The Four D's

mark55man

So those are great plans, but don't forget the older you.  I can tell you are a good worker (as my MIL would say), but do think about how you are preparing for your 60s as the earlier you start the easier it is to make a difference.  I know you have thought about house savings, and that's fine if its what you want.  I think the only advice is pay your self first - ie when you get you pay packet - rent/ other essentials (including savings/pension) come out on day 1 - then you can see what's left for you to spend, rather than seeing what's left at the ned and popping it into the savings.  I know you are better organised than many (including me), but this is a strategy I have followed with pension and mortgage - always increasing them with pay rises, although less so with EF 

FootyFanDan

mark55man said:

So those are great plans, but don't forget the older you.  I can tell you are a good worker (as my MIL would say), but do think about how you are preparing for your 60s as the earlier you start the easier it is to make a difference.  I know you have thought about house savings, and that's fine if its what you want.  I think the only advice is pay your self first - ie when you get you pay packet - rent/ other essentials (including savings/pension) come out on day 1 - then you can see what's left for you to spend, rather than seeing what's left at the ned and popping it into the savings.  I know you are better organised than many (including me), but this is a strategy I have followed with pension and mortgage - always increasing them with pay rises, although less so with EF 

Haha I think you might be hyping up my organisation skills a bit much there 🤣 Although I think you are right Mark, i need to start treating savings as a ‘debt to my future self’. At the minute everything comes first and then at the end of the month i normally have some for savings, the way you are putting it makes much more sense. i am currently in the process of figuring out the way I am going to allocate money moving forward. I think at the minute it is too easy for me to just say I will fund savings at the end of the month.

Pensions is something I need to maybe search the boards on here for a little more advice, my pay has increased again slightly not a massive amount but it equates to approx extra £200 per year and I do pay into my work pension which the contribution has increased in line with my pay. 

FootyFanDan

Morning All, 

Hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was not anywhere near as productive as I had hoped. I have today off work though due to covering  extra hours on my old role a few weeks ago, so i plan to make the most of that day off and get some house stuff done. I did plan on getting up early but then switched alarm off lol

So, todays plan is to finish my cup of tea and then do some house work, there isn’t really much to do but enough to keep me occupied. I was also planning on trying to get a walk in today but seen as it is currently chucking it down with rain I think that plan can be done with, it seems like it will be likely to rain most of the day.

If I can’t get out for the walk, I think I will maybe just read or something. I have started to jot down ideas for a habit tracker to try and make myself accountable for some of the things I wanna get better at so I will try make progress on this front. Also need to split my list of stuff on my wish list in to needs and wants, some of them are needs for sure I need a new backpack as my current one is falling to bits, I have seen one online I like the look of which isn’t too expensive and also allows room for my work laptop and iPad, plus accessories which would be great as I currently have separate stuff for all of these. I also need (probably not a need lol) a cable that allows me to connect my iPad to hdmi source so I can connect to monitor. I have started using my IPad a lot more now and eventually reckon this will be my main source of computer, my laptop is broken and if I can use my iPad for pretty much all my needs then I think I will. It prevents me buying a new laptop (MacBook would be what I got next). I have done quite a bit of research and that seems to be a good way if I can make it work. I mainly use laptop for my spreadsheets and stuff I am not really a massive PC gamer so it won’t be too intensive any ways. I have seen a few things that have a few ports so SD reader and stuff so I think i could make it work… I mean I have to lol the iPad was very much a impulse treat (oops) 

Anyhow, enough rambles for now. Have a great week everyone.

BlueJ94

I currently envy you @FootyFanDan I wish I was at home but I'm sat outside of work on my lunch dinner haha!

Hopefully you find something to do to keep yourself busy! I can't wait for my week off in two weeks time, it's the longest I've ever taken off in about 4 years

FootyFanDan

jadewest94 said:

I currently envy you @FootyFanDan I wish I was at home but I'm sat outside of work on my lunch dinner haha!

Hopefully you find something to do to keep yourself busy! I can't wait for my week off in two weeks time, it's the longest I've ever taken off in about 4 years

hahaha, if it makes you feel any better I only did chores anyways 😂😂. I also need to learn to take holidays from work, its been a tough few months work wise juggling stuff. This is the reason (partly) I need to somehow figure a way to structure my work days/weeks to ensure I am not losing track of what I need to be doing. They have now employed someone else so that my old role will not need to use me for holiday/sickness cover so that is a positive....the negative to this is my work load will increase in other ways I am sure. 

BlueJ94

FootyFanDan said:

jadewest94 said:

I currently envy you @FootyFanDan I wish I was at home but I'm sat outside of work on my lunch dinner haha!

Hopefully you find something to do to keep yourself busy! I can't wait for my week off in two weeks time, it's the longest I've ever taken off in about 4 years

hahaha, if it makes you feel any better I only did chores anyways 😂😂. I also need to learn to take holidays from work, its been a tough few months work wise juggling stuff. This is the reason (partly) I need to somehow figure a way to structure my work days/weeks to ensure I am not losing track of what I need to be doing. They have now employed someone else so that my old role will not need to use me for holiday/sickness cover so that is a positive....the negative to this is my work load will increase in other ways I am sure. 

