Lost the plot...so back.

Hey Hun,

Thankyou for the support.

With you on the heating but with little ones especially a new born what choice do you have.

Your doing great my love,i know you worry about finances alot but you have two debts paid off already be a bit more gentle on yourself.

Coming up to 6 months too whoop whoop:0)

Stay Strong

E XX

Hey jim, thanks for posting on mine, I wrote back on there but just checking out your latest updates.

Really sorry to hear that you are struggling. As I said on mine I am living on toast at the moment do I hear you. But you have people relying on you who probably don't want to eat toast I know.

Great stuff on how much you've got your debt down though. Keep positive that is slipping away and under 5 figures would be great. Talk to the bank, you know as much as me I'm sure but mostly stuff can be sorted out. My attitude tended to be to design my own repayment plan and tell them this is what I was doing and often they were so relieved/confused by me sounding like I wanted to pay it off that they were happy to agree.

Anyway hang in and try and zone out the stress and keep plugging away.

182

No gambling. Family already in bed, so I'm drinking an 'Old Tom' I bought from tesco (8.5% - wooah) and I'm going to watch a DVD of some nonsense or other. That'll do the job for now.

Hi,

It's soo good to read your positive diary today!

You are doing so well with a debt free date in sight!

it has helped tonight on a difficult night !

Thank you

Lucy

6 months today.

I never felt comfortable with luckyjim, so back to who I am.

I'm in a very different place now, to where I was 6 months ago. 6 months ago I was £6.5k overdrawn, had another £1000 due out at anytime which would have toppled me and made me miss a mortgage payment. This was on top of credit cards. In reality, there was no way to pay back this money, and my finances are (and were) too precarious to get a loan from anywhere.

I begged off 2 friends, one wouldn't help and one couldn't. In last chance saloon, I approached one long-term friend with whom I had no relationship with money - in other words, he was the last person on Earth I would normally have asked. I also had him down as 'tight'.

He lent me the money, no strings attached, 4% interest. He wasn't interested in why I needed it. That saved me, and made me look at where I was and what had nearly happened.

So here I am, finances poor but stable; progress is being made. Lots more time with the kids and OH. I drink less too, not that I was a heavy drinker, but I needed to save money and that was the luxury that had to be culled first.

I'd be lying if I said I don't miss it - I do. But I don't miss that feeling I had when I was preparing to explain to my OH and parents what I'd done. It's still a secret now; I'd like to open up, but that time isn't going to be now.

thanks for everyone's support, as always - you know who you are.

Congratulations on reaching 6 months without a bet! I am hot on your heels. It feels good. Just imagine what a mess we would be in now if we had continued to gamble for the last 6 months. Hardly bears thinking about. I would have been financially crippled, my family life would have fallen apart, and I would have been seriously ill caused by anxiety and high blood pressure.

Hi Jim,

Well done on the six months. Still need to tell myself on a daily basis that i can't gamble. I'd like to say i don't want to gamble but realistically i can't because i don't like that person gambling and i have a young family to support.

Here's to the next 6 months and then staying for the whole of 2012 without a bet. If we can take these targets then anything is possible.

Take care and look after the family 🙂

Hi Milkman, glad to have your original name back! Did you celebrate hitting 6 months? Any plans for the next 6 months?

How have the last few days been? I hope you have not let down your guard after successfully reaching the six-month mark. Keep on the straight and narrow. Good luck.

Any chance of an update? I hope you have not become complacent and ended up having a gambling blow-out.

Chance'd be a fine thing, Pelle!

Still gamble-free. So f***g busy i can't move. A newborn and a toddler, plus more and more work from my 'other' job have just incapacitated me at present. Maybe it's a result of being an older dad, but I'm just knackered most of the time, even when i get a good sleep. I really believe in being a hands-on father, and my job allows me to spend lots of time at home in the daytime, but I often don't have the energy to write lengthy monologues on the forum.

Thanks for asking. Still gamble-free and still determined!

As for celebrating 6 months, didn't really think about it - being gamble-free is currently the norm.

Six months 1 week

No thoughts of gambling this week. My overdraft is nudging £1000 - got to take action on that, it's going up too quickly. This is on top of all the other debts. I am desperate to shift these debts, but having a young family is making this extremely difficult - certainly more difficult than I expected (and I didn't think it would be easy). There's very little else I can sacrifice...freewheeling downhill in the car? drinking less tea and more water? Halving water in the shower/bath? feel like I've cut everything to the bone.

Hi Mate

It is tough at times especially when we start to think what could have been. Try staying in the positive mind and think in due course the debt will be cleared. Without gambling we have a chance! Times are difficult for everyone at present but it will get better, gambling definately is not my answer to my problem.

Take care

Can you get free milk from the dairy? Can you sell anything online such as books, CDs and old phones? Have a look around the Money Saving Expert forum for tips.

Car boot sales are really good places to go to if you feel the need for treating yourself. See if there are any good ones near you and the car boot season will really start now once the weather picks up.

NT