April Fools!

Day 120.

Had a lovely little “leavers lunch” today with my colleagues 👌. The job is relentless but my colleagues are great! I was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers, £120.00 worth of John Lewis vouchers, a fabulous Fortnum & Mason boxed Prosecco and Bellini set and some posh Fortnum & Mason florentines!😋. I felt the love 🥰😊. I am wfh tomorrow - basically got nothing to do!👌. I then trudge into the office for the final time on Thursday morning, to hand in my equipment and then that is me done and dusted with the Probation Service. 👋👋.

I have just come to bed and realised that my monthly salary goes in at midnight tonight! It’s so nice for my mind not to be consumed with counting down the days until payday next arrives. 👍

Need my sleep now folks so I will bid you all a good night and God bless.

”April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

Lovely post pinky. Great to hear. Big few days ahead. Leaving a job is stressful. Doubt and worry will cross your mind. I know you won’t even think about gambling but these are the times gamblers seem to relapse more often, big life events. You got his though.

Start of a new chapter, and hopefully a less stressful, calmer life. Debt free before you know it. Life is coming together for you and I couldn’t be happier for you.

Stay strong and enjoy your gifts! You get to spend some money at John Lewis without even budgeting it. Winner!!

@p6z38njbqm Thank you fish for your continued support 🐟💙. Not sure about being “debt free before I know it” but I am happy enough, knowing that every month, forever how long, my debt decreases.  Remember, “steady wins the race” for me”! 😊.

Take care.

🩷🍎.

Day 121.

Just sitting here at home, work’s laptop in front of me with nothing to do! Unheard of in usual circumstances, however today is not usual. Today is the last time I have logged on as a Probation Officer!👌. So far, I have helped organised my son’s packing for his break away to Bruges and Belgium, I have done all my washing and hung it out, caught up on some news and I have been on this thread! Who said anything about work?!,😜.

Off round to my sister’s soon, to take the last of my homemade iced lemon curd Madeira cake, to have with a cuppa. 😋.

Take care all and remember - when you smile, the whole world will smile back at you!🙂

”April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

Day 122.

Well……… the end of an era has finally arrived!! After 20 years working for the Probation Service, today was the day, I handed in all my belongings, to set off on what will hopefully be my final working chapter - at HMPO 🙏. Whilst travelling back home on the train, I received a message from my “now no longer line manager”, to say what had just arrived in the post - my 20 years service certificate and boxed coin from The Royal Mint, in honour of my achievement! It beggars belief, given I had reached this milestone on 7th June! My colleague who lives not far from me, said she would pick it up and bring it to me 👍.

I can’t believe that in my post yesterday, I didn’t mention it was payday! My final payday at that with the Probation Service!! It just demonstrated to me more however, that since not gambling, I am not obsessing about my next payday. From 19th August, I will be returning to weekly pay (this will be a blast from the past), whilst working for the agency so this will need some adjustments but it shouldn’t prove too much of a problem for me.

Off to Anglesey tomorrow for the weekend so looking forward to that 👍😎.

Good night God bless all. 

“April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

@j5a6meyr4z congrats pink.  It's a big change after 20 years.

Enjoy Anglesey!  We visited there the past two years and love it.  Beaumaris for fish and chips and Newborough or 'Niwbwrch'..  love that beach.

Enjoy.  Let us know if you see a red squirrel 

Hope you had a great weekend pinky. Great to see you enjoying life. So glad you’ve reached another milestone in your life too. Since starting this diary you’ve gone from gambler, to being gamble free, to starting a whole new career. That’s a big change and it shows how much we can achieve if we don’t spend all our time wrapped up in the world of gambling. 

We’ve both been on our little journey so far together, and we’ve both seen huge changes in our lives, the best part being we now both find happiness in having money. Our money. We may not be rich, we may not be able to buy expensive things, but we have everything we ever wanted and didn’t think we could have about 120 days ago. 

Congrats again. A toast to your new job and 20 years service in you old one 🥂

Stay strong 💪 

@thebean Thanks bean 💙. My brother’s place is not too far from Beaumaris - he is at Plas Coch, not too ar from the Menai bridge. We had a lovely time 👌. I saw rabbits but no squirrels!!🐿️ 😆.

Take care.

🩷🍎.

@p6z38njbqm Thank you so much Fish 🐟💙. We continue to surge ahead together on our g.f journey. 💪💪💪🙏.

🩷🍎.

Day 126.

Had a lovely weekend with the girls at my brother’s lodge in Anglesey. Lots of food, drink and chat!👌. I am fortunate that I have this place to go to, which costs me nothing other than a “thank you” gift 😊. I am also very much aware that I have such a loving family 😇.

