We Cheapskated Our Way Out of Debt!
Dear Cath,
I know you are a very busy lady and receive a lot of emails, however I really felt I had to email you to say the Biggest Thank you possible, as without you and your wonderful Cheapskates Club website, I truly do not know how we would have survived.
To give you a little of my back story, I found your website last year when my husband and I (no kids) were SERIOUSLY in debt and DROWNING! You name it we had it; a mortgage (as we built a beautiful big house we couldn't afford or didn't need), credit card debt (as we had to furnish the big house with beautiful furniture like the display homes), car loans (for 2 new cars, one of which we didn't need as my husband had a company car at the time), massive personal loans (from a failed business venture I undertook when we weren't financially ready).....$305,000 in TOTAL!!! That figure still shocks me when I read it!
It got to the point where we were paying one credit card with the other, that was when I finally realised we were living a lifestyle well above our means and to make matters worse we were miserable, fighting all the time over money!
When I first found your site I thought wow this lady is smart, wish I could've started out like her. I then moved on, trying to find and think of ways to keep our house and lifestyle and get out of debt (when our wages didn't even cover our debt, that's why we were living of credit cards!). It took me two long months to realise you didn't start out a cheapskate and there was still time for us.
To cut a long story short, we sold our beautiful big house (I don't miss it one bit!), sold one car and sold a lot of our furniture and paid off $245,000 worth of our debt!! We then started renting (love our little house!), started an emergency account, cut up our credit cards and started a payment push to pay down as much of the $60,000 of debt we had left. Most importantly we did not acquire any new debt, not one bit! (We got married and has a beautiful wedding with all of our friends and family, paid cash and did it for under $6000 and I still had my dream wedding- All thanks to You!)
We were going fantastically until 2 weeks ago, my husband was made redundant with no notice or payout (as the company is under liquidation they cannot pay us the $5,000 in annual leave and long service leave he is owed until the company is sold and we have been told they have no idea when that will be). AND he doesn't qualify for anything with Centrelink because I supposedly earn too much! My heart sank, we were going so well and now back to square one! At that moment I swear I heard your voice scream at me "you can do this"!
Instead of panic, I sat down, wrote a list of all our weekly expenses and my weekly take home wage and figured out how I could cut spending down even more. I rang all of the finance companies we had debt with and explained our circumstance (and because we were ahead on two of our loans they agreed to stop payments for 2 months while hubby finds a job). Solely because of your wonderful website and inspiration we have managed to live off my wage, cut down on our shopping, negotiate better rates on electricity and gas, I even received a $95 credit off the bill for our 2 mobile phones, just because I rang and asked! (Something I never would have done before I became a cheapskate, I would've just paid that bill with another credit card, never thinking how I would pay the credit card!) The best thing is we are happier than ever, eat wonderful home cooked meals and don't feel like we are missing out (we never think about our 'old' life, other than to shake our heads in disbelief!).
I really cannot thank you enough for starting such a wondering website and for all the help and support you have been able to offer us through it, I shudder to think were we would be if I'd never found your website! I start each new day knowing we will make it through this little hick up, instead of throwing our hands up in the air and giving up I know we can make it through because we now think like cheapskates and are proud of it!! Speaking of which my membership is up for renewal- thank you for the discount offered until the 31st of March- although we are on such a tight budget, I will dig into our emergency fund for it, it will be the best $18 I can spend!
Again thank you so much, I hope this little story puts a smile on your face and gives you more inspiration to continue to help more people, we need you!!
Many Thanks,
Sam H.
I know you are a very busy lady and receive a lot of emails, however I really felt I had to email you to say the Biggest Thank you possible, as without you and your wonderful Cheapskates Club website, I truly do not know how we would have survived.
To give you a little of my back story, I found your website last year when my husband and I (no kids) were SERIOUSLY in debt and DROWNING! You name it we had it; a mortgage (as we built a beautiful big house we couldn't afford or didn't need), credit card debt (as we had to furnish the big house with beautiful furniture like the display homes), car loans (for 2 new cars, one of which we didn't need as my husband had a company car at the time), massive personal loans (from a failed business venture I undertook when we weren't financially ready).....$305,000 in TOTAL!!! That figure still shocks me when I read it!
It got to the point where we were paying one credit card with the other, that was when I finally realised we were living a lifestyle well above our means and to make matters worse we were miserable, fighting all the time over money!
When I first found your site I thought wow this lady is smart, wish I could've started out like her. I then moved on, trying to find and think of ways to keep our house and lifestyle and get out of debt (when our wages didn't even cover our debt, that's why we were living of credit cards!). It took me two long months to realise you didn't start out a cheapskate and there was still time for us.
To cut a long story short, we sold our beautiful big house (I don't miss it one bit!), sold one car and sold a lot of our furniture and paid off $245,000 worth of our debt!! We then started renting (love our little house!), started an emergency account, cut up our credit cards and started a payment push to pay down as much of the $60,000 of debt we had left. Most importantly we did not acquire any new debt, not one bit! (We got married and has a beautiful wedding with all of our friends and family, paid cash and did it for under $6000 and I still had my dream wedding- All thanks to You!)
We were going fantastically until 2 weeks ago, my husband was made redundant with no notice or payout (as the company is under liquidation they cannot pay us the $5,000 in annual leave and long service leave he is owed until the company is sold and we have been told they have no idea when that will be). AND he doesn't qualify for anything with Centrelink because I supposedly earn too much! My heart sank, we were going so well and now back to square one! At that moment I swear I heard your voice scream at me "you can do this"!
Instead of panic, I sat down, wrote a list of all our weekly expenses and my weekly take home wage and figured out how I could cut spending down even more. I rang all of the finance companies we had debt with and explained our circumstance (and because we were ahead on two of our loans they agreed to stop payments for 2 months while hubby finds a job). Solely because of your wonderful website and inspiration we have managed to live off my wage, cut down on our shopping, negotiate better rates on electricity and gas, I even received a $95 credit off the bill for our 2 mobile phones, just because I rang and asked! (Something I never would have done before I became a cheapskate, I would've just paid that bill with another credit card, never thinking how I would pay the credit card!) The best thing is we are happier than ever, eat wonderful home cooked meals and don't feel like we are missing out (we never think about our 'old' life, other than to shake our heads in disbelief!).
I really cannot thank you enough for starting such a wondering website and for all the help and support you have been able to offer us through it, I shudder to think were we would be if I'd never found your website! I start each new day knowing we will make it through this little hick up, instead of throwing our hands up in the air and giving up I know we can make it through because we now think like cheapskates and are proud of it!! Speaking of which my membership is up for renewal- thank you for the discount offered until the 31st of March- although we are on such a tight budget, I will dig into our emergency fund for it, it will be the best $18 I can spend!
Again thank you so much, I hope this little story puts a smile on your face and gives you more inspiration to continue to help more people, we need you!!
Many Thanks,
Sam H.