I cleared £5,000 debt in just 10 months and I’m not a high earner – how you can do it too

A DAD who built up debts of £5,000 has revealed how he paid it off in just 10 months.

Brian Mitchell, 32, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire managed the goal on a modest salary of £23,000. Brian and his family are now debt-free and want to help others do the same Credit: Jam Press The dad of one decided to tackle his money troubles at the end of 2019 after getting into debt from online gambling.

Brian thought he could win cash to help get by. He was working full-time for the police and his partner Georgie was working part-time while looking after their daughter.

But he ended up borrowing money on credit card s to try and cover losses, and they came with high rates of interest.

“I was chasing some sort of win to improve my financial situation. Obviously, as with any gambling, this did not work and I found myself in over £5k in credit card debt,” he said.

“I decided to take control and learn as much as I could about personal finance and how to manage money.

“I remember the day like it was yesterday. I felt ashamed and trapped by the debt and knew something needed to change.”

In less than a year, Brian was debt-free and he is now trying to help others to tackle their own money problems. Most read in Money

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How to get debt help for free

THERE are lots of groups who can help you with your problem debts. Citizens Advice – 0808 800 9060

StepChange – 0800 138 1111

National Debtline – 0808 808 4000

Debt Advice Foundation – 0800 043 4050

You can also find information about Debt Management Plans (DMP) and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) on the MoneyHelper and on the Government’s Gov.uk site.

Speak to one of these organisations – don’t be tempted to use a claims management firm that will claim it can write-off lots of your debts in return for a large up-front fee.He said: “I paid off the debt within 10 months by working as much overtime as I could, selling unwanted items on eBay and picking up extra work where I could.“It took me six months of being very intentional and intense, and I paid off all of this debt with my own salary.”I scraped everything I could together, started a side hustle, sold what I could and picked up overtime at work.“I made it my sole focus. Becoming debt free became my only goal other than my obvious commitments.He says he read books and watched YouTube videos to learn about money and keep on track with his goal of paying the money back.He said: “I read over 30 books within a year, watched countless YouTube videos and armed myself with knowledge.”I kept motivated as I saw the amount I owed other people drop, I even got excited to pay off large chunks of it – it felt like a literal weight off my shoulders.He also started learning about investing, but didn’t do it until he was debt-free.”The thought of growing my money and becoming wealthy helped keep me motivated,” he added.Since paying off his debt in 2020, Brian has left the police and started a social media business and a wedding and events company with his partner.He has a blog called Frugal Spender where he offers advice to others and shares tips on TikTok and YouTube.Brian has shared his top tips to get on top of your finances this year: Budget, budget, budget The Golden Rule of personal finance is to spend less than you earn.The only way you will know if you are spending less than you earn is by keeping a personal balance sheet, known as a budget. Don’t be put off by the boring name ‘budget’.By putting your income vs outgoings on paper (or a spreadsheet), you will be forced to face the truth.Do what you can to lower your outgoings. It might seem easier said than done, but from my experience, you could shave off a fair bit each month by cancelling unused subscriptions and lowering your TV package to […]

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