‘S’ cleared £5,075 debt in 60 days

On March 5th, I got a message from one of my Don’t Go Broke Collective members that made me stop what I was doing.

“Hi Reni, I’ve now paid off my credit card debts. Phewwwwww.” – S (for privacy reasons, I can’t share her full name here)

That “Phewwwwww” said everything.

S joined the group in January with one clear goal: to become debt-free. 

From the outside, she looked like she had things together. She earned well. She had some savings. Nothing about her situation screamed “financial crisis.”

However, she’d feel a knot in her stomach every time she thought about her finances. So she did what a lot of us do: she stopped looking.

She avoided checking her bank account because seeing the number made her anxious.

When we sat down and mapped it out together, here’s what we found: £5,075 in consumer debt. And what was overlooked was, S had enough income to pay it all off.   

When you’re not watching your accounts, money just… disappears. You swipe. You tap. You tell yourself you’ll check later. And later never comes.

So the debt creeps up, the anxiety gets louder, and you avoid it even more.

It’s a cycle. And it’s one of the most common ones I see.

So here’s what we did

Two things. That’s it.

The biggest tip I had for her was to track her spending each month and to rely only on debit.

Not to be obsessive about it. Just so she could actually see where her money was going and stop the invisible leaks.

Then I had her remove her credit card from Apple Pay and switch to debit only. 

I know. That sounds terrifying. That tap-and-go habit makes spending feel like it doesn’t count, which is exactly why it had to go.

A few weeks later, she came back to tell me what happened:

Once the credit card was gone, she couldn’t coast through the month anymore. Every purchase required a decision, and money she actually had in her bank account. And that friction – as small as it sounds – changed everything.    

The debt started going down. But so did the anxiety.

That’s the part that gets me. Because the goal was always to be debt-free, but what she got back was so much bigger than that. She got her peace back.

Two months later: £5,075. Gone.

Her words? “It is LIBERATING.”

If this is you…

If you’re reading this as the person who hasn’t checked their account in weeks… the person who knows there’s debt but can’t bring themselves to look at how much… then know this.

S’s story isn’t a fluke.

Debt doesn’t disappear when you stop looking at it. It just grows in the dark.

S turned the light on. And within 60 days of joining the accountability group, it was gone.

You don’t have to make the tough decisions alone.

That’s exactly why I created the Don’t Go Broke Collective.

It’s a financial accountability group where we meet twice a month, track our progress together, and do the hard work of getting our money right together. We celebrate the wins. We have the honest conversations. We show up for each other in the ways that most people never get to experience around money.

This community collectively saved over $1.2 million last year.

S joined this January. She’s already one of those people.

If S can do it, so can you. 

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For my Nigerian community: You’ll need a VPN to access Skool. Make sure you have one set up before you join so you can get straight in.

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Until next time,

xoReni