Tuesday 23rd July - What small DFW things will you do today?

MinnieMousesMummy

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

MinnieMousesMummy

Good morning everyone. The first 3 days on my road to being debt free have been productive so I hope to keep it going, also keeping busy will keep my mind off surgery, as got a date yesterday (surgery on 12th August unless baby makes an appearance before then)

My plans for day 4 on the DFW road

1. [STRIKE]Quick shower[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]Childcare runs[/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]Paid stuff (9-1)[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]Avon paperwork and distribute books[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]Post test item and update paperwork[/STRIKE]
6. Laundry (3 loads) - not a very nice day here so I will need to hang indoors
7. Water plants
8. [STRIKE]Feed animals & check for eggs[/STRIKE]
9. [STRIKE]Complete available surveys[/STRIKE]
10. Adpoints
11. [STRIKE]Check free postcode lottery & birthday bingo[/STRIKE]
12. [STRIKE]Raise ebay invoices and package up sold items[/STRIKE]
13. [STRIKE]Do MSing work that is in for today and look for more[/STRIKE]
14. Do some course work
15. [STRIKE]Do some of ironing mountain[/STRIKE]
16. [STRIKE]Review budgets and make changes as required[/STRIKE]
17. [STRIKE]Make a list of income from this month[/STRIKE]
18. Work through the mending pile (currently 5 items)
19. Look into ideas for increasing income
20. Clean the living room
21. [STRIKE]Do freelance work that is in for today and look for more[/STRIKE]
22. [STRIKE]All meals from stores[/STRIKE]

I think that is everything that I need to get done today.

ShootForTheMoon

Morning lovelies!!

Thank you for the kick-off MMM!!

My list for today:

1. [STRIKE]Run early before it gets too hot![/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]Cheap cereal breakfast in the sunshine[/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]White wash on economy and hang out to dry[/STRIKE]
4. Adpoints
5. Make packed lunch for work - soup and melon chunks for a snack!
6. Hoover and general tidy rounds
7. Check online banking is all ok - will skim remaining money into savings now as its payday on Friday!! Woohoo!!
8. Share a lift to work again - no fuel!
9. Work 3-11
10. Claim 2hrs overtime for getting stuck late yesterday!


Oh, a final thought - OH and I have been discussing getting an allotment....
We don't have a garden our place, just a balcony.
Both Daddy and DMIL are very green-fingered and are happy to help.
We can borrow / inherit most of the tools.
I tend to have lots of time on my hands due to shift work.
There are private allotments at £2p/w about a mile across the nature reserve from our house... And you can keep chickens (OH's dream!)
The only thing that worries us is we do like our weekends away (but i only get 1/4 weekends off) and we're both relatively clueless about allotments - and is it sad at 25 and 27 respectively?!?!? :rotfl:

What do people think??? Feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hugs and lots of MSE love xxx

ziggy2407

Good Morning My Lovelies

MMM - Thanks for starting us off,dont go overdoing things
SFTM - The allotment sounds like a great adventure - go for it

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

Not a lot achieved yesterday as spent some of the day outside painting the fence - will need to finish rest when weather dry again. Heavy rain and thunder here . Todays little listy :

Check Banks - Done
Check swapits - Done
Check www.freepostcodelottery.com - Done
Packed lunch for OH - Done
Wait in for delivery of washing machine - Done (t'is lovely, bought thro Quidco & free delivery)
Wait in for delivery of phone (free with my contract - good deal) - Done
General Tidy up - Done
Clean Fridge/Freezer - Done
Bake - Done (choc chip buns)
Make Fruit Salad - Done
Filing & Shredding -
Declutter - Done quite a bit sorted
List 3DS & DS Games for sale for LO - Done
Catch up on emails - In progress
Surveys -
Nectar Adpoints -
Coke Zone Codes - Done
Enter a few comps - Done a few
Meals from stores - Done
Update Food tracker - in progress
Read Library Book/Knit - in progress

Have a great day, love to you all.

C xx

PS Also so need to speak to Lovefilm who want to start charging me even though I asked for account cancelling - Done

Bobarella

Good Morning Everyone

Hope everyone is ok after last nights thunder & lightening, the pics of lightening over Manchester this morning were insane (from BBC breakfast)

Thanks for starting us off MinnieMousesmummy, how are you feeling in all this heat? Its hard enough in late stages of pg let alone in this weather. Sending cooling thoughts.

