Strictly Come Dancing star Sara Davies may be worth a staggering £37million - but she had admitted she is still "tight" with money.
The County Durham born Dragon's Den star's rise to business success began when she set-up her first venture, Crafter's Companion, in her university bedroom.
Spotting a gap in the market for an envelope-making tool for card makers, Sara invented one named The Envelope with the help of her engineer Dad.
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Crafters bought them in their thousands, catapulting her business to success and turning over £500,000 by the time she graduated.
Sara’s company now turns over £34 million a year, exports to more than 40 countries worldwide and employs more than 190 staff in UK, the US and across Europe.
But Sara, from Coundon, Bishop Auckland, seems to have kept her feet firmly on the ground.
She has previously told how her well-off friends laugh at her frugal shopping habits.
"Growing up, if something was reduced with a big sticker on it in Asda, we would call it a ‘whoopsie’,” explained Sara to the Sunday People last year.
"Smoked salmon was my mum’s favourite thing but in our house we would only ever buy it if it was ‘on whoopsie’ and greatly reduced.
"I grew up thinking smoked salmon was as luxurious as it gets in the food market.
“To this day, with all the money I have, I will only ever buy smoked salmon in the supermarket if it is on offer.
"To me it is a luxury. It’s how I’ve been programmed – we grew up with very little money. Friends think it’s hilarious.”
Sara has even described herself as "tight" with money.
When a doctor advised her to lose weight after having gestational diabetes in her pregnancies, she booked and paid for a trainer in advance for three mornings a week for three months.
She said: “I’m too tight not to turn up for something I’ve already paid for.”
The mum-of-two says she wants to keep her children grounded and still takes her kids, Oliver and Charlie, on camping holidays like she did as a child.
“When I was younger, we couldn’t afford to go abroad for our holiday,” she said.
"We didn’t even have a caravan, we used to take one of my dad’s vans from work and put our tents out the back.
“So while I want to give my kids experiences we didn’t have I also believe the camping holidays made me the grounded person I am and I want my kids to have those experiences.
“I do tend to take it to the extreme though. I did an interview at This Morning last year then got a train to the Lake District.
“Mum and Dad picked me up at Windermere train station with the kids.
"They’d set up camp in a camper van with an awning. Dad, not thinking, parked the van on a hill and hadn’t checked if the awning was waterproof.
“I was lying there at three in the morning with drips of water hitting my head, whilst the kids kept rolling down inside their sleeping bags, and I thought, ‘This is ridiculous. I wanted them to have the experience, but this is taking it too far.’”
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