Financial impact of ADHD

[Tryingtokeepratswarm]

Just a bit of a rant..... travelling down to London today for work. I meant to buy my ticket weeks ago but of course left it to the last minute so paid full wack.

Mad rush to leave on time this morning and thought to myself - mustn't forget bank card. In taxi, and yes, I'd forgotten my bank card.

Taxi took me back to collect it but had missed my train so had to pay for another ticket.

My life is full of these sort of examples plus missed bill payments, impulse purchases etc and of course this is combined with lack of progress at work.

Over the years I must have spent thousands and thousands as a result of my ADHD. Trying to put strategies in place with limited success.

I honestly HATE having ADHD so much and feel like I'm living shadow of what my life could have been.

Oh and Ive forgotten my phone charger as well. I remember thinking.... mustn't forget my phone charger....so will have to buy a spare today. Argh!!

I try to plan ahead as much as possible to avoid the inevitable ADHD brain overload episodes. Obviously having learnt the hard way so these are some of my specific coping mechanisms. When I travel into my office (or anywhere I'm expecting to be away from home for a few hours) I use the same bag each time and I always keep a battery pack and charging cable in it so if my phone runs out of battery, I'm covered. I have my cards on phone so use Apple Pay if I forget my purse/cards and if I lose/forget my phone, I have an Apple watch so can use Apple Pay on that instead. Of course if I've forgotten purse, phone and watch I'm fucked. 😂 But I only take my watch off to charge it (during the day when I'm sitting still for a while) and I need my phone to log in to work so usually have it with me at all times.

None of these solves the impulse shopping though!! That is a financial killer. And the hyperfocus 'must have' hobby shopping obsessions. OMG I will bankrupt myself.

So yep I feel your pain. All we can try and do is work around it where possible and try not to beat ourselves up too much.

Can't you put sticky notes on your house door that say things like: check if you have your card before leaving the house. Or something dramatic like: DO NOT LEAVE HOUSE BEFORE CHECKING FOR YOUR CARD 😂

In regards to having to buy a new ticket for a train because you missed yours, this happened to me once and I could not afford to buy another ticket (it was also a train to London and damn it has no business being as expensive as it is), so I got on the next train, when the conducter came around I told him I mistakenly bought a ticket for the wrong train (trains were only 10 min apart so easy mistake to make) and he just said no problem. So you can always try that strategy 😄