DFSD's five year plan... and all it brings along the way

debtfreesomeday

It's payday today and I've transferred money to the different savings pots online - £100 to the tax & insurance e-saver (now at £300), £500 to the maternity leave account (now at £925) and £100 paid off the credit card. It's going to be another month without much money, but at least the savings pots are looking relatively ok at the moment. We have no birthdays/weddings to buy for this month either so that's a bit of a relief, financially!

Hubby has a little money left over to cover any little 'treats', bless him. :A

I also discovered a couple of other items I could list on ebay this weekend. I've had a 'free listing weekend email' from them, so I shall try and do that on Saturday. Nothing of high value at all, but it might make a little bit of money.

We also need to drop some things off at the charity shop on Saturday morning as well as taking some things to the tip. Hopefully it will be a productive, yet relaxing, weekend!

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

Yesterday I chased up the £10 Amazon I ordered via a survey site 4 weeks ago - apparently they've 'run out of e-codes?!' but I should receive it in the next week or so.
I also ordered a £10 leisure voucher to give to someone as a birthday present - I know the person in question likes to use these so it will be a little treat for them and save me £10 from October/November's budget. I should receive that in the post in the next 4 weeks. If it's too late for their birthday it will go towards their Christmas present instead.

We have another MS lined up for a week Saturday. Again, it's only for £7.80 (£4 plus £3.80 expenses) but it all helps!

debtfreesomeday

I've lined up another MS for next week, netting us £10 (+ £1 spend).

The Amazon voucher finally came through from the survey company, so yesterday I ordered two books as Christmas presents, costing us the grand total of 78p.

On Tuesday, we did a big shop at Mr Sainsbury's, which came in at just under £50. I was quite surprised - I thought it would be more considering hubby had thrown a couple of 'treats' in the trolley. Also filled the car up which cost £40. That's £80 on petrol already this month, I definitely need to up our petrol budget to £200 a month now, permanently.

Tonight I am going to make some cakes with frozen blackberries, hand-picked from the hedgerows and some apples given to us by a fellow who had too many in his garden to use. We have friends coming over for dinner at the weekend, so I'm going to make a crumble for pudding too.

Last weekend I also picked up another Christmas present in a sale at a third of the price, costing £5. That's one more person bought for now.

DFSD
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Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Well done for keeping the momentum going, particularly the week after pay day. It is these little things each day that result in real long term progress.

Well I reached my September target by the skin of my teeth . Mainly by pushing the problem into October - my credit card balance is about £800 :eek: which will get paid off when the statement comes through in a week's time. However, I keep doing this and as long as I make it another three months and find my £2,500 shortfall from somewhere, I will have paid the mortgage off. It would be nice, though, if I didn't put so much on the credit card in October. One challenge is to run the freezer down. It needs defrosting in any case so should be an incentive to eat from there and the storecupboard to reduce my food spending.

I seem to have had a run of queries for one particular MS agency. They are such pointless queries to come home to and I find myself exasperated and wonder why I bother. Oh, yes, for the money. For instance, there is one scenario where my brief is to go to a coffee shop and buy a latte. I have had a query back asking me "Was the coffee milky?" :rotfl: Another reads along the lines of, "You said the assistant was wearing a white shirt. Can you confirm she was wearing a white shirt. This is a very urgent query." I find it hard to write a serious response to such rubbish so have taken to curt replies. I suspect my days are numbered with that agency. In the meantime, I have had some very positive feedback from another agency on some reports I did for them at the weekend, so there are some nice agencies out there.

I have come back to another Amazon sale email. Not had a sale for over 6 months and now had two in a week . It's only about £8 profit, but all helps.

Best wishes x

debtfreesomeday

Hi Chocs

Well done on the September's target and how exciting the mortgage is nearly paid off! You must feel over the moon. Do you think the £2.5k is achievable this year? Am I remembering rightly that you mentioned some sort of bonus at Christmas a little while ago? If so, would that help? You've done amazingly well on the target this year, so big congratulations to you.

Already, I can understand what you mean about the MS's. I found the first one we did was very drawn out, and hardly seemed worth it for the £7 we earned, but I guess we'll get better at them and it's money for nothing at the end of the day. I have another to do tomorrow for £7, and one on Tuesday for £11. It all adds up and will help this month as the bank balance is pretty dire already! We are doing well on the groceries budget and still have £80 left in that which will last us to the end of the month no problem, but the price of petrol is getting astronomical now, it's ridiculous. We're trying to keep use of the car to a minimum at weekends/evenings, but we have to use it to get to and from work every day, so the cost is unavoidable. We have spent £80 on petrol in the last 12 days! :eek:

Onto nicer things, and I did lots of baking last night - it was bliss! I made chocolate brownie cake (which is now the new dessert for Saturday's guests!) and lots of blackberry & apple cupcakes which turned out lovely - even if I say so myself. Friends of ours popped round for a cuppa and to help shift some heavy furniture last night and the cakes didn't last much past the first hour out of the oven! I'll make another batch at the weekend.

We have another free DVD rental voucher which we'll use tonight; the weekend will hopefully be largely free of spending - we need to pick up one or two things for dinner tomorrow but it should be no more than £5. I have to pay out for the MS purchase tomorrow but that will get refunded eventually. Other than that, we shall be having a tidying/cleaning/baking and general easy going weekend, hopefully.

