Road To Financial Recovery

FootyFanDan

Sarahwithlove said:

Well done on the debt busting, the credit cards are coming down nicely. Shame about the interest. Keep checking though for balance transfers as you'll find the more you pay off the better your chances are. 

I saw your Leeds supporter, they are playing my team 1st game of season. I'm fully expecting you to thrash us lol

Thank you
Yeah the interest is a bit of a shame, but I am slowly seeing progress - there was an accidental overpayment on the CC as I forgot the Direct Debit was still in place so ended up paying a bit more to it than planned so early in the month. If I can get the same level of payments as I did last month then by the time the next payment rolls round I will be under the 1K which would be a huge boost and something that hasn't happened for a long time!

haha - yeah I have a season ticket for Leeds, I would say we have a good chance of winning league this year but one thing I have learnt is to never bank on Leeds Utd! 🤣

FootyFanDan

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
I was up late last night and then early start this morning haha, I have spent the morning just going through budget and our plans for any trips and family stuff we want to do and set targets to ensure these can be done. We want to take the little one to Harry Potter Studios for her B-day in December, so will look into that. I  have also set up realistic goals for savings / debt payments. There was a payment that was made extra on CC in error but no major drama with that, this month should see that balance drop below 1K hopefully

I have done a bit of decluttering this morning and cleared out the boot of my car which always seems to just get stuff chucked in lol. No major spends planned this week. We are thinking of taking little one away to coast for a day in holidays and then also local wildlife park so need to allocate this, rest of holidays will then be free / low cost events. 

All direct debits have come out or have had money put aside, it is nice to find have fallen back into a routine with finances and feel like I am back in control of them and know what is happening with any overspends. There is still the occasion I need to move some stuff around in YNAB but not anywhere near as much as before.

Rest of today will be very much relaxing but need to do online food shop, I also need to order a few bits of stuff from Amazon from personal spends. Enjoy the remainder of weekend all

Sarahwithlove

FootyFanDan said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Well done on the debt busting, the credit cards are coming down nicely. Shame about the interest. Keep checking though for balance transfers as you'll find the more you pay off the better your chances are. 

I saw your Leeds supporter, they are playing my team 1st game of season. I'm fully expecting you to thrash us lol

Thank you
Yeah the interest is a bit of a shame, but I am slowly seeing progress - there was an accidental overpayment on the CC as I forgot the Direct Debit was still in place so ended up paying a bit more to it than planned so early in the month. If I can get the same level of payments as I did last month then by the time the next payment rolls round I will be under the 1K which would be a huge boost and something that hasn't happened for a long time!

haha - yeah I have a season ticket for Leeds, I would say we have a good chance of winning league this year but one thing I have learnt is to never bank on Leeds Utd! 🤣

Ha yeh I have one for Pompey, I'd settle for staying up this year lol. You were unlucky last season but think this could be your year. 

FootyFanDan

Morning all

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend in the sun and some match on Saturday @Sarahwithlove 🤣

Not really much to update but just wanting to check in. Budget ticking a long well, both food shops so far have come in under budget but felt so under prepared for it so meal planning as been rubbish! We have a mix of doing it online some weeks and then others physically going. This week wasn't so bad but the amount of substitutes last week was insane and it can be a pain as we have daughter who is coeliac so when they for non gluten free its a mess!

There haven't been any major spends either planned or unplanned, but we have had to buy little one new school shoes which we got a decent deal on so no complaints. We just have trainers and a few tops to buy although we do have a voucher that we've had a while to put towards the tops. 

I have been playing around with YNAB budget to try and make sure I am planning properly for the annual stuff that we know is coming but no regular, I have always been a bit rubbish with this and this then always leaves money that then just gets frittered away as it doesn't have a 'job' so it just sits in ready to assign. I have now done a list of things we have coming up in a year that we do stuff for i.e car service, anniversary, our three birthdays and a few others. These now all have targets so that I can allocate the money to them properly so it won't feel like we have lots of spare money that we can just spend on whatever we want! and then be skint when the car service comes around. I hope this new way gives me more of a chance of actually saving for them, currently only got £250 across all pots but only started properly this month. I have them in date order so some of the smaller ones I can fund within a few months whilst some of the bigger ones and ones coming up quite soon I know I have to focus on now, I think have a proper visual of it will be good for me and I can add any new ones as I go.

