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SAVVY SAVER
I was £7k in debt and had £10 for food – then I discovered ‘snowball’ method and now I’m saving for a house
Jenny wiped her debt and is now using scrappy methods to save extra cash
TWO years ago, mum-of-two Jenny Parker had less than £10 in her wallet to buy food - but now she’s starting to save for a house thanks to two trendy savings methods.
The 35-year-old from Birmingham decided to use the ‘snowball method’ and ‘cadence cash’ to get back in control of her finances and clear her £7,000 debt.
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Renting out her garden tools and selling used coffee grinds are just two ways she's come up to make extra cash.
Jenny, who lives with her children, Amber, 11, and eight-year-old Tommy, was waiting to start a job as a care manager in October 2022 after finishing a college course in management.
She was totally strapped for cash after amassing £5,000 of credit card debt and taking out a £2,000 loan just to survive.
After struggling to pay any of it off, Jenny learned about debt reduction methods which made her a much savvier saver and ultimately helped her clear her debt entirely.
MORE ON DEBT
“I was completing my college course and working part-time juggling cleaning and admin work to pay the bills,” Jenny said.
“I’d gone without all summer to ensure my children had a great holiday, but now I only had £9.87 to buy groceries for the next two weeks and felt like a failure.
“Once I’d bought the kids their new school kit, I was left with almost nothing.
“I was in tears, but as a single mum I knew I couldn’t fall apart.”
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One evening while making herself beans on toast for dinner, Jenny made a firm plan to retrain and get a new job and take control of her credit card debt.
“I’d only been able to meet the basic interest repayments on my £5k credit card debt and the £2k loan and had made no inroads into what I actually owed,” Jenny said.
How I paid off thousands of pounds of debt selling rubbish
“Like many single mums, when I put money aside, something always needed paying.
“The kids would need money for a school trip, the car would need fixing, or the dog would need an emergency vet visit.
“But I was sick of being in this ‘holding pattern’.”
Then, a friend of Jenny’s said she had used the ‘snowball method’ to get on top of her credit card debt.
At first, Jenny thought it sounded ridiculous, but after doing some research she realised it might be able to help her too.
The snowball debt reduction method gets its name from the fact it creates a snowball effect when you pay the minimum on all debts, while putting extra toward the smallest balances.
“I loved the fact that if I paid the lowest balance off first then moved on to the next balance, I’d at least feel I was getting rid of at least some debt,” she said.
“It works just like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill."
Jenny made a list of her four credit cards and loans paying off the minimum monthly on each account but adding any extra funds she had to the smallest account.
“After four months, I closed one credit card and the sense of momentum it gave me was amazing,” she said.
“Each week, if I had a spare fiver or even a tenner, I’d make an extra payment to the card with the next lowest amount.”
For the first time in her life, Jenny says she didn’t think paying off the debt was impossible and had begun making actual headway.
Jenny also had a loan of £2,000 with an APR of 20%, and she employed another tactic, called ‘cadence cash’, to pay it off.
“I began paying the loan back in weekly instalments, which dramatically reduced the amount of interest I owed,” she explained.
“Adding an extra one, two or even pounds more each week meant I wasn’t having to fork out the monthly interest payments.
“I was not just meeting the interest repayments but making real inroads into the capital for the first time in two years.”
How to shift your credit card debt quickly
By James Flanders, Consumer Reporter
UK Finance reports that we spend a whopping £2 billion a month using our credit cards.
While that little strip of plastic makes everyday spending easy peasy, it comes at a huge cost.
According to The Money Charity, the average credit card debt sits at £2,485 per household or £1,312 per adult.
And if you're stuck on a credit card with a high APR and only making the minimum repayments, you could be forking out hundreds of pounds extra in interest charges.
For example, if you owe £1,312 on your credit card and are charged 24.8% APR.
If you don't make any more transactions and pay £100 a month in repayments, you will pay off the card by September 2025 but at £207 in interest.
However, by hunting around for a better deal elsewhere and switching to a balance transfer credit card with a lengthy interest-free period, you can save yourself £162.
If the same person was accepted for a 28-month-long zero-interest credit card with a 3.4% balance transfer fee and made the same £100 repayments each month.
They would pay off the debt sooner, in July 2025, and only fork out £45 towards the 3.4% balance transfer fee.
Before taking out a new credit card or increasing the amount you borrow, it's vital to consider the consequences.
You should only borrow money if you can afford to pay it back.
It's always vital to ask yourself if you need to borrow before committing to a new credit card, personal loan or overdraft.
If you use a credit card, I'd recommend that you always pay off your balance in full at the end of each statement period.
Lenders have a responsibility to help customers who are in debt.
If you're in a debt crisis, your first point of call should be your lender.
They might help you out by offering you a reduced interest rate or a temporary payment holiday - so check in with your lender if you're struggling.
The mum-of-two was absolutely thrilled with her achievement.
Now, Jenny is super focused on saving her pennies and finds the cheapest ways to get what she needs.
“I love upcycling and recycling,” she said.
She has now joined a local skill swap group where she advertises her gardening and cleaning skills and gets jobs done in return for free.
“I got my car serviced and the muffler repaired and that saved £1,200 due to skill swapping,” she said.
Jemmy has also installed solar-powered lights in her house placing them near windows to soak up the sunlight as a backup or alternative to electric lights, which has cut her energy bills by a third.
She now even sells rubbish to earn extra pennies, which she puts towards clearing any debt.
“I hate waste and I realised I could make some money using my trash and pay off my credit cards.”
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Instead of throwing out plastic yoghurt containers, used toilet rolls and glass jars, Jenny washes the items and sells them on eBay as craft items.
“It took some imagination, but I have now cleared my credit card debt, paid off the loan and am starting to save for a house,” Jenny said.
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“I realised like a snowball you have to start small and once you get momentum you don’t want to stop until you enjoy the biggest savings and debt reduction success you can.
“I won’t stop using my wacky money-making methods. My ideas are helping create a better life for me and my kids and showing me debt doesn’t have to dominate my life.”
10 ways Jenny cleared her debt
Jenny managed to pay off her debt using a number of methods and savings techniques. These included:
- The 'snowball method' for paying down her credit cards
- Cadence cash to cut interest payments on her personal loan
- Selling used coffee grinds
- Selling used yoghurt pots and toilet rolls for crafting
- Repair Cafes to get free help fixing bikes
- Skill swapping to fix her car
- Skill swapping for birthday bouncy castle
- Bubble wrap to insulate windows
- Solar-powered lights to cut electric bill
- Renting tools to help pay off credit card
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