Haha I woild rather be home doing chores than be at work!

Oh that sounds like a bummer! We're moving warehouse on Friday so I'm staying around to help out. But I can't wait to have the whole week off and I get the extra Monday as it's Bank Holiday so even better! Be nice not to be so stressed all the time :ssmile:

alt80

Glad to hear someone else has taken your old role at work mate. 

Re iPad - what are you wanting to use it for exactly? Bit of internet browsing / emails / word processing and spreadsheets it'll be fine if it's a decent spec recent one. I've got a 12.9 pro have the folio keyboard / apple pencil (would recommend magic keyboard rather than folio if you're mainly using it at a desk / not needing to fold the keyboard folio case all the way over onto the back of the iPad). Tbh I do use my MacBook for word processing / spreadsheets or my Surface Laptop but I think the iPad could work with the right keyboard / mouse set up. Alternative if you just want a desktop set up using an iPad Pro: magic keyboard / mouse and connect it up to a monitor. Immediate downside I see compared to a MacBook is no option to set up multiple virtual desktops. 

FootyFanDan

jadewest94 said:

FootyFanDan said:

jadewest94 said:

I currently envy you @FootyFanDan I wish I was at home but I'm sat outside of work on my lunch dinner haha!

Hopefully you find something to do to keep yourself busy! I can't wait for my week off in two weeks time, it's the longest I've ever taken off in about 4 years

hahaha, if it makes you feel any better I only did chores anyways 😂😂. I also need to learn to take holidays from work, its been a tough few months work wise juggling stuff. This is the reason (partly) I need to somehow figure a way to structure my work days/weeks to ensure I am not losing track of what I need to be doing. They have now employed someone else so that my old role will not need to use me for holiday/sickness cover so that is a positive....the negative to this is my work load will increase in other ways I am sure. 

Haha I woild rather be home doing chores than be at work!

Oh that sounds like a bummer! We're moving warehouse on Friday so I'm staying around to help out. But I can't wait to have the whole week off and I get the extra Monday as it's Bank Holiday so even better! Be nice not to be so stressed all the time :ssmile:

Yay to bank holiday been a long weekend ha. Work now should sort itself out, I can manage my workload and the extra fine. The thing that is tough is when I go from doing my shift to been expected to cover 12 shifts it just throws routine out big time

FootyFanDan

Well, today has been pretty productive. I have done all the housework I needed and all my work clothes are ready for the rest of the weekend. I am also manage to stick to the meal plan quite well too, I am hoping to avoid a top up shop this week as this is what hammers my budget.

I have also started putting together a habit tracker of sorts which I am hoping will help me keep track of the stuff I want to try boost like NSDs and such. If I can get into a routine of tracking these I am hoping it will keep me accountable and also make me determined to hit targets

This month targets

15 NSDs (excluding stuff already budgeted) Currently 5

20 Alcohol Free days (This should be pretty easy as I don't drink a lot anyways I am just a bit conscious of this at the moment for varying reasons) Currently 7

Eat Breakfast every day ( I currently suck at this, mainly down to poor planning)

I have also got a daily log planner to track mood and also water intake. 


Time to wind down and try get a decent sleep, ready for up early for work in morning. I am hoping to get into a morning routine too to try make my morning a little less blurgh

FootyFanDan

alt80 said:

Glad to hear someone else has taken your old role at work mate. 

Re iPad - what are you wanting to use it for exactly? Bit of internet browsing / emails / word processing and spreadsheets it'll be fine if it's a decent spec recent one. I've got a 12.9 pro have the folio keyboard / apple pencil (would recommend magic keyboard rather than folio if you're mainly using it at a desk / not needing to fold the keyboard folio case all the way over onto the back of the iPad). Tbh I do use my MacBook for word processing / spreadsheets or my Surface Laptop but I think the iPad could work with the right keyboard / mouse set up. Alternative if you just want a desktop set up using an iPad Pro: magic keyboard / mouse and connect it up to a monitor. Immediate downside I see compared to a MacBook is no option to set up multiple virtual desktops. 

I have the newest Ipad Air ( I just love the colours! 😂) I have done a little research into the use of it and it would probably work fine for what I need. I am not really a massive user of programs at the minute anyways. Realistically I use my ipad for any tv shows/netflix and such. I use it for all my browsing / emails/spreadsheets and the little bit of gaming apps. I do use the drawing app with the little one a bit but this would obviously improve once I get the Apple pencil (although it is expensive haha). The keyboard is something I am researching at the minute - I think I will go the logic one at the minute purely has it will be better for me as I use my Ipad for more than just my desk so Magic keyboard would mean I need to keep taking ipad out to do other stuff.

I have always wanted a macbook and back in the day I remember saying to my mrs when I get debt free that is my gift to myself lol, but now I am here I am too money saving now to justify it hahaha