The Four D's

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

Good to hear from you mate. Def sort your contents insurance - it'll probably only be about £60-70/a going by what my single let tenants pay.

Do think if you go down the route of savings for your daughter you should consider a plan for it. I won't be giving my son money to spaff up the wall mate - he wants to do that he can damn well earn it. 

Re food - do you or your Mrs cook or both? Worth compiling a list. I've been getting the wife to do one initially it was a bit of a coke fuelled brainwave tbt ha but we're compiling a massive list of meals can then work out the plan from there. Also re shops - worth ordering online rather than going to the shop? I don't mind the supermarkets but 100 will come back with stuff I didn't intend to buy in the first place lol

Agree with @Naomim gliding being a good sign. 

Yeah contents insurance is up there on the list of stuff to get sorted. 

We both like to share the cooking and it is something I have always said I want to develop I love cooking but not a chef by any stretch, but I defo plan to widen my ability with this as time goes on. We have just got a list together of meals that we all love as a family and then meal plan around that. I am just working on a proper meal plan/shopping excel sheet - any excuse for a spreadsheet ha!! I think the thing is without the list when I go shopping its just a free for all and 100 per cent then buy too much

alt80

Sounds good re food - do you subscribe to Apple news? If so BBC good food magazine and a few other foodie ones on there - some good recipes to expand the repertoire mate. 

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

Sounds good re food - do you subscribe to Apple news? If so BBC good food magazine and a few other foodie ones on there - some good recipes to expand the repertoire mate. 

Sorry for the late reply mate...been one of them weeks!. We have all of the pinch of nom books which have some cracking recipes in them that we love has a family, I also have a few health related ones but they are gathering dust....I will check out the BBC food suggestion though.

FootyFanDan

Morning All,

Hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe. It finally feels like the end is in sight, which is both a positive and negative especially for my budget Ha! Although I think the most part of me is looking forward to gradually getting back into a more normal state of things, this lockdown seems to have impacted me more than any other.

We have reached another payday (tomorrow) and we have managed to do pretty okay, this was my first real month of properly investing in the pots and savings which has gone quite well and I have managed to work out how to hide the pots as well which is a neat little trick I loved!.

This month hasn’t been the best personally, my partners mum isn’t very well and had it not being for COVID the NHS would be caring for her in palletive care but due to the situation this isn’t possible so therefore unfortunately my partner has now had to go do that which has thrown stuff about here, but we have been through tougher so I am sure will work out. It did mean having to dip into EF a tiny bit as it meant a 550 mile journey that wasn’t planned, luckily Penelope (daughters new name for the car hahaha) is very efficient so I was able to put the majority of EF back. We aren’t sure how long this is for as we feared the tumour had gone to her brain, it hasn’t but we just aren’t sure how long she has left. I think the plan is once things are a little more stable and we know a little more about the situation the partner will come back here but we shall see.

Work wise has really tested this month too, juggling 3 jobs isn’t all that easy lol! I think something needs to give, I was also brought into some crappy HR BS that I wanted no involvement in I had made clear to my colleagues I wanted nothing to do with it has it wasn’t my battle yet despite that I was still asked so to say I am not overly amused at this would be an understatement. Another person from our part has also left so that impact on me could be for longer so lets see. I am also been moved back into day/nights pattern until they replace the person who has just left. It keeps been commented on how well I am handling the transition but ultimately I just want my one role in my normal hours is that too much to ask haha,

In budget/finance times I have worked round my YNAB a tiny bit to split it into income weeks, we get split income and after watching a few tutorials I came across this method and think it could work really well. I have a few Direct Debits that are through the month and its too much trouble to change it, I think if I can split the budget over two incomes that might make things not feel as tight.

Food has been under budget despite one ridiculous spend in the new aldi….oops! The food budget this month will be a bit all over as we will probably be doing separate ones this month. Although that might not be so bad as I am pretty low maintenance food wise haha.

A few days off now so I think I am going to try use that to relax and recover my mind. All housework is pretty much done and hopefully if I can keep on top of that it won’t be so bad. I will also try catch up on a lot of the happenings on the diaries

Sorry for the long moany post! This is just feels like my safe place to ramble without upsetting folks

Keep safe all!!

mark55man

ramble away, with lots of good news to ramble about (apart from the cancer bit obvs - I feel for you - my MIL went far too early)

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

ramble away, with lots of good news to ramble about (apart from the cancer bit obvs - I feel for you - my MIL went far too early)

Thanks Mark, yeah in general things are going pretty okay. I will be happy once work stuff settles down but it just been a series of crap coincidences that have prevented me moving to my new role, I am just working the best I can at the moment and hoping by the time I go on to my proper shifts I have made a decent enough dent in the workload to be in a good position, moving back onto days/nights will free up alot of time for admin related stuff. 

The cancer is something that has been around with the MIL for a while she has beaten it once, she isn't going to be so lucky this time so it is just a case of trying come to terms with it best we can and also ensure the little one is prepared if possible. MIL is still on 57 so no age at all.  

