Road To Financial Recovery

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

 A re-vamp may indeed be useful, but build in some leeway. You work hard and should enjoy leisure activities such as eating out with feeling guilty. 

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

How are things going? Did you revisit the budget. 

FootyFanDan

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

How are things going? Did you revisit the budget. 

Hey @Ordinary_Yet_Unique - we are into the last stretch of the month so that is a positive I have done a revisit of the budget as well as doing a bit of a review of spending over last few months to try and pinpoint any glaring issues. The main culprit is we have dramatically increased our socialising which isn't a bad thing we just need to allocate for it. Also the trips to the shop for one thing turning quickly into a 30/40 spend without really any reason. There is positives in the fact we are not adding to the debts, and ultimately not stretching the budget but it is just frustrating seeing a decent chunk of spare funds not been utilised properly.

FootyFanDan

Evening All, another Sunday evening rolls around. I don't think I am ever going to be on board with working 5 days to have 2 off haha.

I have spent last week or so reviewing our budget and looking at where we can improve it. The fixed bills are pretty dialled in, although did have to review broadband as it was due to increase to £60 due to a deal ending. A quick web chat and it was all sorted and back to same price for a quicker speed (although not needed, but worked out cheaper than staying on same speed). The main areas are the top up shops, and we've also socialised both with family and ourselves a lot more this year. 

We have also put quite a fair bit of putting money towards savings, plus our trip to London so it isn't all negative. We are in a good place with savings, but aware with a bit more care then we can be so much better without really having to cut down much (which I appreciate is a privileged place to be).

So I have sat and gone through my YNAB / spreadsheet and allocated funds to everything, I have a buffer fund for anything that crops up. I have also allocated some money to eating out so that there is no real guilt if we eat out. To be honest, I suspect the eating out when it's autumn/winter will stop for a while. This month is also the last month we will need to allocate anything to London, so this will free up some funds. We have put in a bit extra to the food budget and also are sitting down this week to review what causes the little trips to shop - most of the time it could probably be accounted for in the weekly shop but we end up forgetting. I wouldn't normally mind but it then ends up being £20/£30 and this a few times a month adds up.  Of course, there are times that it will be for an event, so this will be funded from our entertainment funds.

I think may thing I have found is that if money just sits in the account with 'no job' it just gets slowly spent and eventually thinking where did it go. I am hoping that by giving every £ a place to go it will stop that feeling. Once we have got London done, our focus will be on Xmas, our holiday and also trying to spruce up the house a bit. I would love to have a nice garden space but at the minute it just looks rubbish.

Work wise the last few weeks have been crazy busy, with many projects on the go at once, so finding it all go. This added in with having to pick up a lot of odd work load and jobs is making it hard to juggle. So I am finding myself in a pickle with my to lists and stuff and ending up just doing stuff unplanned which I hate.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the sunshine.

FootyFanDan

We have reached the end of the month budget wise - payday tomorrow. I am looking forward to sitting and sorting through the stuff tomorrow evening. Oh I am so rock n roll. This last week has been a bit hectic, lot of travel to sites for work and not very healthy eating wise. We go into payday with some money already put aside for next month's bills so I am really happy with that progress. I also have enough fuel to last now until Monday.

FootyFanDan

Another while since update, where do these days go! It has been a crazy busy period with work and sorting stuff and also kind of trying to avoid online / social media for a while, especially with everything happening real life, it can be very depressing seeing it all. I am trying to make a commitment to try come off it but I do keep up to date with old work friends and stuff so yeah a balance to be had. This last few weeks, there has been a few tough close losses, also lots of accidents and death locally, as well as the very much public football tragic event which as really hit home how bloody fragile life in general is, so trying my best to avoid anything the dampens that which is tough as I know everyone has there own battles too so it is hard to stay constantly upbeat.

Anyhow.....all direct debits have left the accounts and also put money into the various savings accounts. We have put in the final amount to London funds that should be needed, we travel this weekend and lil one is super excited. It sounds like weather will be great too. I have done some calculations around CC and I am hoping that once London is out of the way we can really focus on getting rid of that CC with extra payments. 

Budget wise not putting away the bits to London will free up some extra funds next month but that will likely get put away into the slow growing Xmas funds which will need to ramp up a bit. We have also been paying off £45 per month to lil one school residential and hopefully 3 more months of this payment will clear that, so over next quarter we should see some extra funds in budget.

