Road To Financial Recovery

FootyFanDan

I am starting to feel a little better and illness seems to be fading, so today been a better day. I even managed lunch, which last few days I really lost my appetite and although I didn't sleep great yesterday I survived the day. At the weekend I need to assess what we do with a debt that has surfaced from our house move a while ago - when we left we gave all readings for energy and also forwarding address, evidently this final bill never reached us and is now with collection. I thought this was a thing of the past to be honest but this has obviously slipped the net. The billing looks right and is in the period of us being there so no argument really, just need to look at what options are. 

I guess the question is am I able to go direct to the provider or would they not even entertain it now. 

EDIT - They absolutely sent a final bill that is sat in my junk mail from 2023 - I have now been getting calls daily sometimes 4/5 times a day at 6am/9am/7pm from the collection agency

daisy_1571

FootyFanDan said:

Rhyddid2026 said:

Not downbeat at all, I'd say honest and true!

It is a tough balance isn't it, I totally get this is a debt free place and a way to battle through that,but if I am being honest with myself I need a place to start getting a lot of things back on track and right now this little internet space is the one place I religiously visit daily so it makes sense. Although I do worry about diverting off topic too much

Money/debt is much more than a mathematical problem in lots of ways.  This is your diary, for you, feel free (within the anonymous parameters  of course) to write whatever helps you get yourself and as many areas of life as you need, back on track.  All will help with the financial focus.

Dxx

FootyFanDan

daisy_1571 said:

FootyFanDan said:

Rhyddid2026 said:

Not downbeat at all, I'd say honest and true!

It is a tough balance isn't it, I totally get this is a debt free place and a way to battle through that,but if I am being honest with myself I need a place to start getting a lot of things back on track and right now this little internet space is the one place I religiously visit daily so it makes sense. Although I do worry about diverting off topic too much

Money/debt is much more than a mathematical problem in lots of ways.  This is your diary, for you, feel free (within the anonymous parameters  of course) to write whatever helps you get yourself and as many areas of life as you need, back on track.  All will help with the financial focus.

Dxx

I think for me it is about trying to get some consistency with stuff. This forum is something that is a daily habit, I check it daily and I think if I can track stuff here it is a start. 

FootyFanDan

I am going to try post daily and try and get into the habit of tracking more financial stuff as well as my overall feeling with stuff. I am hoping that it shows me that habits can stick.

Today has been a pretty good day although very busy. I was disappointed this morning when my child kindly reminded me it wasn't Friday (like i thought it was)..😂. One positive is the pay review has come through and that was a nice little boost. January usually feels so long but the weeks seem to be flying by. 

I am going to complete a new SOA at some point, I need to set some targets for savings areas and have goals for this and start putting away consistent amounts. I tend to keep changing my mind and some months I put in more and others I put in less. I feel it would be better to figure out set amounts and then just set and forget until I need them. I also need to think about possibly closing down CC that I have sat open, these don't really get used but I also don't really have the need to have loads of available credit for stuff. The worry is that in the past I have found it so easy to just think ah it's only so much a month and I can afford that so it's fine - so I think removing some of the CC would be a good thing. It would make sense to keep one around for a genuine emergency that I can't fund yet but we will see.

I also need to filter in the payment for the newly added old gas & electric debt. I do need to avoid the inevitable pay thing where we get a payrise and then increase spending, I want to ensure it is used better. The real big purchase on the horizon is probably the car, since I started my current role I do a lot more mileage and this has probably meant a lot more wear on the car than normal. The decision I need to make is whether I fund a new (to me) car or whether I take advantage of my company car policy and get a company vehicle but the concern with that is how the personal mileage element then works. I would need to research as never really been that clued up about company cars as I have never needed to be. I just took the option of having my car allowance paid as an addition to my salary

FootyFanDan

Evening, thankful it is the weekend. This week has flown, although today felt a drag as I haven't slept great the last two nights. This has meant I have decluttered a lot off my mind work wise, last night I was able to go through all my emails and create tasks and then my active projects now all have actionable items to move them forward. I am hopeful this will stop the procrastination a little. The office is generally pretty chill on a Friday, so I tend to catch up on admin. I do need to factor in a proper weekly refresh of stuff though to try keep on top of it. 

I have put my expected salary  (5% pay rise) into a online calculator and it seems to suggest I should be aprox £200 ish better off. I do need to spend some time this weekend re-jigging my budget and setting some real targets. My weekend is pretty busy so I will probably do this tomorrow evening. We little one's birthday party on Sunday (her birthday was December but her party was booked to be Jan) she will have her friends and is really excited for it. I will also need to do a tip run this weekend and finalise booking in MOT and service. 

I am expecting a late night tonight as I was exhausted today and ended up coming in from work and having a nap ( are these a regular occurrence after 40! 😆). One thing we need to look at cutting out is using CC to fund our food and petrol shops (we pay in full at end of month). We have income hit accounts at various times through the month, so we have found it easier ( I obviously mean lazier) to use the CC through the month and then pay in full when we 'pay' ourselves that income that as accrued through the month and when I get paid. Whilst this has worked well, I think it is also risky as should we lose income (not likely but still possible) we have debt for food and petrol which seems silly - especially as it isn't done to take advantage of points or cash back. It's become pretty routine so I need to slowly phase that out. 

