Does anyone else on here find it really odd how you can blow hundreds and thousands in gambling without batting an eyelid, yet perhaps over analyse actually spending 'normally'?
I have been experiencing this lately, especially when shopping - oh that loaf of bread is £1 wonder if somewhere else does it for 80p! Madness!
Is it just something physiological? I suppose maybe the feeling is my brain thinks 'oh if I'm gambling I'm investing money with the chance of leaving with more money' (ha ha ha!) but with shopping it is simply a case of spending money and only getting the item you paid for in return...
Hi Johnboy ,
Well done for your post, and thanks for sharing your concerns about spending.
It’s a good question, and I hope fellow forum members would be able to support you with their suggestions and experiences.
You might be able to find out that you’re not alone in what you’re going through.
Please try and stay in touch so we can continue to support you. Above all, keep posting!
Best wishes,
Beatrice
Hi Johnboy,
That would be natural enough. Your default state is to look for best value you can but when it comes to gambling we do not think rationally as compulsive gamblers. We would justify our gambling regardless of amounts we wasted just to keep going. My partner has control of my finances now but one thing we do, which helps me mentally, is to keep a spreadsheet of our household budget. So we would have a budget for the weekly shop, bills etc. This way it's easy to keep track of outgoings and see what can be saved. I know it helps me a lot.
I can completely relate to this! I think might be because I have spent a lot of time in the last few years with literally £1 a so until payday so just in permanent buget mode. I often go to a few different shops some of which are quite far away just to save tiny amounts. Also think it might be because I feel bad about myself and don't think I deseve a "treat" honestly today was in supermarket and fancied a baguette was 45p and I didn't buy it because had normal bread in freezer. I have debts just now but not going to make much difference to how quickly can pay off by making such small savings. Madness indeed!
I can relate to this a lot - my husband is a compulsive gambler and now he has stopped (still very early days) he does comment a lot on how some things are expensive and we could get them cheaper etc.
One of the hardest things I've found now that I have control of the money is that he doesn't have money if he wants to treat himself (or me for that matter!) and I know it's mad because ALL the spare money he ever had went on gambling anyway but the baguette comment you made Seventy7 really resonated with me as it breaks my heart if we want to get out of the house and go for a drink for example, we will go to the pub he will say he will have a soda water as he doesn't feel like he deserves money being spent on him to get anything else.
He is also much more aware of money now though so although I control all of the money we sit and budget together (similar to the spreadsheet above) so we can both see what is going where and how the balance of the gambling debt is going down, so I think that helps a lot. It's quite strange how he could gamble away so much yet when we look at our monthly household spend he can find ways to save a little money here or there.. it's great that he is but I do find my self screaming in my head sometimes why didn't you think like that when you were gambling away so much money?!??!?
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