Getting to DEBT FREE… Your Story
Posted by John | Filed under Uncategorized
You wanted a place where you could share your successes, your trials and tribulations, your tips and techniques, and I give you Your Story – Getting to Debt Free.
Go to the Your Questions section on my home page to submit your story. Make sure you check the “Success Post” box or your story might get lost among the hundreds of questions I get every week. Since we don’t plan to correct anything you write — this is, after all, YOUR story — make sure it looks the way you want it to when you submit it because it’s going up exactly as is.
The first thing to include is your name (whatever name you wish to use) and the category you want the story posted under. You can choose from:
- How I’m Doing
- My Best Strategy
- What’s Stopping Me
- I’m Debt Free
- I Need Ideas
Make sure you add one of these labels, along with a title for your story. So the first line before you write your story might look like this:
Maria’s Story, I’m Debt Free, Hurrah! I’m DF!
Then we’ll post it as Maria’s Story: Hurrah! I’m DF! under the category “I’m Debt Free.” If you leave any of these things off, your story won’t get posted, so pay attention.
Once we receive your submission, we’ll make sure it’s on theme and then add it to the Your Story pages. Others will be able to comment and give feedback. Anyone who is rude or mean will get a Virtual Gail Smack: you’ll be deleted and blocked.
This is a good place to shout your success, share ideas and support each other as you figure out your money and how to create the life you want. As Claire said:
Less secrets, more sharing can never be a bad thing!
Finally, I want you to know how proud I am of you all. Your determination to take control of your money and your life is inspiring, and I hope you’ll motivate even more people to believe that they CAN be debt free. Belief is the first step. Since we all waver from time to time, on-going support from friends moving in the same direction does wonders to reaffirm our commitment to achieving whatever goals — large or small — we’ve set for ourselves. And since we all have good ideas to share, this will be a great place to urge each other on, suggest ways to tweak a plan, or applaud the efforts in taking control.
So now it’s up to y’all to make this space as rich and rewarding as it can be. Tell your story. Share your successes. If you’re so frustrated you want to scream, scream here! We’re listening. We want to hear what you have to say. We’ll shower you with virtual hugs and kisses, or kick your butt, or whatever else it is that you want. Ask, and you shall receive.
January 9, 2009 at 8:29 am
[...] give away. These are my last two. They will be awarded by random draw to two people who post their success stories over the next week, starting today. So you have until next Friday, January 16, to get your success [...]
January 15, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Shannon’s story – How we are doing!
I always thought that I was pretty good with my money but I really just had the blinders on. After university I lived as frugally as possible and paid off my student debt within two years. After giving myself a big pat on the back I felt the freedom of having more cash flow and started to spend.
Fast forward a few years that included a new car, a wedding, two big vacations, a house and two kids with one on the way and I found myself getting further and further into debt as my husband and I kept spending with only a minimum of saving. I felt very out of control and then when I was on maternity leave, I found Til Debt Do Us Part!
I watched a couple of episodes and thought to myself ‘How clueless can these people be?’ Then I started to identify with them and realized that I was just as out of control. I talked to my husband and, after a lot of convincing, got him on board.
I went out and bought a 12 pack of mason jars and that was the beginning of our road to financial reponsibility. I came up with a budget which has evolved over the last year and resulted in use of each of the 12 jars. We have them broken down as follows – gas, vehicle other, groceries, kids activities, clothes, gifts, pets, medical/dental, home reno, sports etc.
I set up a binder where we record everything and all receipts go into the jars (also helpful for taxes since some of our vehicle expenses are deductible – I no longer have to hound my husband at tax time to find them!). I also have a separate page in the binder for all of our online bill payments so that I can track any fluctuations – in the past I couldn’t have even told you what my phone bill should be. I have bundled services, changed plans and done everything I can to bring our costs down.
As a result 2008 was the first year I can remember that we ended with less debt than we started. We also have made contributions to our RRSPs and have started an emergency fund. We have set goals for 2009 savings and debt payments that I know we will be able to meet even on mat leave pay!
Thanks Gail!
March 3, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Crystal’s story, going good!
My husband and I moved in together back when we were still dating despite the fact that we could barely afford it. We both worked full time jobs and I finished my university studies part time. It was harsh, we couldn’t pay off school loans and barely made our car payments.
