Me, My Growing Obsession With Debt & How I Changed It
The majority of us have debts, whilst some are manageable and some not, we cannot deny that at some point they cause stress, anxiety, worry, depression and even sleepless nights. Everyone is different and will experience different signs of debt-related mental health. For me, it was debt tracking – I was constantly tracking my debt balance and it was getting out of hand. Learn more with Me, My Growing Obsession with Debt & How I Changed It.
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Me, My Growing Obsession With Debt & How I Changed It
When I first started this blog it was to share tips, tricks and advice that I had and was discovering along my debt free journey (dfj), that as well as my love for interior design and bargains. But thinking of debt was on my mind all the time, I was constantly thinking of the balance and how much time I had to my deadline.
I have always been open about my debt that’s the beauty of being a secret anonymous blogger, as you know my total debt has dropped however there have been many occasions where it has gone up and I would find it really upsetting. I was literally living, breathing, reading,… debt, noting everything down, going without things that I actually needed just to get the debt down. And we know what happens when you think about something constantly… that’s right, you attract more of it.
It was really getting me down, you cannot fill your thoughts with negativity ie. debt and expect a flow on positivity.
Debt was constantly on my mind. The more researching, recalculating, tracking etc. that I was doing for both my everyday life and blog the more the focus on debt.
It was consuming my thoughts, not only was I frequently hitting financial obstacles but there was less time I had left to think about other things. Positive things.
Money Management Is Important
Now don’t get me wrong, good money management includes budgeting and recording finances and spending habits BUT there is a big difference between budgeting and being excessive with it.
Checking and recalculating your budget at 3 in the morning when you have not spent a penny in days, is not budgeting, well, not health budgeting anyway.
A few months ago, I realised this was not only unhealthy but it was also creating the wrong… energy, frequency, vibration (you get what I mean) and decided to make changes, I stopped being so hard on myself and decided change my approach, and I am so grateful that I did.
Even though I am still on my dfj, I don’t stress about paying off debt, I look for exciting ways to create an additional income and it has definitely made this journey a more productive, positive, motivational and even pleasant one. Using this approach really helped, it was more ‘positive possibilities’ than ‘doom and due dates’ (even though I do still have due dates), this new outlook really gave me the positive and motivational mindset that needed.
Money Management Is Important (Contd.)
Changing my approach obviously has had an affect on my blog and social media because it was originally focusing on debt (yuck) and now I post about positivity, life and motivation (along with the odd personal finances tips) on my Instagram. My Facebook page covers daily bargains and discount codes and my twitter account… well that is where I chill with the writing community and bloggers community and share my blog posts. Everything is positive ie. no debt talk and that’s is a hugely important part of my change of approach and I will tell you why.
Since this revision of method, my stress level (in this area) has reduced, along with anxiety, I have … here’s the big one… on average I have been able to pay off more per month since this rebrand (can I call it that?)
I will not lie to you, I still use a good few of tricks which I learned from the utterly amazing dfj community at instagram for example the ‘No Spending Days’ on Thursdays will forever be a satisfying personal challenge, bulk cooking, along with lights out, appliances unplugged etc. which are now a habit to the point I naturally do this as a guest in other peoples home and I am okay with this and so is the planet.
Money Management Books
Self-Awareness & Acknowledgement
I am super proud of myself for acknowledging my habits, knowing that they were not healthy and that they had to change asap.
As Ice Cube said “You better check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self” and I did.
So here are the changes that I made to break these excessive habits
Before Checking Myself V After I Checked Myself
Checking Balance – Three times a day TO Every other day in the morning.
Recalculating budget – Several times a day TO Once a week unless there’s an unexpected expense.
Going out – Very rarely (excluding family events) TO Visit or host a friend once a fortnight
Saving better – Strict saving TO Saving but leaving enough to live
Put budget book away – Notebook beside my bed TO Storing in desk drawer.
No spending days – 5 No spending days per week TO 1 No spending day per week
They were really helpful along with gratitude, you know how I feel about The Law of Attraction, The Secret and Ask, Believe, Receive – I love them.
Law of Attraction & Manifestation Books
Helpful Links
National Debtline – 0808 808 4000
Step Change
Business Debtline
Money Advice Trust
4 Comments
Mummy Conquering Anxiety
Thank you for publishing this post and acknowledging unhealthy behaviours. Your honestly will help others. The small changes will allow you to bring some balance to money management.
Lellalee
Some great advice here. Debt can really be like chasing your tail. I’m so glad you managed to break the cycle.
Fransic verso
Very information and we defntiely need to work on money management. Thank you for sharing!
Kevin Foodie
Debt, especially student loan debt, affects million of people across the US. I can tell you from experience that living in debt is one of the most crippling experience one can ever experience. I followed Dave Ramseys Debt free app, EveryDollar, to help me pay off 95% of my debt. So you are absolutely right, money management is key to a debt free life.