I need to arrange a click and collect order for food so I might look at doing that tonight if I can't somehow manager to sleep. My gym membership also is going to be unfrozen when I get paid and I am going to start taking advantage of that, I do suspect I will end up going on a night rather than morning as our mornings are pretty full on. I don't sleep early enough to be able to get up at 5am and still maintain good sleep hours. I do need to look at ordering move vitamins as I have run out so this is on my list. 

On the topic of savings goals does anyone have a specific way they work out what amounts they require in certain categories - or in general just guesstimate a figure and then split over a year. The main things for me really will be car expenses, Xmas, house appliance replacement. I need to have specific pots rather than just putting it all into one random emergency fund. Eventually I would like us to have like a trips pot as I do want us to do more of this and exploring, although this year it will be limited as saving for our current trip.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

EDIT: I think this year I am going to try invest myself in some MSE challenges if anyone knows the best ones

daisy_1571

I've kept a spreadsheet breaking down our allocated money for about 20 years now but it was a game changer when we first started doing it.  I refined it over the first few years adding and subtracting categories but after a few years of using it instead of a random pot of money making it look like we were 'rich', for the first time in our lives we knew exactly what each pound was needed for.  No more getting a bill in and having to pay the whole year's house insurance out of that month's salary etc etc.  Now if looking at it in January for example, we knew that we had 4/12 towards car insurance that was due in 8 months time, 1/12 towards Xmas in 11 months time, 7/12 toward a magazine subscription due in 5 months etc etc.  Its been tinkered with over the years but generally remained much the same.

I've recently refined it more dramatically after reading a diary on here.  After years of a 12th for everything each month, I have the spreadsheet top half for 'known expenses', save a 12th every month, thats automatic.   Bottom half of the spreadsheet is no longer saving a 12th towards 'unknown known expenses'.  Now I try to focus on the amount I want in each pot.   I manually add to this part of the spreadsheet, so if a pot is full and no expenses coming out that month, I don't need to add anything to that line.   Its a bit more flexible doing it this way.  And it gives me some fun each month when I decide what money I'm allocating to each line.



I save a 'presents' category so I add up my known birthday and Xmas present giving list - allocate a figure to each person (generally the same figure for each person) then add a bit on for the unexpected (house warming, leaving present etc) then I know my total for the year so a 12th of that each month.  (Then obviously I spend to my individual limit for each present which keeps me right over the year.)



I split it down more than 'car expenses' as some costs are known, some more vague.   I have more than 1 vehicle to account for so I have lines for each vehicle's tax, insurance and mot then a general vehicle repairs/servicing pot where anything to do with the more vague costs can come out.

Car and bike mots are simple so they are in top of spreadsheet.   Car mots are currently a fixed £50, bikes are £30 so thats each lines on their own.  Same as car and bike tax, generally i know the actual figures for those.  Insurance i just save a 12th of this years figure plus a little added on in case it goes up.


Vehicle repairs/servicing is hard to quantify of course as I'm not in charge of that figure in the same way as I'm 'in charge' of deciding xmas and birthday present costs.  Its a best guesstimate looking at age of vehicle, any advisory from last mot, what did I spend last couple of years etc.  Thats in the bottom half of my spreadsheet.   Some months its enough,  sometimes that line has to go into a minus for a month or two after a big bill till I have enough spare money to top it back up where I like it, I think its currently set at £800.



I don't have a specific spreadsheet line for household appliance replacement but I do have what I call 'large household'.  Its a broad category so anything we are doing about the house and garden would come out of this, anything from new lawnmower/repairs to fences/new bedding plants to repainting a room/new toaster/service on the cooker, etc so I just have allocated a figure I like to keep that at, £1200 I think from memory, then again if we buy anything from that pot in a month I try to top it back up as quickly as I can.  I figure, like the vehicles, everything isn't going to break or need replaced at the same time so that should be plenty. 



In your case, but following my spreadsheet and the way my brain works, I'd have a line for the specific trip you are saving for in the top half of my spreadsheet.   Thats a 'fixed cost' - you know what you need and how many months you have to save for it.  For the other trips and things you want to do, in my head I'd be allocating those to a line called 'fun', 'holidays', 'days out' something like that on the bottom half.  Thats a category you can fund with a fixed amount out of your leftovers each month (after the necessary funding of pots and expenses) or with a lump each month as you can afford it.  Then you know what's in it and if you plan a day out next month, you know you can't go spontaneously mad this month if there's not enough in it.  But if there is, then off you go this month too.



