A mum who went on to clear a huge £40,000 debt has revealed exactly how she did it - and hopes that her money-saving tips will help those who are struggling this Christmas.
Mum-of-two Maddy Alexander-Grout, 39, accumulated a large debt. But she has now recovered from it after going down the route of buying pre-loved goods for her family's presents this year.
The 39-year-old, who is known as @madaboutmoneyofficial on TikTok, has a whopping 20,000 followers on the social media site.
There, she told her viewers that in order to cut back on costs during the cost of living crisis she has been buying her Christmas presents secondhand this year.
Typically, the mum from Southampton, Hampshire, said that she spends around £250 on gifts during the period, but this year decided that she had to cut down and think of her personal finances first.
So far, Maddy has managed to get her gifts for just £30 at charity shops, car boot sales and online. Her haul includes books, games, scooters and Paw Patrol presents for her children, Ben, seven, and Harriet, three.
And one of her best finds, she says, was a scooter - which cost her just £7.
In order to raise funds for the gifts, Maddy sold her unused Christmas presents from last year on Facebook Marketplace.
She even revealed that she will be using her Nectar points and vouchers to buy her Christmas dinner.
Despite being a savvy shopper and going for yellow-sticker items, Maddy says that the cost of living crisis has impacted her less than others because she has always had a flair for buying budget items.
However, she did admit that this crisis has encouraged her to save that little bit more, saying: "I think the cost-of-living crisis is probably impacting me less than other people just because I’ve been a money-saving person for a very long time.
"Having said that, there are still things which are massively impacting me. I’m not immune to energy bills, and they have gone up, as well as my childcare. It was about £620 a month, and now it’s £700."
Maddy also went on to say that she has had such success with the range of Christmas presents she has found, because she has been on the lookout for them since September.
In fact, she has become somewhat of a regular at her local charity shops after disclosing that she makes trips to them twice a week, and goes to a car-boot sale twice a month.
There, she has been able to find a range of gifts, saying: "‘I also got three books for my husband, for 50p each, and I can wrap all three of those up separately so it looks like I’ve got him a really good present."
And the savvy chief marketing officer is also reusing her Christmas decorations - which have lasted her the past eight years - in order to save the extra pennies.
She said: "Christmas doesn’t cost me anything extra for a year really because I budget for it.
"My son has asked me for Pokemon cards, and they’re really easy to get secondhand on eBay. So I’m going to get some of those.
"My daughter just likes anything Paw Patrol, she would not care if it was in a packet or not."
Maddy went on to say: "I think Father Christmas who brings their stockings might be getting a few cheap things from the Poundshop but that’s about the only exception, I can’t control what Father Christmas buys obviously.
"I don’t think the kids value packaging. In fact, they spent more time whinging about why something won’t open or why it hasn’t got batteries.
"When you buy secondhand, you can just put batteries in and away you go."
