Sat 8th/Sun 9th February - What small DFW things will you do this weekend?

littlepinkstars44

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

littlepinkstars44

Morning again everyone....feel like a zombie this morning, just can't seem to wake up properly! At least after today I'm not back in work till Tuesday!

My plan:

• Work 6:30am-3:30pm
• Post Ebay sale
• Check banking
• Check Ebay
• List a couple of new things on Ebay

All I can think of at the moment...will probably add to it later!

good_advice

Morning everyone, just having my first mug of coffee and let the puppy out.

Nearly finished my free kindle book. Leaving it all behind by J R Ashwood.
It would appeal to many. This guy in his 60's left his family and friends. Bought a tent and some camping things and off he walked. Left his old life behind and disappeared! Lived/camped and did odd jobs for food.

Yesterday I did several long surveys. One was an hour! I kept thinking, if this cuts out on me near the end I will not be a happy bunny.It completed and I got my 650 points.
I checked out a 10 Amazon e-voucher last night from Ipsos.
I have read to check out a voucher as soon as you can incase a company say your services are no longer wanted and you loose all the points you have earned. This is my first Ipsos voucher.

I was not to happy with some material I got from an ebay seller yesterday for my crafting. It was sold as new. I think it was part of a ripped up duvet cover used. If the material was new it would have had a stiff/starch feel and this was soft feel. Came in a reused envelope and plenty of duct tape.
I did consider complaining but for less than 3 pounds did not want the hassle with seller.

got-it-spend-it

Good morning. The promised storms haven't yet appeared here, but I am sure they are not too far away. Off out to the dinosaur museum today, but it will be the only paid day out of our week off, so not too extravagant really.

-Meals from stores and coffee at home :money:
-Update grocery budget after yesterdays spends
Check Swagbucks- disqualified from all the surveys again :mad:
-Package up ebay parcels and post if the buyers pay today
-Download Toca games onto iPad for DS1 as they are currently free
-Nectar Adpoints

Can't think of anything else, but may add to the list if I have time.

Happy weekend everyone.

[Deleted User]

Morning folks.

I have paying guests staying so am tiptoeing around house! Put heating on for them this am then decided actually in bedrooms it was very warm so turned it off pretty promptly They have home made bread waiting for breakfast so hopefully that compensates!

Am chancing a load of washing on the line. Blue skies at the moment but reports of gales coming.

Off to see my folks today and then stay overnight with friend whose recently had baby. Lots of cuddling duties plus nice warm house! I am taking yesterdays bargain veg over and we are planning a bit of a cook up. We do this together every two or three months then split the batches for our freezers. Lots of soup, lasagne etc. Much more fun to do all that peeling in company and take it in turns to provide the oven.

I do need fuel so not a NSD but have a voucher for extra points. Just need to check how much need to spend to get it.

Also stopping off to return something at DIY store - must remember receipt.

Swagbucks almost ready to cash out so will try to achieve that before end of the day. Taking laptop so can carry this on later if get odd times. Staying with friend tonight and tomorrow nights so away until Monday. Hope house is still here when I get back!

I forgot! Must also photograph some things for Ebay and take with me those that finish over the weekend and already have bids. That way I can parcel up and drop to couriers on way back Monday.

ikesmummy

Morning all.

Am enjoying a slightler slower start to the day. Hubby has gone into work for som overtime so me and the boys are still in our PJ's (we will get dressed after this quick post - promise).

• Read some more of my free kindle book
• Pop to the shops (with my list which includes Asda prices) to Lidl first to see what on my list I can get there cheaper than Asda then onto Asda (very lucky the are both in walking distance!)
• Home made pizza for tea (have got the sauce out of the freezer already to defrost during the day)
• Check banking
• Do some baking or crafty bits with the boys
• Research some birthday presents for children's parties next weekend

And maybe most importantly enjoy my family time !!

Wishing you all lovely weekends x

MinnieMousesMummy

Good morning everyone, LPS44 – Thanks for starting us off this morning.

Hope today is going to be a productive day, as feeling positive due to managing to get myself a few hours work a week (every little helps).

My list for today:

1. Meals from stores
2. Do some of ironing mountain
3. Check Mr A order – scan and store
4. Check postcode lottery & birthday bingo
5. Check Nectar Adpoints
6. Catch up with the laundry
7. Sort through dd's clothes and see what is too small - contact possible customer on facebay
8. Sort through bag of small clothes and put into bundles - take pictures of the bundles
9. List the bundles on clothes on facebay
10. Update tester paperwork
11. Write 1500 words on report for client
12. Sort through diary and update diary for next week
13. Do some course work
14. Spend some time with kids
15. Get an early night

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

Bobarella

Hi All

Feeling a lot better this morning. I dont know why colds seem to strike at night the most? So far today we have dodged the rain and

1) Been to the library for weekend films for free, plus more books.
2) Took little man to the supermarket as he wanted to spend the contents of his piggy bank. I dont mind him doing this as he needs to learn about spending as well as saving. He chose a Chipmunks film & some lego.
3) Not nice at all but my husbands grandmother died, the funeral I mentioned him attending this week. Well it turns out she had left £1000 to each of her great grand children, so we now have to decide where to put it for him. We havent told him as we both feel at 5yrs old he is just too little to understand properly. It just feels so sad as when anyone gives you a gift, especially one of such a large sum, you want to write and thank them, but of course we never can.
4) Did a weekly top up, consisting of basics washing powder (£2) fab softner (0.33p) Green Apples, clementines, basics cheese slices, salami, veg oil, lettece & potatoes, that will stretch what we did have in the fridge for several more days. Total spend was about £15, which isnt bad to feed 3 of us.
5) Cleaned & tidied the kitchen this morning taking careful note of what leftovers we still have to use up & what we can eat today whilst all of us are home.
6) The sample of cat food that Ally flagged up arrived today, brilliant! Thank you. It also had a coupon for 25p off our next purchase.