Light at the end of the tunnel came when he got a higher income job and we relocated to a smaller town, it also meant lower living expenses wich was great. But then one day while stopping at a car dealership, we test drove a brand new mustang. We talked to the salesman and did quick calculations and saw that it was something we could afford.
I remember that day vividly…it is the day we realized we have money and we needed to put it to better use than buying a car. It felt like a smack of “financial-wisdom”. We wrote out a budget and even noticed the extra overtime he often works and how it adds up quickly. We’ve never had problems with spending more then what comes in, but never really noticed either that what comes in is more than it should. What would happen if he doesn’t work over-time and on-call hours anymore?
We decided to live stricktly within the means of his base salary, and on top of some debt repayment we regularly make, we’ve added all his extra pay towards these same debts. With still only one income comming in, we wanted to make sure we got as much paid down as we could should we no longer have the “extra”.
That day at the dealership was 3 years ago this spring. We’ve since paid off both our student loans, one personal loan, our credit cards, both our vehicles and started both a savings account and RRSP. We’ve bought our firt house, paid for our wedding without accumulating any additional debt, plan on purchasing recreational property this comming summer, and look forward to starting a family someday.
We joke about how he works but I budget, thus we are both earning money but its how we work as a team. To have made these accomplishments in our mid-twenties makes us proud of ourselves.
We love watching your show and seeing the shocked faces sometimes when people finally realize how they have been spending their money vs how they should be spending their money. We must have had that same look on our faces after our test drive in that mustang.
Cheers!
May 1, 2009 at 8:29 pm
my husband and i have now been married 7 years, and it seems no matter how hard we try bills are adding every month.we have 1 large debit and a few others that seem to slow us down. every month we try and save money but it never seems to go to those bills that seem to keep lingering behind us, we originaly had a plan, and it almost worked but now we are loosing where our money is going. we have two children,and own our home of 3 years, but with everything going on our home is not getting repaired and if we dont continue on our debit repayment im sure we’ll always be in debit never getting to our goal of debit free what can we do to catch up to our bills?
May 8, 2009 at 11:03 am
Can a person get a consultation with Gail so she can help people who would like her help.
thank you
melinda
May 10, 2009 at 4:41 pm
-Where do I even begin! I am drowning and can’t get out of the water!! I am a mother of 3, married, and have 2 jobs. I have been working 2 jobs for 6 years. MY husband is self employed and as all people know it is up and down all the time! I NEED help! I work 9-3 every day and 6-12 every night, I am burnt out, the debt is still there and I am not getting anywhere!! HELP ME!!
May 11, 2009 at 8:30 am
Karen;
take a deep breath. You have taken the first step to getting things sorted.
My husband is self employed. Alhtough he had been drawing from the company (ie; taking a salary) it wasn’t being done regularly. In Jan 2009 I told him that he HAD to do it regularly otherwise we weren’t going to do make it and we don’t have any debt except our mortgage. Your husband needs to start taking a salary to help make ends meet if he isn’t already. And if there isn’t enough money for him to pull a salary from his business he needs to make more money or get another job that WILL pay. You can’t do it on your own especially with working 2 jobs – you will burn yourself out. Is your mortgage accelerated in any way? If so see if you can reduce your payment to the minimum inorder to put the extra mortgage payment money on your debt – once you have the consumer/credit card debt paid off you can accelerate your mortgage again. (but make sure that you still have your tax payment taken off if it is included so that you don’t fall into arrears with your taxes).
Next look at Gail’s blog from this morning (05-11-09) and go to her TDDUP section of the website. She has an interactive budget – fill it out. Be honest with it. And once you know what you need to make the ends meet – follow the plan. Next put the credit cards away – call and get them to lower the rate – pay the biggest interest rate off first with making min payments on the others. Once they are done start with the next one. Only you can make this work. Meal plan, shop the sales, shop with a list, buy clothes second hand, etc these are all ways you can save.
Also, you have a 19 yr old? Is the 19 year old still at home? at school? working a Part time job – working a full time job? Have them start paying room & board too – even a little to help make ends meet. That 19 year old is old enough to be out on their own and should be paying the way. Its a good lesson for them to learn.
There is ALOT of info on this website. Dig around and find the info that is going to help you get out of this.
