100 per cent mortgage

We bought our house on a 100 per cent mortgage. It seemed like the best thing to do at the time. We had just had another baby.

We were also spending on credit cards. We paid for a new car with the cards and juggled payments between them. Things started going wrong for us late last year, when interest rates started going through the roof and we couldn't afford the mortgage payments, plus the credit cards, plus bills and school fees for the kids. It got out of control and we ended up owing £60,000 with no way of paying it off.

We've had to sell the house and we've learnt our lesson – we won't borrow that much on credit again.