As per the adjustment in budget I made I have put away £75 in the eating out fund, £50 in a buffer fund. I am hoping that as I get used to this I can put less away for the buffer fund, but there is always something that seems to crop up. 

Last month we managed to stay within the food budget, petrol was slightly higher but this was due to work travel and this is coming back in expenses. The main thing over the last 3-6 months is that we have stopped relying on Overdraft / Credit Cards and whilst there is still some work to go on eating out and the lil top up shops we are slowly getting there. We are seeming to get to the end of the month with funds remaining which is always a positive. 

I have booked off a week at work - very much needed but been putting off due to work load but decided my own sanity is worth more than a project haha, over the last month or so I have definitely found it harder to motivate myself to be productive, despite the more hours sleep. I have spent a lot of the last month fighting with myself to do stuff, which I am hoping a bit of rest will cure. It does mean a busy few days this week and next week but will be worth it.

This next 3 months  finance stuff  to do

- I need to look at the early clause in my mobile contract, it is awful high payment and I have a bit of overtime and expenses so I am hoping to maybe get enough together to pay it off early, although I think this might work out more expensive. So I am possibly looking at putting the remaining 4 months contract payment into an account I don't really touch and just set up a Standing Order to pay into my monzon every month to cover it. I vow right now I will never ever get a phone contract deal again, buying the next phone upfront and sim only from now on!

- Having looked at sky account our good deal comes to end over the next few months, so I have set a reminder to contact them to negotiate, tbh apart from sport its not really something I am overly fussed about losing if I can't get a similar deal to what I am on now. I rarely watch much tv now so we will see.

- Over the last 6 months any spare money as gone towards Orlando, so we are very much in a place where the original monthly amount needed as significantly decreased, however I intend to keep paying a bit extra off where possible. Gutted that I booked it now, as everyone I know is going on holiday haha, and I so badly need a beach / poolside drinks but I am certain it will be worth it.

- We currently put away the family allowance split into a savings account and then some into another pot for anything lil one might need through year, I am certain there is probably better options for the bit we put into savings to ensure its more beneficial so I need to research this and see what we can do.

- Look at our investment stuff again, see what options are out there for us to start trying to secure future.

- Build our current savings to 1k across all pots.

- Pay off the remain £630 of credit card debt we haven't really added much to this but it has just also not really been as in focus as it should be whilst we have saved for London and built up some savings. The reality is we could have done so much better with it.


Random things for next 3 Months

- Really need to sort the spare room out with clutter - I think it was possibly @LzzyIsGod who said until you start it will never get done and for this I started last week so thank you! However there is still so much to do.

- I need to book my online course for work, I am in a bit of a pickle with work right now in the fact it pays really good but ultimately I am not totally happy, my plan is to build up my experience with a course that I have seen some employers like in my field of choice. It is an expense that I might cover with some personal spends so I need to see.

- Build up my fitness and get a proper routine for my life, sounds dramatic but everything just seems so rushed and chaotic right now. I have sat and put together a proper plan of stuff so I need to implement


I am hoping I can use this place to come back in 3 months and have done everything....very unlikely but here is hoping.


The first half of this year we have managed to be able to achieve so much more financially than I thought possible. We have covered an MOT/Service, built up emergency funds / paid for London travel and hotels and still have spending money available. All whilst seemingly not really tracking everything. Here is to a good 2nd half of the year 

Current Savings : £690 

LzzyIsGod

Haha! That possibly is one of mine!

Glad it helped (rarely works in terms of the kids and homework sadly)

FootyFanDan

LzzyIsGod said:

Haha! That possibly is one of mine!

Glad it helped (rarely works in terms of the kids and homework sadly)

🤣 yeah I hear that regarding homework!

FootyFanDan

Ah, thank god that day is over. I think it will be an early (for me) night. Today as felt like a few steps forward and then some backwards. It appears I have been donated another leaver's work load - yay lucky me .

Tomorrow is a new day, I am going to try motivate myself to go to the gym, the thought of the early start isn't exactly exciting me though ha. I need to get all stuff ready for London at the weekend, I have just booked somewhere to store our suitcase for the Saturday up to point of hotel check in so that we aren't dragging that around. I am really looking forward to the little break, although not overly keen on London itself as me and busy don't mix very well 😂

Sunshine_girl2

Another one heading South today to Essex . Enjoy your weekend in London .