Maintaining your mental health and your budget

Prioritising your mental health can be money well spent and doesn’t have to cost the earth. From reducing your hours for increased free time to paying for private healthcare, there are a number of ways to access support without spending to excess.

Here’s how a few people have put their mental wellbeing first – without emptying their bank accounts.

Reducing your wage for increased calm

For some, work intensified during lockdown. 'My husband, Stuart, and I were both the only people in our teams who weren't furloughed', says Jo, a solicitor from West Yorkshire.

'We were at home, working 18-hour days, throwing food at the kids a couple of times a day but otherwise ignoring them.'

'I started to feel unwell', she says. 'I put it down to stress and not being able to cope with my job.'

She called her husband’s boss, who had been trying to poach her for years, and set out her terms: 'I wanted a non-client-facing supervisory role where I could advise people without the pressure I was currently under.'

It meant a huge salary cut and the loss of her bonus as well as a much longer commute, but, Jo says, 'I was at risk of a complete breakdown. I don’t regret it.'

Budgeting for better habits

Martin, who lost his father in 2023 and his mother in February 2024, says, 'At 42, I ended up with very little money, a life I was going to have to rebuild after caring for my mum and the sucker punch of grieving two parents.'

'I knew that if I didn’t look after my mental wellbeing, I was in trouble.'

He sought out support groups he could attend for free and began building better habits.

He started a journal, set a strict budget for treats and dealt with his debts: 'Once I got past my pride and shame, payment plans and deals saved me hundreds – and took half an hour on the phone to sort out.'

'I also forced myself to check my balance regularly, though that’s still hard', he adds.

'I have a new rule – there cannot now be a week when I don’t check it once.'

Dropping a day and gaining peace of mind

During lockdown, Joanne launched an online drawing and painting course for adults. She was providing materials and building a community of artists, all while raising four kids.

'I was working around the clock', she says. 'I was starting to see the danger signs of burnout.'

A conversation with a friend pulled her back from the brink. 'What would help you enjoy your work again?' she asked.

'My answer was immediate: "One day a week off, to look after myself and get the rest of my life on track"'.

So, for the last two years Joanne has taken Wednesdays off. 'The results have been astonishing,' she says. 'Within a month I had fallen back in love with our lovely business and felt energised and excited.'

Moreover, she says, 'My productivity has actually increased. I go back to work on Thursday feeling like I've had a mini weekend.'

Investing in the future

Clare, 41, a speech therapist from Manchester who has bipolar disorder, says she and her husband make sacrifices to pay for her reduced hours and private healthcare.

When the insurance allowance runs out, they fund the cost of her medication review appointments with her psychiatrist and therapy themselves, 'because if we didn’t, I wouldn’t work at all or function.'

'I’m in no doubt that I’m in a privileged position', she says. 'We are a double income no kids family, so our responsibilities are to ourselves only. But frankly, if we hadn’t done this, I’m not sure how things would have gone.'

With her insurance and direct payment, not to mention solid support at home – Clare’s 'husband has been incredible', she says – she has 'received fantastic, timely care and appropriate treatment. I wake up every day, hopeful for the next.'

Here at Chase, we want to be there for all our customers every step of the way and help them reach their goals. To support customers with actioning their budgets, Chase lets you set up multiple current accounts – up to 20 in total. Since you can spend from these directly, they might help you track your spending throughout the month.

18+, UK residents.

Recommended reading

• How to get back on your feet after financial abuse
• How to start over from a financial setback
• Organisations to help with Mental Health

Disclaimer: The Hub is intended as a knowledge portal to provide information on a range of topics, including financial products. Articles may reference products and services that Chase UK does not currently offer. This article is for information only and does not constitute financial advice.