'I spent £40k on secret shopping and gambling addiction - my husband didn't know'

A mother who spent money meant for her children on her gambling and shopping addiction managed to clear her £40,000 debt in a single year by selling second-hand clothes - and now rakes in £10k a month. Rachel Grady, 41, started frittering away her cash on gambling in 2020 after battling depression, finding that the habit was the only thing that lifted her spirits.

After giving it a go out of curiosity, she quickly became hooked on the "buzz" it provided, and within a few months, she was frequenting online sites daily. Before she realised it, she had lost £15,000 to online gambling platforms and splurged an additional £25,000 on five credit cards due to a shopping addiction, all whilst keeping it hidden from her husband.

She would even decline to purchase items for her children - instead diverting the money towards her addiction - until she suffered a breakdown in 2023 and confessed everything to a friend. Recognising she has a "bit of Del Boy" in her, Rachel began selling second-hand clothes, gradually managing to start chipping away at her debt.

In 2024, she signed up to Tilt, a live-selling platform, and started earning £10,000 a month, enabling her to become a full-time reseller and wipe out £40,000 of debt in just one year. The owner of the pre-loved clothing business, hailing from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, admitted: "I was in a pretty dark place for quite a few years.

"The only thing that made me happy at the time was spending money I didn't have. I would gamble on mobile apps. I tried it once out of curiosity and before I knew it, I was visiting gambling sites daily.

"It became part of my routine. Looking back, it happened much quicker than I understood at the time. Within a few months, it had shifted from occasional use to something I felt compelled to do.

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"I won a few times at gambling, so then I just carried on, but I ended up losing about £15,000, it was an addiction. I was also constantly buying clothes and anything I could get my hands on.

"I had five credit cards and two loans and ended up £40,000 in debt. In 2023 I had a nervous breakdown, my friend was telling me how great her life is, and I just broke down and said I'm in massive amounts of debt and can't pay for anything for my kids.

"It was a massive strain on my relationship with my husband. I kept borrowing money off him but I was too ashamed to tell him how much debt I was in. The kids would ask for things, and I'd say no but then I'd spend money on things I didn't need. It was so selfish.

"I realised I've always been good at selling things, I'm a bit of Del Boy, so I started buying bundles of clothes off eBay, and then reselling them for profit. It started off slow, I was making around £2k a month, and I paid off my smallest amount of debt. Then I joined the live selling platform Tilt, I was making £10k a month, it was crazy.

"I paid off my last bit of debt in October 2025, one year after I started Tilt. My attitude to money has now changed completely. I'm so frugal, and only buy things if I really need them, and I've put measures in place to stop myself from being able to access gambling sites."

Following a period of depression, Rachel started gambling in 2020. She visited an online site once, out of curiosity, and experienced a few fortunate wins, which encouraged her to continue.

Nevertheless, any funds she won simply went straight back into gambling, and within months she was using gambling sites daily. Rachel concealed her gambling from her husband by doing it on her mobile late at night, and by acting as though everything was normal, when she was actually losing thousands.

"Addiction thrives in secrecy, and I became very good at masking what I was going through," she said. Rachel ultimately lost £15,000 over a five-year period to gambling.

Alongside gambling, Rachel was a shopping addict, and at the height of her spending problem had five credit cards, two loans, and £40,000 worth of debt. In 2023, during a holiday with family and friends, Rachel broke down, after admitting that she was struggling to pay for things for her kids, 14 and 21.

She reached the conclusion that she needed to tackle her spending and sat down to document everything she owed, but continued to hide her debt from her husband. She then devised a strategy to clear her debt and recognised that she had always excelled at selling items, so chose to purchase bundles of clothing cheaply from eBay and resell them on Vinted.

The enterprise rapidly proved successful, and Rachel was soon earning £2,000 monthly, and managed to successfully clear her smallest debt. Then, in October 2024, Rachel signed up to Tilt, a reselling platform where sellers can host live auctions of their items.

She experienced tremendous success, and by January, was generating £1,000 per auction, and £10,000 monthly. Rachel is now a full-time reseller and runs a vintage clothing business called Rachel's Vintage Moonstone.

She cleared the final portion of her £40,000 debt in October 2025, one year after joining the platform, and eventually revealed her debt to her husband after settling it. "He was really shocked when he found out, but he'd noticed such a difference in me in that year, and I'd paid if off, so he took it quite well", she said.

Rachel is now incredibly careful with money, and only purchases items if she genuinely needs them. She has also implemented safeguards to prevent herself from accessing gambling websites, enabling her to break free from her addiction.

She shares her story on @rachel_vintagemoonstone.