The Four D's

DancingInTheRain

Good to see you posting again, hope all's well with you ☺️

FootyFanDan

Thank you @DancingInTheRain. All is as well as can be so no complaints. hope you are doing well. I plan to be more active again as I think this place keeps me on track - last few weeks budgeting seems to have disappeared, partly through everything going up and partly through general laziness. This approach got me in trouble before so I need to stop and put in place actions before it spirals again.

mark55man

Hi Dan - I would encourage posting it just keeps the whole MSE thing in mind.  As you know I try once a week and that seems a good balance although its been a slog after 3 full years of diary-dom sometimes to find interesting stuff - but actually just reporting the same old stuff but with progress is reassuring and reinforcing   

alt80

Great to hear from you mate, glad you are doing well. Dealing with things before they spiral is the best approach. 

FootyFanDan

Hope everyone has had a really good Christmas whatever they have managed to get up to

So I guess it is time to get back into the grove of financial sensibility. I really need to start focusing, I am not sure of the end goal right now but I know I need to find the determination to start making sound decisions again. In truth my financial position is so much stronger than a few years ago, but with no real plan in place it feels like the money is really being utilised as it should be. I have had a pay rise at work and due to the way my role is structured there is going to be plenty of opportunities to increase pay by doing overtime (which i plan to capitalise on through 2023). I am hoping by doing this I can bump up the wage a bit more too. I feel very lucky to be in a good place, although wages have gone up I am also very conscious that so has our energy costs and food costs.

Over the last few months the laziness has crept back in - the old " ah it is just one coffee treat" The daily coffee run on route to work, the odd fast food breakfasts, lazy buying work lunch on route to work. The costs in this department are starting to creep back up and this is a sign of me needing to halt that pattern. My strictness on this has dropped so this is a target area, I need to prepare better. We have a coffee machine at home that I think the pods are expensive at 8 drinks for £4 but I don't bat an eyelid when *bucks wanna charge £4.50 for one 😂. A travel mug is on my list of things to purchase and I will be making coffee at home in future. Any work lunch ideas are welcome...I get bored with sandwiches all the time, so I buy the stuff then fail to use it.

I have adjusted my budgets and goals within YNAB to take into account the pay rise adjustment - December pay was the first month at this amount, I have made adjustments to the food budget as it is obvious it is too low and the feeling of breaking it every month sucks!. I need to be more realistic with it I think and then try capitalise on savings where possible. I think over the last few months this is an area that has dropped, meal planning is something that has gone out of the window so I am sure this is partly why bill has increased.

The positive financial news is that I have managed to finally get to my target Emergency fund of £1000 so this is amazing and has given me that much needed security and knowledge that if there is an emergency or the type us (renters) would face mainly car or kitchen appliance breaking then I can pay it without the need to put on CC which is a really good feeling.

I am wanting to get back into a place where our days out / family trips are back budgeted (boring I know! haha) but it worked before. I really want us to do more as a family as this year we just haven't for one reason or another and having it planned out /budgeted means that it can happen.

**GOALS**

Finance

- Move focus away a bit from Emergency Fund savings now at target and focus on saving for annual bills (Car Tax, Car Insurance, Car maintenance)

- Don't factor in overtime into my normal budget - Overtime will be used to fund holiday. It has been way too long since we went on holiday as a family so we have some funds already allocated from normal budget and the overtime will supplement this.

House Deposit - Long term my aim has always been to own our home, my partner isn't too fussed lol. However we do have an ISA which does have £1k in it so this is still to be determined but I would like to still fund this. 

Personal / Work

- Find some real work / life balance - This is something I really struggle with and I need to try switch off when I am not working. I have removed all my work emails / documents from my phone. I tend to find myself working outside of my normal shifts and I feel this has now set a precedent that I will work even when on Annual leave - two occasions have now had calls when I have been doing family events regarding work so this stops!

- work on fitness / health -  Steps target (TBC), Jogging/running (even walking at this stage would be an improvement). My fitness has really gone down hill over last 6-9 months, to the point I am now aching a lot I dunno if this is down to a medical issue or just purely down to me not exercising anywhere near enough. Not sure I want to commit to the cost of a gym membership just yet but I need to do something. Alcohol consumption has also been on the up lately mainly due to work stresses just to relax, however this is something I need to kick  - from the stuff my dad has gone through I am more self aware than ever of the damage too much alcohol can do so decreasing this is also a goal.

