The Four D's

Poppy1984

Really sorry to hear you lost your mother in law, really sad news. Hope you're all holding up okay. 

Sounds like your managing well with your finances abs keeping on track. I think food costs have risen I've noticed a difference in my shooing bills. 

Poppy

Naomim

Sorry to hear about your Mother in law. Even when its expected it's still a shock.

Glad you are all bearing up and have some things planned.

All the best.

Naomim 

FootyFanDan

Thank you @Poppy1984 & @Naomim. We are holding up well so far, we are just trying to keep little one occupied she was close to her gran and had a call/facetime every day so it's a little strange. We have had a few crying episodes from her but all to be expected I guess. I think as silly as it sounds my OH is taking comfort in the fact her Mum is no longer suffering.

Finances are holding steady at the moment we are doing well, not long now til payday and we have just got what should be enough food to last us til then. I will probably need to top up fuel as I am working for one day tomorrow, which isn't ideal given I have just done 48 hours this week already but needs must I guess. One day I will work in my dream job and be happy lol but until that day that I work up the courage and guts to learn it I am stuck here hahaha

alt80

I’m sorry to hear about your MIL mate; look after your wife, little girl but don’t forget yourself. I hope you’ve mentioned it at work and there is some support - I’ve had staff lose close family members over the years and it’s always difficult but it’s better to know (speaking from prospective of employer here). 

The fact you’re still resilient financially says a lot mate, you’re doing brilliantly, keep up all the good work. Said it before and will again, you’re an inspiration to people on here; top attitude to life as always.

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

I’m sorry to hear about your MIL mate; look after your wife, little girl but don’t forget yourself. I hope you’ve mentioned it at work and there is some support - I’ve had staff lose close family members over the years and it’s always difficult but it’s better to know (speaking from prospective of employer here). 

The fact you’re still resilient financially says a lot mate, you’re doing brilliantly, keep up all the good work. Said it before and will again, you’re an inspiration to people on here; top attitude to life as always.

Thanks mate, I took 1 day off....I did advise work of the situation but unfortunately when you have meetings with clients for projects worth lots of money I can't just drop out of work lol as much as I would want to. Its hard coz she treated me very much as part of the family. We are just trying to focus on spending the time I do have off on doing family things tbh. We are going to the deep on Sunday followed by a family meal, we are a pretty close unit us three so we will get through it  

Thank you for the compliment, I would think probably not but if one person gets inspiration to change it is worthwhile

alt80

I shouldn’t be up still promised the Mrs I would go to bed at a sensible time but just wanted to say support at work can look like things that aren’t necessarily just time off. A normal-ish routine can be good. I tend to pair my staff up with a line manager and a peer mentor professional reasons related to some of the work they do in some cases but found it was good for my staff to have someone within the company that they can speak to without judgement and without the line manager aspect.

Anyhow you need more belief in yourself mate - maybe it hasn’t always been the case that you’ve had a top attitude to life but you do now I can tell you look after your Mrs/ kid, serious about your work and progressing haven’t let your employer down when you could. You’re smashing it and 100% have a bright future ahead. Take a compliment lol. 

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

I shouldn’t be up still promised the Mrs I would go to bed at a sensible time but just wanted to say support at work can look like things that aren’t necessarily just time off. A normal-ish routine can be good. I tend to pair my staff up with a line manager and a peer mentor professional reasons related to some of the work they do in some cases but found it was good for my staff to have someone within the company that they can speak to without judgement and without the line manager aspect.

Anyhow you need more belief in yourself mate - maybe it hasn’t always been the case that you’ve had a top attitude to life but you do now I can tell you look after your Mrs/ kid, serious about your work and progressing haven’t let your employer down when you could. You’re smashing it and 100% have a bright future ahead. Take a compliment lol. 

Thanks mate, to be honest my manager is very reasonable and really supportive so no complaints there, I think it is myself that puts so much  focus on work I guess I just don't wanna fail at it haha. Although the last few months of changing and supporting a role I no longer should be has been difficult and a challenge as well as tiring, overall I do like my job. I think finding a better balance long term would be better though.

FootyFanDan

Happy Wednesday - halfway through the week. Payday yesterday so budget reset. I need to do a proper review of the month later, but looks like we have been under budget pretty much everywhere we needed to be. There was the unbudgeted travel costs for Scotland for train fares / fuel but that was soaked up by some funds we had spare. I was reflecting a few days ago on just how far we have come with the family finances over the last 6 months or so and we are in a lucky position, it doesn't feel like we are battling to reach paydays which feels good and although not quite at the stage of been fully prepared for everything life could chuck our way, we are getting there. The wage increase helped but I also think some of our focus and need to buy stuff has changed along the way too. I don't think I am being as conscious with the tracking or putting ever penny where it should which is something I will look at. I generally feel we have the 'house' spends in a good place, as they are pretty consistent although I expect the energy bills to change at some point. I am following the pots allocations main focus for next few months is xmas - we want to get the little one a bike this year as she seems to be keen, other than that the plan is to not go crazy.....not that plans always work! haha. 

FootyFanDan

Hi All 

Seems a while since my last update - time is just flying by so fast!! Hope everyone is okay. It seems like my life is just busy right now ha, last few weekends have just flown by as well. It has been a pretty relaxed weekend although we took the little one to cinema on Saturday after her drama class. The film was enjoyed and we also got a free ticket for next time due to some technical issues the film cut out for about five minutes so they gave everyone a voucher for the issue, even though it started up in place it cut out so none of film missed and it was like the last two mins of the film. Today I have cut the grass and hoping there isn't many more cuts (none hopefully) left of this year, looks lovely when done but just takes some looking after. It is better though since we invested in a petrol mower, speaking of petrol things seem to have calmed down now back to a normal routine on that front so that is a relief. 

We have kept within the budget both of our grocery shops so although I set it a little higher as we kept going over budget, I went through it and realised I just was not been realistic with it so needed to make adjustments and so far all good. We have also started the (whispers Christmas) shopping, we have been putting away through last couple of months and have pretty much got little one sorted - although we really want to get her a bike this year so that is going to be her main gift. Ideally I would like us all to have bikes, it is something I used to love going out on bike rides but haven't ridden a bike for years now.

Work is as crazy as ever lol, I am now currently looking after a site and also doing my own work too. One of the Senior management team have left and original plan was myself and two other managers were sharing the management of this site plus our own jobs but it seems like I am doing it more than anyone else haha. Its a huge responsibility and lots to sort, but it is also giving me experience of what I would eventually like to do long term. The other manager doesn't seem keen on taking up the option to do it and the 2nd manager is like an account director so their duties pretty much mean it would be impossible for them to do it. I do wonder if I may actually get the chance to do it full time but we will see, I guess the fact account director seems really keen on me remaining doing it even just temporary is a confidence boost in itself.

Finances are pretty much flowing along and we don't seem to be sat waiting for a payday to arrive and having nothing left so I think how the budget is structured is working pretty well. 

Personally I think my own self care seems to have slipped in terms of priorities right now and this is something I need to fix but all the juggling stuff at work and travelling that little bit further is adding on time to my day. I am not sleeping enough and probably not eating anywhere near enough. So this is something I need to focus on in the coming month. I hope everyone has a great week.

mark55man

well done Dan.  Exciting news about the job, even if you are getting nothing extra for it now, you are showing you can be trusted at that level, and maybe even ruling other people out when they formally replace.  The down side scenario is they just add it to your job role with no extra, but that would be unlikely