{"id":377468,"date":"2026-04-02T01:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/377468\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T01:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:59:19","slug":"i-got-myself-out-of-30000-of-debt-if-youre-worried-about-money-and-the-bill-hikes-here-are-six-things-you-need-to-do-today-youll-never-believe-my-farmfoods-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/377468\/","title":{"rendered":"I got myself out of \u00a330,000 of debt. If you’re worried about money and the bill hikes, here are six things you need to do TODAY (you’ll never believe my Farmfoods tip)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring is springing, lambs skipping, flowers blooming \u2013 yet millions of UK households are plunged into gloom today, thanks to April\u2019s Arm-and-a-leg-mageddon of spiralling bills. The yearly cost of basics, including council tax, broadband and water bills, is shooting up by more than \u00a3200 on average. And that\u2019s before we factor in the enormous leap in fuel and energy prices threatened by America\u2019s war with Iran<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I live in a remote, rural area where we can\u2019t get a smart meter installed and we are entirely reliant on the gas tank for heating. (You might think heating isn\u2019t necessary now it\u2019s spring, but given the insane weather Britain\u2019s been subjected to in March, who knows what hail and snow April might bring?) In short, our belts are now so tight we can barely breathe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, I am a veteran of bill-shaving and bargain-hunting. Twenty years ago, I\u2019d got into \u00a330,000 of debt and was forced to sell my home, a five-bed Victorian semi in a lovely suburb of Manchester. As a self-employed writer, I\u2019d made the mistake of not saving enough to pay my tax bill and relied on credit cards to get by when times were tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When\u00a0HMRC<\/a> suddenly called in the full debt, I had the choice of going bankrupt or selling up, and I chose the latter. But in order to pay off the credit cards and the giant overdraft I\u2019d accumulated, I took several other steps\u00a0\u2013 ones I\u2019ll be retreading as we head into Awful April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Pay off debts\u00a0<\/p>\n

How are we supposed to do that when we can barely afford to function? The secret is to pay one off entirely while simply servicing the others. Focus all your efforts on the smallest debt you have and if possible overpay until it\u2019s gone, which will save you interest. Then move on to the second smallest, and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can also consolidate your debts and pay them off with a loan, which means only one set of interest and no more threatening letters. The debt charity stepchange.org can help you organise your bills and ease the panic considerably.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Focus <\/p>\n

Focus all your efforts on the smallest debt you have and if possible overpay until it\u2019s gone, which will save you interest. Then move on to the second smallest, and so on<\/p>\n

2. Sell everything<\/p>\n

I have a habit of giving all my de-cluttered clothes and books to charity, but I\u2019m missing out on a potential fortune. Yes, it can be a fiddly process to sell on eBay<\/a>\u00a0or Vinted, but you can \u2018bundle\u2019 items together and sell them as a full box of clothes, or crockery. You may earn a little less, but it\u2019s a major time-saver. If you do have the time, it\u2019s worth paying extra to \u2018boost\u2019 your offerings, so more people will see them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget\u00a0Facebook<\/a> Marketplace and local selling groups for furniture and household items, and if you do have any collectible vintage albums, china or books, it\u2019s worth researching online selling forums. Re-selling is also an option, though you\u2019ll need to thoroughly research the items you buy from car boots and charity shops to price them accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. Embrace charity shops<\/p>\n

Now given a cool rebrand as \u2018thrifting\u2019, back when I was young, \u2018did you get dressed in a charity shop?\u2019 was an insult. Not one I took to heart, however. I\u2019d always enjoyed a rummage, but I stopped buying new clothes altogether, and relied entirely on my local charity shops for my outfits. I still do, and have a wardrobe full of cashmere and designer shoes, thanks to my love of a bargain hunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charity shops are great for books, kids\u2019 clothes, jewellery and crockery, and if you\u2019re willing to invest the time, you can find amazing women\u2019s clothes too. But be warned \u2013 men\u2019s clothes are generally useless, as men hold on to their\u00a0jeans<\/a> and jumpers<\/a> until they\u2019re shredding into rags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Swap supermarkets\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loyalty cards are good, but nothing beats a super-cheap supermarket. I admit, I once turned my nose up at Farmfoods and Iceland \u2013 but frozen food works out a great deal cheaper than fresh, even if you factor in the electricity needed to preserve it. I buy my tins, teabags, condiments and frozen fish and veg at Farmfoods now, and am also amazed by its stock of healthy nuts, seeds, tinned beans and pulses and even boxes of medjool dates. It\u2019s the middle-class shopper\u2019s secret.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other bargain stores such as B&M and Home Bargains sell reduced fresh and packaged food too, and the satisfaction of saving up to \u00a330 per shop really does beat the joy of Waitrose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"I <\/p>\n

I buy my tins, teabags, condiments and frozen fish and veg at Farmfoods now, and am also amazed by its stock of healthy nuts, seeds, tinned beans and pulses, writes Flic Everett<\/p>\n

5. Start a side hustle<\/p>\n

I used to read tarot cards at university. When I needed a bit of extra money to cover the bills, I set up a Facebook page offering online tarot readings and promoted it on my social media accounts. I had many enquiries and earned well over \u00a31,000. The downside was, it involved long hours on top of my day job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you need extra cash, however, think about the existing skills you have and whether you can leverage them to sell or teach online. Selling jewellery on Etsy, crafting, baking cakes for birthdays (though you\u2019ll need Council approval of your baking premises) or DJ-ing at weekend parties can all bring in enough to pay the bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. Cut out holidays and restaurants<\/p>\n

It sounds obvious, but I know plenty of middle-class families who would die on the hill of taking a sunny holiday every year. They may need to wise up, though, because travel costs are set to rise again and the average family will struggle to afford that all-inclusive break that was once so reasonable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Every <\/p>\n

Every couple of months, I\u2019d spend up to \u00a320 on creating a destination and accompanying food at home. I made a Bedouin tent in the attic and we ate middle eastern food, writes Flic\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I was paying my debts off, holidays were not an option for a while, and nor was eating out. So in order to have fun, I came up with \u2018Travels in our House\u2019. Every couple of months, I\u2019d spend up to \u00a320 on creating a destination and accompanying food at home. I made a Bedouin tent in the attic and we ate Middle-Eastern food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once I bought a roulette set for \u00a31 and took us to Vegas in the living room (burgers and a tequila sunrise cocktail). We had the Orient Express in the hall, and 1950s Paris in the kitchen. It wasn\u2019t quite a fortnight on the Algarve, admittedly\u00a0\u2013 but it was a lot of fun, and there were no airport delays, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring is springing, lambs skipping, flowers blooming \u2013 yet millions of UK households are plunged into gloom today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,539,20799,113,3496,61,11829,60,166,14222],"class_list":{"0":"post-377468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-ebay","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-hmrc","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-lifestyle","17":"tag-manchester"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}