Thursday 2nd May 2013 - What Small DFW Things Will You Do Today?

allydowd

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:

Hi DFW-Jedis,

I'm continuing my new home-based routine and am determined to stay positive. Today I will:

1. Follow up on yesterday's Jobcentre fiasco "Visited Jobcentre for an appointment. 20 mile round trip. They told me to come back tomorrow because they'd booked me an appointment that was too short! Would they refund my travel today? No, because it's "not their fault". I was somehow supposed to know that my first appointment hadn't been booked in a long enough slot, even though they only told me the start time. Went to the Jobcentre. The advisor took TWO HOURS to do my first appointment because she was new. Should have taken half an hour. Good grief! Then she booked me an appointment for Wed 9th may so I had to call to find out if she meant Wed 8th or Thu 9th.
   
2. Do Nectar AdPoints. 70% of the way to a £5 Sainsbury's voucher. Done.
3. Do OnePoll. Done.
4. Leave the heating off. Done.
5. Walk through the Glen foraging for wood sorrel to make tea and flavour fish. (Link) Done.
6. Drink water instead of juice all day. Done.
7. Look into starting to use Freeshare. (Link)
8. Applied for jobs. Done.
9. Light a candle when it gets dark instead of having the light on. (Pet and child-free household.)
10. Leave oven door open after cooking to enjoy the heat. Done.
11. Discuss the idea of eating less meat and more veg with OH. Done.
12. Volunteered to watch over neighbour's bonfire for an hour. Free heat.
13. Foraged some cleavers for tea-making. (Link) Done.
14. Borrowed a library book instead of buying it. Done.

FREEBIES:

1. Free toothpaste (Link)
2. Free cheap-quality earphones (Link)
3. Free Coke Zero (Link)
4. Free Nivea sample through Facebook (Link)
5. Free Go Cat sample (Link)
   

OFFERS

1. Easy and instant £2 off £12 spend in Poundland voucher (Link)
2. Tesco Clubcard May Exchange (Link)
3. Quidco ClickSnap grocery offers (Link)
4. TopCashBack SnapAndSave grocery offers (Link)

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

• Benefits check-up (Link)
• Birthday Bingo, daily free game (Link) NEWLY ADDED TO THIS LIST
  
• Freecycle (Link)
• Free Postcode Lottery (Link)
• FreeStuff (Link)
• FreeUKStuff (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 Deals and Vouchers (Link)
• MSE Wow Offers (Link)
• My Supermarket (Link)
• Nectar Points, AdPoints, Search Toolbar (Link)
• OnePoll (Link)
• Quidco (Link)
• Reclaim PPI at no cost to yourself (Link)
• Survey sites that pay for your opinions (Link)
• Swagbucks (Link)
• Swapit (Link)
• Tesco Price Promise (Link)
• TopCashBack (Link)

josiebabie

Morning peeps!

Thanks for starting ally. I did get up early this morning but DD has decided she wants packed lunches instead of school dinners on a permanent basis...so had to make her a lunch! This isn't MSE for me as it costs me more due to her diet but it makes her happy

So this is me:-
- Checked bank
- 1x washing on quick wash and on line by 7am
- Swish swipe kitchen - must keep this up, makes life easier!
- Packed lunch for me
- Porridge pot for breakfast
- Harvester for birthday tea for friend, will try not to go over £30 left in entertainment budget for the month! :eek: (Or OH might pay?:rotfl:)
- Make biscuit base, bananas and caramel of banoffee pie for tomorrow night
- Sparkle!

Jx

stitching_witch

Good morning from bright and sunny Wiltshire! Wishing it was a Stitching Witch day today but will have to wait until tomorrow for that one

Small things so far:

• Fed and watered the chickens
• Checked banking
• Checked for surveys
• Watered all my seedlings - hoping to do better on the allotment than last year

I will also:

• Keep an eye on surveys
• Drink free coffee and water at work
• Buy a loaf of bread and make myself toast for lunch - we need a loaf and it works out cheaper than buying a loaf AND a ready made sandwich
• Take own spread and M@rmite in for above toast
• Dinner from stores
• Text customer about her wedding dress alteration
• Have a LSD - just the bread if I can steer clear of the iced apple doughnuts (unless I can class it as one of my five a day?:rotfl:)

I think that'll do for me.
Stitchy x

starnac

Morning all. Thanks ally for starting us off.

My list for today

[STRIKE]Check banking[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Daily clicks[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Heating off[/STRIKE]/on low (weather is sunny but still a bit cold)
[STRIKE]Breakfast[/STRIKE] and lunch from stores
Going to friend's house for tea
Finish work for weekend
Start packing list
[STRIKE]HC[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Hang on line[/STRIKE]
Ironing
[STRIKE]Ring lady with meeting outcome[/STRIKE]
Water seedlings
[STRIKE]Open greenhouse[/STRIKE]
Baking if I have time

That'll do me for now

Happy Thursday everyone

moohound

Baked gorgeous mad looking chocolate cake for son's birthday, it's covered in choc chips, sprinkles ,jelly diamonds and chocolate stars

Years ago I would have spent £60 for one from the cake shop, and they always tasted like sugary sawdust.

Going caravanning over the weekend, got food, long life milk etc to take with us using Nectar points, got mini toiletries on 3 for 2 using boots points

Will bake a quiche and some cupcakes to take as well to use up stuff in the fridge. Might do choc chip cookies as well ( nigellas recipe )

Using 10p off a litre coupon to fill car before we go ,will save £7.

