A mum of two has told how she went from racking up nearly £18,000 in debt in two years to now being a full-time personal finance blogger, saving thousands per year using a cashback app.
Victoria Sully, 36 from Newquay, had a shopping addiction in her late teens that left her riddled with unpaid credit card bills and almost declared bankruptcy at the age of 19.
It wasn’t until she sat down with Citizens Advice that she realized the damage of her habit. The former shop assistant then spent five years paying off her debt.
This lifestyle overhaul completely changed her attitude, and she has now discovered cashback apps, like Shopmium, which have alone saved her and her husband over £4,000 in five years.
The spender turned saver is now a full-time blogger and shares all kinds of tips and tricks with her followers to help them pinch pennies too.
Victoria said: “When I was 18, ultimately I was leading a lifestyle my shop assistant wage at the time could not afford. I went out partying several times a week, ran a car I didn’t really need, had high mobile phone bills and I would buy new clothes every single day.
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“Although I never actually worked out all my incomings and expenses, I just stupidly assumed I would always be able to afford the minimum payments. I never worked out what the total of these would be if I maxed out everything.
“In less than two years, before I was even 20 years old, I owed £17,500. I had an overdraft, three credit cards, two loans, and seven store cards. Suddenly, I realized I was in trouble. I couldn't afford all the payments. The red letters started coming and I had no available credit left anywhere.
“Creditors may be more understanding about debt now, but this was in the early 2000s and I was getting really awful phone calls from my creditors constantly harassing me and demanding money that I didn't have.
“Being in so much personal debt and not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel was a horrible and very low place to be. It's a place I never want to be again.”
It took Victoria five years to settle her debts via a debt management plan and she went cold turkey on her shopping addiction.
She explained: “I paid all of my debt back, whilst having to learn to really budget as PayPlan would only allow me the bare minimum to have for food each month. The rest, after my rent and bills and a nominal amount for food, was divided between my creditors.”
Free of the threatening calls from chasing creditors, Victoria then settled down to start a family with her husband. This was when she started to become more interested in super saving.
She reflected: “I started looking into apps to save money when I left my job to go full-time with my self-employment in 2017.
“I'd been self-employed for a few years, but always had a part-time job to provide a steady income, just in case.
"When I left my last part-time job, I wanted to ensure I had not only multiple streams of income as possible but that I was also being proactive in finding ways to save money on the things we regularly buy.
“With many of the apps I use, like Shopmium, the money is paid back in a lump sum, rather than saving at the time of purchase.
"So, it feels like extra income once it hits our bank and is treated as such – meaning it goes towards bills, other food shops, regular savings, and whatever else we might need money for in our busy family life.
"Any money we have leftover is a ‘fun fund’ that we spend on days out with our two children, or it goes towards a holiday.
I paid all of my debt back, whilst having to learn to really budget as PayPlan would only allow me the bare minimum to have for food each month. The rest, after my rent and bills and a nominal amount for food, was divided between my creditors.”
“I'm always trying to improve our overall family finances through using savings apps, increasing income, budgeting, and having emergency pots of savings for various things such as our car or household appliances that might break down.”
Victoria is a big believer in cashback apps and advocates for people to use them for every purchase they can.
She continued: “It’s not just groceries and clothes shopping, you can get cashback on even the most mundane things like booking your MOT!
“If I don’t use a cashback app when I make a purchase, I feel like I’m wasting money. After what I went through with my debt crisis, I never want to take money for granted again and I always make sure to not only budget our outgoings but see how much extra we can make on them as well.”
Victoria’s husband also uses her saving money tips and together by pooling the resources they have calculated that they have saved £4,128.57 in five years using cashback apps, coupons, loyalty cards, and other hacks.
Victoria said: “Becoming a super saver has definitely changed my life for the better. Now instead of being obsessed and scared of money like I used to be after my debt crisis, I now see it as a challenge with rewards if I manage to find the best deal or cashback offer. Our lives are so much more enriched as we are able to do lovely days out with the family essentially for free using the money returned from cashback apps!”
Margarida Do Vale, UK Marketing Manager for Shopmium said: "It's extraordinary how much Shopmium has helped Victoria change her life and get out of debt. Our mission is to transform shopping to make life better and her story proves it"
You can read more about Victoria’s journey via her blog and find out more about Shopmium by downloading it from the app store.
Speaking of shoppers…A Mum is stunned by Aldi shopper’s heartwarming gesture – which she only realises when she goes to pay for her £100 shop
And a mum reveals how she saved £2.9k a year by slashing her grocery bill – and passing on her tips has made her a MILLIONAIRE.
We also shared how a mum feeds her family-of-four for £1.50 each a day and shares her monthly meal plan so you can too.
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