Thanks for sharing your experience with me, I’ve come from a dysfuntional family too, from what my mum has told me, my dad has had a gambling addiction throughout his life my little sister did once and stole some money off my mum. Spoke to them both before and they both deny this was or is a problem for them!
I was a little cheeky yesterday and messaged and asked my dad for a little extra xmas money than usual because in addition to my recent losses I have had to buy a new car pay for repairs and suprisingly he said yes! Now it may only be an extra £100 but at the end of the day thats 2 nights out or meals or petrol money to say family that i wasn’t going to use for myself so I am very happy with that! I also asked my bank about there lodging rules as currently i only had till june to be within the 12 months allowed to have lodgers. The great thing is, I got the impression as long as you make all your payments on time and ask for permission in advance, there are no issues getting these things extended which is another weight off my shoulders.
It does make me question, what is important to me? Initially it was to try and get around 10k savings behind me. Now that I think about it though, just getting out of the debt, getting my house back to myself and then getting me a cat and a dog seems far more appealing.
Izzi, my heart goes out to you, I admire your fighting spirit, I have decided to go out with my friends this weekend still stick to the budget, but why lock yourself away?
I need to make some changes i reckon though, I need a phone where I can install gambling software, as soon as a quarter of the debt is paid get the overdraft completly removed get the block for my lending upgraded beyond the 12 months which means that if i ever needed borrowing id have to physically visit a branch to do it i want to take further measures this time around as the compulsions just come back after the passage of time and im determined to put up an even bigger fight this time!