Shootforthemoon -Good for you claiming more overtime, another blow to the debt monster. Hope your run was good? Allotments are a god send if you or someone in your family is prepared to put in the work. Also, dont underestimate the cost of running one, as you will need tools, plants to start up so there will be an outlay, however, the things you could grow! Go for it I'd say.

Ziggy -Are you on the summer hols countdown now? Childcare all ok for the long hols? Good luck!

My news/list

1) We had a good weekend at the shop which was the first good one in 8 weeks. This has helped cash flow immensely. Its not all champagne & cigars but I've paid a few small bills that had built up, can cover the large electricity bill that I had to write a cheque for last week (they were getting nasty) have punted a couple of hundred my way as our joint account was looking horrendous. So peace be with me...
2) Child Benefit was paid into my account today which will go towards our general running costs for the month.
3) There was a packet of bacon due to expire so I have utilised that for cheesy pasta last night & we'll be having home made pizza with sweetcorn & crisppy bacon for tonights dinner, with a little green salad.
4) Took a birthday party booking on saturday, including £50 deposit, for September. Thats a good sign, we were busy for birthdays up until end of June but I didnt have a single booking in the diary until that one.
5) OH gets paid this Thursday (sing hallelujah)
6) Little man & I had a chilled day yesterday at one of the local parks, total spend £2, and that was for cheap crackers & cheese. Today we have a swimming class this afternoon so that is paid for already. Until then we'll probably mooch about at home, but the garden is nice and tidy so we can play out. Noticing a lot of birds & butterflies out there this morning, must be the cooler temps.

On a personal note, I havent been able to add a penny to the emergency pot this month. But we did have car tax & emergency car parts to buy, plus two kids birthdays & swimming lessons to fund. That little lot is worth around £300 so hopefully with that not to find in August I should manage a £50 contribution.
Also hoping this will be the payday we finally tip under the £5K debt mark. But not getting too carried away.

Enjoy your day all.

Bob

foxgloves

Morning Money-savers,
Well, the weather forecast seems to have been several hours or several miles out, as the storms & big rain forecast for mid morning today as it all passes over us on its way up to Yorkshire, arrived late last night. Free entertainment watching the lightning, which was amazing & lit up the room like daylight! More storms & huge rain all morning so far, but we're having a bit of a lull now. Woke up with rabid PMT so didn't expect to achieve much today, but mr f made me a huge coffee, some breakfast & with some paracetamol, I've perked up no end & got onto my MS list for today.
Positive money-saving activity:
*Did laundry overnight on Economy 7, 30 degrees, Queen of Stinge with the powder.
*Can't hang out, too stormy, so have put airer up in conservatory with windows open & dehumidifier on low.....no WAY is any heating going on for clothes drying in July!
*Baked a lemon drizzle cake for mr f's work. Had all the ingredients so more economical than buying a round of cream cakes.
*Dinner as per meal plans - home made beefburgers in home made bread rolls with salad from garden.
*Batch cook some Delia spicy chickpea cakes....basically they are nice tasty veggie burgers....am using our homegrown shallots & garlic (lifted yesterday), coriander & chillies. Will freeze & use in Aug meal plans.
*Try & figure out how to get at the foundation which is left in a small very narrow necked glass bottle which I can't cut open. I nearly gave up, then thought 'Would Bobarella leave a week's worth of product in the container & throw it in the bin on her 'Use it up' mission?' I don't think so!! Going to have a hunt around for an implement that will fit down the bottle & scoop it out. Get me!!
@shootforthemoon - We don't have an allotment because we have a big enough garden to run a half-allotment size veggie plot plus greenhouse at home, but we are very keen veggie growers & it can be a big help on the food budget as well as healthy exercise. In my experience of people I know getting allotments, they often either give up very quickly as they simply didn't realise how much time & effort it takes to run one, OR they throw themselves into the new project & end up spending much more money at the garden centre than they are ever going to save through the veg growing! Once you've got the basic tools, spade, fork, hoe, hand fork, trowel etc, (& you can often pick this stuff up 2nd hand), you can keep spending to a minimum by saving recycled stuff to use. For instance, I save plastic meat trays for seed trays, clear plastic fruit containers for propagators, old CDs for bird scarers, little toiletry bottles for cane toppers, cut up spread containers for plant labels, yoghurt pots/plastic milk containers for plant pots, old tights cut into strips for plant ties, newspapers tubes for sowing runner beans, etc, & absolutely loads of other stuff. So my tip would be that if you know an allotment is likely to be a reality, you can save some of your start-up costs by saving useful items like the above for next year, ready for the growing season. Magazines often have offers where you just send postage for a bundle of free veg seeds - I've paid for very few packs of veg seed this year. It's great fun, you can get loads of (often organic) veggies, but it IS a lot of work. I can work on our plot almost every day since I took VR, with mr f to help with heavy work at weekends, but I didn't manage to grow quite so much when we both worked full time. I'd go for it......but be realistic x
Right, that's quite enough from me - off to roast spices for those burgers now. Have a good day, everyone,
foxgloves x

