Welcome to Money on Your Mind, the series where we explore the reality of money and mental health in the lives of real people. In this edition, Lisa shares her journey out of debt, along with the money habits that make her feel safe
Lisa Maynard-Atem as told to Kathryn Wheeler
Wednesday is one of my ‘no-spend’ days. I try to have a minimum of six no-spend days a month – one a week, and some on weekends. I’ve made a lot of progress with my relationship with money, but there’s always a little voice in the back of my head that says: ‘You need to be careful, Lisa. What if you run out of money?’ I need to move away from that scarcity mindset – and I’m getting there, but it’s like having a little devil sitting on my shoulder.
The next day, I organised my finances. Towards the end of the month, I plan for the next – making sure I’ve got everything covered, plus some money for my emergency fund. My goal is always to be a month ahead in terms of outgoings, so I’m not panicking as the month draws to a close. When I was younger, I was living paycheck to paycheck, and got fed up with living like that. Also, I’ve had to be more careful since I left my job in April 2023.
At the end of 2022, I decided that I wanted to be self-employed. From a mental health point of view, I’m a lot happier. I wasn’t unhappy before, but I got to the stage where I was 44 and thought, I don’t want to go through the rest of my professional life answering to somebody else. My fashion rental business was starting to take off and I thought, I’m in my 40s, I’m going to do this while I’m still young enough.
My interest in sustainable fashion began during lockdown. I came across an article that talked about the benefits of renting out your clothes, so I uploaded a dress to the site HURR, and a couple of months down the line, I got a request. And then I got another, and they kept coming. I enjoyed the whole process, and didn’t pay much attention to the money at first – then, one day, I checked my account and had made £500! Things went from there, and now I invest 50% and use the other 50% to reinvest in my rental wardrobe.
For my own wardrobe, I follow ‘the rule of five’, which is where you make no more than five clothing purchases throughout the year. Being honest, I have a weakness for shopping, so I thought it would be tricky. But it’s been fine, and I’ve only actually bought two items – dresses, both pre-loved, and spent £28 overall!
On Friday I got an email about a restaurant near where I live, offering £20 off! My mum and I go out for lunches at the weekend, so I took the opportunity to book a table for Saturday, which was a nice money-saver. But before we headed out, my first task was posting some Vinted parcels.
Even though I moved back from London nearly eight years ago, I’ve still got suitcases of unpacked clothes. In March, I decided that every day, for as long as it took, I would upload a minimum of five items to Vinted – oh my, it was tough. But I had to get rid of these clothes – some of them have been in suitcases for seven years! I’ve made about £800 from selling them now. That said, I do try to be a bit more relaxed on the weekends, because I find I can overwork, especially being self-employed. I could very easily slip into working on my laptop for three hours!
Monday was the first day of the month, and some of my bills went out, so I was checking I had enough to cover everything. I’m meticulous with money, but it’s what makes me feel safe. I get a bit of a buzz out of it because, if you go back seven or eight years, I wasn’t as knowledgeable or as comfortable with money as I am now.
I used to be in a lot of debt. It just built up, and I’m not entirely sure how. It wasn’t through frivolous spending, there were some necessities, but it accumulated. One minute I was taking out a loan to buy my first car (about £800), then fast forward a couple of years and I was in thousands of pounds of debt. When I moved to London, I got myself a well-paying job, but I still had all this debt, so I decided to pay it off in a year – and I managed to do it in 11 months. It was a Friday at work when I paid it off. To celebrate, I went into the canteen and bought myself some hash browns and a hot chocolate!
Thinking back over the week, it’s given me a chance to acknowledge the progress I’ve made in terms of my finances. I’ve come away thinking, you’re doing OK – you’re not Elon Musk yet, but you’re doing all right. I still have that little devil on my shoulder, but I’ve come a long way from where I was.