I am FULL of hope. The nicest thing has happened. Along with so many well wishes on my own debt free journey, I have received so many messages from many of YOU, who are so eager to get going on YOUR OWN journey to Debt Freedom.
So as a summary to share some ideas, I’ve put together a quick list of things that I did; so that I could pay off over €27k in debt in 18 months, while still paying all the usual bills (plus some rather large expenses too!). Over the coming weeks I’ll go into more detail on each of these, but as a quick summary, here we go…
💚Step 1 – I looked at where my money was going
💚Step 2 – I divided ALL my spending into NEEDs and WANTs
💚Step 3 – I started to Budget and give every single Euro a purpose
💚Step 4 – I started to Meal Plan and stick to a Shopping List
💚Step 5 – I cut or reduced every single expense I could, switching providers in most cases
💚Step 6 – I calculated all of my debt, set a clear plan for paying it all off
💚Step 7 – I explored ways to bring in additional income, no matter how small
💚Step 8 – I committed to using what I had – clothes, makeup, cleaning products etc – only buying new when replacements were needed
💚Step 9 – I built an Emergency Fund so that I had the security/comfort blanket that I would have previously relied on the Credit Card to do
These are the main steps I took to get on top of my finances and reach debt freedom. It has been a complete shift in mindset, and I am truly thankful for my changed relationship with money!