The Four D's

Poppy1984

Oh I don't think you ever get too old for Disney! I had a friend who went for her 30th and 40th birthday. So try not to feel too pressured. 

Poppy

FootyFanDan

Poppy1984 said:

Oh I don't think you ever get too old for Disney! I had a friend who went for her 30th and 40th birthday. So try not to feel too pressured. 

Poppy

Thanks Poppy. I do tend to over-think in a lot of situations. I guess I just don't want to fall back into the routine of not being careful with the spending and therefore in order to keep that in check I must have a goal....issue is right now I need to settle on what I really want and the go for it. 

mark55man

I agree with Poppy - we took our kids to Eurodisney ranging 6-11 and they would have enjoyed it more had they been a bit older - too short for some rides, ....  The seeing the disney characters prob more fun for the younger but that was only about 5% of it. 95% of it was the rides and being a bit older means the queuing won't be such a chore

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

I agree with Poppy - we took our kids to Eurodisney ranging 6-11 and they would have enjoyed it more had they been a bit older - too short for some rides, ....  The seeing the disney characters prob more fun for the younger but that was only about 5% of it. 95% of it was the rides and being a bit older means the queuing won't be such a chore

I think this is the thing, I believe the little one would enjoy the ride/amusement side of it more. Tbh I think if we the Orlando thing I would want it to be the once in a lifetime kinda trip. 

The reality is there is a few things happening/happened around the family and circle of friends that makes me realise life is so short and can change in an instant that it makes me nervous about not making enough memories for my daughter/family....I know that probably sounds crazy/irrational and not something I normally think about but is becoming a more prominent thought. I guess the rational side of me knows realistically/statistically there is many years left to make memories. 

Poppy1984

FootyFanDan said:

mark55man said:

I agree with Poppy - we took our kids to Eurodisney ranging 6-11 and they would have enjoyed it more had they been a bit older - too short for some rides, ....  The seeing the disney characters prob more fun for the younger but that was only about 5% of it. 95% of it was the rides and being a bit older means the queuing won't be such a chore

I think this is the thing, I believe the little one would enjoy the ride/amusement side of it more. Tbh I think if we the Orlando thing I would want it to be the once in a lifetime kinda trip. 

The reality is there is a few things happening/happened around the family and circle of friends that makes me realise life is so short and can change in an instant that it makes me nervous about not making enough memories for my daughter/family....I know that probably sounds crazy/irrational and not something I normally think about but is becoming a more prominent thought. I guess the rational side of me knows realistically/statistically there is many years left to make memories. 

Completely understand where you're coming from with that, however my experience of losing my Mum
when I was in my 20's I can tell you I was never taken to America as a child but I have so many precious precious memories of my wonderful lovely Mum! You don't need expensive holidays to make memories you're making them every day, and I'll tell you something else having a relaxed Dad who doesn't have the pressure of debt wracking up on him is going to make even more loving special family memories where ever they happen in the world. 

Poppy  

FootyFanDan

How the times have changed...Saturday night and I am sat watching TV and messing around with budgets! I have re-jigged the September budget around and made YNAB work a little different to my usual setup so going to try that for a few months to see if it makes the month easier to judge.

This month there isn't really an plans to go off budget. Although we need to start factoring in Xmas. I think we are going to also start doing shopping in person again now, I like online but the issues seem to be a lot of short dated stuff and the substitutes that we get seem to be on the up. The little one has drama for 3 hours on a Saturday so I think maybe we do it then or maybe a Sunday (done Sunday last few weeks and it seems to be mental busy) I also plan to start withdrawing cash for the stuff we spend weekly (petrol/Food and a lil for unbudgeted)The plan is to target a set amount each week, whatever we don't spend then gets put away. 