FootyFanDan

It's been a pretty dull but relaxing day today, went out for a walk just to get some fresh air but other than that I haven't really done too much. I have now managed to get my EF back up to where it was before the unbudgeted / unplanned trip so that is a good place to be at. I have also signed up for a trial of SyncforYnab, now I have always been pretty reluctant to do this as I was unsure what level of control this would allow me to have over inputting but the early signs seem to be okay and I still have to manually approve and categorize so actually should be ok. The reason for doing this is to try pick up on every little thing that is coming out of the account and giving me some proper accountability and figures. I think this might hopefully work for me, I normally am quite good at entering the big things and main bills however the little spends I always forget and hoping the auto import element will make it a bit easier.  I am up for trying anything to make the tracking stuff easier, If I can get to the stage where I can just update my YNAB daily with the transactions it might be better that it has auto put in,  if it doesn't do what I think then I can easily cancel. I still need to allocate the category but it just ensures every spend is captured. 

alt80

I’m really sorry to hear about your MIL mate. Know it doesn’t really help but thinking of you.

Work life seems a bit of a mess tbh. Have they had trouble with a replacement for your old role?

Smashing it on the finances front though. Would def say the sync is the way to go. I input every spend into my spreadsheet allocated against categories not used YNAB but assume it does similar? The small spends add up 100% but EF back up to where it should be despite the big trip is great news. 

Take care of your Mrs and little one.

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

I’m really sorry to hear about your MIL mate. Know it doesn’t really help but thinking of you.

Work life seems a bit of a mess tbh. Have they had trouble with a replacement for your old role?

Smashing it on the finances front though. Would def say the sync is the way to go. I input every spend into my spreadsheet allocated against categories not used YNAB but assume it does similar? The small spends add up 100% but EF back up to where it should be despite the big trip is great news. 

Take care of your Mrs and little one.

Thanks mate, appreciate that.

Work is just a mess. and tbh I can't really grumble much as its technically in my contract to cover this situation. They have kinda done their best its just really crap circumstances that have put us in this place. They knew they would have to replace me but then another girl handed in her notice then took it back out again. The reality is that that person should have just swapped to my rota and then I do my proper shift and cover holidays until I am replaced but coz she was leaving and she didn't wanna do that they gave in to her. Now they have had to kinda get rid of another girl for various reasons but ultimately the 1st girl that didn't wanna do my shift is now doing the other girls shift which is just my shift on different days !!!!!! lol. Work did replace me but the person they replaced me with failed the checks so then couldn't be employed. They have now found a replacement so lets see how that progresses haha. In good new though I do have my new shiny work laptop so that is progress only been waiting 3 months!!!! hahaha. I am kinda in a good place I am just keen to impress and put my own stamp on my new role and eager to start, the reality is that I am getting paid my new salary to do my old role so I maybe need to stop been a whiny baby! It is just frustrating.

Yeah YNAB is very similar but it is a lot easier for me, I have tried the whole spreadsheet stuff and I found it just wasn't working the way I wanted it to. YNAB just totally changed my view of finances completely and while I do still have a spreadsheet to kinda forecast how it should go YNAB literally has all my savings goals and bills budgeted and I input my income and click allocate all and it will auto fill all my stuff and leave me knowing what I have left. I get it isn't for everyone but this way works for me, the UK version doesn't let you link accounts so either have to import transactions directly from my monzo statements or manual. I am hoping the sync lets me get the right balance - inputting the big stuff and regular stuff is never an issue but always struggled with the odd bits here and there and then can't trust the budget. The sync will hopefully remove the element of I have missed something as every transaction will auto go into YNAB and then I can link that transaction to where it needs to go. 

They are tough little warriors mate they hold this family together so hopefully they will be fine, just a rough few months upcoming.

FootyFanDan

Afternoon All, 

Well today I have a bit of a milestone I have managed to be able to fully fund my food and petrol pots for the month. I know this might not be a big deal to most lol, but for me its a huge step forward in my budgeting journey. I have always held funds back for a case of what if? this month I feel comfortable enough with my budget that I no longer need the what if fund. I have also managed to fund all my monthly outgoings in this income where as I normally have a few bits I need to pay out of our mid month income. The difference this will make means that instead of having to put money from mid month income into petrol/food/bills and savings pots I will be able to start funding my next months bills from this months money which has always been my goal. I have always looked at my account and thought about the balance been low and worrying, where as this month that barrier has been broken. Yes the balance is low however all my bills are covered, all my food and petrol budget is covered and my pots are pretty much fully funded, so there should be no need to panic...in theory. I think if I can do this for this month it would set me up so well moving forward, and I know we sometimes praise YNAB but I truly don't think it would have been possible for me to get to this place without it. It means for the first time ever I face the prospect of the only things that will need to come out of my wage on the 28th March will be Rent, Month food budget and month petrol budget, that was never ever deemed possible for me. 

I will update totals later on today when I come back on here before settling down with some tv but I was so happy that I needed to put it down haha.