There is a lot to work on both financial and personally. This diary has always been about becoming debt free but it did so much more for me than that, now the huge debt has gone not technically sure this counts as a debt free diary.... I do have a Credit Card that is utilised for the cashback / some extra protection on some of our purchases. I use this for petrol but never really get into debt with it. As I pay on credit card then on the night just pay what I would in cash (hopefully this is building up my credit) 

Time to work on a plan!

mark55man

good work Dan - yes you can always do more planning but what you have is a great start.

I agree strictness in daily costs is a key thing - funnily I have also been struggling in that aspect.  I think its as I now only go to the office 1-2 days a week and clients 1-2 days I just have a broken rhythm so although I get some expenses for travel its not really OK to use them up with a macmuffin and a coffee

As on older less fit person I would say work done now on that is 5x easier than doing it in 15 years.  And a few extra lbs may not feel bad, but are associated with more sugary blood which is like a constant corrosive doing a little damage every year you run with it. 

its nice to have you back - I know you had a major change but don't let the impact of it drag on for tool long, and for me trying to post regularly whilst finding something to focus on is helpful.  For me as well, next year is fitness and fatness (more of the former, and less of the latter) 

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

good work Dan - yes you can always do more planning but what you have is a great start.

I agree strictness in daily costs is a key thing - funnily I have also been struggling in that aspect.  I think its as I now only go to the office 1-2 days a week and clients 1-2 days I just have a broken rhythm so although I get some expenses for travel its not really OK to use them up with a macmuffin and a coffee

As on older less fit person I would say work done now on that is 5x easier than doing it in 15 years.  And a few extra lbs may not feel bad, but are associated with more sugary blood which is like a constant corrosive doing a little damage every year you run with it. 

its nice to have you back - I know you had a major change but don't let the impact of it drag on for tool long, and for me trying to post regularly whilst finding something to focus on is helpful.  For me as well, next year is fitness and fatness (more of the former, and less of the latter) 

Thank you for the constant encouragement Mark it really does help. I dunno kinda feels like cheating using this as more of a brain dump than owt else. 

My health in general has always been okay - I have always been quite fit. It has always been a joke that I can eat loads and not put any weight on but that is becoming more difficult (and visible lol) I am not obese far from it but I fear the more I don't put effort in now the more I will suffer later in life. I think i need to be a lot more conscious of getting the right nutrition. And yeah I think as i have got lazier the easier it has become to buy coffee and food on the go. 

I like that you seem to have defined goals and a route to them 

DancingInTheRain

I could've written that post Dan, since starting the new job in September we've definitely done more frittering and spending on unnecessary takeaways, coffee on the go, etc.While we're fortunate to have the money to do so, it's not how I want to utilise our hard earned wages.

We're certainly lacking focus and goals at the moment and, like you, also need to be mindful of health as well as financial goals.

I don't know what the answer is at the moment but will continue to cheer you on 🙂 

FootyFanDan

DancingInTheRain said:

I could've written that post Dan, since starting the new job in September we've definitely done more frittering and spending on unnecessary takeaways, coffee on the go, etc.While we're fortunate to have the money to do so, it's not how I want to utilise our hard earned wages.

We're certainly lacking focus and goals at the moment and, like you, also need to be mindful of health as well as financial goals.

I don't know what the answer is at the moment but will continue to cheer you on 🙂 

Thank you for the encouragement - Yeah think we are the same whilst we aren't anywhere near as bad as we were I don't want us to fall back into old habits. I want us to be able to enjoy the eating out / days out guilt free in the knowledge nothing else is suffering for it.

alt80

Happy New Year. You’ve got some good goals there for the coming year mate. Utilising something that works for you is not ‘cheating’ and focusing on where you want your money to go each month and what you are choosing to spend it on is a great start. You are in a good position, free of debt and on the road to building some savings. You’ll get there in time with buying your own home. It might only be small but perhaps if you fancy a takeaway coffee, take the money your would have spent and put it into your savings for a home - little bits will add up; could potentially pay your conveyancing fees with savings from takeaway coffee, for instance.

Regarding using your credit card; if it’s paid in full each month there is nothing wrong with that at all, best way to buy goods imo, keeps your day to day spending away from your main current account and greater consumer protection (potentially some small cash back/ points based rewards too). 

Overtime might be there for you to take but don’t forget to spend time with your loved ones and don’t miss out on your little girl growing up. I put everything above my family for many years and made myself very ill. Could be worth perhaps having a month or two off the booze, just to reset a bit and another opportunity to top that deposit fund up a bit.