Have a lovely weekend all

DFSD
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Chocforever

Hi DFSD

The baking sounds fab . So what is your secret with the muffins? I have found mine to be bland in the past so have tended not to make them. I am a big fan of Dan Lepard and in one of his baking books, he reckons that a lot of muffin recipes don't add enough sugar. I have, therefore, tried upping the sugar and that certainly does help, but they still aren't great. So any tips gratefully received!

Well after my rant about MSing, same agency offered me two jobs this weekend for triple the normal fee plus reimbursement, so I am happy. Great jobs as well; take 15 mins to do and 10 minutes to fill in the questionnaire. I have also worked out that I have £400 to come in from my Sept MSing which makes it seem more worthwhile. I have had quite a few well paid jobs recently so the money starts to add up.

I am also cooking for friends tonight, though I think mine might have to put up with a shop bought dessert because I am quite busy today. Some friends run a dessert shop nearby so I feel less guilty because I am doing my bit for the local economy :rotfl:.

Have a lovely weekend x

debtfreesomeday

With regards to the muffins Chocs, I use veg oil instead of butter which makes proper muffins and tends not to be so heavy. Also, grated apple in the mixture makes them very moist and yummy.

I didn't get round to baking this weekend, we have been busy with jobs around the house and entertaining friends.
We've had to spend a bit of money on some DIY stuff - £50 spent on that :eek: - but it was needed, so unavoidable. The bank account is going to be dire at the end of the month, I'm dreading it.

One item on ebay sold, making me £20 + £6 for postage. I'm a bit disappointed with that really as it is worth a lot more, plus it's heavy so I hope I've estimated the postage correctly. Two other items didn't sell so I've relisted those.

We have a couple of MS's lined up this week - one for £10 + £1 costs, one for £15 re-imbursement.

Not much else to report, not looking forward to Monday, it comes round so quickly.

Chocforever

The weekend goes so fast, doesn't it? I have got most of the nice things done on my to do list and left the boring paperwork and housework! Another bag of stuff went to the charity shop and I am starting to see signs of some space in my bedroom. The cooking went well and I have been to the gym and to an exercise class. I will remember the grated apple trick next time I make some muffins.

The last couple of times I have listed on Ebay on a free-listing weekend, I have also had disappointing outcomes. I took my item off this week as I could see there was little interest whereas normally it is a brand which is certain to sell on Ebay at a good price. I have also relisted tonight in hope of a better outcome next week.

Since the World Cup, I haven't been betting so withdrew my balance from my betting accounts. On one, I think I had to leave a balance in it to keep it open so took out the balance to the nearest £5 and left about £4 in there. I have been placing little bets with it over the last week or so just to see if I could increase the balance for a bit of fun. The balance is now £25. I should withdraw it but, of course, I will keep going for a bit and see if I can improve it further.

I have a busy week ahead so just need to pace myself and try to keep everything going. This keeping fit and eating well lark is like having a second job!

Have you got any time off planned? I've got a week to take some time before Xmas and may well take it soon to catch up with a few jobs around the house which never seem to get done on a weekend.

Have a good week x

debtfreesomeday

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a 'to-do list' at the weekends. :)There's something really satisfying about crossing the completed jobs off isn't there!

Yes, I'm a little surprised that the 3 items I put on ebay didn't sell well - I've relisted the two no-sales in the hope they will sell this week. One is a BIN, the other an auction but might consider putting it as a BIN.

Well done on the betting pot, I'm still a bit chicken to start doing the matched betting thing (plus don't have the available funds to build up a pot first!). Hope it goes up and up.

No, no time off planned unfortunately, just the odd day here and there but that's mainly because the builders will be in from tomorrow and someone needs to stay in the house. I have one day off booked for that purpose this week. Thankfully, I have all of Christmas and New Year booked off though, not even sure if my maternity leave will kick in by then, but I'm hoping to delay the start date for as long as possible. I'm looking forward to a long Christmas break off work though.

Last night I lay awake worrying about money for a little while. I haven't been like that for ages, but this month is proving to be tough money-wise with 3 weeks left until payday. :eek::( It's just about keeping the overdraft as low as possible this month and, hopefully, paying it off once and for all with the HIP grant we'll be getting in a month or so.

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

I posted the ebay parcel today - it cost just over £6, so it was only pennies away from what I actually charged, which was a relief. The lady at the post office dropped it though, so I really hope she hasn't broken it! :mad:

I also returned something to an ebay seller that I bought and was the wrong item when it arrived, they have said they will give me a full refund of £8 ish for that.

One more survey completed today for £3 in the paypal account, and I received the Leisure Voucher from the other survey company a couple of days ago, which is going towards a birthday present.

I've taken advantage of the boots glitch today and managed to bag myself 3 burts bees gift packs for the price of one - paid for with the money in my paypal account too, so not coming out of the bank account. They will make lovely Christmas/birthday presents for 3 more people.

Hubby is out at the gym for a couple of hours, so I'm off to sort out the present box and update my Christmas 'gifts bought' list and have a general tidy up/sort out upstairs - we're having some building work done at the moment so things are a little messy here presently!

Have a good evening all

DFSD
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