The Four D's

alt80

@FootyFanDan thanks mate. It’s difficult re wife being honest I doubt she’d stick with me if I earned £3k/m, lived in a new build semi and drove a 320d. Tells me otherwise but it hurts to know the person who should be with you no matter what wouldn’t be if I couldn’t bring the income in. That said I’ve been a s**t husband and do take her for granted so maybe I deserve all I get. She does everything round the house, all garden jobs, washes, vacs and polishes cars once a week, laundry, ironing everything really and does give me an easy life tbh lol. Realised that far too late. Now not even in a position to go and buy something special for her.

Need to sort it out before it gets really desperate and I’m winding up wrecking my credit record. Know that’s not a massive thing to some but it would cause me a world of trouble. Got to the point before I did the remo I know I needed to remo my BTLs or I was going to start missing payments.

Don’t know if you saw the Bendtner article? - peddling his book lol but interesting re spending mindset. Always thought I’d have it made if I was footballer rich but clearly not.

We have the family film evenings sometimes lol nice to see others do similar. 

Sorry to hear about the grandparent but hope the kitten will bring your little one lots of joy. We have a golden retriever, my son loves him like a brother actually probably more there’s no fighting between them haha.

My wife is Christmas obsessed so nearly all done in this house. Not even joking she’d put the decs up when the clocks go back. Lots of fun things you can do for not a lot of money - walk round town checking the lights out, hot chocolate and marshmallows by the fire with the Xmas films on (cringe I know but guilty pleasure haha), hide some small presents round the house and get the kid to find them - son loves the treasure hunt more than the treasure I think sometimes. 

FootyFanDan

@alt80 must admit my partner is also Christmas obsessed I am pretty sure if I would let her she would have our tree up all year round! Re the film days it wasn't always that way if I am being honest and it sounds daft maybe but its always been me and gf against the world - when we were at our lowest we had no-one at all and we kind of battled through it, so me, partner and daughter have quite a tight bond so we do tend to enjoy a lot of nice little things like that now.

Well what a crazy few days in this household, so the partner felt unwell on Friday and worsened on Saturday into Sunday so she had the test for covid and this has come back positive so we are now all in isolation for 14 days, which on the up side will save some petrol money - although not sure work are overly impressed with the thought of it. The problem is at work the work is only one person per shift so they now need to find cover so lets see how that goes. I could possibly swap to nights and work from home easily but whether they go for that or not is their option. I feel fine in myself but couldn't live with myself if I risked it just for work and someone who has vulnerable kids then caught it. The little one will miss drama now for two weeks but school closes on Friday so won't miss as much school. 

Budget wise we are all good and only 8 days until payday. Also xmas shopping as got underway and although we aren't going crazy this year with family we have managed to get quite a few ticked off the list. Hope everyone is doing well

mark55man

sorry to hear that - good luck and hope you all push through OK.  Work are just going to have with deal with it the guidance is very very clear.  working from home is OK just need to get/make yourself a space and ideally be out of sight

Hope you have enough local support to get the groceries etc- well done on thinking about the MSE money saving of your situation - I have found the pandemic a financial blessing, although I understand I have been lucky being pretty blue chip / white collar

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

sorry to hear that - good luck and hope you all push through OK.  Work are just going to have with deal with it the guidance is very very clear.  working from home is OK just need to get/make yourself a space and ideally be out of sight

Hope you have enough local support to get the groceries etc- well done on thinking about the MSE money saving of your situation - I have found the pandemic a financial blessing, although I understand I have been lucky being pretty blue chip / white collar

Thanks Mark, yeah MSE way of thinking is always there now lol. We are stocked up groceries wise at the moment so hopefully we have enough to just about get by but our food deliveries are actually decent too so hopefully will be ok. I think work understand I just hate been in a position I feel I am letting work down, its just difficult with the arrangements too, I did say I am fine and have no symptoms and can work fine from home if needed to - although that would probably have to be nights. In reality its only 7 days off work due to how my shift pattern works and I am meant to be on nights next week too, plus I have an holiday Sunday 1st which is my last day of isolation. It just feels crap I mean I have had no time off work here for the two and half years plus previous employer I wasn't sick in 7 years so to have time off when I personally am not sick seems strange, but there are a few at work who have at risk family and I will certainly do not want to put them at risk. If anything I will have plenty of time to catch up on tv

alt80

@FootyFanDan Hope you, wife and little one are all OK. Someone I know had it in March we're fairly sure but wasn't tested.

Sounds like you have a brilliant bond with your Mrs. I've been more married to my business and tenants than wife over the years lol.

You are 100% not letting work down - you're doing the right thing. I've had a couple self-isolate back when if people thought they had symptoms - they were honest it was probably a cold but I'd be a lot more disappointed with a member of staff who pushed through and I later found out spread covid around my business as I think would 9/10 employers. 

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

@FootyFanDan Hope you, wife and little one are all OK. Someone I know had it in March we're fairly sure but wasn't tested.

Sounds like you have a brilliant bond with your Mrs. I've been more married to my business and tenants than wife over the years lol.

