The Four D's

Poppy1984

10 days!!!! That's crazy! I can't wait to see your debt free post on the roll of honours I'll be looking out for it! 

Poppy

FootyFanDan

Poppy1984 said:

10 days!!!! That's crazy! I can't wait to see your debt free post on the roll of honours I'll be looking out for it! 

Poppy

Haha, that honours board is somewhere I would never have thought I would get and one day you will be on it too . I think once I am debt free another challenge begins...it has to otherwise I will not keep motivated. Have a great weekend

Poppy1984

FootyFanDan said:

Poppy1984 said:

10 days!!!! That's crazy! I can't wait to see your debt free post on the roll of honours I'll be looking out for it! 

Poppy

Haha, that honours board is somewhere I would never have thought I would get and one day you will be on it too . I think once I am debt free another challenge begins...it has to otherwise I will not keep motivated. Have a great weekend

I remember reading through them when I first started out to motivate and keep me going, love reading people's posts on their ☺️

Yes I think you're right, becoming debt free really is just the beginning! 

FootyFanDan

Hope everyone has had a great weekend. Can't believe it's Monday again already! Luckily this week I have a few extra days off due to covering some shifts. It has been a pretty chill weekend, not really spent much either. I took little one to drama on Saturday and then took her to get some crafting supplies....the kid seems to have picked up my love for all things stationary (oops) then Saturday afternoon me and the little one sat drawing, I was learning her how to draw pop tarts hahaha. It was such a great way to relax though. I used to love drawing as a kid but haven't sat and drawn for a while so it was nice. Today was a nice walk before dinner and a film.

It is nearly time for budget reset too and although we are quite close to payday we have still managed to keep funds available, we only have shopping left to get before payday but that shouldn't be much as we already have a fair bit in house. I have gone through this months spends and if I needed a fall back to earth to show me I have far from cracked this budgeting lark, then YNAB certainly did that!!!!. There's a fair few spends that were not budgeted for and if I wasn't tracking spends then the pattern would continue. There is nothing massively extravagant in there just stuff that if I wanna do then I need to budget for it, there was a meal out with bro and his gf that we hadn't planned for, two takeaways again not budgeted for. We got tickets for the little one to go pantomime for her birthday in December. So yeah still some work to do in this department and it didn't go on cards or adding to debt so that is a positive but its still unbudgeted. Moving forward the takeaways are out as I didn't actually enjoy either of them at all. The meal I would actually quite like to stay as it was nice to be out enjoying ourselves without worrying about it affecting debt, I plan to have one Sunday meal out as a family a month and will now budget for it. It was all spare money, but again that means I am not doing the YNAB way haha. It is a real eyeopener in a way and shown me that as much as my good work/effort have been key...sadly so has lockdown as this certainly stopped some of the expense. Anyway lessons to be learned I guess. Hope everyone has a fab week ahead.

mark55man

I think everyone loosened the purse strings this month.  I certainly did, and as long as you spot it quickly and manage it going forward you will be fine.  I agree with your priority - bin the take out and go out for a meal with family  

FootyFanDan

Wow, what a crazy few weeks that was!. Ah one day off now to relax, only a quick check in as I am exhausted. Tonight is just going to be a night chilled out watching TV and hoping for a lie in tomorrow morning (although that is unlikely) I have a few bits to do tomorrow and I will then do a proper monthly update to keep myself accountable. Overall a decent month in July despite the high eating out spends and some dipping into savings for uniform stuff. I have still kept on track.

Tomorrow to do (so far)

- Do a load of washing for all work clothes an iron them
- Meal Plan ( most of this will be from cupboards and freezer) but may need a few bits. I am currently flying solo as girls are away for a few weeks so meal planning will be a little easier.
- Ideally I could do with trying to get a bit of stuff ready for the tip.
- Would like to try also go for a walk or run but we will see.

Hope everyone is keeping well.

FootyFanDan

Monthly update - July

I am pretty much near where I want to be in terms of my main household monthly outgoings and have now got these at a consistent level, which is easy to manage and also pretty much keep every bill paid. There isn't much more room to manoeuvre unless I feel the need to ditch the luxury of sky package but as this isn't really a deal breaker in terms of the budget now I am financially more savvy it can stay for now, although is due a review in September. All utilities and bills have been paid as they leave account on 28th of Month, with exception of Council Tax, comes out tomorrow.

Food Spends  £400 this month

The amount shocked me to be honest, but having reviewed YNAB it's nothing out of the ordinary I guess I just bundled the takeaways/eating into a misc pot out of pure laziness. Although that has only been recent and hasn't damaged any other area of the budget I haven't ever sat and really micro-managed the misc part of spends (i know lol). I made a proper eating out category and saw that £100 was eating out (enjoyed) and a few takeaways (not enjoyed). Moving forward we plan to have a fakeaway night and can put this in the food budget. The meal out will stay as I think its important that we do spend some time out as a family or with friends.

Socialising 

This isn't a category I have needed for a while...however I can already see this been something that could break the budget so putting here as a reminder for future me to do something with.

Travel: £200

This is over budget, however we have had two return trips to Scotland due to family health so the savings soaked up some of this. Also some is going to be claimed back on expenses as there were a few work trips in there too.

Work

I have really struggled this month with juggling a lot of my workload and in general trying to switch off. I have done a mix of my own job plus two weeks of 12 hours shifts on my old job. As well as take on a few extra tasks and having to do various other bits. I have started to look into ways I can manage the workload by setting certain schedules to try ensure I can manage these without putting much strain. I tend to work better when I break down tasks. I have managed to keep within targets and work has been completed, but I think that is part of the problem, whilst work is getting done they believe it is managed, but reality is I managed to get a few months in front as I knew this would happen and luckily that bought me some wiggle room to figure out stuff

Targets here: Complete a weekly schedule plan for all my re-occuring tasks
                      Organise a calendar / diary for work and one for home

Debt

Erm....I kinda don't have any debt anymore!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK. I can't even begin to explain how much of a boost this has given me in what has been a very tough month all round. 

Plan - NEVER EVER GET IN DEBT AGAIN!

Well Being

Overall I have managed to stick with the goals of drinking plenty of water and that has made a difference. I have also now started some multi-vits and a energy solution drink for water with vitamins mid - morning. I still really need to find some way to sleep or relax properly, also need to focus on eating properly as this is slipping again. I have just started getting into tracking some of this and main goal this month is to keep tracking and looking into my diet.

Well done if you got this far haha. Now my debt is gone not sure what to do with diary as it technically isn't a debt free diary anymore, but been around here has given me so much help. Thank you!

mark55man

well done Dan.  Go and post yourself on the DF roll of honour thread.

Your blend of tackling problems and self improvement and blending family throughout will ring a lot of bells with lots of people

Next stop - ......... wherever you want to get to

BlueJ94

Woohoo well done!! 

alt80

Firstly, congratulations mate, well done, I'm made up for you and 100% deserved. 🥂 It's an absolutely amazing achievement and you've smashed it. Plenty of times you could have just said !!!!!! it like anyone ha.

Well done in terms of having got to the point of managing your monthly DD outgoings, this will set you up well for the future. You are also thinking about the things that may trip you up in the future re spending. You remind me of some of my (nicer/ family) tenants - they too always seem to put their family first, don't really chase the money.

You'll get there with work; you have the work ethic, just keep applying yourself and doing what you're doing. Perhaps seek a mentor who will help you to move to the next level in your career. 

I'm not going to lie, your attitude to life has been 100% inspirational to me.