I'm Finally Admitting My Addiction

Legacy_user

Hi everyone,

I am beginning to have a revelation. I am an addict. I just can't stop myself and it's getting out of control... well actually it got out of control a long time ago! Another thing I'm completely confused about is that actually I look around and don't understand where the money actually went :S

I always have good intentions every month to buckle down and get paying off the credit card debts that I have. I'm luckier than many as I can afford my debts... but I don't help matters as each month I pay huge amounts of debt off on my cards then I spend loads on them again throughout the month usually taking myself a little further into debt then my credit increases every 3 months and I spend a bit more.

I just can't help myself buying things. Though I know now I really do have a problem I will start to make changes to get rid of my 6k credit card debts. It's been so hard for me to accept I am a shopaholic. I have put things in place and done some research to start getting everything into shape.

Shuffled my cards about a bit and focusing on my 39.9% cards first! I put all the others on minimum for now and locked up £2,500 of it for 30 months on 0% transfer with a much lower interest rate when it's no longer 0%.

I hope to up my game on here and keep browsing through peoples stories for support. My husband doesn't really understand my obsession with spending so it's nice to be around people who understand and are going through the same thing... or have been through it.

Thanks for listening,
Scott

Thumper7

Hiya


sorry I can't help, I'm a new poster on this board myself but I wish you all the luck


D

Missko

You are not alone, Scott...have a look at my signature!


Post a full breakdown of your income/expenditure (SOA) and cleverer people than me will be able to help you!

bambos

Hi Scott :j

Firstly welcome, I'm sure that you will find lots of support on this board as I have over the past couple of years. I was in a similar situation as yours a while back and after lots of debating and thinking I worked out that stress was my cause and I would spend as a 'release' to help me cope with life's stressors.

I changed things by working through the stress and eliminating as much as possible and then worked on making money instead of spending which has become addictive now as I love eBay and gumtree for selling our wares.

If you look at my sig back in January we were quite far from debt free but now we are nearly there and things are finally looking good for us but it's been a labour of love. Persevere and keep watching that figure reduce you will get there.

cherryblossomzel

Have you figured out why you spend so much? For example, if you overspend because you get a "high" from it, or because you suffer from depression or stress or anxiety and shopping makes you feel better, you should work on that issue as well, as otherwise you'll end up in the same place again.

There is help out there, you don't have to do it alone. Good luck.

longtermplanner

The key thing here is to find where all the money is going to and to budget properly. Try looking at YNAB, lots of posters here have found it makes a real difference to how they think about money: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4953958

its_maths_not_magic

A great resource for helping with addictions of all sorts is SMART recovery (google them for more info). They are an organisation that helps addicts recover by teaching coping skills and how to change the thinking behind the addiction which is research and science based. They have a lot of free stuff on their website as well as online meetings you can attend. It doesn't matter what the addiction is to, they help anyone from heroin addicts to gamblers to over eaters, you get the point. Hope that helps.