ADHD, Debt, and the Shame Spiral

Episode 11: Debt & Credit – Two Sides of a Coin

If debt were a person, it’d be that one friend who borrows your stuff and never gives it back. Annoying, clingy, and ridiculously expensive. In this episode of A Solo Person’s Guide to ADHD, we’re tackling debt and credit—their messy relationship, why ADHD brains struggle with both, and how to finally kick that freeloader out of your wallet.

👉 Inside this episode:

• My real-life story of wrestling with credit card debt after cancer recovery and house damage.
• Why debt hits harder when you live solo with ADHD.
• ADHD debt triggers: impulse spending, due date amnesia, shame spirals, and executive dysfunction.
• Different types of debt ranked by “stress factor” (spoiler: family loans = emotional interest rate off the charts).
• ADHD-friendly debt payoff strategies: snowball vs. avalanche, automating payments, gamifying progress, and celebrating milestones (yes, with Dollar Store confetti).
• Easy side hustles that don’t eat your brain: pet sitting, tutoring, selling your stuff, seasonal gigs, and more.
• What not to do if you’re in debt (hint: ignoring it never works).

✨ Action Step: Pick ONE debt and create a mini-plan to attack it this month.

Debt isn’t a moral failure—it’s just math with bad timing. And with ADHD brains, we need dopamine-friendly, shame-free strategies to get ahead.

Resources & Links:

• Free Debt Strategy Quick Map worksheet click here
• Coaching with Christine: Two Cats Coaching – first 30 minutes free!
• Catch up on earlier episodes in the ADHD & Money series (budgeting, impulse spending, hacks, and more).

About your host:
I’m Christine Dunning, Master Certified Life Coach, retired teacher, cat enthusiast, and proud member of the “paid $37 in late fees… again” club. On A Solo Person’s Guide to ADHD, we dig into the solo-living struggles that come with ADHD—and find ways to laugh, learn, and lighten the load together.

