With nearly half of Brits in debt, we speak to two women who turned their lives around and are now more successful than ever
WORDS: MISHAAL KHAN. PHOTOS: KELLY HILL AT POCKET CREATIVES, THE SUN/NEWS LICENSING, THE TIMES/NEWS LICENSING, GETTY
Debt is something that can affect us all – whether it is borrowing money to redecorate your house, or putting a bit of shopping on a credit or store card. We all have good intentions to repay loans, but sometimes debts can mount up. The national debt average stands at just shy of £16,000, but for parents across the UK with children under the age of 18, it is even higher, at £17,402. We meet two women who prove that there is life beyond debt…
‘It’s a great sense of achievement’
Joanne Colley, 42, lives in South Woodford with her husband Alex, 40, and their sons Reggie, eight, and Heath, seven.
Looking through my and my husband’s joint bank statements, I sighed. Our debts had stacked up into thousands and I knew we couldn’t keep avoiding them.
SPENDING ON CREDIT
We’d started borrowing money here and there shortly after our son Reggie was born in June 2014. I’d gone back to work as an accountant and after we had our son Heath the following year, we moved from our two-bedroom flat into a house, spending thousands on a kitchen and loft extension and putting most of it on credit cards. Alex and I both had good jobs and believed we could pay it back in a few years. But I found work and the kids a lot to manage. So, in September 2016, I quit my job and Alex became the sole earner as a self-employed graphic designer.
We kept borrowing, and by 2018 our debts were £40,000 – some on credit cards, some I’d borrowed from a relative. ‘As long as we keep up the minimum repayments each month for the next two years, we’ll be fine,’ I told Alex.
Meanwhile, in March 2018, the boys came home from nursery one day with A4 sheets of paper with exercises on them so they could practise writing and tracing letters and numbers. The exercises were so basic and uninspiring, all in black and white, and I wondered if I could try to make something a bit more colourful for Reggie, then three, and Heath, two. So I set about designing a wipeable mat, printing my designs off at home and laminating them. I started selling them to friends, at £5 each, and set up a simple website. When we found ourselves in lockdown in March 2020, I started advertising on Facebook. With everyone homeschooling their children, my timing was perfect.
MAKING A PROFIT
By June 2020, with almost 1,000 outstanding orders, I was up printing, l
