I was in £25,000 debt – it took years to realise I was sitting on money

Lisa Maynard-Atem not only paid off her debt but has re-built her savings by doing one thing (Credit: Lisa Maynard-Atem)

‘It really affected my sleep and it was a feeling like there was something constantly sitting on my shoulder,’ Lisa Maynard-Atem recalls of the huge debt she had accumulated.

‘You go through the day, doing your job, but that thing is always there. It was a constant thought in my mind.’

The marketing and communications specialist from Manchester was £25,000 in debt by 2010. The massive sum snowballed from the time she was a teen because of loans, credit cards and overdrafts.

‘I think the very first loan I took out was about £1,000 for my first car after passing my test around age 19, because I didn’t have enough money.’

Before she knew it, the 46-year-old was drowning in debt. ‘At first it was all fine, but when it came to going out with friends, I wasn’t earning enough money to cover what I was spending sometimes and it crept up on me overtime.

‘I went into my overdraft, and at first it was only small amounts like £50 which still was not great, but I would pay it off. Sometimes if I had a bad day I would treat myself – which is obviously not the smart thing to do when you don’t have the finances to cover those costs.’

Lisa’s personal finance journey began to change in 2010 when she got a new job in London with a £40,000 salary.

Fed up with dodging letters in the post demanding for repayments, she took a day off from work to call all of the companies she owed money to, to find out exactly what she needed to pay back. She then made a plan to pay off her debt by 31 December 2012.

Lisa’s path to financial freedom began in 2010 and took and unexpected turn in 2020 (Picture: Lisa Maynard-Atem)

‘The phone calls were quite painful, but by the end of it I knew exactly what I owed. I did what I think a lot of people did; I buried my head in the sand. I knew I was in debt and the letters would come through the post, but I wouldn’t open them because I knew it would be bad news.’

She beat her original deadline and finished paying off her debt in November 2012 – but it wasn’t easy. ‘It was the hardest 11 months of my life. I then decided to start saving by going back to basics. I bought a cash book and logged everything I spent. I made a spreadsheet to manage my income and spending. At that point I had no savings.’

But her shoulders did feel lighter. ‘The day I paid my final loan I slept like a baby. I had the best sleep of my life. I’m not someone who suffers from mental health issues, but I definitely felt the stress.

‘I didn’t have a lot of money, but everything I owed had been paid off and it was the best feeling in the world.’

However, this is the point when the harder work began. Lisa had to make sure she didn’t find herself in debt again and she had no savings. She wanted to fully understand how to manage her money and make sure she didn’t end up in a financial rut.

She has managed to do so successfully – and it’s all thanks to fashion.

In 2020, Lisa read an article about renting clothes. ‘I thought it was a bit weird at first. I was going through my wardrobe and I found a few pieces that I thought, “Well actually, I should try it and see what happens.”

Lisa Maynard-Atem says she wished she had known she was ‘sitting on money’ (Picture: Lisa Maynard-Atem)

‘I found all of these beautiful pieces that I used to wear at events and I didn’t want to give them away or sell them just yet, and I came across an article about renting out your wardrobe.

‘When we started to come out of lockdown I put one dress on the app Hurr for £34’.

What is the Hurr app?

Hurr is a fashion rental platform that allows users to offer their garments to rent. It’s a popular destination for style enthusiasts to try designer clothes for a fraction of their original retail price.

You can rent clothes from people like Lisa and sometimes directly from the brands, like Selfridges. If you don’t want to spend money on an outfit you’ll only wear once to a wedding, party, or on holiday, Hurr can be a great alternative.

It was a sparkly Rixo dress. After getting a couple of requests, she decided to try her luck and put more pieces on. The list grew to 20 pieces but she ended up getting so many rental requests she had to pause them. The garments were either in someone else’s hands or there wasn’t enough time to get them cleaned and tailored, altered or fixed.

Her collection has a lot of frilly gowns and pink dresses that are rented for parties and weddings. People send rental requests and will say the length of time they need the garment and why.

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She has had situations where pieces get damaged, but it’s covered by insurance. ‘That hasn’t’ happened very often and when it has, they have been very honest about it. You have to accept that if you’re going to rent out your pieces, that is likely to happen’

Lisa charges per day and the price also depends on the piece. In the first year she made £3,000 and this has since climbed to £7,832.06 so far. Sometimes she’s had to pause her clothing endeavour if she has to travel for work or is away, but for the most part it has been very consistent for the last four years.

In 2017, Lisa had moved back to Manchester for a new job as a director of marketing and inclusion. She quit in 2023.

She has since managed to get a mortgage on a three-bedroom house, for which the deposit was £30,000.

Lisa reinvests 50% of what she makes from renting her clothes into buying new pieces and maintaining the ones she has, and invests the other 50% elsewhere. She’s now a self-employed entrepreneur focusing on her own business ventures.

Lisa is urging others to stay on top of their debts early on (Picture: Lisa Maynard-Atem)

Because April is the start of the new financial year and the time we all start spring cleaning by clearing out our wardrobes, Lisa wants to urge everyone to understand how money works and to pick up a side hustle if they can.

‘I don’t tend to have regrets, but I do wish I started managing my finances a year sooner – I might have been able to save more money. I don’t come from a wealthy family so I had to figure it out myself.

‘I love clothes and I’ve been obsessed since I was a little girl. The fact that what I do is involved in fashion and something that I love has helped me get on my feet in terms of finances, and just become more knowledgeable in managing my money is a nice thing for me.

‘Renting my clothes has helped massively. In the beginning I didn’t take it seriously and I didn’t know I was sitting on money. The money I have made from my rentals has enabled me to invest. I think everyone should try and have a second stream of income if they can, especially during the recession and cost of living crisis. It can really help.’

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