Transcript

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If debt were a person, it might be that one friend who borrows your stuff and never gives it back. Annoying, clingy, and very expensive. Let's talk about kicking debt out of your wallet. Hi friends, and welcome back to a solo person's guide to ADHD. I'm Christine Dunning, Master Certified Life Coach, owner of Two Cats Coaching, and proud card carrying member of the Why did I just pay $37 in late fees again? Club. A quick disclaimer before we come in. I am not a financial professional, just a fellow person with ADHD who's wrestled with debt, learned a few strategies, and is here to share what actually helps. Please don't take this as financial advice. Think of it as ADHD friendly encouragement. Today we're going to talk about debt and credit. This messy relationship, why ADHD brains struggle with them, and most importantly, how to show debt the door without letting shame run the show. Grab your coffee, your cat, or that unopened stack of credit card offers. I'm going to give you a hint. Don't open them. And let's dig in. For today, I want to say this one's personal. Although I've done a pretty good job over the years of finally wrangling my finances in order, credit card debt is hard. This is one I struggle with still. I want to let you know that as I'm showing you some things during this episode, I'm also reminding myself. I did pretty well for a while. And then a few years ago, my life kind of got up ended. I ended up with a cancer diagnosis and had a hard time working. Quite a bit of my work is um it's it's a mash of different side hustles, to be honest. And I couldn't do a bunch of them when I was sick. At the same time, I ended up with some pretty severe house damage. And although I had insurance that covered all of these things, there's always a lot of stuff you can't do. I couldn't work as much during my cancer struggle. Why it matters, especially when we're solo, again, this always one income, all the debt falls on you. Your debt eats into your freedom and increases ADHD stress and decision fatigue. Solo living means there's nobody else in your life to double check your bills. Hey, did you pay the phone bill this month? Catch the late fees or help balance out any rough moments you might be having. Some of our triggers, impulse spending, of course, dopamine now, regret it maybe later. Forgetting due dates, late fees and interest rates, snowball. Shame cycles, avoidance instead of action, and of course, executive dysfunction. I'll deal with it tomorrow. Turns into months, or maybe even worse. There are several different kinds of debts. I'm gonna list off a few here in what I consider to be the ranking of stress level. Start with those high interest credit cards. Ouch. The current rate on credit card debt is 22.25%. That's almost a quarter. So if you have spent $10 on something and you let that sit on your credit report, it automatically becomes $12.50. Now that doesn't sound like a lot now to that when you're dealing with $100, $200, $300 purchases. And know that it increases every month, that you don't get it paid off. Many of us still have student loans, I know I do, medical debt, car loans, of course, mortgage if you have a house, and perhaps money you have borrowed from family or friends. Now, some people might put that at the bottom of the list. I actually put it right up next to the credit card debt because it strains your relationships, and that's not a great thing. That's a lot of stress. If you've been following me for a little bit here, hopefully you've already been looking a little bit at your debt, figuring out what you're spending your money on, and what changes you might need to make. So now let's talk about how to actually pay this off. So there's a couple of basic ideas here. You can snowball it or you can avalanche it. Snowball means you're gonna start with the smallest debt. Say you have three credit cards. Pick the one with the lowest amount because paying it off is gonna give you that dopamine boost. You're gonna see the highest level of change when you start with the small smallest debt. So if that's important to you, start there. Or you can do the avalanche version. Attack the highest interest debt first andor the largest amount. That will save you more money long term because the more interest you're paying on a debt, the worse it gets, the more money that you're not saving every month. So pick the method that works for you. If it's rewarding and doable, that's great. May not be perfect, you may not manage it every month. You might flip back and forth. That's okay too. Just keep paying things off. Another hint is to automate your payments. And you're like, but I don't know how much I'm gonna pay on this. I'd like to pay as much as I can. Here's what you do: make auto payments for the minimum amounts that each of those credit cards asks for. Doing that makes sure that you'll never pay late fees on that debt. However, only paying minimum amounts gets you nowhere fast. You are decades from paying off that debt if you only pay minimum amounts. So set up that auto pay for the minimums, then add extra money manually to target your actual debt. Try gamifying your process. That really helps those of us with ADHD. Use a debt tracker app or a printable chart. You know, put up the thermometer on the wall and color it in. Turn it into a challenge. Every time you skip DoorDash, you put 20 bucks into the debt jar. All those visual processes will help your dopamine refill. And celebrate the milestones. Treat yourself, though, with something that's not spendy. You've paid off $1,000, have a movie night with a friend or take a half day off from work for a personal day. Um, go to the dollar store and get confetti. Another thing is to reduce the temptation. Try not to use the cards. If it's a physical card and you tend to go out to shop, there are people who literally freeze them in their freezer, put them in a block of ice. Hopefully, by the time it's thawed, your temptation will have gone away. Unlink your cards from your online shopping apps. Um, use prepaid debit or fun money accounts for those small dopamine surges. You know, uh one of the things that I do is um buy gift cards for fun treats. For example, I allow myself $25 a month at Starbucks. I'm not a huge go-to-Starbucks person, but sometimes it's super handy when you're out and about. I buy the gift card, I load it onto my Starbucks account right on my phone, and then when that runs out, I don't have any more Starbucks that month. And again, that's a doable amount for me because I don't go super often. And accountability. Have an accountability partner. A friend, a coach, a family member. So set a debt buddy check-in once a month. There are other people out there who would probably appreciate sharing their debt with you as well. What I'm doing. I have three credit cards. Um, two of them are in pretty good shape. They're, they've got they definitely have some money on them, but they're not terrible. But one of them is large. And again, that's that one that I get my airline points from. Um, I do also have a very high credit limit on that card. So that does help. And I'm very good about paying every single month. I never miss a payment and I'm never late. I have set my due date to several days past when I normally pay my bills. And once I've paid the standard stuff, my mortgage, utilities, things like that, that I really can't be late on, the very next thing I pay is that debt. So my goal is to add up how much I've spent on that credit card that month, plus however much interest I'm having to pay that month. And then I'm adding a set amount after that. I'm trying for $1,000 a month. I'm not always hitting that, I have to admit. But I'm really trying to at minimum how much I spent that month plus how much interest I spent that month. When I get that card down to only 20% of my total balance, then I will double check in with the other cards and make sure I get them low. One of those three cards actually has a pretty low interest rate, so that will be the last one I tackle. The other two are at that high rate that I mentioned before. And also, if I end up with any surplus income, anything that's really unexpected, something comes in. I'm trying to automatically just say, okay, paying off that credit card, not going on a splurge. A couple of things not to do. Don't pay just the minimum. Again, you'll be paying that forever. You'll be astonished at how much that costs you. But don't ignore it. It's not going to go away. And don't let your shame paralyze you. Action beats avoidance every time. Again, remember, this is not an uncommon issue. Lots of people have credit card debt in this country. It has nothing to do with being being ADHD. Another thing you can think about is try to make a little bit of extra money. Sell some of your unused stuff, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, eBay even. Freelance some skills on Fiverr or Upwork. If there's anything you know how to do, how to teach, if you're a good writer or you you can do design. Pet sitting or dog walking is really popular and a really quick, easy way to do that. So are babysitting and doing elder companion things. So you can always do quick service apps like Instant Card, DoorDash, Task Rabbit, or Uber. I'm going to be talking about side hustles in a future episode. There's all sorts of extra seasonal gigs. Holiday retail, working events, uh catering, things like that. Always, if you have some of those skills, to work a little bit of extra and put that towards your debt. Suggestion? Make a quick cash menu. Three to five go-to side hustles you can pick from when you need extra payoff power. Again, look in later October, and I'm going to do a whole episode, probably multiple episodes, on side hustles. It's something I know very well. What are you going to do? Pick one debt and make your first mini plan to attack it. Think about whether you prefer that snowball method or you prefer the avalanche method and just start to make a plan. Alright, friends, that's it for today's episode of a solo person's guide to ADHD. Remember, debt is not a moral failure. It's just math with bad timing. Pick one, make a plan, and celebrate the steps forward you make. If this episode gave you a little hope or a strategy you can actually use, share it with another ADHD solo person who could use the reminder that they're not alone in this. And don't forget to hit follow so you don't miss next week's episode in our ADHD and money series. And if you'd like to help me with my credit card debt, I have some room for personal coaching. I am happy to help with any and all ADHD issues. I've also often worked with teachers. I'm a retired teacher myself. I love to help people find new careers or jobs. The first half an hour is always free to see if we're a good fit. You can sign up on my website. I'm Christine with Two Cats Coaching. Thanks for listening. Thanks for laughing. Thanks for being part of this community. Until next time, may your payments be on time and your milestones come with Dollar Store Confetti.