Battling Debt and Mental Illness — and (hopefully) Winning!

AlexLK

Just want to say good luck with your journey. It most certainly can be done, I also suffer with depression and anxiety and was in a lot of debt but managed to get through it. Now I'm debt free I'd like to think I'll never have another credit card again.

Orange Ena: Not sure you remember me but thank you for posting helpful and supportive words when I was new to MSE.

AspiringButAnxious

Thank you both

I've listed the guitar — for £25. I did a more thorough search and found several guitars similar to mine for the same price, so figured it's worth a hot. I double-checked and it's in excellent condition, plus it comes with a case, spare strings, pitch pipe and chord book. I can't remember what I paid for it; I think it was £50-70 about 13 years ago. Hopefully someone will want it. Figured it's worth a shot and I can always drop the price if no one is interested.

Itsa_Longshot

AspiringButAnxious wrote: »

Went shopping this morning and spent only my allocated £5, which is progress. I bought 24 cans of Tesco coke, which works out cheaper than Pepsi — as long as I don't drink them all in one week! I'm trying to cut down, but it's one of my few treats and because I buy the diet versions, better for me than other treats I'm prone to having (i.e. Chocolate, cake, biscuits...)

I used to drink plenty of coke too, particularly in the warmer months it was great to get home from work and take a cool refreshing can out of the fridge! I've stopped buying it now though and swapped it for putting a 2 litre bottle of tap water in the fridge in the mornings instead, and having a big glass of squash when I get home. I've not gone 'cold turkey', I'll still have some if I'm out or visiting people, but it's not a once or twice daily thing now, and a few quid off the food shop too. Chocolate and biscuits are another matter though! :rotfl:

AspiringButAnxious

I managed to cut right down on coke last year — I used to drink 2x 2l bottles a day at one point — but the habit has crept back... Menaging not to be *quite* as much of a sugar monster, but it's still not great. :-/

Orange_Ena

AspiringButAnxious wrote: »

Thank you both

I've listed the guitar — for £25. I did a more thorough search and found several guitars similar to mine for the same price, so figured it's worth a hot. I double-checked and it's in excellent condition, plus it comes with a case, spare strings, pitch pipe and chord book. I can't remember what I paid for it; I think it was £50-70 about 13 years ago. Hopefully someone will want it. Figured it's worth a shot and I can always drop the price if no one is interested.

Definitely worth a shot! Hope it sells at full price

kiss_me_now9

Just popping in to say hi! We sound a little similar, I'm 25, living with my parents and have a few bits of mental baggage strapped to my back as well - it's lovely to read someone who is so positive

I fully believe in the universe timing things for us. We lost the second of our two cats in November 2013; we were looking for a pair of kittens from about February 2014 and couldn't find anything. My Nana passed away in May 2014 after a few months of intense illness. The day that she passed my Mum took the afternoon off of work and happened to be driving past the vets... where she saw the ad for the two kittens we picked up a month later. I understand what you mean about your dog.

Good luck with your journey! x

AspiringButAnxious

Thank you everyone

kiss_me_now9 — that's really cool. I love these episodes of synchronicity. I had a weird one last year: I found out that a writer had chosen me to receive a free mentorship on the morning I was going out with a friend. After chips on the beach we decided to poke around a few charity shops and in the first one we went in, was a book by my new mentor! I snapped it up because I hadn't read any of her work at the time

Today has been really quiet, but I'm still exhausted from finishing CampNaNoWriMo on Friday. Asked to join another local selling group on fb and earned £2 on Shopitize. Also been Swagbucking as much as I can without being driven mad!

AspiringButAnxious

Got a 75p credit for a YouGov survey which malfunctioned when I tried to complete it, which was a nice surprise. Then another YouGov survey malfunctioned later in the day...

Have redeemed my SBs for a £5 Amazon gift card, which will go towards a present for a friend's baby due in October.

Otherwise, it's been a very quiet day. Just chilling at home with my mum and knocking a couple of random tasks off my to-do list. My parents are off work this week, so the holiday feel is getting to me!

I will need to work harder and get stuff done next week — I feel like I'm not making enough progress with anything in my life, especially trying to get freelance work. A lot of the trouble is my anxiety: I tend to spend hours (literally) worrying about everything and talking myself out of taking risks, even though I need to take risks in order to stand a chance of success. I lack confidence in my ability to make self-employment work for me. I just don't know where to start looking for job opportunities — I have read so much conflicting advice and I start doubting myself, so I end up doing nothing.

AlexLK

Try to schedule one hour per day to work. I know it's easier said than done but don't think about outcomes, just try to do something related to the work you would like to get into. Unfortunately, I know when anxiety is really bad, it's practically impossible to do anything other than be anxious. I was told by my GP to write down each thought, what was happening and how you're feeling as each thought passes. It takes a lot of time but you do start to see patterns emerging which can help you to start recognising when things are going to take a turn for the worse.

Stop putting yourself under pressure by telling yourself what you "need" to do. Instead a list of things you should get done and a list of things you want to do / rewards for getting the more difficult things done may work.

AspiringButAnxious

Thank you, Alex. Those are really good ideas and I will give them a shot

Today has gone really well. I went out with a friend and spent... £0! We just walked around looking at stalls and then went to the park with her little girl. In the past, I would have looked for any excuse to buy something, but I didn't let myself look at my weaknesses (scarves, especially!). I was going to pay for the car park, since she came to my place first for lunch and gave me a lift instead of me having to drive, but a nice lady asked if we had bought a ticket and when we said no, gave us hers — we could have stayed until 9:04am tomorrow!

I also asked my parents to take my ring to a jeweller to sell it, but my mum decided to buy it for the same amount because she likes the ring. That's £20 into my savings pot