Vicky is a single mother to 3 sons. Living in the North East, she works part-time as an accountant. Despite being good with numbers at work, her personal finances got on top of her.
Faced with debt, redundancy and a relationship breakdown, she turned to credit to get by. Learn how she used Moneyhub to get back in control by tracking her spending and repaying her debts to achieve her dream of buying a family home.
““I have sacrificed treating myself for years. Now I can it’s great. I have been treating myself””
When this Moneyhubber reached out to us at the start of the year we were excited to know how Moneyhub had played a part in helping her through some very difficult times financially. Now we've heard about her journey to financial wellness it's a story we’re keen to share.
Working in accountancy and having a good handle on numbers and expenses, should in theory mean you can apply this to your personal finances. However, she explains for her personally, it had the reverse effect.
“At work, I make large payments all the time, the largest being over £1M so sometimes it’s hard to come back to the reality of the real value of money… a couple of personal credit card debts of £2k can look like nothing.”
She explains that at work ‘numbers are just numbers’ and this has meant she has had to learn to apply an entirely different approach to her personal finances.
In the last few years, this 36-year-old single mum has faced her fair share of challenges, including a relationship breakdown, eviction, and redundancy. With three mouths to feed she turned to credit, “It wasn’t because I was spending money on myself. I haven’t really treated myself in years, even though I had debt a lot of it was trying to survive.”
She explains that her ‘chaotic personal life’, raising young children and moving a total of 9 times in 11 years, made it nearly impossible to regain control of her finances, “It just wasn’t my top priority, it was getting through each day and getting by.”
Wanting to make life more comfortable for herself, she began to use Moneyhub, “I just wanted to see where I could save money. But when I started tracking and I looked at it all on one summary page, that was the pushing point for me. The biggest shock for me was I was spending about £600 on shopping. I have changed supermarkets and I managed to get it down to about £400 a month, which is much more manageable for a family of four.”
“Life was getting good, I had a brilliant job, moved into a nice rented house. No one expected March 2020 to hit us. I lost my job instantly and my world just turned upside down. Money wise it was a struggle. But Moneyhub did help me because I could still track everything and see where I could save money. We managed, we got by.”
After a bleak few months, she soon landed a new job and began working towards her dream of purchasing her first home. Moneyhub helped her to make informed decisions to make this happen, “When you can see your net worth it’s quite eye-opening and you have to admit to it. I had already started saving for a house, so I put that towards the debt as well. It was a difficult decision putting my savings against my credit card debt but it was the sensible option. Once you’ve done that you can save more. I cut my car insurance right back, there was one month where I paid something like £800 off debts, I was saving so much I was able to do that.”
She explains it isn’t just useful for tracking what is going out of her account, but also what is coming in, “If my bank is a bit short I can see in an instance any payments not coming in such as child maintenance.”
And, towards the end of 2021, her dream became a reality when she was able to purchase her first home, “The boys are so happy. We had the best Christmas.”
Speaking about her eldest son, she explains how the home offers opportunity not just for her, but for her son’s future, “He knows more about personal finances than I knew about it at age twenty. He knows all about saving for a house. I’ve told him he can live at home until he’s older if it gives him the chance to save for a house.”
The hard work has absolutely paid off, but this Moneyhubber firmly believes that the hard work doesn’t stop here, “I have sacrificed treating myself for years. Now I can it’s great. I have been treating myself by buying bits of furniture on the credit card, but I’m being sensible. I know I am going to be paying it back very quickly. Every time I get notifications, I check them.”
When she is asked what financial wellness means to her, she explains “It’s having a bit of freedom. Having a bit of a cushion, if I lost my job tomorrow I’ll be ok, I’ve got time to find another job.”
For this Moneyhubber, financial wellness doesn’t just prepare you for tomorrow but also helps improve today, “Now that I’ve moved house, and I’ve got what I wanted I’ve actually cut my hours down. I am choosing a lower income over more free time to go swimming and go to the gym.”
And her golden nugget of advice? “Pay off your debts first.”
