Ground zero

100 Days clean. ВЈ5,000 withheld from gambling corporations using a notional £50 per day.

I am certainly in a better place now than I was last December albeit with fragile finances and a long list of creditors. There is a long way to go and I have only completed part of my journey. The first one hundred days need to form a solid platform for the rest of my recovery. I must continue to avoid temptation and I must not become complacent. This is going to be a long, hard slog but I will get there.

Good luck all.

Congratulations on 100 days Pelle, good solid milestone to reach. Well done.

Keep going and keep winning.

Suzanne xx

Fella

I simply salute you.

Keep making the right choice, 5k banked!!!

The stake? Zip, nothing, not one single penny.

The middle finger raised to addiction.

Fantastic! !!!!

Abstain and maintain

Duncs stepping forward never back.

Well done Pelle. We're both in a much better place than the 'Kingfisher' days.

Keep in touch

How are you? you usually update at the weekend. 100 days is fantabulous but we re not cured. I hope you're still strong.

108 days clean.

Thanks for keeping tabs on me - I try to update every Saturday but was ill over the weekend. Better now.

Still sitting on a mountain of stagnant debt. The road ahead is long and steep. Currently stuck in stationary traffic on a motorway slip road. It is times like these that I miss the buzz of gambling - the chance of instant gratification, the escape from the rat race and the monotony of life - but I also know it will, ultimately, make everything worse. I am an addict. I cannot control myself. I can only ruin my life and the lives of those around me. I need to stay clean and keep marching forward. I have a family. I have a job. I have a home. I cannot throw it all away by chasing a quick buck on a low-grade handicap at Kempton Park.

The future is uncertain at the moment - my wife's work may take me abroad. I am worried, but as long as I do not gamble, there is still hope in my life for a better future in which gambling does not feature in any way, shape or form.

Day 112. 16 weeks clean.

I am pleased to have navigated the Grand National and all the high-profile races that surround it. I kept myself busy this afternoon doing DIY at home with my wife. Fairly frustrating and time-consuming, but it meant I avoided chasing bets on donkeys running around a race course.

Busy couple of weeks ahead with some rather stressful work looming - still it means I'll have some extra money to put towards my credit card debts. I am hoping to reduce them to below 15k by the end of this month. It is a long slog but I will get there.

Good luck all!

Day 119. 17 weeks clean.

Not much to say other than I am still gamble free. I am very busy at home and at work at the moment. The next couple of weeks will be important with some significant deadlines and events looming. I have been hit hard by a couple of hefty bills in the past week but I am going to delay paying them until May to give myself some breathing space. Haven't totted up my debts recently but they must still be around the 15k mark. They are proving very hard to shift this time around. Still, at least they are not escalating wildly as they would be if I were still in the gambling groove.

The march continues.

Day 126. 18 weeks clean.

I am glad to have got the past week out of the way. I had a high-profile public event on Wednesday that had been hanging over me for a few weeks; still, it went well so I am relieved. I am looking forward to getting my head down over the next few days and working hard. I have a stressful project deadling looming - by the end of the day on Thursday, but I am hoping to get an extension until the Tuesday after the bank holiday weekend. We shall see. This week is going to be important.

I threw a lot of money at my debts after payday and think I am starting to make some inroads into my stagnant £15k gambling debt, but I shall not be able to assess the position until the start of next month once various direct debits have been taken out of my account and my new statements are generated. At least the situation is not getting worse. It certainly would be if I were still gambling.

A footnote: as it was all over the news today, I thought I would mention the fact that the jockey Tony McCoy retired today. For twenty years in a row he has been the champion jockey. A great sportsman who rose above the seedy side of gambling and improved the image of horse racing. This closes a chapter on an era. It also strengthens my resolve to stay 'retired' from gambling on horse racing now the greatest jockey of all time has retired.

Hi Pelle,

Just popping in to congratulate you on 127 days of being gamble free, do like your saying, you have retired from gambling lol.

Keep strong and keep winning.

Suzanne xxx

Nice post, Pelle. Hope you're OK.

Chat sometime?

Congrats on 130+ days.

My experience is that the debts take 3 or 4 months or so before they stabilise and then start to come down

Day 133. 19 weeks clean.

£6,650 withheld from gambling corporations using a notional £50 per day.

I am spending the Bank Holiday weekend at my parents' house with my son. It has been a bit of a wet weekend so far, but it is nice to have a break from the Big Smoke.

Next week sees the culmination of a project I have been working on since January, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the back of it. I hope to wind things up by Thursday as I want to take Friday off as I plan to stay up late on Thursday night in order to follow the General Election. It is going to be interesting and very tight.

Day 141.

I broke through the 20-week barrier yesterday, which was another mini-milestone on my long road to salvation. I have now withheld ВЈ7,050 from gambling corporations using a notional £50 per day for each of the days I have stayed clean.

Not much to report this week other than I completed a project I had been working on since January, which map a relief. My next target is reaching 6-months clean on 20th June. The first six months have been about consolidating a fairly wretched financial position whereas the next six months need to be about hammering my debts into submission, but with another baby on the way in July that is not going to be easy.

I shall be having beans on toast for lunch every working day for the rest of the year.

148 days clean.

Totally broke and in need of payday. This really is a long slog. Anyway, I just need to keep on marching forward and never return to my bad old ways.