Bobarella

foxgloves wrote: »

'Would Bobarella leave a week's worth of product in the container & throw it in the bin on her 'Use it up' mission?' I don't think so!! Going to have a hunt around for an implement that will fit down the bottle & scoop it out. Get me!!

foxgloves x

Ha ha you've got a good memory! I am still at it Foxgloves, and no I wouldn't:rotfl: My first thought was a cotton bud? Would that work? If not,what about the stirring sticks you get in coffee shops?

I still have 1 bottle of baby lotion, 1 moisturiser, and 2 tubs of lovely cocobutter type stuff, to use up before November when its my birthday and the stacks begin to mount again. Oh and one more go on a bottle of conditioner that I bought in 2011. It moved house with us, and I am determined that its on its way out.

ShootForTheMoon

Foxgloves, thank you SO much for the very helpful reply!!
We shall start stocking up on make-shift allotment goodies as of now!!

I think we would be fairly ok with starting up as my Dad is heavily into his allotment and has a tiller, rotavator, etc etc... which would really help with the heavy stuff - he's over in Wales, but as he's retiring this year he's more than happy to help. :A
He's forever trying to palm cuttings off on me, forgetting we don't have a garden!!! Bless him!
I took him over to see the plots we were thinking about last time they were over and he seemed keen, but much the same as you, explained that you'll get out what you put in - if you're lucky!
He suggested just covering half the plot with plastic to kill the weeds to start with and then prepare for planting early next year.

Also, OH's family have sadly had to sell the grandparent's home to pay nursing home fees - this house had a reasonable vegetable plot at the back of the garden which DMIL tended to. Therefore, OH's thinking is we can have a lot of the tools from Pop's shed and DMIL would also help at our allotment in return for some of our produce!

My realistic plan would be to start with using half the plot for veg growing initially, and half as a "garden" with some wildflowers, somewhere to sit and a cheapo BBQ so we can spend whole days over there working...
OH is desperate for chickens :eek:
DMIL already has 4 so it is a possibility - but having never kept animals, I'm a little more sceptical!! More research required!!!

Ziggy & Bob, thanks for your enthusiasm!! Love the thinking that it could be our adventure project!! I think whilst we're saving for a house deposit we will need to cut back on luxuries such as weekends away and big holidays *sigh* so maybe something we can do together would be a great replacement!


Thanks again lovelies!!

little_pink_purse

Afternoon
thanks so starting us Minnie god your so busy you put me to shame and you have only 2 weeks to go

well I sent the morning hiding as I hate the lighting

my to do list
chill lol I need to get my finger out
check the banks
meals from stores
wash on
I must iron xxxx

have a great day xxxlolxxxx

Pernicious

Hi everyone,

Thanks for starting us off Minnie.


Today's plan:-

• Making use of free water at work
• Food from stores - leftovers for lunch
• Pop to town on my lunchbreak to return some items, money back in the bank
• Dinner from meal plan - Bangers with garlic sweet potato mash & veg
• Log calories & exercise on free apps
• Check postcode lottery & birthday bingo
• Heating off
• Check online banking
• Check for new mystery shopping opportunities
• Enter some comps
• Do some surveys
• Declutter & flylady
• DH doing overtime today
• Check emails to see if the council have replied
• Check emails for 0range unlock code
• Pre-paid pole class this evening
• Pop to Sainsbugs afterwards, see if a DVD is still cheaper than Amaz0n for my Dad's birthday & need to get a few fresh bits using our pre-paid gift card which gives us a 5% discount. Must stick to list as running low on funds...
• Got a letter confirming my pay rise this year, looks to be about £11 extra a month, not amazing but certainly thankful for it. Bring on payday on Friday :j

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

Nottoobadyet

ShootForTheMoon wrote: »

Both Daddy and DMIL are very green-fingered and are happy to help.
We can borrow / inherit most of the tools.

For a moment I thought you were considering offing them to get to the garden tools :money::rotfl::money: