Do you ever look around you and wonder how other people are managing to pay for stuff?

Similarly to mental health, people don’t talk honestly enough about financial issues, so when you’re struggling, you feel it’s just you and it can also lead to major mental health issues, breakdown of relationships etc.

I genuinely think on the outside people would think I was doing fine. But I’m not. We have two very nice cars but one is a company car and the other belongs to my father in law. I can’t afford to buy new bras at the moment. None of mine fit since having a baby.

One of my closest friends was celebrating his 40th this weekend. He’s been there for me through very tough times but I couldn’t afford to go or to buy him anything. It’s hurting my brain how awful I feel about this.

Every month, priority is to pay the mortgage and feed my kids. Usually, by mid month, there’s no money left in our account. We have a weekly budget for food but by 3rd week we can’t satisfy it.

I’m not saying that we’re the worst off by any stretch. Not least because if we got into major trouble, we have family who would try to help. But we’re just a middle class family who look to be fine but aren’t.

After my maternity we had to sign up to a debt management plan, which we’ll be paying into for the next 5yrs. That was quite the outpouring, sorry lads. But I genuinely jst wanted to say it so anyone out there who’s going through something similar won’t feel that it’s just them x