You need to think about what you can do to reduce your debt and save your relationship with your husband and family. Also, start using the jars – its amazing how well it works – really (on the main page the blog about the jars and starting them are under the “Favourites” I believe.
good luck.
May 24, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Hello.
I am fan of Gail. At this moment its really frustrated for me I m trying to figure out how this work… my husband and I have seperate banking account. He has direct deposit of 1,047.00 from compensation. He has always used debit card and not listened to me. I m on EI and direct deposit every two weeks of 296.00 the household billings are so bad. Fact is Mortgage is included he s not keep tracking of it. His cheque bounce back makes more debt. How can i solved it to make together work out like how much percent to make a bils to be paid. Opps I m sory forgot he gets compensation once a month. Hoped I get responds as soon as possible
May 28, 2009 at 2:31 pm
l am single and l continue get over my head on what l can send. l paid my bills on time and credits card too. but sometimes l overexpenses. Please help Me set a plan. l have gotten your book but l cannot make heads of tale out of it. Can you do a program with a single person instead of a marriage couple. There are alot of single people in this finanical difficulties.
thankyou
gina
June 19, 2009 at 10:48 am
I have exacly a long story and Im wondering if you can help us since I can’t pay some one to help us out. I’m originally from Brazil canedian citizenship for almost 10 years have been in Canada 13 years married in Brazil with a canedian wonderful and good heart man which we have two beautiful children. But after 3 years married we have been faces so many ups and downs in our relationship which I have been working on since, and have been 3 and 1/2 years that we don’t have any time for eachother and affection which we socialize just with the kids showing a impresion that doesn’t existed. Well we have been argue over and over about our finance situation and he keeps say that the credi card is so high but I even have bought nothing to my girls which is in clothes need now. and I have been cancel few credit card so i can not go in deep tentation. and nothing seens done. Before we had a simple life and we were happy with less and now we have more and seens we don’t have nothing and the worse is that we became apart to the point I believe I will go way, we building \beautiful family and because this finance we will become apart since we doesn’t know where the money goes and specially he doesn’t communicate. Please a person challenge like you can help us and eventhouse you are very busy I appreciated if you can help us. so many wrong direction and I hope in God we back to the right direction. Hope to hear from ya. and the amount of money we have been in debt is very hight we need help please do help us. I appreciated Nara
July 14, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I need Idea’s – getting the husband on board
Had a discussion with my other half the other day who said it’s better to leave a maxed out 7500 credit card and use the money you would pay it down to pay down on a house and then use the money you make on the house to pay off the card in full. He’s very opinionated in saying when he decides to get serious about paying down debt he will and that there is no rush. Well he’s a new immigrant of almost 6 years who said he wanted to save 150,000 before he goes back home. I asked him the question the other day – don’t you find there’s something severely wrong with your plan if you’ve worked and earned almost 3000 a month and have no savings??? where else do you expect to be in another year or two. I’m paying down my debt and working hard on it and about 30000 of it is mine. He got me a 20000 line of credit in his name that went kaput and turns around and blames me it’s still there. with that debt we reduced the interest and turned it into a loan for which i pay 60 bucks interest on it instead of 250 and preauthorized payments of 333$ for 5 years to pay it off. i had to trick him into coming with me as i was driving our car and he was the passenger. I figured out if i put 1000 toward it for 3 years i can get rid of it in 3 years but looking for a second job and so far no luck. how do i get him to think of it as our debt and not mine and his?
August 9, 2009 at 1:21 pm
For those who have a lot of “little” debts (amounts of $5000 and under) where consolidation is not an option
In May of 2007 I sat down with my husband and told him that I wanted to work on getting rid of all of our “little” debts (mostly credit cards). We had 12 debts under $5000 and it really bugged me that we had to pay $50 here and $50 there and still get no where. My dad gave me some good advice that really worked for me. He told me to keep making the “minimum payments”* and then concentrate on the smallest debt first. Pay it off first then go to the next one and take the payments you were making on the first one and add it to the second debt. So, I started paying $100 each month (instead of $30) to get rid of the first debt and the minimums on the rest of them. When that one was paid off I added the $100 to the amount I was paying to the second debt which brought it from $50 to $150. It FELT like I was paying the same amount I had before but I was actually paying stuff off rather than getting no where. Once the second debt was paid off I added the $150 to the $100 payments I was making on the third debt….and so on.