Take son a snack and drink tonight for after swimming rather than use vending machines.

Pernicious

Hi everyone,

Thanks for starting us Ally, don't envy your job centre trip...& shocked that there is no reimbursement for their error! Well, not really shocked actually, just appalled...
Josie - Mmm your banoffee pie sounds delicious! Can you share the recipe please?
Stitchy - It could count as 1 of your 5 a day...just also some of your sugar a day!
Moohound - Just an extra tip, clean out the small toiletry bottles after you've used them & refill them

Today I have/will:-

• Made use of free water at work
• Popped to Mr T's on my lunch break to get a few bits I forgot to get yesterday!
• B/L/D from stores
• HM porridge pot for brekkie
• Log calories & exercise on free apps
• Dinner from meal plan - rejigged it so we use up the leftover ricotta before it goes off, so we're having spinach & ricotta stuffed peppers baked in a tomato sauce, I've never made it before so hope it's nice!
• Checked postcode lottery & birthday bingo
• Charging phone at work
• Heating off
• Check online banking
• Check for new mystery shopping opportunities
• Enter some comps
• Do some surveys
• Declutter & flylady
• Check FB & fleabay - Highest bidder on a guitar wants to cancel now as apparently he didn't know it was collection only or how "far" away we are...we're only about an hour away & it clearly stated all of that I think he's just seen something better going cheap...I can't decide if I should or just leave it for him to cancel if he really wants to muck us about >.<
• Research some ideas for DH's 30th party in November
• Catch up on yesterday's thread
• Washing on eco setting using less than the recommended dose of washing liquid
• Hang up to dry
• Free exercise on my pole this evening

Hope everyone is ok & has a great, MSE day x

purple.sarah

Hi everyone!

Today I made DH a packed lunch and I'm eating lunch before I leave for work so we won't buy lunch.

I will also:
Bite the bullet and finally post a SOA
Resurrect my DFW diary
Apply for freebies.
Enter competitions.
Go to work
Read the free paper on the tram
Drink the free coffee at work
Check if there is any overtime available for next week
Have a NSD
Work on the website for the pet care business I'm setting up
Make some craft projects using recycled items
Tidy the house

ziggy2407

Good afternoon my lovelies

ally - Thanks for starting us off this morning

Lovely sunny day here again, had a lie-in this morning as no school run - it felt really indulgent. Todays little listy:

Check Banks - Done
Check swapits - Done
Check www.freepostcodelottery.com - Done
Packed lunch for OH - Done
General Tidy up - Done
Stripped bed and hung to line dry - Done
Work (10.30-1.30) - Done
Surveys -
Catch up on emails -
Enter a few comps - Done a few
Read - Reading another book from stash
Meals from stores - oops cheeky trip to chippy
Update Food tracker - in progress

Have a great day, love to you all.

C xx

Bobarella

1. Discuss the idea of eating less meat and more veg with OH.

There is a lovely book I often use recipes from by Rachel De Thample called More Veg Less Meat. Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Less-Meat-More-Veg-eco-friendly/dp/1856269558

Bobarella

Hi All

Today was a good day for me. We were very busy at work, good takings so a happy Bob tonight.

1. I reviewed my banking tonight, nothing to worry about there yet.

2. For tonights dinner we had chicken thighs, and I used up rice with beans and peas from another dinner by putting in a tin of coconut milk and some new veggies, plus some spice. Was really nice, and a good using up meal.

3. Got some petrol from a Tesco garage, collected the points.

4. Daily spend was less than £5 including parking.

Think thats it. Have managed to put more into the emergency pot fund. So getting to the magical £1,000 mark is now only £321 away.

Cant believe its Friday already tommorow. Am happy though as i have a much less labour intensive weekend coming up. Half day saturday and less hours sunday than usual. Then a lovely family day to look forward to monday.

night all.

Bob

foxgloves

Hi everyone,
Another late one for me, as have been down to see my parents, then popped out to vote, but there's been a bit of useful MSE activity today, I suppose:
*Got up early to sort out baby plants to take down to family members....agreed a deal where I grow extra plants & swap for a large over-mantel mirror! (I love swapsies!)
*Dad donated a free coffee from his loyalty card to me - how sweet....perhaps I was looking particularly desperate, lol!
*Popped in Lidl for a few grocery items that are good value there.
*Mum gave me a Grow-bag which she got for £1 with a voucher so now I only have to buy one for my cukes & aubergines instead of two.
*Dinner from May meal plans.
*Listed more ebay items.......how boring is listing stuff on ebay? Love it when the bids start coming in, though, & have sold quite a lot of my sheet music already. Yay!
@ally - Oh my days! This Job Centre saga is getting worse by the day! What poor service you have had so far. They are likely to have a Customer Complaints procedure, so I think I'd be looking to use it. Very poor. Re cleavers tea. I like foraging too & did once make some cleavers tea (it grows in our garden). Flavour-wise, it just tastes very sort of 'green', but I can vouch for the alleged cleansing properties.....my innards felt like they'd had a personal appointment with Dyna-rod!! It may not affect you, but just in case..... :-) Lemon balm makes lovely calming herb tea as you'll probably know. I just pick a sprig & infuse it fresh.
That's it from me,
Cheers,
foxgloves x