The former marketing executive employed the 50 30 20 rule<\/a> \u2013 a straightforward budgeting technique which splits your after-tax income into 50% for necessities, 30% for discretionary spending and 20% for savings or debt repayment. Initially putting aside \u00a3100 to \u00a3200 monthly, she eventually managed to save \u00a32,000 per month thanks to several workplace promotions.<\/p>\n She also started investing aged 24 and “learned by doing stupid things”, while using her credit card daily to cover food shopping and boost her credit score. These four strategies \u2013 a payday routine, monthly investing, responsible credit card usage and negotiating higher salaries \u2013 enabled her to save \u00a370,000 for her property and stamp duty, which she purchased in August 2025.<\/p>\n Natalie O’Neill bought a \u00a3650,000 home in London(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n Natalie, an influencer, from Hackney, East London said: “I remember when I was about 22, just after I’d moved to London I remember having a conversation with my boss about personal finances and they were telling me about the 50, 30, 20 rule and how it was a well-known way to put X amount in your savings.<\/p>\n “In 2020, I started investing. I learned by doing, when I started, doing stupid things and investing but losing money. You don’t have to lose money to learn like I did, but just getting started and doing what you can is better than doing nothing when it comes to saving money.<\/p>\n “I opened my stocks and shares ISA in 2020, it’s earned me \u00a315,000 up to now. Every time I would get a pay rise I would make it a non-negotiable when I got paid I would pay my bills, rent, and I didn’t spend a lot on my credit card but that was my time to pay off my credit.<\/p>\n “Eventually, probably at my highest salary I had for six months at \u00a395,000 on that salary, I was able to save \u00a32,000, which is amazing. A lot of the salary came from investing free money, I got \u00a315,000 for free as you don’t have to pay tax on a stocks and shares ISA.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Gran with penicillin allergy dies after ‘catalogue of errors’ at hospital<\/a>READ MORE: Teacher says Motability mileage changes will cost her \u00a33,000 extra a year<\/a><\/p>\n Natalie kicked off her career in marketing aged 18, earning \u00a316,000 while renting with her then-boyfriend. Her approach to budgeting became more disciplined after relocating to London at 22.<\/p>\n She strategically used credit cards for essentials like her weekly grocery shop to build up her credit score and, once she hit her peak earnings, managed to put away \u00a32,000 monthly. She confesses to dropping roughly \u00a33,000 across three years through stock picking, before turning to Nutmeg in 2020 to set up a stocks and shares ISA which netted her \u00a315,000 on its own. Natalie also successfully negotiated higher salaries \u2013 securing a pay rise from \u00a328,000 to \u00a333,000 at her first London job based on strong performance after three months, before boosting an offer from \u00a375,000 to \u00a395,000.<\/p>\n Natalie O’Neill(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n She worked across several companies to earn \u00a395,000 in her final role before transitioning to become an influencer in 2023, purchasing her home in August 2025. Natalie warns against “lifestyle creep” – where discretionary spending rises alongside income, transforming former luxuries into perceived essentials.<\/p>\n She also believes people are ‘hiding from debt’, explaining: “It’s different if you’re tens of thousands of pounds in debt. People who can pay off their debt and are avoiding – it is a bit like procrastinating.<\/p>\n “I think coming up with a plan of how much you can pay now and later re-invest is the best idea when it comes to paying off debt. There’s an emotional side to money and with paying off debt it’s about forward momentum \u2013 believing you’re moving in the right direction with repayments”.<\/p>\n Natalie has used credit cards for eight years, and says the goal is to spend only what you would “spend in cash”. She said: “I started by putting what I did daily that was expensive like my food shopping on my credit card and pay it off weekly. The aim is not carrying over the balance and paying it off in full”.<\/p>\n A self-described “frugal person”, Natalie reveals she always heads to the supermarket with a shopping list and became “got quite strict” with Deliveroo orders to help build up her savings. These disciplined habits ultimately allowed her to purchase her first property, a two-bedroom flat for \u00a3650,000 \u2013 contributing a \u00a365,000 deposit and paying \u00a35,000 in stamp duty in 2025.<\/p>\n “It does feel good,” she admits. “Honestly, giving away \u00a370,000 feels terrible though. Especially in this day and age it’s not a fun economy and giving away that much money feels terrible but I’m reminding myself I do have the money, its just in an asset.<\/p>\n “Online, I’ve had a few comments, one person said about my work that ‘marketing salaries don’t exist on that level’ or ‘I could never hope to earn that much’.<\/p>\n “I do think money is so emotionally tied and the more I think about it it’s tied to self-belief and confidence and feeling you can ask for more. It’s a fine line between being arrogant and delusional but I think people should be a bit more delusional than they are to believe that more is possible in your career and in life”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Natalie O’Neill saved for 10 years to buy her Hackney flat without family help 13:48, 07 Apr 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,16240,1575,155195,268,85,25573,46,81943,266,267,14851,11229],"class_list":{"0":"post-380610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-credit-cards","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-deliveroo","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-isas","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-money-troubles","17":"tag-personal-finance","18":"tag-personalfinance","19":"tag-save-money","20":"tag-stamp-duty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Natalie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_i-bought-650k-h-1520520.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Natalie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_i-bought-650k-h-1520521.jpg\")
<\/p>\n