Payday - the hardest time of the month for many

Posted by: Ronan91

As payday comes, from experience, this is the hardest day of the month for many people on here. Fresh funds in the bank and the temptation to spend it on gambling.

I thought it might be nice just to make a thread here for anyone who gets in that situation to share their thoughts.

My advice to you all today; don't do it. Use your time for something else, go for a run, go for a swim, meet up with a friend for a coffee, go to the cinema, go for a bike ride or have a walk around your town/village/city to see something new. Whatever you do, think about how you felt last time you spent all of your money and the sinking horrible feeling when you lost it all, and then chased those losses afterwards.

If you don't spend your payday this month, and you don't spend it next month, the situation starts to improve..

 

Trying to stay positive & sending positive thoughts to anyone else reading this. Have a lovely weekend (hopefully a gamble-free one!)

The only thing that works for me is to have very restricted access to money. I cant be trusted if i have cash to hand

All of my direct debits/bills etc. all come out on payday. Whatever is left I transfer straight into premium bonds or a specialist ISA which I can get to at any time but i need to give a couple of days notice before the money hits my account. This prevents me from having direct access to instant sums of money. 

For any purchases through the month, i use a credit card (which also gets me airmiles) - this is paid off each month on payday. 

I have been like this for a few years now and although i never have large amounts of cash on me, I have managed to build up a decent savings stash (near on 50k) and the airmiles get me and the mrs a free holiday each year (apart from last year, COVID)

Ironically when i was gambling heavy, i was doing it to get money in the bank and hopefully get a couple of decent holidays a year. Now i get that without gambling 🙂

Gambling is primarily a drug addiction. A recovery involved doing  a period of cold turkey. This will be uncomfortable but the trusted advice is to get your money protected.

I felt a huge sense of relief that I was getting help. I felt a huge sense of relief that nearly all of my money was taken away from me. It was no good to me in my pocket and too risky as I healed from a state of confusion.

My advice is that you must take away the importance or risk payday. Yes payday will be risky if the door is wide open to gamble.

For too long payday was something I was hyped up for. It was just more funds to gamble and it was soon gone.

When I knew my money was going to safety, payday took on a new meaning. It became a NON day which was great. I had more important things to concentrate on and a recovery to do. I had been ill with depression and a  gambling addiction

I repeat that money was no good in my pocket so why worry about someone controlling it for you.

This does not rely on willpower alone. Too many gamblers make that mistake.

Also its not awkward because what is awkward compared to totally destroying yourself by gambling?

I was killing myself. I felt some serenity when I started a proper recovery. I didnt rattle because I was truly ready. I wasnt climbing the walls with urges and i was finding an inner peace. I was a defeated man and I knew abstention for the rest of my life was the only way. I can never be complacent again but feel so much positivity about that

Best wishes to everyone on the forum