www.iva.co.uk

Morning everyone - can't believe it, almost 12 months have past since I held a credit card in my hand and pushed those four digits!

Wow....can't believe we have lived on our wages for a whole year, still had several weekends away (cheap ones at that), but all within what we earn !

We pay almost one of salaries back into our IVA, so for me it is even more satisfying to know that come four more years, I will be able to consider only working part time, bringing in half of my wages I do now and we could still survive!

For anyone just starting out on the IVA route, for my husband and I this has given us a new lease of life! Our family have been very supportive, and apart from a few car emergencies the Bank of Mum has not had to be used !

I am so proud of ourselves come July 17th, the anniversary of when I called Debt Free Direct and stopped using credit cards, we will be celebrating with a meal out and a bottle of wine!

10 down 50 to go.....and proud of it!

What a brilliant, positive and inspirational post Lulu ... it just shows that it can be done, with some careful thought and budgeting ... that there IS life without credit ... and the sense of personal value and worth that it brings is amazing [:)]

Debbie

Thanks - I am almost excited at the thought of being almost 20% of the way to achieving our IVA!

Just hope that come our review in September our payments are not hiked up, but hey if they are we can deal with it -remain positive and focused has become my new saying and it does work!

[:)]

well done lulu.. we're 3 payments in and seem ok for now.. not flush but hopefully living within our means!! not much in the pot but hey ho!!

There's a great saying which I have posted above my desk.

<center></center>"It's not what you see, but what you look for"

Debbie

Fantastic we're 6 months in this month and managing too it is a good feeling

Well done Lulu - it just goes to show how quickly the time passes!

well done.we have just had our review for the first year.payments have not gone up.so that was good news

Hey luluj, what a great post. I'm really pleased for you, I hope you enjoy your meal out, you deserve it. You were the first forum member to reply to my very first post, along with jpj and soulgrowth you offered me extremely good advice, so I'm a big fan![:)] I wish you all the best for the future. Viki X

Thanks everyone - I'm dreaming of a holiday somewhere very hot in 51 months time!

I can't wait, but in the mean time I am extremely grateful to my creditors for allowing me this second chance to sort my finances out!

Keep going everyone and at some stage soon we will all be at the other end of the tunnel and able to say "we did it!"

Brilliant post Lulu - and well done for getting through the first year.

For me - I am already dreaming of two weeks on the Costa Del Sol in 2012!!!. Hope my dream will become a reality.

Good Luck!!!!

It surprised me how easy it is to live on what I earn haven't had a credit cards for over 3 years now and I honestly don't miss them.

with no line of credit open to me I don't miss going shopping unless I have the cash, I rather enjoy looking for bargains. I have also found that supermarket own brands and basic/value brands are fine (I was a brand snob) I have become more creative with my cooking and enjoy baking cakes when my grandchildren come to tea.

But of course I wish I could just go food shopping and not have to keep to a list or see something in a shop and go and buy it or treat my grandchildren.

Jan