Couple clear £43,000 debt by living on £1 a day and using a slow cooker

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A couple has revealed how they cleared a £43,000 debt by spending less than £1 a day.

The pair found themselves in crippling debt when dad-of-two Ricky lost his job as a machine operator at a printing firm.

A year later his partner Naomi sadly lost her job in insurance.

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With no money coming in, they quickly accumulated £43,000 in payday loan, credit card and catalogue debt.

Things came to a head when their car and fridge freezer broke down in the same week, wiping out their remaining savings, and adding to their debt pile.

Ricky says: “We knew the repayments would eat up everything, but had no choice. It just kept spiralling from there.”

The family of four hit rock bottom when Ricky realised they had to live on less than £1-a-day. “We drew up a list and feeding our two daughters Daniella and Chloe was top, then nappies as Chloe was still a baby. Us eating came third.”

Ricky, now 42, went to bed that night and cried. “I felt like I had let my family down.”

Ricky and Naomi, 37, started their journey back to solvency by ruthlessly scouring their bank statements to cut back on all non-essential spending.

New research from low-cost broadband provider Plusnet shows the average householder pays £299 a year over the odds on their mortgage, £222 on fuel bills, £156 on broadband and £132 on TV packages.

They also spend £162 on car insurance and £84 on pet insurance when cheaper alternatives were available.

Naomi says: “We made sure we weren’t spending a penny on products or services we didn’t absolutely need. That saved us thousands of pounds a year.”

They set up individual payment plans with creditors, used money-saving apps like Freecycle,