The Four D's

BlueJ94

FootyFanDan said:

Thank You Jade - it has been a pretty tough month finance wise so kinda beating myself up over letting the reigns go a bit and enjoying a bit of family time as i now think that money could have gone elsewhere but ah that can't be changed now. I think i just need to dust myself down and go again

I think everyone has felt similar over the Christmas period, time to reset and regain the control!

FootyFanDan

Just the encouragement I needed! Lets Do This

FootyFanDan

Morning all, 

Today's plan is for a pretty quiet day. We have the food shop to do, but hoping it isn't too busy. I need to look at the budget properly today and see where I can move some stuff around to factor in the car repair, while it needs doing quickly I don't want to be in a position to sink all my funds into it and then struggle for everything else. I will try negotiate a mix of work from home and office days to keep cost of travel down

Have a good Sunday everyone

Naomim

@FootyFanDan I could have written your post.  Car is dead, budget out the window.  At least we recognise the signs and now we need to pull our socks up and review. Would you have done that a year or two years ago?  Now we have the tools to do so.

FootyFanDan

Deffo @Naomim, I know 100% the me of a few years ago would have just thought ah screw budgeting it doesn't work. The fact I can see the sings and it then re-focus me I see as a positive. It really has made me want to get things back on track, finances are good at present and no where as bad as they have been before but I want to get back into feeling content with having some savings again.

FootyFanDan

The end of another weekend. This one has been a lot more relaxed and chilled than last weekend for sure. I managed to get the food shop completed and came in under budget, also took the little one out on her bike which she loved. We are still trying to get her confident on her bike but today she made some good steps so hopefully on the right track.

I have also stripped the budget and re-prioritised so here is to a new beginning on that front.  I have also added some new targets and goals so hopefully going back to a pretty much zero based budget again, it has worked before and I am hoping it reigns things back in a bit 

To Do For Week

- Make a shopping list template and add some meals on to it
- Do a inventory of food cupboards and freezer
- Speak to garage about car (strangely the fault message and warning light had gone when I checked this morning, however work is a 40 mile round trip so not sure worth risking). I am going to speak with manager and possibly work from home tomorrow but I have a few meetings I need to be in work for Tuesday & Wednesday
- Sort through clothes ready to donate what is no longer needed

Expenses This Week

- £34 Weekly Travel passes
- All direct debits are due out 1st of Month but all accounted for in budget already

Goals For The Week

- No alcohol - I want to try cut out alcohol completely, while I am not worried about my overall consumption the last few weeks it has become a regular thing and it is something I want to get rid of. Last weekend I drank way more than I normally would and it ruined the weekend and made me feel shocking so this is work in progress

- No takeout Coffee - I will make a drink in my cup for travelling on the bus and hopefully this will prevent the unnecessary
spends which have slowly crept up

- 6k Steps - I want to try slowly increase my steps and build this up, I used to quite regularly get in 10k steps whilst I was doing gym but now i barely get any. I would expect using public transport will increase this.

- Catch Up on my podcasts - again travel will aid this

anjyeah

I have finally caught up on your diary again - there really is always something in this journey isn't? You clear a debt but you know there are bigger goals ahead as well. But you definitely know recognise the signs. And it looks like you have! It has inspired me actually to also rethink my budget (even possibly update my SOA) and reprioritise. Thank you for that. 

FootyFanDan

Thank you @anjyeah. There does always seem to be something haha. If I am being honest with myself I have probably just thrown budgeting out the window since I got debt free and I know where that journey ends so I definitely do not want to be back there. I am determined to make sure that the road forward is positive. I have enjoyed having some extra freedoms and meals out / family stuff so 100% want to keep those just need to align with rest of budget.
 

FootyFanDan

Evening MSE World,

Today was an early start with getting public transport but overall not too bad of a day. I have managed to also get 10k steps in which is an added bonus. I managed to be able to finally start reading my book as well on the bus, the journey is a little longer than driving but provided all connections aren't missed it isn't bad. My bus home is only every hour though which could be a pain if connecting bus gets delayed.

All my direct debits have gone out of the account and no other spends to budget just yet. Car is booked in at the garage for Thursday so here is hoping it isn't totally crap news on that front. If the repair isn't too costly I could probably scrape enough to get it done this weekend, if it is more costly then I need to consider my options really. 

Hope everyone has had a good day

FootyFanDan

just checking in to keep myself active. I am declaring I will never ever complain about cars again, it is only when you are forced to not have it you realise the luxury it is. Public transport spends were more than intended as the buses are just not consistent enough - Monday one turned up early leaving me waiting for an hour which meant I then missed my other bus so had to get train. My morning. bus turned up a few mins late which meant I missed my connecting bus haha, so again another spend on train. In the end I just took the loss and got train for rest of week which was quicker, more reliable. but more costly than I budgeted. It also meant I didn't have to get up a 4:30 though so overall I figured it was the better option.

Car repair is still up in the air. The ABS fault has been fixed to the tune of £260 for brakes and a. new speed sensor, however the main fault is still there and it could be costly so if the costs creep up I need to assess what to do. I don't have funds for a newer one but also wary of spending a fortune fixing a very old car. The issue I have is that I need a car to get to work and to do my job as I travel from site to site. 

This week I had planned to try clear the garage but the weather isn't really ideal for that so may just do some house sorting instead. Also have a shopping delivery coming today but not until late on.