First Steps to Solvency

alt80

Variable spends - £495/£1550. Wife spent £100 on a few bottles of wine for Christmas and a Starbucks. Not gonna lie I’m concerned about making it to the end of the month now. 100 don’t want to dip into the cash we’ve put aside just wrote that, read it back and thought who the !!!!!! am I turning into haha. No idea who I even am anymore lol.

I made her laugh this afternoon when we went to pick son up. She told me she’d bought the drinks, I said I thought her dad was buying, she was like well at least we will have bought something, won’t be as embarrassing (for me, ha) etc. I said there’s no pretence now, no pride on my part now ha can’t be really - FIL is well aware I’ve put my life on credit, broke and if that wasn’t bad enough I really can’t get any lower than them hearing all about me having a bit of a breakdown and every !!!!!! suspicion they ever had being true so might as well just enjoy a free lunch and put what we would have spent towards the debts.

Exercise: yes but been snacking all day, getting into Christmas spirit far too early. !!!!!! paranoid I’m going to start putting weight on if I don’t rein that in now 100 can’t afford a new wardrobe haha. 
Well-being: smashed it but lunch was Starbucks FML £15 spent and probably 1000 calories as I can’t go there and have an Americano like wife.
Family: picked son up and just played with his toys for 30mins at home before back to work. Also cooked dinner stir fry so effort was low. Went back to working after dog walk.
Work: putting a lot of hours in at the moment. Stupidly busy and got 2 staff off - 1 holiday, 1 not well. Just finished for the night before I started writing this ha. @getmore4less I actually have 2 staff who deal with lettings full time. Just my own properties I deal with myself, thinking about it they deal with day in day out, probably better handing over been a bit of a control thing I suppose.


Great to hear so many on here do still read real books - I don’t tbh but agree not quite the same on the ipad. At least I am reading again. Used to be a big reader but haven’t been for years.

Agreed re res/ comm markets, operate in both. Too tired to think much more in terms of a proper response sorry. Definitely concerned about FTB sales from a sales/ flip angle but not from a lettings/ investment side. I’m involved in all of it, just another place my greed knows no bounds haha. @getmore4less re US friend - not easily achievable here but know a few older guys who did similar back in the day. No idea if they should have back then tbh. You’re 100 right about balancing the life growth - I’ve always anticipated levelling up bought stuff on credit that I shouldn’t have. Shall we just say I’m going through a massive wake up call actually working on the figures on the personal side as well as in the business which I am fairly conservative with in terms of levels of retained etc. Always been a bit paranoid about cash flow in business ironically.

@Onebrokelady will look into the book can you get all books on kindle unlimited? Is it separate from prime? We don’t order much from amazon so never bothered with that - only thing I ever buy on there are books tbh.

TheAble

Here's MMM on The Library. Wise words!
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/08/get-rich-with-the-library/

RelievedSheff

@alt80 you really do genuinely seem like a different person to the one who started this diary, and I mean that in a good way. You seem more chilled out and the family are obviously loving the extra time you are spending with them.

Sun_Addict

Agree with the above, you’ve changed so much even in the last couple of weeks. 

FootyFanDan

Hi mate, just checking in, you are making great progress at the moment and whilst I think the debt is always an important factor i think for you as long as that is coming downwards that is a positive, what i think is more important is to keep enjoying spending as much time with your family as possible...its clear they absolutely love it. I think cutting back on work a little when possible would help strike that balance. Its hard i know and working the amount you do must mean your knackered but that 30 minute playing toys with the boy will mean the world to him - as i have found myself more recently sometimes its just a story or been tucked in bed at night. These moments are special, and I know sometimes you have a difficult time with your own thoughts about not been good enough, try not focus so much on that and focus on how incredibly lucky you are. Despite a few hiccups here and there (which are to be expected) you are doing an amazing job mate - keep going!

getmore4less

 I actually have 2 staff who deal with lettings full time. Just my own properties I deal with myself, thinking about it they deal with day in day out, probably better handing over been a bit of a control thing I suppose.

If they are good enough for the property you manage for others they are good enough to trust with yours.

