as a family has benefited from our money saving and debt clearing enormously. OH and I are always looking to save money with every utility bill and purchase. We don't buy things we can no longer afford and if there is something we really want then we discuss it and either work some overtime or save for it which doesn't seem to take too long. Our recent house move would never have happened had we still got all those debts and now we are in a lovely home I never thought we could have had a few years ago. We have paid off both car loans and now actually own cars outright for the first time in our marriage. I am not though, going to join the mortgage free board. We want a break from debtclearing and accept that a mortgage will be part of our life for the next 15 years. I would not be adverse to having a loan in the future either if we wanted to do something specific with it. However that is not needed right now, we are in the process of having some improvements done to the house - new electric garage door, hallway/kitchen new flooring, new lights, bedroom furniture - all paid for with savings and the reason our debtfree date slipped a couple of months:rolleyes:

So to the future. Well I will not be leaving MSE, it has been a wonderful friend and although I don't post as much as others, I am an avid lurker, and read posts almost every day. The board has been inspirational to me and I truely would not have done it had never found 'debtfree wannabe':D . I will continue to use my whiteboard to jot down our daily spends and keep oursleves on budget - £150 per week for food /petrol/pocketmoney for a family of 5. It is a weekly challenge alone to try and keep to that but we do sometimes make it! It is tempting to look at deals on new gadgets and things and know that we could make the monthly payments but so far we have resisted and I hope we continue to do so.

If anyone is facing a mountain of debt my advice would be to try not to face it alone, get your OH on board and if you don't have one then I would contact CCCs or Payplan. Give yourself a little treat occasionally, paying off debt can be tiring, boring and make you feel angry at times. Going to a nice coffee shop and giving yourself a bit of time can do wonders. Also remember: There is no magic cure it is hard work and I found no magic remedy other than maximise your income. If I had been a stay at home mum, I would have found a job and gone out to work but I appreciate that is not always possible. I did do a lot of overtime at work but I don't need to do that any longer and my family have me back.

So that's, I never want to go through this EVER again and because I don't trust myself completely if I'm being honest, I intend to stay with MSE forever!
Thanks to you all on DFW, without you I wouldn't be posting this thread:beer: :T :j :beer: :T :j :beer: :T :j :beer: :T :j :beer: :T :j

so basically on average you paid of £1500 per month towards your debt, have you downsized your house, or bought a more expensive one. I am just finding it hard to understand about the sheer amount of debt you paid off and still managed to get a house, new york etc etc etc. Did some equity in your house pay off the debt. What is your salaries.

HHH_2

FANTASTIC. I feel little lighter after reading your post.

dottyanne

so inspirational to me - im hoping to clear a lot of our debts in the next 12 - 18 months, but your right about having a treat occasionally or it does grind you down.

fantastic news for you - you must be so rpoud of what youve acheived!

cat4772

congratulations - you're the motivation I needed for today!

Thanks

Cat.x