Tuesday 28th January - What Small DFW Things Will You Do Today?

bt1

When we start out on the Debt-Free Wannabe 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

bt1

Morning! Hope you're all well!

It's payday for me :j finally!! This is my chance to prove that I can stick to a budget. No credit cards this month!

My list for today

• Check bank done
• Move money about - £50 emergency fund, £35 for ground rent and water - done
• Pay off Argos card - 0% runs out on 5th Feb done!
• Update signature - done
• Round down to the nearest £5 and transfer to savings done £2.61 moved
• Update app done
• Lunch from home - there's bound to be a payday lunch at work, but I must resist! They all get really excited and go somewhere expensive, and I refuse to pay £15 for lunch! I'll stick to my 20p noodles
• Top up oyster £10
• Get the bus instead of tube (if I have time this morning but definitely on way home)
• Read study text on bus
• Dinner from home
• Must have an early night, really struggled to get up this morning!

That's all I can think of for now..

good_advice

Good morning bt1 and everyone. 28th January, so 3 more days left of the month. Can't wait for the warmer weather.

Just having a morning coffee and the washing machine is going around too!
Puppy has had her breakfast.

So Tuesday begins...

Just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit and then going to tidy the conservatory. A bit messy. Gets used as storage in winter.

Washing on line. Hope it does not rain. I am fed up of RAIN!(it rained)

Checked postcode lottery, done some surveys and not got paid . Halfway through said "you are no longer suitable!. Another , I got to the end and their site crashed! Oh well.

Had a tidy and declutter of the conservatory. I hope to much from the unwanted pile gets put back.

Unplugged around the house to save on electric.

Going to Tesco's later, After 4pm to get the weeks shopping.

ziggy2407

Good Morning Lovelies

bt1 - Thanks for starting us off today

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.

I really have no idea what happened yesterday but apart from all washing being done I achieved nothing else so going to make today really count, today's little list:

Check Banks - Done
Check swapits - Done
General Tidy up - Done
Ironing - All done
Packed lunch for OH & DS - Done
Investigate/Buy new cord for iron -
Return Library book & collect 2 more - Done
Ensure calendar up to date - Done
Filing/shredding - Done
Bake - Done (made buns for DS to try and tempt him to eat more)
Meal Plan - Done
Work on project 5 of 52 - Planning to make a picture for mums flat
Check www.freepostcodelottery.com - Done
Re-list a few bits to sell/freecycle - Done
E-mails - Done
Surveys -
Nectar Adpoints - Done
Enter a few comps - Done
Read library Book (Apple Tree Yard) -
Exercise - Done
10 mins on Yantra Mat -
Meals from stores - Done
Count my blessings - lots to be thankful for

Have a great day, love to you all

C x

MinnieMousesMummy

Good morning, Just a quick post from me today, as I need to get started

My list for today

1. Do paid work
2. Do MSing work that is in for today
3. Sort through a box of paperwork
4. Do some of ironing mountain
5. Do inventory of freezers
6. Do inventory of cupboards
7. Colelct kids from school and childminder
8. Go to meeting reg house
9. Schedule work that has come in
10. Catch up with emails
11. Sort bags and clothes for tomorrow
12. Update on here and catch up with the thread
13. Get an early night

I think that is everything that I need to get done today, Hope everyone has a good Tuesday x

ShootForTheMoon

Morning Gang!!

Thanks for the starter bt1!!
Woohoo! It's payday for me too :beer: Thank goodness, it seems like January has dragged on forever!!


So, today's list looks like:

Check bank - move money into savings, joint acct, etc. Now skint again!! :rotfl:

Breakfast, lunch & dinner from stores

Pay balance on holiday to Sri Lanka in April :j

White wash on economy cycle and hang up to dry

Cheap haircut - needs doing as OH has done it the last couple of times

Whizz to new 99p shop for a couple of bits and bobs we need

Nectar Adpoints - OH is going to do today's as she's still tucked up on the sofa being poorly!

Check FPL and enter a couple of comps

On that note - Heating off, blanket on!!

Booked Groupon for OH's birthday next month, a couple of days in the Brecon Beacons - all paid for before Xmas, so nothing to fork out this month!

Exercise (of some description) - weather is awful at the moment though!!

OH will book hair appt using voucher from Christmas

At home pamper session, eyebrows, face mask and pedicure

Prep lunch for work tomorrow - it's going to be a long week!


That's pretty much it for now... Hope you all have a fab day, love lots xxx

Bobarella

Hi All

Well so far today I've had 2 out of the 'bad things come in 3s' one worse than the other. But Im rising above it.

The good things.

1) I popped into one of the big supermarkets to get literally a couple of bits. Im making roast chicken tonight & have everything I need bar some potatos. So I thought, I'll use my head & buy 1 large jacket potato & split it between us all. I put it on the self service scales & it weighed as £1!!! For one sodding potato. So I said to them, Im not paying that. The guy was really helpful & even agreed it was a total rip. He then went off & came back with a bag of new potatoes for £1.
To compound my woes, I used a 99p brand match coupon, which the machine took. However, it then rejected all the 20ps I inserted, so they decided to move me to a manned till instead. For some reason the coupon was not showing up at all, and as I'd already inserted it, I had no proof. This was a drama for them apparently. Ended up with a load of people tutting & waiting as they were a metro & only had 2 manned tills. I only wanted a spud However this is going on my good list, because I was assertive & got what I wanted & was within my rights to pay for.