I am planning on taking OH and Lil one for a day out at the end of month - possibly the deep and then food. I want us to have a family day at least once a month and then date night with the OH once a month would be nice too. I have decided from now until Xmas I am just going to focus on getting savings built back up (EF) and then focus on xmas too. It's been a tough year family wise and this year will be my first xmas off so really want to make it a nice one. We do have plenty of activity built in to December as it is both the lil one's and my birthday too

Work wise there is a possibility that I may be getting a little bit more responsibility, a member of Senior Management team has left and as part of my role it is probable that I may be asked to look after their site until they replace them (if they do replace them). 

Hope everyone is doing ok

FootyFanDan

Poppy1984 said:

FootyFanDan said:

mark55man said:

I agree with Poppy - we took our kids to Eurodisney ranging 6-11 and they would have enjoyed it more had they been a bit older - too short for some rides, ....  The seeing the disney characters prob more fun for the younger but that was only about 5% of it. 95% of it was the rides and being a bit older means the queuing won't be such a chore

I think this is the thing, I believe the little one would enjoy the ride/amusement side of it more. Tbh I think if we the Orlando thing I would want it to be the once in a lifetime kinda trip. 

The reality is there is a few things happening/happened around the family and circle of friends that makes me realise life is so short and can change in an instant that it makes me nervous about not making enough memories for my daughter/family....I know that probably sounds crazy/irrational and not something I normally think about but is becoming a more prominent thought. I guess the rational side of me knows realistically/statistically there is many years left to make memories. 

Completely understand where you're coming from with that, however my experience of losing my Mum
when I was in my 20's I can tell you I was never taken to America as a child but I have so many precious precious memories of my wonderful lovely Mum! You don't need expensive holidays to make memories you're making them every day, and I'll tell you something else having a relaxed Dad who doesn't have the pressure of debt wracking up on him is going to make even more loving special family memories where ever they happen in the world. 

Poppy  

You are right for sure Poppy, I guess the last year or so have been very tough for us and both last summer and this summer were spent apart so kinda feel like making up for lost time

mark55man

Seaside is always good for memories.  Especially if you can find a place you like well enough to keep going back to (allow a bit of variety obviously), as you and your DC will grow up and reinforce the memories, and when a bit older will be OK to give a little independence made secure by local knowledge 

Naomim

I agree with @mark55man about reinforcing memories. We always take the kids to a pantomime on Christmas eve. Just our local theatre so not full of celebs and extortionate prices! Seaside is good too.

FootyFanDan

Hey All,

It seems a while since I last updated my diary, I have been dealing with a few RL stuff so stepped away a little to recompose myself and take some time away. We sadly lost my OH’s mum a few weeks ago which was expected but still very much a massive blow to us all. This in itself brought a few un-budgeted expenses in to play but nothing that we couldn’t cover. We have all had a bit of time to process it but still very raw, the OH is battling on for the little one.

Finance - This seems to be ticking along totally fine at the moment and there isn’t really any areas that are of a massive concern, although food is creeping up slightly. I have reduced the sky tv package down a bit as this just isn’t watched much at all really, still in contract for some stuff but this will be totally gone in Feb 22. We ave juggled the budget around a little bit to try match our income frequency so that it isn’t all coming in one chunk on my payday. Also tried to use cash a bit more which as helped (unsure if this is just psychological). 

Work - This is still absolutely insane, my rota and shifts are all over the place and workload is growing. I have managed to keep on track with this and I have discussed the situation with my manager. Whilst I don’t mind helping out my old role I find it silly that after months I am still covering holidays when I should be getting on with my job. 

Overall with the exception of the loss of OH mum there isn’t really much going off - we are just trying to keep the little one occupied and she is currently learning songs and lines for her West End show haha. We have also had a few issues with OH family been a little bit sneaky and this has caused some friction but I can’t be bothered with the negativity it brings so we have distanced ourselves a little from it. 

Last night shift tonight, then back in work Friday before a weekend of family time. We have got tickets booked to go to the deep on Sunday and we have also planned to have a nice meal somewhere. Payday on Monday and as things stand our budget has more than enough to cover what we need. There is one shop left to do which is covered and more fuel for car needed to last a few days but all good on that front

Hope everyone is doing okay.