The suitcase will be getting lifted out soon - off to my sister’s villa in Lanzarote on Wednesday for 10 days 😎🌞. All her family go with their children and I am invited too! Again, this does not cost me a penny. My sister’s husband treats the whole family to this every year 😇💙. He rents out other villas for his children and I get to stay at my sister’s villa, “child-free” so we have the best of both worlds!😆. Again, I feel so fortunate that I have such a loving and generous family 😇.

My holiday spends will be a bit tight but I never really need much and in the past, I have always come home with money!👍.  My sister has also told me not to be worrying about anything like this which is just typical of her 🩷😇. I have told her that I am determined not to leave myself in this position this time next year, so I will be aiming to set up another little savings pot marked as “holiday funds”. My “slow and steady wins the race” mantra will be applied once again 😊.

I end this post with two words - Blessed and Grateful. 😇🙏.

Take care all.

”April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

Day 127.

I have had a very productive day today- ironing, packing my suitcase and annual holiday pedicure and manicure (my nieces bought me a voucher last Christmas) so was able to use this👌. An extra bonus as money is still a bit tight at the moment but most definitely improving as I progress through the months 👍🙏.

Off to The Canary Islands tomorrow, to my sister’s villa for 10 days so I will most likely not be posting on here until I return. I will then be heading straight into my new job and full-time hours too (have been part-time for the last 4 years) so this will need some adjusting 🙃, however, I will be earning more money 👍.

Will update once I get back but until then, take care, stay strong and keep going on your g.f journey 💪💪💪🙏.

”April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

Have an amazing Holiday Pink!! You deserve it with how far you have come this year, I've just come back from Fuerteventura which was lovely just to get away and reset... 10 days in a Villa sounds even better too 😍

Good luck with the new job when your back too 🙂

@brownie889 Thank you brownie. 💙. Glad to hear you are enjoying life too and spending quality time away on holiday. 👌.

Take care and keep going strong. 💪.

🩷🍎.

Day 128.

I just wanted to make this post before I head off on my hols today. Last night in bed, I was thinking of all the new people who have recently found their way onto this site and how they have reached “rock bottom”. It took me back to the handful of times I have been there and how I never want to reach this point again.

I have previously been with Gamstop, which prevented me from gambling for 5 years, however, when this came to an end last November, I did not renew this and so the gambling cycle started to gradually creep back in again and I remained on this cycle up until end of March this year. I then closed my online accounts down but I did not renew my Gamstop account as I wanted to tell myself that I was not gambling because I did not want to, rather than because Gamstop was preventing me from doing so. After seeing so many additional people join recently and reading their stories, with all the common traits as the rest of us on here, I decided that “preventative” measures are still much better than “corrective” measures. With this in mind, and just to add another firm safety measure, I have now reactivated my Gamstop account and have put blocks on both my debit cards for my two bank accounts. I didn’t know whether to feel let down or happy about this, knowing that if I were to be tempted again, that temptation would soon be crushed! My sensible side of my head however this morning, is telling me the latter 👍. I feel better for doing this and I can now go on holiday feeling happy and secure, knowing that I can safely continue my g.f journey going forward 👌🙂😎🌞🛫.

Love, peace and strength to you all 🙏.

”April fools - no more the fool”!

Pink Lady 🩷🍎.

Day 142.

Soooooo....... Two days into my holiday at my sister's villa in The Canary Islands, unfortunately for me, my problem tooth flared up! 😪. So much so, my whole face and right eye swelled up, making me look like I had gone 10 rounds with Tyson Fury!! My sister had to make an emergency appointment for me at the dentist, which I did protest initially.  I have her to thank however, as it was discovered that I had a large infection above the problem tooth and so I was given antibiotics, anti inflamatories and pain killers!  It was a Friday afternoon so lord knows how I may have ended up if I had waited until the Monday!  Although in considerable pain  I was just so grateful that I was at my sister's villa and not confined to a hotel room 👍. Of course, all this incurred a bit of expense but I was just glad I had the money to be able to afford the cost of the treatment/medication. 

I made the best of the holiday as I could and was surrounded by my lovely family 👌. To add Insult to injury however, I got home to be informed that my dentist had just gone on holiday and will not be back until 3rd September! 😭. The tooth will have to come out and there lies more expense but again, thank goodness I will be able to afford this.

On a brighter note, I started in my new job on Monday. All is going great and the building I am in is fabulous and has a magnificent "Bistro". When I sent the pics of it to my brother, he said it looked like the Grosvenor Hotel!! 🤣🤣. A far cry from the Probation Service I have just left!

I did not record whilst I was away but have noticed more new people on here, as well as some regulars who have lapsed but good for them, have got straight back on track by looking at where their weakness lay 👌. I commend them for doing this 👏👏👏. It's also good to see those regulars still going strong and remaining committed to achieving a happier and healthier lifestyle 👌👏👏👏.

Take care all and will catch up soon!

"April fools - no more the fool"!

Pink Lady 💗🍎.