The Four D's

FootyFanDan

Happy Fri-yay! OMG it was still dark when I woke this morning at 5:30...that as not happened for a while, really summer gone already!! Another tiring week coming to a close and a nice long weekend to enjoy   It is also payday so I have managed to work out the budget. I have taken @mark55man advice and put the savings as if it was a bill to service, I will possibly add some more to it later through the month but I think that will be the right way moving forward. All the bill direct debits won't come out til next week due to bank holiday but all the funds are sat there ready to take. 

NSD days have dried up towards end of month but they always seem to with the little trips to the shop. I am not massively concerned about these but would like to try stop the little top up shops as they always end up with more being spent than originally planned

I am looking forward to some time of this weekend and have a packed weekend planned. On Saturday I we are taking the little one to a local theme park type place, so that should be nice for her and probably take a picnic to eat, if weather holds up. On Sunday I am off to football (which reminds me I need to buy my train ticket today) It shouldn't be a huge spend day though as ticket is already bought so there will be food and a few beers.

Hope everyone has a great day & weekend. I will probably spend Monday looking into finance stuff. I need to look at the costs of Blackpool trip.

FootyFanDan

Morning All

Bit of a spendy day yesterday, we needed to get the little one a new backpack and lunch box for school and couldn’t get one we wanted online, cue a trip to shopping centre lol also had McDonald’s and Starbucks. We then went to a local country park where they had like an adventure trail for daughter where she had to look for clues, animal footprints and some sculptures. I didn’t think she would like it as much as she did tbh but nice cheap activity there. Also managed to cut garden before settling down with a few drinks and watching the football while girls chilled 

Today is football day off to Leeds match  with the lads tickets bought so just food and a few drinks. 

mark55man

Enjoy - you've earned some good time off.  A little bit of spend for a lot of pleasure is always a good deal

FootyFanDan

Hope everyone has had a good long weekend. I have enjoyed the time off and had a really good time off. This is probably the first time I have totally switched off from work when I have been off and I need to continue to find a way to do this. Last night I had planned early night but once I got in bed my brain wouldn’t switch off 😔, eventually got to sleep and a solid 8 hours so can’t grumble too much.

Food shop done yesterday and managed to also top up the freezer a little too, normally don’t bother with freezer food much but over last few months the amount of food going  to waste is crazy, so if I can utilise some quick meals to flesh out the meal plans why not try. 

Hope everyone has a good week 

FootyFanDan

Happy September! (like where has this year gone ) NSD Number 1 of the month.

I have finally settled on September budget and updated all figures into Spreadsheet. I have also re-jigged how I save up for the annual costs to see if this focus's me better where to put funds for certain months with savings rather than having just a lump sum sat in the bank 

Sept 21 - Dec 21 - I will focus purely on Xmas
Jan 22 - May 22 - I will put funds away into savings to cover car maintenance (MOT, Service, Tyres, repairs)(MOT/Service due 30th May)
June/July 22 -  I will split the breakdown cover costs here (Cover renewal due July 30th)
July 22 - December 22 - This will cover the xmas costs

I really want to focus on the ISA, I have done a lot of serious thinking over owning my own house and it is a thousand percent what I want to do. Therefore from this month I will put in £200 per month and hopefully by December 2022 a lot of my crappy credit history will be gone including an old settled CCJ. I am hoping by cutting down to just having one pot to fund plus the ISA it will make the savings easier to do.

Shopping is also something I need to try sort next. It isn't so much the cost its the fact a lot of that gets wasted. This month although I had to go to a few different places and didn't really spend any less I feel I got more value for money and plenty enough to last a while. I need to really plan how we do this as we have to go to a 'big supermarket' for a lot of the Gluten Free stuff so this might end up being Morrisons which whilst not the cheapest for our full needs the GF range is pretty decent and low priced. Then Aldi for me/OH and also think Freezer needs to be utilized more...happy for ideas!!! haha

mark55man

go for it Dan - you got this. will take a while and need some serious attention but nothing you haven't already got covered

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

go for it Dan - you got this. will take a while and need some serious attention but nothing you haven't already got covered

Thanks Mark. I think it is possible, what I need to do is kind of get myself back into the frame of mind I was at the beginning of the journey. I know I have a little more wiggle room in the budget so it doesn't need to be as tight now but need to ensure that I don't totally let go and it spiral again.

FootyFanDan

Evening All,

Hope everyone has had a good Saturday. I haven’t really done a huge amount tbh. The little one had drama class today and then went to have a little wander around town centre, everywhere seems to be pretty busy at the moment with ppl just trying to enjoy time out. Today wasn’t a NSD has we had Starbucks….Pumpkin Spice Latte is on the menu so for me autumn officially here hahaha. 

We had a family film night last night and it was pretty chilled and inexpensive, a few drinks and popcorn/treats on sofa. We are currently working our way through the Marvel films as little one loves them, she was trying her best to keep her eyes open despite being shattered lol. Tonight the two girls are playing games on laptop whilst I settle in front of tv for the boxing with a few drinks

Poppy1984

Hey Dan 👋 
You're doing great!! Huge kudos to you, sounds exciting planning for the future without the stress of debt hanging over you. Lovely to hear you planning trips with your other half and little one. I for one LOVE Blackpool, I have so many fond memories of going there as a child, the illuminations are just magical! 

The trip to London also sounds fab! How amazing your dd will be performing on the west end! Wow!! 

I like the idea of the habit tracker I might look into that myself. 

Take care 

Poppy

FootyFanDan

Poppy1984 said:

Hey Dan 👋 
You're doing great!! Huge kudos to you, sounds exciting planning for the future without the stress of debt hanging over you. Lovely to hear you planning trips with your other half and little one. I for one LOVE Blackpool, I have so many fond memories of going there as a child, the illuminations are just magical! 

The trip to London also sounds fab! How amazing your dd will be performing on the west end! Wow!! 

I like the idea of the habit tracker I might look into that myself. 

Take care 

Poppy

Thank you Poppy. The stress of debt is something I am glad to have got rid of, however this has now been replaced with fear of not making enough memories with the family and trying to save for an house. I really need to think the house stuff over if I am being honest but that is for another day.

I must admit I am not a massive fan of Blackpool ( I was born there lol), although I haven't actually been for a while and they have quite a bit of xmas stuff that I think the little one and OH will totally love so it is worth it. I really really want to go Orlando before little one gets to old for the whole disney thing (if that ever happens to girls!) but I just know an house deposit and Orlando as well as other stuff is just not possible right now.