7) Taking little man to a paid for class in the middle of the day.

8) Checked greasy palm+ did daily clicks
9) Checked Adpoints but this has to be the worst week so far, only manged 56 points this week. No new ads

10) Music Magpie emailed to say that they are about to release our payment which is brilliant timing.

Have a great day all!

P.S Am I the only one who always thinks of the Heather Small song when I see our thread title ' What have you done today to make you feel proud' sang a la Stevie in Miranda of course? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idNNIUUg5NE

good_advice

Hello Bobarella , just wanted to tell you our story.
We had a great gran who did the same. Left our 2 girls and the other children £500 each. My girls were only small and the people in charge put all this money in trust for when the children reached 18.
We went on to have a 3rd child who was left out!.
When the girls grew up and the money was made available, I thought it best that their share was split 3 ways to include our son. So that is what happened.

foxgloves

Hi. I promised SettingIn I'd post a list of all the little bits of energy saving we do, so here it is. Should add that we are far from perfect & we have not reduced our monthly payments but this last quarter's dual fuel bill was within £1 of same quarter last year despite unit price & standing charge increases so I can only assume all these little bits we do are helping hold things steady. I'm sure lots of people on here will already do lots of these.....please skip post if it gets too tedious :-)
*We are on Economy 7 tariff for our night storage heaters which is less than half daytime tariff. Washing machine set on timer to make use of this, also charge gadgets & sometimes use slow cooker overnight.
*Make use of half load setting on WM if not much washing. Better still if only few things, handwash & just use WM for spin cycle. Use the hot soapy water for doing floors.
*Don't leave any electrical items on standby.
*Don't leave TV on for background. Is anyone properly watching it? As in PROPERLY, not having an eye on it while doing something else. If not, switch it off. Ditto computers, gadgets, games, etc.
*Use slow cooker regularly for stews, soups, stocks, joints, etc.
*Replace baths with showers. IF ONLY!! Impossible in our house as mr f must have been hippo in former life - big expensive wallowy bath every day. I can't win on this one, so we share bath water or I use it to soak household laundry such as blankets, pet bedding, chair covers, etc, or bucket some out for washing floors or outside cleaning jobs because we've PAID to heat that water.
*Combine baking jobs. Make a cake while oven already in use. Make bread when oven on, so it will rise well without additional heat.
*Try not to use electricity out of habit. i.e Our spare room is barely used & is very clean. So why was I vacuuming it every week? Now do it fortnightly, ditto conservatory while we're not using it much.
*Wear lots of layers so you can turn the heating down or off. Nobody is allowed to say they are cold in our house if they are sitting there in February in a silly T-shirt!!
*I read our energy meters every Sunday & keep the figures on a chart. useful as can see how we're doing & investigate any sudden weird increases. Also get to see how turning down heating settings just one notch does show up in lower weekly useage figures.
*Let hair dry naturally. If need to tame it, let it get nearly dry & just finish off with hairdryer.
*Don't leave lights on. Also, we just have one small lamp for evenings if we're watching TV & often none as we like candlelight.
*Keep freezer full so it works at its most efficient.
*If we know what time we're off to bed, we'll often turn the fire off half an hour before. Small saving but over a number of days/weeks, it all adds up.
*Only boil the water you need in the kettle. Save any extra in a flask towards next hot drink.
*Switch off iron for final garment. There'll be enough residual heat.
*I only vacuum weekly. We have lots of hard floors. If they look gunky mid-week, I use a long-handled dustpan & brush.
*Use a steamer pan to cook all your veg on one gas ring.
*Dry washing outside on line as often as possible, as the free option.
*We turn the spin cycle on the WM down in summer if weather hot.
*Keep asking yourself 'Does this need to be on?' If the answer is 'Yes', does it need to be on this setting? Could it be turned down?
*We've invested £80 on a heated airer which our energy readings show is using less energy to dry laundry than turning up the heating as we used to do.
*Check for the worst draughts. Have got 2 thick curtains over doorways plus TWO draught excluders over lounge door. The double sided one has made a noticeable difference.
*Put another blanket on our bed & if it's really cold, pop a hot water bottle down it half an hour or so before we turn in.
That's all the things we do that I can think of. Hope one or two of them at least help somebody. One thing we can be assured of is that energy prices are not going to start falling any time soon. Even the people in favour of fracking (i.e not me!) are now saying it won't reduce household gas bills, so we've come to the conclusion we just have to use less.
Cheers,
foxgloves x

Bobarella

good_advice wrote: »

Hello Bobarella , just wanted to tell you our story.
We had a great gran who did the same. Left our 2 girls and the other children £500 each. My girls were only small and the people in charge put all this money in trust for when the children reached 18.
We went on to have a 3rd child who was left out!.
When the girls grew up and the money was made available, I thought it best that their share was split 3 ways to include our son. So that is what happened.

Thanks for sharing, it makes you want to sort your finances out even more, or it does me, the thought of being able to gift money like that to my future grandchildren really motivates me to sort myself out now.