Redemption - The journey of a recovering gambling addict.

lucielle

Keep going you’re doing great!
L

FootyFanDan

Great progress, keep going 

mark55man

that's brilliant - well done.  You should be so proud of yourself

Sarahwithlove

You're doing great, keep going. You'll get there 

Lonelygambler

Thought I would check in. Feeling a bit rubbish at the moment, I think because I am sticking to the plan and breaking bad habits. I know in 12’ months time I’m going to be  in such a better financial position. 

So £900 cleared off one card. A small woo hoo to me 

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

You continue to do extremely well.! Keep going!

Lonelygambler

So, I thought I would put my latest SOA 

Monthly Income

We currently have two household incomes:

• Me £4,450.00

• Wife £3,650.00

Household Monthly Expenses

These are the shared costs of running our home and caring for the kids — from the mortgage to nursery fees and food shopping.

Wife bought a new car recently and is paying for this for the time being. 

Category	Amount
Mortgage	£1,805.00
Car Finance (Nissan)	£320.00
Council Tax	£240.00
Energy (Octopus)	£200.00
Water	£75.00
Mortgage Overpayment	£60.00
Management Bills	£50.00
Nissan Service Plan	£26.00
Gap Insurance	£23.19
Paint Protection Plan	£25.70
Tesco Subscription	£6.99
Sky	£75.00
Children Gym (Subscription)	£29.00
House Insurance	£30.00
Cleaner	£80.00
Window Cleaner	£29.00
Amazon & Music	£19.99
Food Shopping	£800.00
Nursery 1	£571.00
Nursery 2	£545.00
Bank Account Fees	£18.00
Savings 1	£50.00
Savings 2	£50.00
Total Household Fixed Bills	£5,128.87

---

👤 Personal Monthly Expenses (From My Salary)

After contributing to household bills, here’s where my remaining salary goes.

Category	Amount
Car Loan	£353.00
Car Service Plan	£12.00
Car Insurance	£45.00
Mobile	£8.50
Dead Happy (Insurance)	£33
Life Insurance	£30
Professional Sub	£30
Drive	£7.99
Runna	£15.99
Apple iCloud	£8.99
Spending Money	£200
Main CC 1 - 0%	£450.00
Main CC 2 - 0%	£100.00

Once I have cleared my next credit card, I am going to through all my debt money into my car loan. 

LG. 

Cara_

I hope you are feeling more positive. You're doing really well - reducing a card by £900 is a great achievment.

alt80

We all have ups and downs but you’re doing really well mate.

You and I don’t have a too dissimilar monthly income but whilst we do see a little more coming in you have no school fees and a much smaller mortgage - once you’ve got the cards gone and you’re out of the nursery phase, so long as you don’t go independent for your kids’ education you’re going to have a great surplus. 

DRDS25

Hi LG, I'm new to this page and just came across your post. I had a gambling addiction up until 2023.. 2 days before Christmas and I nearly ruined it for my kids, if it wasn't for me and my partner arguing over where the £50 he'd sent me had gone, and him leaving the house with our son and going to my parents house for a cup of tea and to cool down, and him telling my parents he had a suspicion, so my mum came knocking on my door and after a huge meltdown it all came out. I'm not going to lie I was really upset with my partner telling my parents and because of that my mum knocking on my door, but when I looked back, I couldn't thank him enough. So I started gambling heavy on online slots around 2020 when I was pregnant with our son. At the time my partner wasn't very supportive at all, I was very poorly with my pregnancy, and my partner spent that whole time going out with his friends and not coming home until the next day. Our son was born a month early, thankfully completely healthy, just a tiny 5lb 2. He cried non stop and nothing would settle him, he would throw his milk back up, I went the doctors numerous times and was fobbed off with different things, finally after 7 months I demanded a second opinion, turns out he had a milk allergy. But during that 7 months my partner continued going out, I was bringing up a baby and my then 3 year old daughter. So with all that during pregnancy, our son not settling and obviously a terrible relationship, I took to gambling on a night once the kids were in bed. It felt like an escape from reality, some me time. I was so depressed and gambling took me away from that for a while. When our son had just turned one, we almost lost him to meningitis, i had to sit and watch my 1 year old laying in a hospital bed with a tube down his throat to rest his brain along with all sorts of other wires, and the room full of doctors and nurses, the worst day of my life. Thankfully our son is fit and healthy, 4 years old now and starting big school in September. But with all that also happening, I started gambling even more, because once he was home, I wasn't sleeping at night so I was on my phone gambling whilst watching my son sleep. I didn't realise how much that affected me until I spoke to a therapist about it, I can't even see an ambulance now without going straight back to that day. So with all that, I gambled more and more to escape reality, still having relationship troubles. All sorts happened in between, but I won't bore you anymore. Fast forward to 2023, I was in deep with gambling, as soon as I got paid I'd spend all of it over night. Christmas 2023 came, I had bought a few presents off amazon for the kids, my partner had sent me £400 and I bought a few presents and spent the rest gambling, he then sent me £500 a few days later and all that was gone fast. He had a feeling, I coulf tell the way he was asking about the presents. The final straw was when he sent me £50 towards the shopping and mo shopping came. That was when he went to my parents and told them. If it wasn't for my mum coming up that day and banging on my door, firstly giving me a big telling off, I had a meltdown, on the floor screaming, telling her to leave, because at that point I wanted to end my life. I was letting my children down. After the telling off (I was 31 at the time, but you know, mums are mums lol) my mum calmed down, comforted me and spoke to me about it. That day, I signed up to gamban, I also signed up to something else, were i had 8 therapy appointments over the phone. Thankfully the day it all came out (23.12.23, I'll never forget that day) my partner ended up sending money to my mum and also so did my nan so we could get the kids Christmas presents. Thankfully since the beginning of 2024, me and my partner sorted our relationship and we have the best relationship now. Our kids are happy, I am 1 and half years free of gambling, I now have money spare, we have a holiday booked for September with the kids and my family, something we couldn't afford during my addiction. I'll always have that guilt for letting my children down (they didn't know anything but I know) I never thought I'd have an addiction to anything, but it's scary how fast it can happen and you don't even realise to begin with. I'll always be thankful for the day my partner told my mum and dad, and I'll always be thankful for my mum coming up to my house. 

Easier said than done, but please don't be too hard on yourself. We can't change the past but we can work on making sure it doesn't happen again!