A Birmingham mother has paid off £19,733 of debt in five months by selling 410 household items online and cashing in workplace investments, after building up £23,000 in borrowing since becoming a single mum in 2022. Ellie’s method, paying off debt by decluttering and selling everything from old toys to jewellery, has drawn a growing audience on TikTok, where she documents the process in real time.
How the debt built up
Ellie’s debt began as a practical response to a change in circumstances. After becoming a single mum in 2022, she took out a £15,000 loan from HSBC and a £8,000 loan from TSB to cover her costs, according to The Sentinel. Over the following four years, spending on what she describes as ‘silly things’ (takeaway food, online shopping) kept the balance from falling. At one point she put £1,000 through three credit cards in a single month.
By April of this year, despite making payments along the way, she still owed £23,000. ‘I felt sick, to be honest, and embarrassed that I’d let it get to that point,’ she said. ‘I work for a bank, so financially I’m very literate, and I understand how credit cards work, how loans work, and all of that. But I knew I had to deal with it regardless, and worked through it.’
Paying off debt by decluttering: the numbers
Ellie’s first move was to go through her house room by room. She sold 410 items including clothing, toys, jewellery, kitchen gadgets and room decor across three platforms. The breakdown, as reported by Yahoo Life UK, tells its own story: Vinted raised £3,700, eBay contributed £370.47, and Facebook Marketplace added £125. The totals are modest individually, but the discipline behind them was the point.
‘I am a bit of a collector, and there was so much stuff in the house, and just got really strict and tough with it,’ she said. ‘I went through my wardrobe and said, “If I haven’t worn it in the past six months (weather depending, obviously) I’ll put on Vinted.” I got brutal and thought I don’t need all this stuff; I need the money more than I need a house full of things.’
The larger sum came from her workplace. Through her job she had invested in stocks and bonds, and when they matured last month she cashed in £13,000 worth, putting £11,333 directly towards the debt. On top of that, salary contributions covered £3,000 towards her Amex credit card and a further £1,205.03 to other repayments, according to The Sentinel. Savings on everyday spending made up the rest of the £19,733 she has cleared to date.
She still has £8,700 of interest left to pay off.
The spending habits she had to break
Ellie is clear-eyed about the psychological loop she was caught in. ‘I was so stressed about money I was finding ways to feel less stressed that cost more money, rather than focusing on the actual debt,’ she said. Her first practical step was a week-by-week breakdown of where her money was going. From there, she cut takeaways by batch-cooking four weeks’ worth of meals before her recent maternity leave, and stopped buying expensive pre-prepared groceries.
The approach to curbing impulse spending has been blunter still. ‘I’ve shared that there have been moments I’ve really wanted to spend money recklessly with really no reason other than a bit of dopamine chasing, I guess,’ she said on her Vinted-documented TikTok page. Her online community, posting under @chaostocash4, now feeds back to her, sharing their own strategies for managing the urge to spend.
Now in a new relationship and having recently welcomed a third child with her partner Lee, Ellie is taking sole responsibility for clearing what remains. She says the relationship helps primarily through ’emotional support’ (having someone to talk to before making a purchase rather than buying on impulse) and through splitting shared living costs, which frees up more of her income to direct at the debt.
With £8,700 still outstanding in interest, the next phase of repayment is already under way.
