Woman reveals how she blew over £50,000 from her inheritance

A woman who received more than £50,000 in inheritance money following the deaths of her mother, grandmother and great-aunt has revealed she’s blown it all on designer clothes in just 18 months.

Samantha, who says she received between £50,000 and £100,000 after her relatives died, speaks with Sideman in Untold: Addicted to Drip, available to stream on All 4 from today.

The documentary explores how people between the ages of 16 and 34 are increasingly consuming designer goods and many are falling into debt as a result.

Speaking to Sideman, whose real name is David Whitely, Samantha reveals how her addiction to buying designer goods got worse as she grieved for wanting to fill a void.

Her story comes as a study commissioned by the program reveals shocking statistics about how young people miss credit card payments after racking up big bills because of their spending habits.

While shopping at a luxury store, Samantha, who claims her most expensive item is a Chanel handbag worth £5,500, explains how her late mother was a ‘shopaholic’ and jokes, ‘Obviously the gene has been passed on .’

She recalls, “My mom got sick, so she decided to spoil my brother and me.

“So it was like, ‘We’re flying to the Maldives business class, we’re staying there for three weeks, and I’m going to be taken out of school for a week.’

Samantha reveals that her mother, grandmother and great-aunt all died within months of each other, leaving her an inheritance of tens of thousands of pounds.

While she didn’t reveal the exact amount of what she inherited, Samantha confirmed it was ‘over £50,000 and under £100,000’.

When asked how she had spent the money, she said, “I definitely bought some shoes and some bags… a few things.”

Within 18 months, Samantha had spent every penny of the tens of thousands of pounds she had inherited.

She claims she was in a position where she had ‘£15,000-20,000 worth of stuff’ in her flat but she ‘couldn’t even afford a train ticket’.

As Sideman asks if she thinks she’s lost control, Samantha agrees.

“I think mentally I was so upset and depressed and anxious that I just didn’t care,” she explains.

“So I was like, ‘whatever, the future me will figure it out.'”

When she realized she had spent her entire estate on designer items, Samantha says she was “disappointed” with herself.

“I knew my grandmother and my great-aunt would be so disappointed in me,” she recalls. “I was probably trying to fill a void.”

As Samantha shares her story, Sideman reveals shocking numbers the documentary obtained about how far young people will go to own designer items.

A statistic shows that 62% of people between the ages of 16 and 34 have spent money on designer items.

Worryingly, more than one in five people within the same age group take out credit once a month to pay for things, while one in 10 say they take out credit weekly or more often.

Elsewhere, 58% of 16-34 year olds surveyed say they feel stressed or worried about their financial situation.

Speaking to Sideman, Stacey Lowman of Claro Wellbeing said that according to their survey, 30% of those surveyed said they had missed a credit card redemption or a “buy now, pay later” payment.

“Almost half of young people are in debt,” she said. “In addition, about a third have less than £100 in savings and one in seven have no savings at all.”

As Sideman meets people who have spent thousands trying to maintain the image of having lots of designer items, an influencer talks about how it had a disastrous impact on her mental health.

Michelle, who is 21 years old, is an aspiring fashion influencer with around 20,000 followers on Instagram.

She explains how she gained traction on the social media platform when she started gaining a following after posting photos of herself in designer clothes.

However, as her following increased and she managed to monetize her content, she came under pressure to keep buying designer items, which had become part of her image.

“It started to get a little toxic for me,” she tells Sideman. “I realized I was overworking myself. It was a lot of pressure to keep up the lifestyle.’

The pressure became so great that Michelle collapsed and spent three months in a mental hospital.

However, when she got fired, one of the first things Michelle did was go shopping and buy more designer items.

According to the influencer, her perspective finally changed.

“One of the purchases was £2,000,” she says. “From the moment that happened, that was the day I thought, ‘I’ll never pressure myself to buy things I don’t need.’

Bola Sol, a financial advisor, says in the documentary that people go into debt because “it’s easier to spend money you haven’t earned.”

She argues that we need to remove the “shame factor” around money to help people pay off their debts.

Reflecting on how she spent her entire inheritance on designer items, Samantha admits she wishes she had done things differently “every day.”

However, she insists, “I have to screw up to realize it.”

Untold: Addicted to Drip is available to stream on All4 starting today