DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

I'm off work today and have had another no spend day. :j
Well, I actually bought a lampshade with some credit from a gift card that we were given for Christmas so didn't actually spend any money myself, so not counting that!

I've made £3 by doing a couple of surveys today and got screened out of a few more. I shall check for further surveys later as I've answered a few quick quizzes which often lead to further surveys.

We're having a storecupboard dinner tonight again and froze leftover chilli from last night's dinner for a lunch portion later on in the week, so we're doing quite well on the grocery front.

I've entered a few more comps online today - fingers crossed I may be lucky!

mancbird

Hi DFSD,
I love your diary, I can really relate to what's going on for you in terms of DFW so it's inspiring and motivating reading how you're coping with everything

I noticed you seem to sell a fair amount of books through Amazon. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what types of books are you selling? I have a load of books I want to shift but am not sure if they would sell well on there!
x

debtfreesomeday

Hi Mancbird and thanks for dropping in! :hello: - I just assumed I was chatting away to myself - didn't realise anyone still read my ramblings!

As for the Amazon books,a lot of them were architectural and design books from my uni days, but I have also sold a couple of gardening books and one or two city guides. I find the text or reference books seem to sell better, novels don't seem to go so well as there are so many on there at 1p or something and I don't bother listing them. I listed a load back in September/October time and haven't listed many since but the good thing about Amazon is that you can leave them on there and a sale pops up now and then. They do charge quite a lot in fees but I have made a lot more than I would've done at a car boot sale or giving them to charity. :j

Good luck with the book sales! If you have lots of cd's too, have you tried music magpie? We got rid of a load a while ago and made about £60 if I remember rightly.


DFSD xx

debtfreesomeday

I had an unexpected parcel delivered by postie this morning - seems I won a L'oreal goodie box containing foundation, bronzer, 2 eye shadows, glam shine lip gloss, mascara and hair dye! I am so excited - I can hardly ever justify spending money on make up for myself and I've been squeezing the last little bit out of my foundation for weeks now so I am chuffed I've won some! I'll give the hair dye away though as I don't fancy going blonde again - last time I dyed my hair it was a disaster! I was getting a bit tired of entering comps and not winning anything but this has definately spurred me on to enter a few more now!

I'm off work again today so another NSD for me. I shall spend the day doing housework and probably entering competitions! :rotfl:
I've got some meat out of the freezer and some veggies to use up so another day of storecupboard meals it is for us. I shall have to start making a list for an online ASDA shop for next week though as we're running out of a few things.
Shall also be checking for more surveys online today - I've got back into the swing of doing these again now, and although most of them are very boring, I find the amounts soon add up.

We also saved ourselves £300+ last night. We received an e-voucher from a travel company we sometimes use, giving us £100 towards future bookings. We managed to book a hotel for a wedding we're going to, and an airport hotel room before and after our long haul flight in the summer for FREE! Was very pleased with that result!

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I was going to go out and buy a lottery ticket today (we rarely buy one but as it's a big rollover on Friday thought we'd give it a go!) But instead, I opened an account online through Quidco and got £6 cashback. :j
I deposited £10, spent £5 on tickets and then played a few instant win games and won £9 which I then deposited back into my bank account. SO - I'm £5 and a few lottery tickets up this morning - is that right?!:j

We're having another storecupboard/freezer food day today so apart from the lottery (which has made me money!) it's another NSD for me today.

Yesterday I made a list online for a grocery delivery next week - surprisingly, Sainsbury's (choosing all the basic ranges) was cheaper than ASDA. Sainsbury's online seem to have lots of half price savings on meat and fresh food at the moment so it worked out quite a bit cheaper than our usual ASDA shop. I have stocked up on lots of basic tinned stuff which was really cheap too. This should be plenty of food for us for at least 2 - 3 weeks.

I entered a few more competitions yesterday - my little win spurred me on somewhat! As I'm home today I shall enter a few more online too.

I also paid £1 off the credit card as the £4791 total was annoying me! I can't afford to pay off the £90 this month but I can certainly deal with the £1! We'll pay off £300 as norm next month - £390 if I can manage it :-)

debtfreesomeday

Ok, so it's not been a NSD after all - I have relented and signed up to weightwatchers online again at £9.95 a month as I need to lose some weight. I used to do this a while back but cancelled it when we first had our lightbulb moment. I know it's not very DFW of me, but past experience tells me it's the only way it works for me. I did, however, go through Quidco and will hopefully get £15 if it tracks correctly. This will take my Quidco earnings to over £200 since last October! :j

debtfreesomeday

Today we paid our car tax and it's the first time we've ever had the money saved in an 'online pot' already to pay for it. :j We were hoping to have enough to pay the tax for a year in there but we don't quite have enough so we'll aim for that next time it's due for renewal in 6 months. Our insurance is due next month too and we also have the money put by for that which is a great feeling! We have been putting X amount a month into the e-saver which is for all these one-off bills; it really helps.
Not much other DFW action going on this week, apart from cooking from scratch from groceries we have in and taking lunches to work etc. We can't afford to make any more payments to the credit card until payday (unless we win the lottery! :rolleyes:). I only have a few books left on Amazon, and there are numerous other copies for sale by other people of these too so I'm not expecting any more sale anytime soon.
We still have money left in the main account, not a lot, but it should last us until payday which is 10 days away, hopefully, without raiding the coin jar in the house!
Looking forward to another month of reducing the debt next month - just wish my diet was going quite so well!

xx

debtfreesomeday

I have just used the snowball calculator again at whatsthecost.co.uk and found that my little purchases here and there since November have knocked my credit card debt free date back by 3 months! I'm so annoyed at myself, although some of these things were essentials, there was a lot we could have done without. When you look at it like that I think it really puts into perspective how much these little things all add up. It's the final straw for me in the 'shall I, shan't I' dilemma about cutting the egg card up and tonight it shall be cut into little bits! It makes me nervous at not having it to fall back on, but I know it's too tempting otherwise. There's a balance of £75 on it at the moment which shall be paid off on payday and then I shall close the account. Then I'll have no credit cards available to me! eek! I'm sure I'm doing the right thing though...

debtfreesomeday

I did it! I cut the egg card up into unrecognisable little pieces last night! :j

No more credit cards for us!

I'm looking forward to seeing our debt go straight down now and not fluctuate a little here and there!

Roll on payday!

debtfreesomeday

I'm so annoyed - we have been having problems with a club we belong to - not taking any payments when they should be. We were told in person the other day that a payment would be taken on 1st Feb - when I checked my account this morning they' took a payment yesterday which has made us overdrawn. After many aggravating phone calls, they're also going to take another payment on 1st February - 2 weeks later for next month! We've been reminding them and nagging them to take the payments for the past two months now and they didn't, now they've really thrown our budget out of balance for this month. We had about £60 to last us just over a week, which was fine as we have food and petrol and all the bills are paid, but now these idiots have taken the money and made us overdrawn. :mad: I've had to take some money out of our car insurance savings to cover it, plus we now have very little to live on for 8 days.
We don't mind paying the money as we signed up and enjoy using the place, but I just wish they'd take it when they say they're going to!
The incompetence of some businesses really infuriates me.