How I paid off £70K of debt

Sarah Abel's impulse spending was so out of control she bought a nail salon for £20,000 'on a whim'. Then she realised it was key to paying off the tens of thousands she already owed...

- Sarah Abel's

Today Sarah Abel is an established business owner who runs a successful hair and beauty training academy and can enjoy not just her professional success but the joy of now being a grandmother of four.

Yet it wasn't always that way. When she was 36, Sarah's impulse spending was so out of control she was in £50,000 of debt from “living beyond her means” - including paying for expensive holidays abroad by remortgaging her house and buying cars she didn't need.

Then in 2000, Sarah, of Folkestone, Kent, went one giant step further. She walked into her favourite salon to have her nails painted, found the owner was selling up, and decided to buy it.

"I haven't been officially diagnosed, but I have ADHD tendencies," she says. "And I know they play a role in my impulsive decision-making - such as quick purchases without much thought."

Sarah managed to secure a £20,000 government loan to buy the salon. "I was apprehensive. But I knew I could make this work," she says. She left her secure job at Avon and even convinced husband Andy, now 63, to give up his career too, training as a body piercer.

With two children, Naomi, now 35, and Rhys, 33, it was a huge risk. "Money was tight, and the weight of debt was suffocating at times, but I never let it define me," she says.