Sorry for long written response, this would be so much easier to explain if we were sitting looking at the same computer screen 😆 🤣 😂 


Dxx

FootyFanDan

Thank you @daisy_1571 this is very interesting and good food for thought. It would absolutely be better with the screen, I think we have now become so accustomed to being online and been able to screen share 🤣

So I think if I take the cars expenses for example I can know how much it is for the servicing and MOT each year, I can know the tax and I can price tyres and consumable like oil, bulbs and stuff. At the moment I have car expenses as one category but if I split that in to a line for each thing that would give me a general figure, add a bit on for increase and then I can split that by how many months until that expense. January is the month for service and MOT and I currently have £500 in 'Savings'. I have been nursing the tyres for a long time now so I do suspect they will need changing. Tax is February and then insurance end of March. 

I like the present list broken down by person and amount idea a lot. Usually we just put a set amount aside each month but without any real direction. If we could decide early on what we are comfortable with spending on each person then we can have that amount aside. I think we are going to move into to the idea of getting the couples within our friends circle a nice joint gift (probably like a meal out gift card) and then something small individual they can enjoy. We don't have a large circle of people to be honest we are quite private (read not very sociable 🤣) However I do have that guilt feeling sometimes as my bro/Sis In law always go above and beyond for us and little one. I try just think to myself there situation is different to ours in that they don't have children or car expenses. If I can put a list together to also include the birthdays and other events that would give me at least some target to aim for and there is always the unexpected invite to a kids birthday party to cover too.

The trips is something I want to try - we love the theatre but then its the hotel in London too and then the travel as I don't really like driving around cities at the best of times never mind a city as chaotic as London ha. We do have a few local shows booked - eventually booked to see Six! . I want to try have experiences rather than value things. I would like us to do a proper trip to Scotland, I also love the idea of Cornwall. I guess, I have become very quickly aware of how quickly life can change but also how quick it goes and I don't wanna (I know this isn't very MSE) just earn to save and then regret it if that makes sense, but I am also scared of not setting up a future after working. I am struggling with that balance - I never thought I would agonise over this stuff as I just used to not care about money or the future, which I know is reckless.

I think I am going to make a list of things I know that we need to be trying to save towards there is stuff we need to do in the house and of course some of the stuff on the list will be wants not needs but for the longest time we have wanted a nice table to sit at as a family to eat at after our day, but we fail to follow through on it. I have held of buying a new shiny phone cos I just don't see the point when I have a phone working fine, although a bit scratched - so instead of a new phone I am seeking to get a nice case to do the job and make it feel new lol.

Thank you for going through the time to explain your process - it has given me some next steps to implement 

daisy_1571

glad it was helpful.   I think everyone struggles with what to spend now to enjoy my life and what to put away for a future that we don't know if we will be here to see/enjoy. 

Sounds like you are making a great job of it all, everything is a balance.

Martins well publicised idea that I spend £20 on you, you spend £20 on me - wheres that actually got us,  send him a link to tge video and see what he says?  A conversation with your brother now, this early in the year might be worthwhile.  You could suggest: we were thinking about simplifying Xmas, we were wondering if you guys like the idea of a secret santa each pick one persons name and limit it to a tenner so we really have to think about it, we were wondering about you donating to a charity of your choice for us next year (and if he thinks that great then hopefully he'll suggest you do the same then there's no tit for tat matching and everyone can spend what their budget allows and 2 charities benefit ) or just the honest, we are going to have a lot of pulls on our money this year and we are tightening our belts from this month on. 

Great stuff, keep on keeping on

Dxx

13thlegion

On the savings pots, I use I use a spreadsheet too and the Chase as I can have 10 separate savings accounts that I've named for each purpose (car, Xmas, dog, trips, etc). Other options are available  For targets at the start I looked at how much I spent last time (Xmas) or how much I thought was realistic or necessary (car) to cover the year. 

The first time round was the toughest as it wasn't be a whole year to when some would be needed so I divided the target by how many months to go instead of 12. There are also some weird quirks in that I never seem to reach my target saying in the pot(e.g. presents) as it gets spent throughout the year. But when I look I can see I have over the year allocated the right amount overall.

FootyFanDan

13thlegion said:

On the savings pots, I use I use a spreadsheet too and the Chase as I can have 10 separate savings accounts that I've named for each purpose (car, Xmas, dog, trips, etc). Other options are available  For targets at the start I looked at how much I spent last time (Xmas) or how much I thought was realistic or necessary (car) to cover the year. 

The first time round was the toughest as it wasn't be a whole year to when some would be needed so I divided the target by how many months to go instead of 12. There are also some weird quirks in that I never seem to reach my target saying in the pot(e.g. presents) as it gets spent throughout the year. But when I look I can see I have over the year allocated the right amount overall.

I think that having the flexibility to be able to have the money in pots to be able to say ah you know what that gift would be ideal lets get that now and that is ticked off the list. I want to get to a place where it doesn't feel like we are scrambling at the last minute for the know stuff. We use monzo for our pots and it has worked well. In truth it has worked pretty well this past year, I just think I change my mind too much at various times about amounts. I think I need to sit and work out the costs plus a bit extra and then set and forget. I could always put in extra on the months where income / expenses allow.