Bigloser climbs her mountain(s)......

bigloser

On Saturday 5th March 2011 I had my lightbulb moment – and well overdue it was too. Anyway, better late than never, and having finally accepted that I have problems (mainly, but not exclusively, financial) I now need to find my way out of this mess.

To list my problems in what is, I think, the current order of severity:

1) At the grand old age of 52, when I should be reaping the benefits of a life well spent and enjoying a bit of extra time and money, I am in debt to the tune of approx £62000.

2) I have a gambling problem involving on-line casinos. This isn’t the reason for most of my debt, but it probably accounts for about £2000 of it. I absolutely MUST conquer this problem, and quickly. I need to be reducing my debt, not adding to it, and I am wasting hours and hours chucking money I don’t have into virtual slot machines. Even putting the money to one side, the time I spend doing this is time when I could be money-making/saving and enjoying my family.

3) I hardly exercise.

4) I eat nothing but rubbish (mmmmmm……chocolate…..)

5) There’s bound to be others, but I can’t think of them just now as I’m too busy obsessing on Numbers 1 and 2.

Right, that’s the problems sorted. Now for the solutions!

I’ll give that a bit of thought and be right back…….

turfy6

Good luck with your debt free journey and welcome aboard, were all in the same proverbial boat and you'll find were a friendly bunch.:beer:

bigloser

Thanks Turfy6. In a bizarre way, I'm looking forward to tackling this.

Right, solutions.

Firstly, I need to tackle Problem 2 (gambling) in order to get to grips with Problem 1 (debt). Actually I've already made a very healthy start with this.

As a bit of background, I started matched betting through the MSE forum about 4 years ago. It genuinely is a risk free way to get some extra money and I made a reasonable profit. But then I moved on to casino bonus bagging (NOT via this site - it's not recommended on MSE as it's rarely risk-free) and that was my downfall. Gradually - so gradually that I didn't even notice - I began to spend more and more time doing it. Then I found myself still playing when there were no bonuses to claim. Then I found myself losing money. Not masses at first, maybe the odd £20 here and there, but after a while I couldn't accept the losses and deposited more to try and win it back. And I started spending longer and longer trying to win, depositing (and losing) more and more money. I estimate my total losses at £2000 though I haven't kept any records. Classic gambler mentality!

I now see that I have an addiction - but I HOPE I spotted it in time. I stumbled upon the 'ex and would-be ex gamblers support thread' on this forum and recognised myself instantly! That was Saturday and I haven't gambled since. I'm going to keep checking in the Ex-gamblers thread to keep myself on the straight and narrow, but I'm a strong person and I know I can do this......

One thing that the experts on that thread agree on is the need to find something else to occupy the hours that would previously be spent gambling. SOOOOO........ here I am, writing this diary and putting loads of thought and effort into paying back my debts.

It's going to be a very, very, VERY long haul. But if I can (and I know I can) stay off the gambling, at least my debts will be reducing from now on instead of increasing.

So, I've taken control, now to actually do something about it.

Be right back!

BILLIE

Good luck bigloser we will be right behind you all the way in a virtual sense. You can do it and will a stronger person for coming out the other side. Do you think you are strong enough to post up an SOA, or even list your debt for those clever enough to help you? Billie x

bugslet

Good luck bigloser.

I don't exercise, though I do have 5 dogs that have to go out for walks. Is there one that you could borrow (presuming you like dogs!). It would get you away from the computer screen and get you fit. An hours walk will get you about three quarters of your recommended 10,000 steps.

As for chocolate, I'm trying to find a substitute. I was told, don't know if it's true, that the chemical name for cocaine and chocolate is almost the same. I believe it anyway!!!:o

LittleBoots

Best of Luck!!!

bigloser

Thanks so much for your replies.

Billie - Yes, I will post up a SOA if I dare! And I am working on listing all my debts at the moment but it's not a pretty spreadsheet!
Bugslet - I do have a dog (in fact I have rather a lot of animals, which accounts for much of my spending!) but as she's a puppy she can't go for long walks yet. That will change over the next few months so my Problem 4 (lack of exercise) is kind of going to solve itself! My animals also include three horses, so I suppose the mucking out, lugging feed etc do keep me reasonably fit, but I've neglected the running/gym stuff that I used to do in favour of the PC screen. Running is free so I will pledge to get back into that.
LittleBoots - thanks for the good wishes, I'm going to need them!

bigloser

Hello Diary, update time.

