Redemption - The journey of a recovering gambling addict.

~FlowerPot~

Oh how wonderful, I'm so pleased she gave you this wonderful surprise. 
You definitely deserve a fab treat. 
Onwards and upwards,
maybe when the debt has gone you can surprise her with a Lovely treat like this!? 

Lonelygambler

Sunday morning check in. 

We had a big family trip to Paultons park over the weekend. We go every year and it was great with a hotel stay. Not much sleep tbh but a good family time. 

Very lucky to say this is all paid for by MIL. 

Hopefully a few chilled days ready for work next week and next pay day on Friday where I hope to be able break the 2k mark on my credit card debt. 

I am going to see what my early settlement figure on my bank loan is for my car and see if I can money transfer from one of my credit cards for a year to bring down the interest and then move to a balance transfer in a year. 

LG

Cara_

Well done on hitting the 13 month milestone.

What a lovely surprise from your wife which you derserve. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Lonelygambler

This week’s been a bit of a gut-punch financially – one of those where everything just seems to go up at once.

Here’s the damage:

• 💧 Water – Up by £30 a month

• 🔌 Electric & Gas – Up by £25 a month

• 🏡 Council Tax – Up by £20 a month

• 🧸 Nursery Fees – A whopping £100 rise

• 🛒 Food Shopping – Now having to stick to a tight £200/week budget

It’s been a real strain. The good news is that come September, our nursery fees will drop by around £700, which will be a massive help – that finish line is in sight, even if it’s a few months away.

To top it off, I got stung with a yellow box fine in the City of London – £80 gone just like that. Not ideal.

With all that in mind, I’ve had to scale back this month’s debt payment to £200. Not what I hoped for, but it’s still something, and progress is progress – however slow.

One step at a time and no gambling. 

Spendless

Eeek well it's been dubbed Awful April for a reason. Yes London loves issuing those fines I warn my DH about being careful each time we visit - you'll be more aware in future.

The nursery charges seem a big rise and unsure if that's for 1 child or 2 . I'm guessing though  that the nursery has put each session up by a pound or two (probably to cover additional staffing costs) and if your child/ren go for a lot of sessions then you're getting the cumulative effect. 

Looking for the positives, the biggie as always and the most important is that you've not gambled. You've still managed to pay off £200 of your debt  and in less than 6 months time your nursery bill will reduce. Keep going. 

Lonelygambler

Nursery / Forest school is for two boys full days 9-6pm twice a week. Works out at £25 per week increase. 

My eldest finishes and starts school, wrap around care is around £16 a session so savings should be good. 

Lonelygambler

Coming up to 14/15 months without a gamble now, and I’m still attending weekly therapy to get through each evening. It has its ups and downs, but showing up to the sessions really is like taking medicine for the illness.

Money-wise, things are okay. I haven’t been able to pay off as much debt as I’d hoped, but it’s another month without adding to it – just managing to hit the numbers each time.

I looked into transferring my car bank loan onto credit cards, but after the fees, the savings didn’t really add up. That loan just ticks over. Unfortunately, there’s no equity in the car since I took out a bigger loan to clear an old credit card. Oh, the shame…

But here we are. Just continuing to pay, pay, pay.

LG

alt80

You’re doing well mate and so long as you are keeping to your budget you will get the debt paid down. It really isn’t worth sacrificing some things to get ahead by a few months. 

Therapy is both necessary to address the underlying thoughts driving addiction and so !!!!!! hard. The ups and downs can last for a long time. Tbh it’s taken me a long while to be able to even see that- plenty of times I’ve just wanted to give up but continued purely because the other option is relapse. Those of us on a similar journey get it, you’re not alone.

Lonelygambler

So another month goes by. It’s been a busy one on all accounts. 

Recovery has been slow going this month, but now approaching 15 montha since my last gamble. 

Money wise ticks over, about to break into the £2k for a credit card which is positive. 

I’ll update over the weekend when I have some headspace. 

itsthelittlethings

Hey hope all is good just to say keep on keeping on. It’s nearly three years since I had a drink, different kind of addiction but I can empathise. We do recover!