My 5 year plan

Verbatim

Well done on the weight loss. Did you win your office challenge?

fatrab

Verbatim wrote: »

Well done on the weight loss. Did you win your office challenge?

Thanks, yes I did win it but we decided to do double-or-quits on the lead up to Xmas, there's only one other guy who's actually trying so we're encouraging each other. I don't care which one of us "wins" as we're both doing so well.


But I'm going to win lol

jwil

Well done on the weightloss :T

fatrab

A while ago I mentioned that the wall in the back garden was in a dangerous condition and that it needed to be taken down, well a few weeks ago it was demolished in part.

This morning I've had a skip delivered so I'll be spending the weekend filling it with brick/rubble. I've taken the day off work tomorrow and a few friends are coming over the weekend to help so should have it cleared by Monday, I hope!

It's been quite a costly exercise so far and even once the rubble is gone we still need to rebuild part of the wall, remove the spoil heaps that have been produced and I've got some large tree stumps that need to come out so I'll need a small digger and another skip at some point.

Total cost so far:
Demolishing wall - £250
Skip - £160
Repair fence - £370

Fortunately parts of these are shared costs between various neighbours. I'm out of pocket £390 so far, but still a long way to go before the garden is anywhere near tidied up. I've also managed to salvage enough good bricks from the demolition so the small part that is being rebuilt should cost £0.

Anyone fancy coming round this weekend to help?
(there might be cake!)

jwil

fatrab wrote: »

A while ago I mentioned that the wall in the back garden was in a dangerous condition and that it needed to be taken down, well a few weeks ago it was demolished in part.

This morning I've had a skip delivered so I'll be spending the weekend filling it with brick/rubble. I've taken the day off work tomorrow and a few friends are coming over the weekend to help so should have it cleared by Monday, I hope!

It's been quite a costly exercise so far and even once the rubble is gone we still need to rebuild part of the wall, remove the spoil heaps that have been produced and I've got some large tree stumps that need to come out so I'll need a small digger and another skip at some point.

Total cost so far:
Demolishing wall - £250
Skip - £160
Repair fence - £370

Fortunately parts of these are shared costs between various neighbours. I'm out of pocket £390 so far, but still a long way to go before the garden is anywhere near tidied up. I've also managed to salvage enough good bricks from the demolition so the small part that is being rebuilt should cost £0.

Anyone fancy coming round this weekend to help?
(there might be cake!)

If you'd said there *would* be cake, I'd have been there like a shot :rotfl: However, as it's a *might*, I think I'm busy... :A

fatrab

jwil wrote: »

If you'd said there *would* be cake, I'd have been there like a shot :rotfl: However, as it's a *might*, I think I'm busy... :A

Ended up in the pub afterwards, but there wasn't any cake

Had the skip filled by Friday lunch time so good progress was made over the weekend. I'm also half way through rebuilding the section of wall that needs to be saved.

Next costs will be the hire of a mini-digger and another skip to begin removing soil. It's just money money money at the moment, haven't even began to think about Xmas yet!

Looking forward to the new year, making a fresh commitment to moneysaving and getting back into the habit of having NSDs and restarting the spending diary. Will also update my SOA once Mrs' house is sold and we've combined our finances.

It just feels like everything is on hold financially at the moment!

Happy Monday

jwil

Glad you made good progress.

I feel the same about being in financial limbo. I feel like I'm counting down the days until the new year when the free nursery hours kick in.

fatrab

Well, finally some good news....

The house sale has been completed! Sale went through yesterday and we're just waiting on the funds being released.

Will be doing a full SOA for the new year and will start a new thread.

It's been an eventful year, but a lot of positives have come from it and 2019 looks like it's going to be all change in the fatrab household!!

Cant wait to get my teeth into 2019, bring it on!

fatrab

I've got a new job!

After 26 long years of testing concrete and being up to my eyeballs in mud it's time to throw in the towel and move on. I've been accepted as a trainee train driver! It's a career path I've been considering for years but never pursued for various reasons, including the financial implications while training.

The training salary is low but the salary once qualified is very competitive! I'll be based at my local depot, 3 miles from my house. Working an average of 36 hours per week over 4 days. It's a complete lifestyle change for me and has the long term stability over the construction industry where you're basically employed contract to contract, 50-70 hours per week, away from home etc etc......

If I hadn't sorted out my finances over the past year there's no way I could've afforded to take this opportunity, so thanks to everyone who has supported me over the year and given me the kick up the bum when I needed it.


I start in January. I think next year's diary is going to be eventful!

GlendaSugarbean

That's great! And an inspiration to be retraining to a whole new career.

(makes Choo Choo noises)