The excellent news is thatI've still not gambled since Saturday. That in itself has probably saved me £60 or so (though of course I could have won..... JOKING!). I won't say I'm not tempted, but I have kept busy and have focussed on other things as advised. This diary really helps, because if I gambled I would have to come on here and admit it in writing and I really don't want to do that.

The bad news is that I have eaten 200g of chocolate this very morning!! Grrr to me, why do I do that?? I have been for a 2 mile walk to work some of it off but the rest is working its way onto my hips as I type. I sooo love Milka Daim Bar chocolate and - to be fair - it is on offer at 60p a bar in Tesco. So both bars together only cost me £1.20.

Well, I made a start on my Statement of Affairs. Disappointingly, I seem to be quite poor. That won't do at all, so I am looking at each of my outgoings one by one to make some changes. Today's acheivement is that I checked my electricity supplier on Uswitch. It turns out that I was with my cheapest supplier BUT on the wrong tariff. So, a quick phone call to them and they have switched me onto the better rate, so that's £25 a month saved in one phone call. Brilliant!! It's still £93 per month, but we do have electric heating (no gas, only electric and coal) and quite a big house. So now the tariff is right I am going to reduce our useage as much as possible, and make more use of our Economy 7 by setting my alarm for a little earlier each morning. I've switched everything off standby and the only light on is the room I'm sat in. Showers will be short and sweet, and because our washing machine and dishwasher both heat the water themselves I have turned off the immersion heater. We will have to wash our hands in cold water, but by the time the hot has travelled through the pipes we'd usually finished anyway. I would like one of those useage monitor gadgets so I'm going to see if I can source one either cheap or free.

Right, lunch break over, back to work.

BILLIE

Well done - 2 days to go and you can put in your signature "Gamble free = 1 week" and then change it weekly and then monthly and hey presto you will be an ex gambler. You are coming on in leaps and bounds. Don't worry about the chocolate at this stage, get other things under you belt. Billie x

smitk12

Well done Bigloser on not gambling - a great achievement and some financial savings as well. My brother is a gambler and I see how difficult it is for him to keep it under control.

I see you are a fellow horse owner - I have two and love them both but they are a bit of a drain on the finances (would never get rid of them tho!!) It's unbelievable how much feed and hay have gone up over the winter - luckily one of mine is a fat welshie so was able to give her minimal feed/hay.

Good luck with your list - ** subscribes ** smitk12

bigloser

Time for an update. Firstly, I have acheived a full week of not gambling! Yay! Keeping busy has been the key, so whenever I've not been at work I have been focussing on my finances. I'm tackling one per day so it will take some time, but I'm on it.

Firstly, one of my biggest expenses is the upkeep of our animals. We have 10 in total, 3 of them horses. The others are a mixture of cats, chickens and my wonderful, beautiful dog (well, puppy, she's only 20 weeks old!). Today I have calculated the approximate annual cost of keeping them and I have to admit I got a bit of a shock. It's a bit of a guestimate, because there can be sudden unforeseen expenses like vet bills. But...... my approx annual spend on them is about £2580!! And we have our own stables and land so there are no livery fees included in that.

Now, I know that is shocking. And I wouldn't dare put up a SOA showing that whilst simultaneously moaning about being broke!! BUT - I'm stuck with it. There is no way I could bring myself to part with any of them, and they are all well cared for and, whilst I don't over-indulge them, they do have good quality feed/adequate bedding etc. However, I have spent the morning comparing feed prices so I will ensure that I get the best deals available, and I will start weighing feed to make sure I'm not accidentally over-feeding. Also, some of them are getting on in years and when anything evenually happens to them I won't replace them (except possibly the chickens as they produce eggs).

I know this sounds a bit feeble, but in other ways they SAVE me money. I mean, I spend hours per day caring for them, and while I'm doing that I'm not shopping/eating out/drinking etc etc.

Anyway, the upshot is that I have had to factor £215 per month into my budget for animal expenses. Actually it's a bit more as the dog insurance is on top and I've included cat food within my supermarket budget. I am going to transfer that amount each month into a seperate account and pay for all animal costs from that one.

The other progress is that I have rung Sky and cancelled Sky Movies so that's reducing to £24.50 per month.

And I've cancelled my Hi-life membership. That's only about £40 a year, but we don't use it nowadays so I might as well have the £40.