'I'VE LOST A FORTUNE BUT I'M A BETTER MUM NOW'

Fran lives on £65 a week but she's never been happier

By Boudicca Fox-Leonard & Claie Wilson

The changing room is filled with designer dresses. Fran Murphy, 29, is like a kid in a sweet shop as she reaches for a Roberto Cavalli gown. She slips into it and smiles. The frock is by her favourite designer and she looks fantastic in it.

She shrugs the dress off and reluctantly gets back into her faithful H&M jeans and Miss Sixty T-shirt.

There was a time when Fran would have bought the Cavalli dress, some Jimmy Choos to go with it, a Louis Vuitton bag – plus a few D&G outfits for her little girl. But that was when she was earning £600,000 a year running a property empire. That lavish lifestyle is long gone now she and her daughter survive on just £65 a week.

The mum of one lived an A-list lifestyle – she drove an £80,000 Porsche, had a full-time chauffeur, and all the household chores were done by her domestic staff. She had it all.

But 18 months ago, she walked away from her business and ended up £100,000 in debt, with a child to support and nowhere to live.

“Nothing could have prepared me for how much my life would change,” says Fran. “But in the long run it’s made me a better mum. Now I know what really matters.”

Fran had been earning £30,000 a year as a property surveyor when she met John*, a property developer, five years ago.

“He was such a confident and charming guy, and we really clicked,” Fran remembers. “Within a couple of months, we’d decided to move in together.”

It also made sense to go into business together, and within a year the couple were making so much money that Fran could pay herself a salary of £50,000 a month.

“It was more money than I’d ever seen,” Fran says. “I worked hard and played harder, and I loved treating friends and family to holidays, meals and gifts.”

In 2005, Fran and John moved into a £1million mansion near Leeds. Later that year, Fran became pregnant – and when baby Olivia was born, there was a designer wardrobe and a nanny waiting for her.

But while Fran was rich, she was lonely. Although they both worked long hours, John often worked into the night and at weekends too, and Fran would spend to fill the void.

“Once I bought a pair of £300 Louboutin wedges online – but when they arrived I hated them. I just threw them in the back of the wardrobe and never wore them,” she admits.

However, the couple’s business was about to be hit by the impending property slump.

Have your say: Have you learned a valuable lesson the hard way? Can you be happy without money? Have you been affected by the credit crunch? >>

As they faced the slow-down, their relationship suffered. After months of rows, the couple split. Fran left the business and moved out of the family home with Olivia.

“I was devastated, but I knew it was for all the right reasons,” she remembers.

Fran tried to renovate two houses she’d bought to sell on, only to find that falling prices meant she owed more on the houses than they were worth. But she buried her head in the sand and continued to live her lavish lifestyle, using her credit cards to fund it.

That was until last June, when Fran tried to pay for her weekly food shop and her credit cards were declined. It was the push she needed to seek help, and she made an appointment with her local Citizens Advice Bureau.

“They made me list all my debts, my incomings and my outgoings,” she remembers. “When I looked at the list of numbers in front of me, I felt sick because I owed £100,000.

“Back home, once Olivia had gone to bed, I slumped onto the living room floor, crying. I’d been so stupid. I’d gone from having everything to nothing in a few short months.”

Ashamed by the stacks of cash she’d frittered away, Fran kept her dire financial situation secret from family and friends. Instead, she holed herself away and concentrated on looking after Olivia.

“One night, as I put my little girl to bed, I realised I only had myself to blame and I had a responsibility to Olivia to sort things out,” she says.

Fran called her parents, who immediately asked her to move back in with them until she got back on her financial feet.

“I felt a failure, having to move back home as a 28-year-old mum on the verge of bankruptcy, but I had no other choice,” she admits. “Some days I felt like I was drowning, but I knew I had to keep it together for Olivia.”

Fran sold her Porsche for £25,000, all her jewellery – including a £10,000 Rolex – and her designer clothes, leaving her with a more manageable debt to clear. She then found a job as a part-time office administrator earning £10,000 a year – less than her previous weekly salary.

Fran found herself and Olivia, now four, a tiny two-bedroom furnished house, and after rent she has only £65 a week to live on.

At first, she struggled to come to terms with her reversal of fortune – but as the weeks went by, she began to realise there were benefits.

“I realised that for a long time I used shopping as a substitute for happiness,” she says. “It was a way of disguising how lonely I was. I had everything money could buy, but I was still unhappy. And actually, I’d been missing out on the most important thing in my life – my little girl.”

Six months on, Fran says she couldn’t be happier. “I’ve learned that money doesn’t make you happy,” she says. “I’d rather invest in memories than buy material things. They’re worth much more in the long run.”

 

WEEKLY SPENDING
BEFORE Clothes: £1,000 Food: £300 Pampering: £500 Socialising: £1,000 Olivia's clothes: £60 Holidays: £1,000 Gifts: £300 Staff: £750 Total: £4,910	NOW Clothes: £0 Food: £20 Pampering: £0 Socialising: £0 Olivia's clothes: £10 Transport: £5 Activities with Olivia: £30 Total: £65

Have your say: Have you learned a valuable lesson the hard way? Can you be happy without money? Have you been affected by the credit crunch? >>

 

PHOTOGRAPHY: CLAIRE WOOD HAIR & MAKE-UP: ALISON CHESTERTON AT NEMESIS, SAM COLLINS *NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED