Reminder to self about the proper value of money
Bag of potatoes, jar of coffee, loaf of bread, 1 kg of sugar. Total cost £4
.... which is the same as two £2 spins on the slots in the bookies, gone in 5 seconds.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Agreed!
I do s**t like this all the time
In your mind assign the money you're thinking about gambling to a direct debit or standing order. It works a lot of the time for me....sometimes not!
£100 in the slot machine playing Sparta or Reels of Gold.....no! That's my council tax for the month paid and sorted and not whittling about.
£300 cash withdrawn spanked on the dogs...NO! PAY MY RENT!Â
It's ok, only £50 for scratch cards it's fine.....no idiot put £50 electric on card and rest easy knowing you've got electric for the month. Sometimes the feeling of doing all this overrides the buzz you want from gambling but in these cases you won't end up crying feeling like s**t wishing you'd just for once made a better decision.
It's an ongoing issue for all of us and I hope we all keep getting better at controlling the impulses and growing
When I gamble I totally lose the value of money what I can spend in a day equals 3 months wages crazy but so easily done.
One thing I did on giving up is open a Monza account , can also set a no gambling transaction feature, but also it lets you create pots , so I have pots for all my bills and outgoings, car, elec, holiday, petrol, food , plus loads more . This way every penny is accounted for without seeing a larger balance with bills forgotten about that was my norm. If I was to gamble I’m taking money from a pot and know I’m spending my petrol money for instance seems to focus me anyway. Hard to explain exactly so hope this makes sense
Yes indeed its a truly scary addiction!
If I lost a glove in the street or dropped some coins it would really niggle me (for days sometimes) but I used to stick notes in the machine slot like there was no tomorrow.
I used to feed money in like it had no value. One after the other not really thinking what that could have bought me.
Walking in with an amount I was going to win today in my mind...Oh just twenty will do today...that will do for me...the deluded blind arrogance of it is astounding really.
like it was some sort of scheme to cleverly and casually win a bit if I stay under the radar of wanting the larger amounts.
Like the gambling dens haven't thought of that?!...like everybody can just walk in and gain smaller amounts every day.
Its a crazy illness and I was out of my mind. The problem is that the addiction creeps in without people really knowing the full extent to which they are mentally ill with it.
I know what a pound buys me now and I enjoy what I buy. I pay the money for the goods and I am careful with money in a healthy way...not in an obsessed way which led to gambling behaviour
Best wishes to everyone on the forum
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This is all so true!  I had got into the habit of saying to myself ‘I’ll have a quick £100 go on slots’ as though it was nothing…. or £200, £300.
 £100 in real world money buys so much!  I reckon my sense of money was divided by 10 when gambling. Â
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