Does anyone else use food and money to make themselves feel better?

If I'm stressed out or in a bad mood, I will eat or go shopping to relax or calm down. It makes me feel better in the moment but right after I get depressed because it feels like a vicious cycle I can't stop. I'm considered obese and need to lose 50 lbs so really can't afford to gain anymore, plus I'm paranoid about my health and being around for my daughter.
As for money, I'm extremely low income and any fried to spend so much money! I feel like **** when I do because I know at the end if the moth I'm gonna be regretting it when I have to borrow money from my dad to pay rent.
Does anyone hae any tips to cope with the urges to eat or spend money? The urges to eat are te worst, all I think about is good and I get angry at myself and agitated because I can't concentrate on anything else until I give in.

> Does anyone hae any tips to cope with the urges to eat or spend money?

These come from an intense drive for relief, so it's hard to solve it with just tips, but I would be interested in any that do exist. Seems to me the dysfunctional or self destructive soothing needs to be replaced with something better. The trick is finding those things. Lifestyle changes, reframing, insight, etc, are tools for moving in new directions. For me with the food, my mantra is "nutrients." I also realized excess quantity is hard on my body. I'm over 50 so I need to take care of my body and build it up. I can't coast on youthful gifts, nor can anyone over 40. I value frugality, so when I am really poor I eat only cheap and healthy food. You have to figure out new meanings and interpretations for yourself, I think, and capture new directions that pull you forward, since being where you are is not desirable, as you suggest.

Pfrog is still working on this.

Sometimes I do well ... Sometimes I don't.

I'm not doing well with it right now as I've had a tremendous amount of physical and emotional stress on me this year ... I'm aware of when I started slipping back into the poor coping skills, and I plan on thoroughly discussing it with my therapist so I can put it in perspective and get rolling in the right direction again.

Mind you, the physical and emotional pain I've been in this year are not an excuse to go there, but since those were my first learned coping skills, it's easier to return there by default whenever things start going south for me.

I know I feel better when I don't go there, but I'm not gonna beat myself up over it either ... I'm simply doing the best I can, and that's okay too ... Sometimes I think we need to give ourselves a break because the harder we are on ourselves the more we seem to return to those poor coping skills and the more power it gives them.

There are better coping skills, but I do lapse. To minimize the damage, I do a trip to the dollar store. And am developing some low calorie comfort food choices. Today it is turkey chili. I have started a small herb garden. Easy and rewarding.