Vocal coach Carrie Grant talks to ME & MY MONEY

Household names: Carrie Grant is married to former pop star David Grant

Vocal coach and singer Carrie Grant would divert money from energy companies to provide more funding for children with special educational needs, if she were made Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

Grant is married to former pop star and fellow vocal coach David Grant and they became household names on BBC reality show Fame Academy in 2004. 

The couple have four children with special educational needs and their book, A Very Modern Family, discusses the mental health challenges they have faced. 

Carrie, 57, tells Donna Ferguson her biggest luxury is having an entire fridge filled with fruit and vegetables and she would rather spend money on a cos lettuce than a manicure.

What did your parents teach you about money?

To save. My parents split up when I was seven so for much of my childhood, I was just with my mum. She was a secretary but also did weekend waitressing and piecework that companies sent her to do at home. My older brother and I would be sticking crochet needles on the front of magazines while mum was at work.

My dad, who was a factory stock controller, paid Mum £2.50 a week in child maintenance. Money was tight until Mum remarried when I was 13. She would literally make us walk two miles because there was three pence off a can of beans at a particular supermarket. At Christmas, you’d unwrap a present and she would grab it and rewrap it for someone else. My brother and I laugh about it now.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes, in the late-80s and early- 90s, when interest rates went through the roof. David and I were both self-employed artists so didn’t have a normal mortgage. We had to pay what was a crazy amount back then – £1,100 – every month. All the homes around us in Alexandra Palace, North London, went into negative equity so we couldn’t even sell.

David or I would get work singing backing vocals in the West End and we’d be searching for change down the back of the sofa for Tube tickets so we could do that session and earn £125. Friends brought us groceries because we were living on pasta. Those were very stressful days.

Although David had about 15 hit records in the 80s, he wasn’t selling any records at that point. When you’ve been a pop star, people assume you don’t want to sing on other people’s records. You’re too successful to get work – but not successful enough to have hits. You end up in a no man’s land and have to reinvent yourself.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

Yes – for a PC World advert in the mid-90s. We sang ‘Where in the world? PC World’ and were paid £150 each for an hour’s work.

But the royalties paid our mortgage for three years: £6,000 each, per year.

What was the best year of your financial life?

We were both judges on the BBC reality show Fame Academy in 2004 and we also brought out a vocal coaching DVD and book, which still is the biggest-selling vocal coaching book in the world.

I’m not sure how much we made but it was definitely well over six-figures. It was a wonderful period of about seven or eight years.

What’s the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

Our two turquoise sofas from Heal’s which cost £2,500 each in 2003.

What is your biggest money mistake?

Not keeping up with my children’s interests.

All four have got special educational needs, such as ADHD and autism. When you have children who are neurodivergent, they often have really intense special interests, which always have a limited shelf life.

I’ve spent £200 on Pokemon figures only for them to decide they hate Pokemon one week before their birthday.

The best money decision you have made?

Buying our seven-bedroom house in North London in 2002 for £525,000. It has a swimming pool and is now probably worth five times what we paid for it.

Harmony: Carrie Grant became a household name when she appeared on the BBC’s Fame Academy with David, above

Do you own any other property?

We own two rental properties in North London: a four-bedroom house and a two-bedroom flat. Every time I see the accountants, they ask if I’m running a charity, because we don’t charge nearly enough rent. We aren’t money-focused, we are people-focused.

Do you save into a pension?

No as we have property and I don’t want to live in a seven-bedroom house when it’s just me and David. That would be an absolute crime. So we hope to have the capital from our home and other properties to cover us in old age.

The one little luxury you treat yourself to?

A fridge that is just full of fruit and vegetables. Our children have grown up with us never saying no to that fridge and have brilliant diets as a result.

Being able to eat mango or lychee makes me feel spoiled. Growing up, we’d have a mouldy apple in the fruit bowl and that was it.

Do you ever spend money on yourself?

I’m absolutely dreadful at that – I haven’t been to a hairdresser since January. I cut and dye my own hair and do my own nails – I’m not interested in manicures. That feels wasteful. I’d rather spend my money on a cos lettuce.

If you were Chancellor, what’s the first thing you would do?

I’d provide more funding for our special educational needs and disability (SEND) communities, by taxing the windfall that gas and electric companies have received.

Our children go to state schools and some of them have been really let down in the past. Local authorities will fight you tooth and nail not to provide for your children. I run a support group for more than 200 families, so I know the services are not there for SEND children. It breaks my heart.

What is your number one financial priority?

Our children. Only 20 per cent of autistic people are in work, so what happens to our children after we’ve gone is a really big financial worry for their parents. We’re already thinking about what we will need to put in place.

• A Very Modern Family: Stories And Guidance To Nurture Your Relationships is published by Little Brown.