Thursday 21st May - What small DFW things will you do today?

ziggy2407 · 21 May 2015 at 7:10AM

When we start out on the DFW trail we do loads of "big stuff" that makes quite a difference to our situation. These include having our lightbulb moment, cutting up the credit cards and cancelling Sky and the gym

But once we have done the bigger stuff, we often feel that we are not making the same amount of progress, when in fact the small steps are helping us form good financial habits and helping us get closer everyday to staying in control and becoming debt free, or staying debt free.

Examples could be hanging washing out instead of using the tumble dryer or leaving your purse/wallet at home to avoid the risk of spending.

So be proud of those small steps, they really are important! :money:

allydowd · 21 May 2015 at 7:12AM

MONEY MAKING AND SAVING SITES AS OFTEN MENTIONED IN THIS FORUM:

A Girl Called Jack, cheap recipes ( Link
Benefits check-up ( Link )
Birthday Bingo, daily free game ( Link )
Coupon Shop Forum list of money-off coupons (Link)
eBid ( Link )
Freecycle ( Link )
FreeStuff ( Link )
FreeUKStuff ( Link )
i-Say Surveys (Link)
List of online newspapers. At bottom of the linked page. ( Link )
MSE Boost Your Income page. Gateway to lots of money-making links. ( Link )
MSE Abbreviations Explained ( Link )
MSE Deals and Vouchers ( Link )
MSE Wow Offers ( Link )
My Supermarket ( Link )
OnePoll ( Link )
Quidco ( Link )
Reclaim PPI at no cost to yourself ( Link )
SayNoTo0870 cheap phone number finder ( Link )
Survey sites that pay for your opinions ( Link )
Swagbucks ( Link )
Swapit ( Link )
Tesco Orchard product testing (Link)
Toluna ( Link )
TopCashBack ( Link )

allydowd · 21 May 2015 at 7:14AM

Good morning DFW-Devotees,

Morning, Ziggy. Work day today, so short list:

New Era Day 13:

:grinheart Check online banking.

:grinheart Print payslip.

:grinheart Taking last of wraps for packed lunch.

Good luck with your Devotions, Devotees.

ziggy2407 · 21 May 2015 at 7:16AM

Good Morning All

Hi to all of the regulars and a BIG welcome to all the newbies, this is a really FAB thread with so many lovely, caring, considerate and supportive people.

Today's little list:

Packed lunch for DH & DS - Done
Read meters & charge -
Hairdresser @ home -
Pack suitcase -
Continue purge on Emails -
Continue purge on FB & Twitter -
Surveys -
Check Banks -
Check swapits -
Enter a few comps -
All meals from cupboards/fridge/freezer -
Pamper feet this evening -
Check https://www.freepostcodelottery.com - Remember there are now 5 chances to win -
Read -

Have a great day, love to you all

C x

Bobarella · 21 May 2015 at 7:25AM

Good morning all

Thanks for the thread Ziggy, have a good day Ally.

Well 2 more working days till the weekend. Son's sports day today. I can't go but OH has the day off so it feels a bit more relaxed this morning.

Sticking to my strict regime of no spending, meal planning & forward planning generally. Seems to be working.

The builder working on our flat sent me a note yesterday to say he was on track to complete the job today and the plumbers involvement has only set us back a further £125. Considering it's a Victorian property where in my experience every time you think you are just doing one job, 3 come up. I'm quite pleased with that!

So will be another day of enjoying the simple things/free

have a good one.

Bob

La_escocesa · 21 May 2015 at 7:29AM

Hello there my lovelies :hello:

Thanks for all your well wishes yesterday over my troubles. Everything in the database looks exactly as it should do now and if anyone asks 'it's always been like that'/perfect...right?! :rotfl:

Hope everyone has good days planned - you are all sounding v busy at the moment!

Ziggy - you deserve a lovely holiday - have a great time!
Ally - thanks for all the handy links as always :A
Bob - here's to a good day at your biz for you :coffee: :coffee: :coffee:
DNMS - hope it all went ok with the surveyor!
Big hello to everyone else from yesterday and who follows today :hello:

Here's me:

- Check banking to see if refund has been processed... :mad:
- Teaching yoga :T
- Update money spready :cool:
- More decluttering
- Putting my confidential waste in work's confidential shredding bin - not buying my own shredder to clutter the place
- Packed lunch
- Food from stores
- Free tea to try from a colleague :coffee:
- Lowering a radiator or two
- Found out how to connect to work's WiFi :cool:

Catch up soon!

