She’s the telly budgeting guru with a real-life understanding of the cost of living crisis.
The Price Of Everything presenter Santis O’Garro has gone through debt and come out the other side of it.
Now, the inspiring mum-of-two wants to help others manage their money as price hikes put the pressure on families.
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Alongside consumer journalist Conor Pope, she helps the nation see where they can save on spending in RTE’s timely new series.
She told the Irish Mirror: “I had bad money habits – I loved spending. But when I overspent, I wasn’t happy with myself.
“I was down, and spending to try and make myself feel better. If I hadn’t paid off the debt, I wouldn’t have learnt anything.”
Santis, 37, was €15,000 in debt when she took action.
She was so overjoyed to pay off the last of it in January 2020 that she jumped into the sea at her local Portmarnock beach, Dublin.
Having broken free of consumer pressure, she now lives a life of a zero waste cost-cutter – finding bargains in second-hand shops and buying food in bulk.
Being in debt propelled her to change her ways – she left her job as a bookie, become a life coach and she now helps others to budget and get out of the debt trap.
Santis told how she was addicted to spending – but sleepless nights and a bout of depression was the catalyst for change.
She explained her spending was emotional – she linked possessions with self-esteem and status.
The TV host said: “My debt was from everything. If I had a bad day at work or home I just spent.”
Now, she fights against a buying impulse.
Santis added: “I now actively do
‘No Spend’ days. I like to spend money – my natural instinct is if I’m going
for dinner to get the nicest bottle of wine.”
But she had to face up to her debt to conquer it.
She said: “When I wrote all my debts down, I asked myself, ‘How is all this stuff making me feel?’
“Was it important? It really wasn’t, yet I was losing sleep about it.”
The presenter set up a dated spreadsheet system to monitor money coming in and going out.
Santis added: “I got a calendar –
I call it a money calendar. I went through my bank statements and crossed off everything I was paying. It makes you see your life in money.”
When she overspent, there was a pattern emerging. She admitted: “A lot of my spending habit was late at night when I was buying fitness apps when I was feeling down about myself.”
And lifestyle inflation and lifestyle creep is the scourge of our overspending society, she reckons.
Santis said: “People need to see
you living a certain way, being within a certain crowd or spending in a certain way.
“It’s a kind of status – but it’s just because of our environment and what we perceive as ‘successful’.
“I now have yellow sticker food in my house – supermarket own brand items – but does that mean I’m poor?” Children often want brands similar to their friends, and so a cycle develops.
Santis advised: “You can’t equate love to buying your kids stuff.
“For example, my kids love Nike. I always say to them, ‘What makes you beautiful is kindness. You’re still cool and beautiful without Nike.’”
On tonight’s episode of The Price Of Everything, Santis and co-star Conor will examine the crippling cost of housing in Ireland – which is top
of world leagues
for percentage of income spent on rent.
Santis insists on a thrifty wardrobe, using Depop for fashion sharing, and practising what she preaches.
The star, whose blog is called The Caribbean Dub, came to Ireland from Monserrat when she was 10.
She left after a volcano erupted in 1995 and destroyed her home.
- The Price Of Everything continues tonight at 7pm on RTE One.
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