2) Sent little boy off with his packed lunch & husband made a sandwich.
3) Dinner is planned & there is enough here for my lunch too.
4) Am reading a really good motivational book for start ups by a guy who owns Giraffe & Patisserie Valarie. So he's been around the track. Sometimes its nice to have a boost from a 'self help' author.
5) Told husband this morning we were finally over the 50% mark on our debt repayments. Our goal is to clear CC2 by the end of this year. We took some steps to help us do this as well. I think we both feel that aiming for 1 totally repaid, rather than the entire pot, is useful for us so we feel we are winning rather than seeing a huge sum we cant shift.
6) Did a couple of Ad points via Nectar. It is a tiny thing but I am loving seeing my nectar total rising each time I shop, I have nearly got to £8 now, this would have been unheard of a few weeks ago as I'd just spend the £2.50 off each time whenever I got to it. My aim is to keep going till I have enough for at least 1 pass for Lego Land, because your nectar points are doubled for that and our son would love it. But its so expensive so we've always been put off.

Thinking of anyone else who has had nasty shocks today, or dealing with crap money situations.

Bob

littlepinkstars44

My plan for today:

• Check banking done
• Check Ebay done
• Meals at home
• Package up Ebay sales done
• Post Ebay sales
• Quick tidy up
• Catch up with US tv shows online
• Read some of my book
• At least 2 hours of study for maths exam on Thursday

Pernicious

Hi everyone,

Thanks for starting us off bt1.
Ziggy - I hate days like that! Hopefully today is more productive for you but don't beat yourself up if it's not, everyone needs a break sometimes.
Bobarella - This is partly why I really don't like self service tills & how they are becoming more prevalent in supermarkets, plus I like the thought of keeping someone in a job by going to the manned tills!


I am feeling a little blue today because it is payday & therefore should be the day we are debt free, however bathroom repairs are underway & therefore I don't think it's going to happen until next month now... So here I am to try & keep motivated & on the straight & narrow. I'm still feeling sore from when someone drove into the back of me on Thursday last week which isn't helping as it's made me so stressed I keep craving junk food & can't be bothered to cook which is obviously a very expensive thing that just can't happen at the moment. DH was asking for pizza last night but fortunately between us we mustered up the energy to cook & made a lovely Thai green curry, creating leftovers for lunch today.


Today's plan:-

• Making use of free water at work
• Staying in for my lunch break to avoid spending
• Food from stores including leftovers for lunch
• Dinner from meal plan - Pasta with garlic, chilli & greens
• Charging phone at work
• Log calories on free app (MyFitnessPal, feel free to add me if you need some motivation, it'll help me too! I'm hawaiian_supergirl)
• Check online banking & get DH to check his, move funds around where necessary
• Enter some comps
• Do some surveys
• Declutter & flylady
• Heating on as low as possible, fleecey dressing gowns on
• Dad hopefully doing some more work in the bathroom for us today
• Paid deposit for a friend's hen party later on this year, was rather miffed to see that no matter what kind of card I used I would be charged an extra 75p for the pleasure! :mad: Will make sure the other payments I make are done in one transaction so as to avoid this in future, what a con...
• Expecting a call from the solicitors tonight to talk about the crash, I am hoping I feel better very soon but need to get things moving just in case. Very glad I got free legal cover included this time as I've never bothered to pay extra for it thinking it wouldn't be useful, how wrong was I?!
• Contact pole instructor & see if she thinks I'll be ok to attend class tomorrow evening or should just skip a week.
• Attempt karate class tonight, hopefully by taking it easy some gentle exercise will help, at least it's payg so no big deal if I can't go for a while.
• Go through budget for the month thoroughly & work out what we can pay off the credit card.

Hope you're all ok & have a great MSE day x

Bobarella

Pernicious wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I am feeling a little blue today because it is payday & therefore should be the day we are debt free, however bathroom repairs are underway & therefore I don't think it's going to happen until next month now... So here I am to try & keep motivated & on the straight & narrow. I'm still feeling sore from when someone drove into the back of me on Thursday last week which isn't helping as it's made me so stressed I keep craving junk food & can't be bothered to cook which is obviously a very expensive thing that just can't happen at the moment. DH was asking for pizza last night but fortunately between us we mustered up the energy to cook & made a lovely Thai green curry, creating leftovers for lunch today.

Really sorry to hear this Perni, I must have missed your post on that, how horrible.

foxgloves

Hi all,
Oh dear, people are having mixed experiences today. Hope things pick up.
Bob - £1 for ONE POTATO??? That's just taking the p*ss! Our local market sells 4 big jacket spuds for £1. Glad you didn't feel embarrassed into buying it!
A few small things today:
*Washed hair using free products I was sent to test. Good stuff! Can't believe how long it's lasted.
*Use it up: Was just getting new soaps out of the cupboard when I decided to round up all the half bottles/dregs/small pieces & use them all up first. Love opening new toiletries but enjoyed small rosy glow of virtue instead!
*Did 'rubber pork' - leftover meat from last night's roast dinner divvied up to make hot pork rolls with apple sauce & stuff tonight & a strirfry tomorrow, plus a packed lunch.
*Made bread rolls for the rest of this week's lunches.
*Laundry done overnight on Economy 7. Now on heated airer rather than expensively cranking the heating up.
*Posted 6 eBay parcels.
*Withdrew our personal spends cash for February. I had the princely sum of £1.40 left from January's spends......mr f had £12! How did that happen? He's been doing 'Dry January', lol, so that could have something to do with it!
*Hoped to get some garden clearing done this afternoon but it's too wet, so intend to lie by the fire reading the new 'Bridget Jones'.
*Free fitness, as did an exercise DVD....am conscious Weigh Day is looming....
Oh......one annoying thing....our laptop may have decided to die! It was perfectly fine yesterday but today, for no reason other than pure malice, it has decided to cark it. Mr f has good track record of resuscitating knackered IT, but interview preparation more important for him this week.
Cheers,
Foxgloves
P.S - Perni, what a nuisance for you. Hope you soon get back to normal x