There is probably scope to offload some of your time here and have them report your property info along with the others you look after so you "manage" and step in to maintain process and standards when needed and to keep your hand in.

Using some of that time to pick up extra fee earning jobs will probably pay for a lot of their time, the rest of the time is less evening/weekend work because you had some time in the day to do it.

Onebrokelady

alt80 said:

Variable spends - £495/£1550. Wife spent £100 on a few bottles of wine for Christmas and a Starbucks. Not gonna lie I’m concerned about making it to the end of the month now. 100 don’t want to dip into the cash we’ve put aside just wrote that, read it back and thought who the !!!!!! am I turning into haha. No idea who I even am anymore lol.

I made her laugh this afternoon when we went to pick son up. She told me she’d bought the drinks, I said I thought her dad was buying, she was like well at least we will have bought something, won’t be as embarrassing (for me, ha) etc. I said there’s no pretence now, no pride on my part now ha can’t be really - FIL is well aware I’ve put my life on credit, broke and if that wasn’t bad enough I really can’t get any lower than them hearing all about me having a bit of a breakdown and every !!!!!! suspicion they ever had being true so might as well just enjoy a free lunch and put what we would have spent towards the debts.

Exercise: yes but been snacking all day, getting into Christmas spirit far too early. !!!!!! paranoid I’m going to start putting weight on if I don’t rein that in now 100 can’t afford a new wardrobe haha. 
Well-being: smashed it but lunch was Starbucks FML £15 spent and probably 1000 calories as I can’t go there and have an Americano like wife.
Family: picked son up and just played with his toys for 30mins at home before back to work. Also cooked dinner stir fry so effort was low. Went back to working after dog walk.
Work: putting a lot of hours in at the moment. Stupidly busy and got 2 staff off - 1 holiday, 1 not well. Just finished for the night before I started writing this ha. @getmore4less I actually have 2 staff who deal with lettings full time. Just my own properties I deal with myself, thinking about it they deal with day in day out, probably better handing over been a bit of a control thing I suppose.


Great to hear so many on here do still read real books - I don’t tbh but agree not quite the same on the ipad. At least I am reading again. Used to be a big reader but haven’t been for years.

Agreed re res/ comm markets, operate in both. Too tired to think much more in terms of a proper response sorry. Definitely concerned about FTB sales from a sales/ flip angle but not from a lettings/ investment side. I’m involved in all of it, just another place my greed knows no bounds haha. @getmore4less re US friend - not easily achievable here but know a few older guys who did similar back in the day. No idea if they should have back then tbh. You’re 100 right about balancing the life growth - I’ve always anticipated levelling up bought stuff on credit that I shouldn’t have. Shall we just say I’m going through a massive wake up call actually working on the figures on the personal side as well as in the business which I am fairly conservative with in terms of levels of retained etc. Always been a bit paranoid about cash flow in business ironically.

@Onebrokelady will look into the book can you get all books on kindle unlimited? Is it separate from prime? We don’t order much from amazon so never bothered with that - only thing I ever buy on there are books tbh.

Sadly not all books are on Kindle unlimited and it depends what you like reading, I've downloaded three books this week so that makes my monthly fee worthwhile for this month, two of them are ghost stories/ horror and the other is a fantasy/ fairy tale type book 
I have also found some non fiction on there, I tend to use it for books I'm not sure I would pay full price for and so far all the books I've read have been worth it, you can also share your kindle library with another person, I share with my daughter so have access to all her books as well. Amazon are worth keeping an eye on if you do like reading because they regularly have books for 99p, I get an email notifying me when they have them, yes it's separate from Prime 

Willowtree222

You have definitely changed. 
You no longer seem as bothered about your FIL knowing. Like you seem to have accepted your situation and are embracing it and not so bothered about pretending. 
Your family time sounds a lot more as well. Those 30 minutes just playing will mean everything to your son. 
I've bought alcohol and good for Christmas and already replaced half of it at least once! Whoops 

alt80

Cards: £350 sale takes the M&S card to £3,190 owing and total cards balance of £28,440. Will be very happy if I can make another £440 in sales ending the year with a balance less than £28k but not going to get angry if it doesn’t work out that way. 

Variable spends: £495/£1550. No spend day.