There were two instances in those two years where we received a lump sum of cash (we sold a couple of things). Those amounts were close to the amounts of larger debts that I hadn’t yet focused on so we rearranged our priorities, dumped the sum we received onto the debt that had the closest amount to the extra cash and then focused on that one (now being the smallest amount) until it was gone.
After I paid off the first debt I didn’t any feeling of real accomplishment but I continued with the plan. Sure enough once I got to the third debt I could really start to feel the snowball effect and a great weight starting to lift off my shoulders. It was great! And only two years later we were almost completely debt free!
In June we bought a house and have now racked up a few more debts (since we didn’t have a couch to sit on or a table to eat off of our first day in the new house, everyone’s gotta start somewhere) so we are going back to the debt repayment plan that my dad got us on the first time around and now that we’ve seen the show, we’ve added in the money jars and this time have a balanced budget (THANK YOU SO MUCH for the interactive worksheet!!). We are now working towards being debt free in 2 years (again).
Gail, I love watching your show! You are an amazing mentor and you really put things into perspective. This time around, when we pay off our debts, it will be a lot easier. Thank you so much!
*minimum payments = pay the amount of the interest incurred that month if it’s more than the minimum payment on the bill. If the interest is less than the minumum pay the minimum on the bill.
August 17, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Hi like ne on you show my family need help I have been watching you show for long and I really like you I have 28000 dollers of debt on me I need to get out of it I will really be happy if you could help us my name is anand Sodhi I am from Brampton Ontario if could help me my number that could reach is 647-292-2639
September 21, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hi Gail
So heres the thing…im 23 yrs old…almost 24. Im married to a wonderful man named Cam, whos 25. We live in Edmonton, Alberta, in a basement suite at Cams grandfathers house, which is cool cause rent is decent. The only problem is that I am the only one bringing any income home. Cam was laid off from work this past Feb 2009, & he was on EI til about August. But now hes not recieving any EI cheques…so that kinda puts a lot of pressure & stress on my shoulders. Honestly its hard to find a job right now in Edmonton. The other thing is I myself am in debt…not a huge amount but about 6000$ dollars worth with credit cards & a line of credit from TD CANADA TRUST. I was planning on declaring bankruptcy but than i decided to go through Consolidated Credit to get everything paid off. Its been working great i guess. They take 215$ a month from my bank account. But now since Cams not getting any EI or working…I only make like maybe 1200$ a month at my lame job & now hours arent so good considering theres no work so not so many hours are being put in. Now Im at the point where i cant afford to feed us & all let alone pay Consolidated Credit every month. It sucks…i just dont know what to do…either we starve or i give CC 215$ every month. I need help somehow…& i just dont know what to do anymore…Gail please help…even advice …its tough..im ready to break down.
Thanks Hope to hear from you soon
Agnieszka Leighton
January 11, 2010 at 2:08 pm
@Agnieszka
I live in southern Alberta and am famillair with the ups and downs that Alberta is subject to. Its hard to go from a oil/gas sector job making $$$ to flipping burgers or being a helpers hand in a construction field ANY job to get you back on your feet doesnt have to be a perminant job. I wouldnt suggest bankruptcy just yet because the after affects it will do on your credit will probably keep you in the basement untill your credit is back up to par in 7+ years hang in there and pick up ANY job that will bring you in $$ short term is better than none Good luck!
January 21, 2012 at 6:36 am
I would like to thank you for the efforts you made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.
January 24, 2012 at 12:04 am
First off I just want too say my Fiancee and I are HUGE fans of the show!
My Fiancee and I have been together for 5 years. We have always kept our money seperate becuase I always wanted control over my own money (Grew up in a household where one parent “snuck” money from the other and resulted in the loss of our house and bankruptcy”)
With lots of talking we decided too do a budget Gails way. We consolidated all of our debt with a bank loan (which I love because they just take the money out and you don’t get too choose too pay it or not too pay it). We use the jars religiously and ANY extra money goes right into savings. We were going into debt EVERY month, and within 3 months we had saved almost $2,000!! We are hooked now and are constantly figuring out the fasted way too pay off our consolidation loan and my student loans!!
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