:coffee:

DawnW · 21 May 2015 at 8:13AM

Morning all

Thanks for starting us off Ziggy - hope you have a great holiday

Busy day today, as we are going away for a couple of days and lots to prepare (camping on relatives' land, so not much cost)

Do a list of food / things to buy and send OH so I can get on with things here at home Done

See what I have in the freezer, to minimise spends Done

Find something in there for supper today while I am at it Did a stir fry, with a couple of very small pork steaks and lots of veg

Do a list of what to take with us in an effort not to forget anything vital! Done, hope I haven't forgotten anything :eek:

Washing in machine, and I will put it out on the line to dry when done 2 loads dry

Make sure chickens have enough food and water for a couple of days (neighbour will top up if necessary but should be ok) Will do in the morning (they are fine for today obviously. DD2 will look in on them on Saturday as well

Water anything in the garden that needs it, bearing in mind things will need to survive without me till I get back

Done, I hope my 'babies' (plants) will be ok

Use or freeze anything in the fridge that might go off before Sunday Cut up and froze a few carrots, parsnips and a red pepper. Still got some French beans to do which I discovered when cooking supper. Used quite a few bits in the stir fry that I made, and will take mushrooms and salad bits with me

Looking at the garden, I won't need to buy much veg for a while, as salad leaves, greens, rhubarb, herbs etc are just about ready, and lots of other things are coming on

Right, better start making those lists!

Hope all posters and lurkers have a nice day

I am away tomorrow and not back till late Sunday, so won't be posting for a few days. Have a nice weekend everyone, and Purple posting, I hope things look up for you soon xx

foxgloves · 21 May 2015 at 9:27AM

Morning Campers,
Bright sunshine here today, so I'm planning a big gardening day, to see if I can catch up. So today's list of money saving is rather planty:
*String up some old CDs over the lettuces to deter evil woodpigeon. he only seems to like green lettuces, which I suppose is something. The lollo rosso lettuces are so far untouched.
*Find a space for planting a row of cabbages. Didn't get around to that yesterday.
*Plant out as many of the bedding/perennial plants I've grown from (free) seed as possible. Made a start yesterday, but ran out of time as there are 100s.
*Water all veggies. Future food crops need attention. It really bugs me if I end up having to buy a lettuce or similar in the summer.
*Make bread. (Done, as it's in the bread machine churning)
*Defrost plastic container of leftovers for tomorrow's packed lunch (done)
*Do meal plans (nearly done) & write shopping list. £30 of grocery budget left but tons of food in freezer.
*Round up all library books for returning tomorrow. Have a last go through the slow cooker books so I can jot down any new recipes I fancy trying. Some of the best slow cooker meals I cook have come from trying out recipes from library books - i.e spicy pulled pork & lamb rogan josh.
*Do a few surveys.
That will do me, as I'm really intending to spend most of today working in the garden.
Take care, all.
Ziggy - Have a great holiday. We go a month today......it will fly by, I expect & I shan't be ready. Dont know where May has gone!
Bob - Re your survey question.....it varies, the amount of time I spend on them. Some days I do none at all, other days I may sit with the laptop while half watching a TV prog, or if mr f is watching some of his geeky stuff, & I may get 5 or 6 decent sized ones done. I do One-poll, which pays small amounts of between 10p & 30p but the surveys are very quick. Cash-out level is £40 & it's just a BACS transfer straight into our bank. I also do Ipsos (they send invites so I just do them when i get one) & at 1380 points (survey payments have ranged from 50 to 600 points) I cash in for a £10 John Lewis voucher. My main survey 'income' comes from Toluna, which are longer surveys but lots of them. Currently I cash in for Sainsbury's gift cards which I use for grocery budget freeing up the £15 a time to pay into savings. Finally, I do Ugov, which I like as the surveys are often political, but they are not very frequent so cash-in takes ages, as it has to be £50. The reason my survey total is so good so far this year is that I was recruited onto 2 customer panels via a Toluna survey & for short projects/polls/occasional product testing (none of them remotely stretching or onerous), they award Amazon vouchers for £5 or £10, so this has helped bump up my total. These additional customer panels are usually for brands - a previous one I was on last year paid me £100 for having '2nd best idea' on one of their projects, so that was very welcome. For quickness, Onepoll is probably the one as it's mostly just clicks. If I am really maximising points from them, I log on in the morning & do the 3 or 4 surveys there, but then log on again at tea time, as often there are another batch, sometimes as many as 8 or 10. Hope this is helpful,
f x

[Deleted User] · 21 May 2015 at 9:49AM

Hi, just checking in!

Has been a busy week and I'm not sleeping well, so that doesn't help - but I have already weeded the garden this morning - at 6.45am!!!

Tax Credits nearly sorted but still taking it's time - all at their end now to sort it out and then we should be due a refund after living on next to nothing for ages. Sent back forms yesterday, so who knows how long they will take to sort it out.