0 email ads so nothing to unsubscribe from. Think that’s working then!

Not the greatest nights sleep last night, working until 11pm probably didn’t help - no switch off time. Really difficult session with the counselling this morning too. Not really about spending directly but definitely relevant to some of the reasons I spend more than earn or did I should say, been a couple of months not doing that now.

Exercise: Wife just about killed me with full body HIIT this morning lol.

Well-being: Not sure battering myself in counselling counts as ‘well-being’. Logged off work emails 8pm.

Work: As above. Realising I need some time away from it this evening so finished 7pm, on the phone looking through emails 45 mins later so switched the notifications off.

Family: advent treat (more food lol), dog walk and bedtime story. Had little energy for much else.

@TheAble thanks mate. Just read that article so true lol - both wife and I subscribe to Apple news so that’s £20 and I’ve spent £10 in Amazon books, she’s spent £15 on Amazon books. Son reading school books at the moment so no cost there but £45 spent this month, checked my library can get access to press reader which seems to have more titles than Apple news and more papers too??? Also selection of ebooks and book books.

Wouldn’t have even thought about £45 before lol. I’d just dismiss as ‘nothing’ but every month covers RR insurance for the year, obviously no coincidence that this year is the first I’ve not paid car insurance monthly. Absolute madness my spending habits have been; generally up to £1/2k don’t even consider it. Right now just thinking I’ve done nothing but harmed myself and family with my attitude to money tbh.

@relievedsheff / @Sun_Addict The way I’ve been living my life outside of business hasn’t been great. Started to realise something needed to change in lockdown 1 spending more time with family. Always had the never enough demons and not gonna lie I still battle with the spending cravings almost every day. Always been a destructive person to some extent but never been lower than a few weeks ago. I do hate who I am and a lot of things I’ve done but I’m not getting anywhere just going over that same stuff- need to try to be better for my family and for myself in the long run tbh.

@FootyFanDan Thanks mate. I’m not so chill about the debt, monitoring the figures every day currently. Trying to make the figures stack to be free of the cards December 2021, then just dealing with RR balloon. Not going to be easy, wife thinks I need to stop obsessing, like you say anything off is progress.

Really am trying to put my family first, they probably still do play second fiddle to the business but definitely above all the other stuff I used to put before them. Tbh I don’t think they’re expecting it to last I hope I can prove them wrong but can’t say I really trust myself that much.

Definitely lucky to still have a family after my behaviour.

@getmore4less Ha more or less been exactly my thoughts about it after I wrote that thanks mate.

@Onebrokelady thanks. Think I’m going to give library a go but I’ll have a look. Don’t tend to read a lot of fiction, wife does though.

@Nicnak I hope I make sustainable changes for the better, pay down the debts and move on from it and other stuff. Right now I am trying to challenge my views/ attitudes. Always thought I could earn my way out of the personal issues whether that be finances, taking my family for granted or whatever. Doesn’t work like that I know. 

It would be very easy for me to slip into the habits of a lifetime tbh. 

Very hard to keep any semblance of pride were the in-laws are concerned. Doesn’t really get much lower than FIL on the phone first thing in the morning wanting to know how bad a drugs habit I’ve got and asking to comb through my personal and company accounts tbh. No real way to keep any pretence after that. Strangely getting on with them better than I can remember at the moment but still dreading seeing them face to face for Christmas & Boxing Day. 

I’d usually be making my way through the Christmas booze too by now, have kept to not drinking. Going to leave it until 18th I think. Wife wants me off work 19th Dec until new year, have a proper family Christmas time together, surprised she ever wants me to have time off again after the last time haha.

theoretica

alt80 said:

@TheAble thanks mate. Just read that article so true lol - both wife and I subscribe to Apple news so that’s £20 and I’ve spent £10 in Amazon books, she’s spent £15 on Amazon books. Son reading school books at the moment so no cost there but £45 spent this month, checked my library can get access to press reader which seems to have more titles than Apple news and more papers too??? Also selection of ebooks and book books.

Somewhat irrelevant if you are cancelling, but as I understand it Apple news lets you share a subscription within the family so it could have cost you half for exactly the same thing.