FootyFanDan

ah past the midway point of the week! These days just fly by. 

Last night was a unplanned spendy night but also very much needed, I had to go shopping to get some new work shoes (planed, saved and budgeted for) but decided to go out for a meal with missus and little one, so whilst not budgeted for we had funds to cover this from the pot that doesn't have a job yet! It was lovely tbh and it's been a while since we just sat and spent some time together no phones/iPads and just enjoyed each others company. I think life gets so busy that we can sometimes forget how important these little things are.  I did also use some saved personal spends on new headphones, I have been saving a while since I lost one of my other headphones. I use these at work a lot when in office, I struggle to concentrate at times in busy office so having them in helps, plus use at gym / running.

I am expecting a day full of meetings (some not so nice ones either). Work has been a bit tense lately unfortunately we have had a lot of sickness to cover and I think it is about reaching a boiling point where certain staff - long term staff are getting frustrated about the amount of changes some new staff are trying to implement and workload in general. It is a bit unnerving as a new member of staff to see this kind of environment so early on. I'm not normally one to dwell on choices, but there is something telling me I didn't quite get this decision right. I do have other options open to me if I choose them, but at minute I will sit tight and ride out the storm.

I guess one positive is that my day at work can distract me from the mess my football club is right now 🤣. Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday

Sarahwithlove

Yes what a game! Some surprise results over the weekend for sure but that's football for you. 

I'm glad you enjoyed a meal out with your family it's important to do that now and then where the budget allows for it. 

I hope you manage to ride the work storm and things settle down for you. It's always good to have other options available though if needed. 

FootyFanDan

Totally right, especially in the championship!

I think for me its important for me put us in a solid place financially, and whilst I do not want to be irresponsible I do not want us to have to worry about enjoying ourselves. We aren't ones usually to be out eating all the time, but the times we do I don't want to be worrying over a desert haha

I really want to get through the rough time at work, but as a newbie seeing the issues is unsettling. I am constantly been re-assured that I am doing perfectly fine but then in my head I am not so sure. Let's see I guess, what will be will be. It is nice to have options, so I am happy to hold on for now and try keep my head down and get on with it.

FootyFanDan

Hey, 
Hope everyone has enjoyed the weekend, I have had a really chilled weekend and not done much at all. It has been a while since we just had a weekend doing nothing so was nice to just relax. 


Week Ending - 18.08.24 spends.

Groceries £90.19
Glasses £37.50
Family Night Out £77.88
Board Game & Film Night £27.35

Total £232.92

On reflection a pretty expensive week on the spends, however food shop came in under budget. The food shop was much better planned this week and I also got myself proper stuff for work lunches. We took the little one for her eye test this week and were advised that she needs glasses, which the little one was not overly impressed about but we managed to get some she felt comfortable in so a win, although more costly than some others she could have got. We ate out as a family on Thursday, and then also ended up getting food and drink and had a film night at home on Saturday

The budget is still in decent shape, there isn't anything that we are expecting to have as unplanned spends and it is looking like there is going to be enough to make overpayments on CC which would then result in balance been under 1K. I have been looking at budget and I think if I was serious about getting CC paid off and sacrificed a few things it could be off in super quick time so I need to think about that and see how realistic that is. 

I think there will be a few things we look to budget a bit better for - we enjoy the cinema (which seems to get more expensive!) so we need to put something away for this. We could sometimes not go for a few months but then there is sometimes a month where there is 3 or 4 films we want to watch. We do tend to go when we get good deals but can still be expensive.

Hope everyone has a good week ahead. 

Sarahwithlove

Cinema is sooo expensive these days. Unless you can go on a cheaper night. CWORLD is the most expensive out of all the options I've found. 

FootyFanDan

Sarahwithlove said:

Cinema is sooo expensive these days. Unless you can go on a cheaper night. CWORLD is the most expensive out of all the options I've found. 

Yeah, it is crazy expensive. We do generally go CWORLD but normally when we get discounts.