Also applied for some help with our rent as hubbys job situation went downhill and hardly has any hours anymore. He's working today, but looking for something extra to get us back on track.
So in the meantime I thought - hey, why not apply for a bit of help? So have just been to the housing office armed with all sorts of proofs of income, child benefit, forms etc, but can't provide tax credit proof yet so that may hold it up, and they wanted 2 months of bank statements too! I think that's just so invasive, but handed them in too. The thing is, the statements show his income as being more in the first month, and then this last month it has decreased, so I'm hoping that doesn't bodge things up either. It will be just our luck that they say 'nah, you're not entitled' when in fact the statement that will come in end of next week will show hardly anything! Might take that one in too when it comes in.

I will be so glad when our money situation finally sorts itself out and we can just get on and do things ourselves again.

So far today apart from the early morning weeding and the visit to the local housing office, I have:
Tidied round the house
Cleaned the kitchen and bathroom
Dropped kids off at school
Sat on here panicking about money.

Oh, and we have no hot water at the moment either - lovely! Something wrong with the boiler which will be looked at tomorrow, but we haven't had any hot water in 3 days.

Anyway, hope you lot have a much better, more productive day than me!
:-)

1HANNAH · 21 May 2015 at 10:08AM

Morning all,
You all sound very organised this morning!

Daily
Switched mobile off over night done
Heating off (get fleece blankets out if needed) done
Kids to school breakfast club done
Fill water bottle at gym done
Shower at the gym (make use of their hot water, electricity to wash/dry hair) done
Check FPL done
Use nectar search done
Check Banking/update spreadsheets done and checked of sant cc
Unsubscribe from junk emails done
Make families lunches for school/work tomorrow done

Food & Health - got to start looking after myself (need to lose about 6st)
At least 1/2hr exercise at the gym 1/2hr pt session completed
Apply make up/perfume done
Drink warm water rather than tea/coffee save the cost & less calories too water cooling as I type!
All meals from stores - plan & prep - gammon salad tonight for us all tonight

Old school, make do & mend & use up
Try to use something out of the use up food box used some protein powder to have a smoothie for breakfast finished off the flax seed, the box is looking quite bare now. Better go throught the cupboards again, see if I can add to the box
Use up pamper box started with 18 nail polishes 4 handcreams 1 footcream & 3 perfumes - so far uu - 1np 2hc done
Use up household box started with 5 shower sprays - so far uu - 3/5 done

Entertainment
Read a few pages of a book done
Check Sun perks done, entered a few comps
Check o2 done
Remind my sister to pick up the freebie lego with newspaper for me.text her

and she did get them, so I need to dig out some cash to give her when I see her at kids swim lessons done

Home and decluttering
Wash a load at 30 degrees not enough to make a load
Hang washing on the line none today
Check out flylady email and complete todays task
Clean & tidy fridge - if I keep on top of this daily, we don't seem to waste any food.done
Clean & tidy freezer (RE-WRITE freezer list as I didn't find it yesterday)
Add items to charity bag
Check on contract end dates for both sky & talktalk

Earning chances
Do some Swagbucks running apps & done a survey = enough to claim a £5 agc
Check email survey oppurtunities 3 i-say surveys done, a yougov & clubhouse survey
Check checkoutsmart done
Check shopitize added code for freebie m&m's
Check TCB/Snap Save - done
Check Quidco/clicksnap done

princess_pea · 21 May 2015 at 10:23AM

Morning all,

I was AWOL yesterday as had to attend a really boring course for work. I also ended up having to spend £1.70 of the £4 I've been trying to save in my purse for as long as possible on a small bottle of water! :mad:

Anyway, today:

- Hopefully a NSD - I was really unorganised last night and this morning so haven't made a packed lunch for work and I'm here until 7pm! I will try and resist buying an overpriced sandwich from work. I've got two bananas, two pots of instant porridge, access to free tea and coffee and whatever else my benevolent colleagues have brought into the staff room. Wish me luck!

- Still waiting for payment from Music Magpie

- Surveys and FPL to check
- Dinner from stores tonight, probably homemade lasagne from the freezer and salad
- Budget for next month if I have time. I've cancelled my broadband and home phone as I'm hardly ever at home these days and can use my mobile. This will save me £21 a month :rotfl:
- Huge piles of work to get through at work...
- Planning what to do over the bank holiday weekend. The new boyf has got rewards to use at Nandos so that'll be a free meal out. I'm also planning to meet up with a friend and take my dog for a big walk (hope the weather stays fine!). I really should pick my knitting up again, I was in the middle of making a blanket but haven't done any for ages.

Have a lovely day everyone

Thursday 21st May - What small DFW things will you do today?

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