I ended up in £90K debt after going on too many holidays

A WOMAN has revealed how she got herself into almost £90,000 worth of debt after treating herself to fancy holidays and moving into a luxury flat.

Louise-Marie shares her journey to financial freedom on her YouTube channel where she boasts hundreds of subscribers.

Louise-Marie ended up with almost £90k worth of debt because of something called 'lifestyle creep'

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Louise-Marie ended up with almost £90k worth of debt because of something called ‘lifestyle creep’Credit: DeLaLiving/Youtube

She recently revealed how she became a victim of the ‘lifestyle creep’, whereby you end up making more money but spending more money.

“The end result is that you end up living paycheck to paycheck because you’re just in a cycle,” she says.

Louise-Marie explained that after moving to San Francisco from New York, she and her husband then got much better paid jobs and began living the high life.

She says: “As time went on we just forgot about our financial goal which was to invest in property. We ended up taking vacations, going out more, happy hours, eating out, our wardrobe ended up changing, we bought new things and we upgraded our apartment

“But although our salary was increasing we were still living paycheck to paycheck because we didn’t have a budget, we didn’t have an emergency or sinking fund.

“If we had an unexpected event like a job loss or a family emergency we pretty much weren’t prepared for those things.”

And the pair were faced with an emergency when they lost their jobs, seeing their debts mounting to £86,000.

But with a few small tweaks Louise-Marie has been able to repay £36,000 worth of debts in just six months – here she reveals her money-saving tricks…

Stop using credit cards

“I know this seems so obvious but it’s something we don’t even notice.

It may seem like it won’t make any difference but it really does, it stops you adding to your debt.

We did not cancel our credit cards because that damages our credit score, instead we safely placed them away. We don’t even carry them around with us so we can avoid any temptation of using them.

If we don’t have the cash for it then we just don’t buy it.

Try a no-buy year challenge

We decided we’re not going to shop for the whole year, we haven’t purchased anything apart from some shoes for my son.

Even a 30-day challenge can help you put away a little extra.

Create a minimalist budget

This year we are truly committed to simplifying our life and creating a minimalist lifestyle has helped us to get rid of the stuff we don’t need in order to focus on what matters to us and give us that financial freedom.

We want to focus on saving more we have removed any expenses that are not important so we’re able to save more money and pay off our debt.

Find the cheaper alternative and get rid of those expenses that you do not need.

Make a plan

Have a plan on how you’re going to pay off your debt. For us we’re doing the snowball effect, this is when you tackle the smallest bill and you build your way up.

For us it’s a good kickstarter for paying off our debt and it’s giving us that motivation.

Maximise your income

There are many ways to maximise your income, if you’re already working don’t be afraid to teach out to your manager and ask for extra hours.

Try decluttering your home as you will get rid of all the things that are taking up space and you do not need and a lot of those items you’re able to sell on.”


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