How can I avoid paying ADHD tax?
From forgetting to return clothes that don’t fit, to not cancelling that free trial… there are lots of ways that having ADHD can make a big dent in your finances.
Whilst we’re definitely not here to stop you making those delicious impulse purchases, we most definitely can help you do it in a way that doesn’t push you into a financial black hole.
We’ve reached out to the community and have collated a definite guide to (ADHD) tax avoidance.
Choose your bank carefully
Managing your finances can be a stressful task at the best of times, but throwing ADHD into the mix just further amplifies it.
The relationship we have with money is very important, given that we live in a society that unfortunately doesn’t allow us to just float around financially free of responsibility. A lot of ADHD’ers carry a lot of shame surrounding our finances, whether that be getting in debt, forgetting to pay bills on time or forgetting to pay people back.
This is where choosing the right bank comes in! By ensuring you choose a bank that makes managing your finances easier, it means less time stressing about bills and more time for seeking thrills 🍟
Cue our wonderful community and their helpful suggestions:
Monzo bank is great. Everything is really clear and it shows you some payments that are going to be taken a few days ahead (to give a chance to cancel them if they’re things you forgot about) and you can categorise your spending and put money in “pots”.
I made a bills pot so I can see if I have enough money to cover all my bills etc. Honestly the best bank for my brain I feel on top of it.
I'll also use pots on monzo and divide it into weeks? So like I'll have a 1st - 7th direct Debits pot & then a 1st - 7th spare money pot.
It’s great because it’s SO easy to use and accessible so there’s less barriers to getting things done- it literally takes seconds to move money around. It gives you visuals on your spending and predicts whether you’ll run out of money by the end of the month based on your usual spending habits.
It also has a “roundups” feature where if you spend £1.98 for example it sticks the 2p into a pot. So that’s a good one for random purchases. Or I actually have my roundups going into Moneybox which is a stocks and shares savings account. Generally you don’t notice the money goes but you get nice little savings.
2. Create a space for those impulse spends
Do you really need another summer dress even though we live in England where we have about 7 days of summer in total? YES KAREN, SOMETIMES WE DO, OK??
Honestly we get it, when your brain refuses to give you dopamine, sometimes that impulse purchase is just what you need, right?
..Not to mention the buzz of online shopping, knowing that a little treat will soon be arriving at your door 🤠 but, we hear you ask, how can we make sure we can still enjoy this feeling without putting ourselves in the shit?
I have to give myself 24 hours to think on do I want to buy something. So I made an Instagram saved folder for cool things I want to buy (and for Amazon I stick them in the basket) and come back to it.. but like I say I have no self control usually and just buy the random stuff Instagram shows me.
I have like a contingency pot on Monzo for any impulsive purchases - it's part of life for me now that I'll get emotional and buy something so i put money aside each month to account for that 😂
3. Make a note of those bills
“How did you forget to pay rent, you know it comes out the same time every month?” Unsurprisingly, for the same reason I forget to eat, shower & pee 😵💫
For people without ADHD, it’s almost impossible to comprehend how difficult it is for us to stay on top of ‘simple’ day to day tasks like paying bills. However — these things are actually pretty taxing to juggle when you have a brain that is hard wired to shut down when doing anything it isn’t interested in.
Reminders of my phone and calendar and just ensuring i take time to budget - i have a spreadsheet i use to plan my money that I can easily access on my phone which has dates on so i know when things come out.
Similar to what’s already been said, but I find spreadsheets are great.
I work out all my monthly costs and take out what’s left and divide it by 4 or 5 depending on how many weeks there are that month (getting paid on the last Friday of the month makes this easier). Then that’s what I have for that week and once it’s gone it’s gone. The monthly amount will be a budget for food at work each day and tube fares so I’m not left without either of those at the end of the week!
Plus, for any yearly costs like car/house insurance, I have a separate account that I put the necessary amount into so that I have the full amount when it comes round to paying for it, rather than taking a large amount out of that months wage. Saves on direct debit charges too!
In the same way we’re doing with every area of life after figuring out that we have ADHD.. We’re currently in the process of trying to redefine our relationship with money — and honestly?!?! That looks like a lot of *healing*.
If you’re also in the headspace to dive a little deeper and recognise that the traumatic experiences in your past were *also* possibly liked with being a lil baby neurodivergent in a neurotypical society, then you can explore it further in the Money & Finances section of our Now What? Manual 🏆
