Mum-of-two Chloe Symonds says it was the moment she couldn’t afford fairy lights for Christmas that she realised the true severity of her debt.
Chloe owed more than £35,000 on credit cards and loans – and the interest was just mounting up.
"In December 2019 I looked at the tree, and my two lovely boys, and that’s when I realised how huge our financial problems were,” the 31-year-old carer from County Leitrim in Ireland, said.
“It was the missing Christmas lights that did it. They may have only cost a few pounds to replace, but it was money we just didn’t have."
Meeting George at 17 the couple had their first child, Tyler, when Chloe was 22.
After that, she said she slowly started borrowing money, which felt completely normal.
“Growing up my family had no money. Taking on debt wasn’t seen as a bad thing," Chloe said.
“We were painfully broke. When Tyler was one, the only way we could afford to attend a wedding was to borrow money. We took a £250 payday loan without a second thought.”
For two years one payday loan followed the next.
“One was for a fancy £330 car seat I was desperate to have. One loan and it was ours,” Chloe told The Sun.
“I was a carer for Tyler, who had anoxic seizures, and so wasn’t working. When we were approved for the loan I felt relief, and excitement that we had this fancy car. We were moving up in the world!
“Next came a van loan and a credit card. I thought we were doing great. We could meet the repayments, so why not?”
Engaged in 2017 Chloe planned a low-key, low-cost wedding. She said: “I was going to bake the cake and give guests stew for dinner. But people told me I couldn’t do that.”
The £10,000 credit card they took out to pay for their big day was higher than the £7,600 they initially planned to spend.
Chloe said: “So, of course, that became our new ‘budget’.
“George is a magpie and loves buying shiny, expensive things. I’m a ‘giver’ and like to spend money on other people.
"We didn’t have a fund for emergencies. If something broke, we’d just put it on the card.”
In 2019 the couple were desperate to move out of their rental home.
Chloe said: “We were fed up with noisy neighbours and wanted to buy our own place. But even with George’s £40,000 salary from working in electric car charging installation, we discovered our car loan meant we couldn’t borrow enough to buy.
"When I couldn’t find the Christmas lights and realised that we couldn’t buy new ones without using the credit card, I knew something had to change.”
It wasn’t until April 2020 that Chloe finally sat down and added it all up.
Chloe said: “When I saw that we owed £35,000, I felt a wave of shame. I’d been fooling myself. How had we let it get this bad?
“The time for pretending was over. We were going to get out of this mess.
“We needed to know exactly how much was coming in and going out. It’s a hard, boring job but I knew we wouldn’t succeed without it.
“I prioritised the credit card debt. As soon as George’s salary came in, that was paid first. Whatever was left was our money for the month.
“Tracking our spending I realised how much we were paying to buy food, bring it home, and then to bin half of it. It was utter madness.”
Chloe introduced strict meal plans, and their weekly food spend dropped from £120 a week to £67.
She cancelled any unessential subscriptions and family trips to the cinema and they decided to stick with their rented home to avoid paying more in tenancy fees.
She said: “I’d been frittering money away buying things we already had. Decluttering meant I wouldn’t even buy a roll of tape until I knew for sure we were out.
“They [cinema trips] don’t seem expensive but by the time you’ve bought snacks and a meal for four of you its £80 a time. We’d go out in nature as a family instead, or just have fun at home.”
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“I was super organised for Christmas 2020. Meal planning for Christmas dinner and finding the best deals for gifts.
She said: “I thought we’d be miserable, watching every penny and going without things. In fact, it made us even closer as a family.
“We explained to the boys that we were saving up for a new house, where they could have a puppy and a kitten. They became even better at saving than me!”
Chloe would save any luxuries for Christmas or birthdays, instead of buying them then and there.
“I was super organised for Christmas 2020. Meal planning for Christmas dinner and finding the best deals for gifts.”
By the end of 2020 they had paid off £20,000 of their debt. Chloe said: “It was an incredible feeling. I felt so empowered. We started 2021 even more determined to be debt free as soon as possible.”
One of the things that helped Chloe was Instagram. She said: “I’d started an account about my debt in March 2020, as a way to keep me accountable and on track. But it was anonymous. I was ashamed and didn’t want anyone in ‘real’ life knowing what we owed.
“But in 2021 I decided to put my name and face on there. I wanted to show that I was a real person. I was shaking like a leaf but the support I got from the debt community was incredible.”
By mid-2021 Chloe had been watching every penny for 18 months.
She said: “I was so tempted to find a new rental. But it would cost us money and take us away from our goal. So, we stuck with it.”
On December 5th Chloe made her final payment. They were debt free.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet that we’ve done it.
“This Christmas we’ll have a lovely meal and gifts under the tree, but all carefully budgeted and paid for months ago.
Chloe added: “Two years ago, that would have seemed impossible. Now I know that I can do anything if I put my mind to it.”