You are 100% not letting work down - you're doing the right thing. I've had a couple self-isolate back when if people thought they had symptoms - they were honest it was probably a cold but I'd be a lot more disappointed with a member of staff who pushed through and I later found out spread covid around my business as I think would 9/10 employers. 

Thanks mate, tbh I figured we had already had it in December as we were both really badly then. So far we are all doing well, I don't have any symptoms and neither does little one but my partner has been badly last few days but had the docs actually done what they should have this would have been picked up coz they normally just give her steroids as they put it down to a chest infection so i guess its a blessing they didn't. 

I hate putting work in this position, even though morally I know its 100 per cent the right thing to do in these circumstances. If they have issues that is on them not me. As some one said ' work will still be work without you, your home and family won't be' I just need to take precautions. I guess its an unplanned 14 days off. 

Hope you and the family are well

DancingInTheRain

Hi Dan just catching up. Sorry to hear about your OH, hope she's beginning to feel better and that you & LO are okay too. 
I understand your feelings about work, I'd be the same, I'm sure it'll all work out.
Any money saving/earning plans you can put into place while you have to self isolate to give you something constructive to focus on?
Take care x 

FootyFanDan

DancingInTheRain said:

Hi Dan just catching up. Sorry to hear about your OH, hope she's beginning to feel better and that you & LO are okay too. 
I understand your feelings about work, I'd be the same, I'm sure it'll all work out.
Any money saving/earning plans you can put into place while you have to self isolate to give you something constructive to focus on?
Take care x 

Hey Dancing - The OH is getting there, been a long day for her today though. She hates not been able do her normal routine but rest is the order of the day at the moment. I am doing ok, however the LO has picked up tonsilitus again so its been not ideal in our house at the moment. 

I am saving on petrol so that is a bonus I guess lol, my duties include finishing decorating the landing and possibly the kitchen as well as trying to pick through sorting some stuff out so even when ill she still finds plenty for me to get on with hahaha. Hope all is well with you x

alt80

@FootyFanDan Glad to hear your Mrs is getting there. My son has had tonsillitis a couple of times, last time earlier this year (just before covid kicked off thank christ) he was really quite poorly can be awful for them.

By the sounds of it you'll have added £10k to your home by the time you go back to work... every cloud and that ha.

FootyFanDan

Evening MSE world!
The end of another month arrives - payday today so a budget reset. We arrived at payday with £230 left from last month which is insane place for me to be at considering where I was not even 12 months ago!. That £230 would have been seen as excess and blown on rubbish last year...this year its been paid to debt. I think I might be at a place in my budget now where I would feel comfortable working with no buffer fund so everything gets a job which is realistically where I wanted to be and knowing that what I budget is what is a true reflection so that is something to consider in next month or so. I might just ride it out now until after xmas and then look again in the new year. While we are speaking about xmas I have managed to budget this quite well this year we have bought little bits over last few months and now are in a good place that means for the first time in a very long time my early December wage won't be paying for gifts on xmas eve (wooooooo).

Debt Progress.
I have finally managed to get a little bit more progress on this after a month or so of waiting on contact and the finishing post is so near now, I am desperate to hit my December target I really am. I had saved enough to clear one debt already and once I had the details to do so I paid that off so that was cleared on Friday - the extra money I had remaining in the budget and £250 I normally pay to debt went to clear one more debt today. This leaves me with a grand total of £1544 left until I am free of debt   - That seemed impossible when I started this journey, I thought I would never stick with this budget. Its not just the debt its the total mindset change.

Work 
There has been very little changes work-wise I am currently mainly focused on the possible progress of promotion - this will possibly happen over the course of the next few weeks. I have come to peace with the fact that certain issues at work I can't influence anymore and I have totally switched my focus from the negative stuff I can't control, but the experience has made me realise what is important to me and also made me see that not everyone's intentions are as they seem. I am hopeful that the promotion comes through - my manager seems to think it will but the waiting is frustrating but they could promote me until the role was officially vacant which it will be from the 1st November, other than that its just plodding along.

My partner is slowly getting through the COVID stuff, its been a week or so since getting her positive result and the last few days were tough on her but she is getting there. Luckily I have had no symptoms and managed to isolate without too much issue so far. The little one has been tested (and was negative luckily) has she had a temp so wanted to be careful. 

I need to start thinking about the steps I wanna take moving forward in terms of long term savings and also re any sort of house buying. I have looked through reports and although alot of debt being paid of has improved my credit score the defaults are hurting there obviously, the vast majority are due off in 2022 - the last of them being December 2022. I am going to focus on getting a decent deposit saved for buying our forever home - our tenancy is secure (as it can be in these times) so if we can keep going we could get there. I would also love to take the little one to Orlando but that is also going to be covid dependent at the moment. 

One thing I need to start doing more of is doing a proper meal plan as over the last few months, the more the debt has come down the more relaxed I have become about this and got lazy - while its not extravagant its certainly creeping up. I also need to look at the month up coming in more details too and setting a plan at the beginning of the month.

Hope everyone is keeping as safe as possible and keeping well