At 2am in the depths of winter last year, I was wide awake, sitting up in bed in a panic. It finally hit me just how big a financial mess I was in.
For years I’d told myself I was good with money because my credit score was excellent and balance transfer offers kept appearing. But I was £15,000 in debt, not including our mortgage.
As long as I could slide debt from one interest-free card to another, I convinced myself everything was under control.
But something shifted that night. I realised that after nine years of juggling, one change in our family’s circumstances and the whole house of cards would collapse.
As a 35-year-old mum of two I had six credit cards plus accounts with Klarna, Next, Argos and Very.
I’d rolled card balances into a loan and almost paid it off, only to realise I’d built up new balances alongside it and needed to borrow more.
I earn a good salary – in line with a teacher’s – as a school careers adviser in Glasgow, and we have a good household income.
But after my son was born in 2015, money was still tight, so I leaned on a credit card for all the bits I couldn’t squeeze into the budget.
A coffee grabbed on the way to work after a chaotic morning. A quick shop for milk that always included a few extras. A takeaway on the nights I was late home and couldn’t face cooking.
It was never a big spend – always something small and easy to justify, but the balances crept up month after month.
Two terrifying thoughts hit me at once that night: if I didn’t get the next balance transfer, the mortgage interest payments would be crippling and, if the mortgage went up at the same time, we’d go under.
During my frantic Googling for advice I came across a book called How to Fund the Life You Want by money-saving experts Jonathan Hollow and Robin Powell, which taught me something basic I had never done before: how to budget properly.
Once I started doing that, everything shifted. For the first time I also have savings behind me: a £3,000 emergency fund in a cash ISA and £5,000 in a stocks and shares ISA.
I now share all my straightforward money-saving tips on my TikTok account, @amylearnstosave, where I have more than 25,000 followers.
With many people feeling the pinch after Christmas, I’m showing my followers that it’s not too late to avoid using credit for essentials like I did for so many years while falling into debt.
Here are the seven simple steps I have used to finally pay off my debts…
1. Use the 50/30/20 rule
The biggest change came when I stopped guessing and started dividing my money into clear categories using the 50/30/20 rule: half your income goes towards essentials like your mortgage and bills, 30 per cent for things you enjoy, and 20 per cent for savings or debt.
That didn’t work for me – my outgoings were too high and I had too much debt, so I shifted it to the 60/10/30 rule: 60 per cent on household bills, 10 per cent on fun spending, and 30 per cent straight to debt and savings.
You don’t need perfect percentages. You just need a structure.
2. Question your ‘harmless’ daily habits
One of the biggest shocks came when I worked out the cost of my morning coffee. Most working days I’d grab one without thinking. It was only about £4, so it never felt like real spending.
But when I added it up I realised that habit alone had cost me around £8,000 during my nine-year debt spiral.
Once I saw that, I started questioning every ‘it’s only a few pounds’ moment.
3. Separate your money into pots
Keeping everything in one account made me think we were better off than we were. Seeing a big balance made a £30 takeaway seem harmless, but I wasn’t factoring in all the bills waiting to come out.
Now everything is split. Bills stay in my main account. Spending money goes into a second pot. Groceries into another.
I also have a £400 ‘fun’ pot. Knowing I have to make that last the whole month stops impulse buys.
4. Do all food shopping online
I do one online shop a week, meaning no aisles of temptation, no top-up shops and no kids grabbing things off shelves. Costs that used to hover around £200 to £230 a week have dropped to about £120 because the spending is planned instead of chaotic.
5. Do three audits a month
I used to have no idea what my fixed monthly costs were. I didn’t even see the weekly food shop as a fixed expense.
Now I check everything three times a month. Straight after payday I map out what needs to go where. In the middle of the month I make sure nothing has drifted. At the end I look at what worked and what didn’t.
That rhythm keeps everything visible.
6. Plan for tough days
Most of my overspending happened on days when I was exhausted. If I’d been at work late, the last thing I wanted to do was cook, so I’d order a takeaway.
Now I plan for those days, with quick meals in the freezer and a slow cooker dinner that I can throw on in the morning ready for the nights I’ll be late.
7. Avoid pester power
My daughter is three, and saying no to the things she spotted in the shops used to always end in a battle I never had the energy for. Now I don’t take the kids shopping at all. We choose treats at home and add them to the online shop.
This has removed the guilt, the pressure and – most importantly – a huge chunk of unnecessary spending.
* As told to Rachel Halliwell
