Wednesday 22nd October - What small DFW things will you do today?

peony40

Afternoon all,

Good news twiggy!

Very interesting about the different prices of the same foodstuffs by being in different parts of the store.

Glad you are feeling a little better dawn.

Still not feeling great, seem to have picked up a bug and coupled with my fibromyalgia I have done very little today. Sat here with my fleece jacket on as determined not to put the heating on yet, not while I am in the house by myself.

I do have a bag of potatoes, onions, carrots and sprouts that I need to prepare for the freezer. I will make a start on them this evening and complete it tomorrow.

I have also worked on November's budget and if there are no surprises I should have a little money available for savings and towards christmas gifts.

Take care all.

Bobarella

f x
Bob - re pet insurance, I've recently taken out a new provider to cover our new cat. We went with Sainsbury's. Works out just a faction under £9 a month & as a new customer, we got a big wodge of nectar points for taking out a policy. Think it was £25 worth, if I'm remembering correctly. Just mentioning in case helpful.

Thank you that does sound good. Although I have managed to get the policy for £6.50 then £10 cash back. I am very tempted by £25 in nectar points especially as I can probably double that in the exchange or is that just tesco? But if I went for that it would be a few pounds more a month so am I being seduced by the points

foxgloves

Yes, Bob, I do see what you mean about getting 'seduced by points'. I have a tendency to do that with Co-op dividend points. Our regional Co-op is independent & has its own dividend scheme for members where you get a bonus paid just before Christmas, depending on how many points you have accrued over the year. I LOVE the Christmas bonus, but we have realised this year that even allowing for this extra pay-out, we still save more on many products by buying them from Aldi instead. So the upshot is that our Christmas bonus will be titchy this year compared to previous years, but we have got more shopping for our budget over the year. Sighs......I still love points, though!
Your pet insurance deal does sound like a very good price.

Bobarella

I'm going to check & if sainsburys do the points double up that tesco do & if so that may well change my view. £50 in toys right before Christmas is very tempting. Thank you.

Bobarella

Yes sorry but it works out £13 for the pet cover & the £30 in vouchers is one per month for 6 months. Really appreciate the tip though if it had worked would have been fantastic for Xmas.

ott09

Hi there,


I've been useless at posting on here even though I was determined to keep to it. Feel bad especially after I was given really nice personalised messages last time.


Hard to update during the day unless little chap is schnoozing and in the evenings I end up forgetting or falling asleep watching tv! Hate doing that and really want to make the most of having these evenings to myself as when I return to work it really won't happen any more. There are so many things I'd rather be doing than watching rubbish, it just becomes a habit.


So to return people's lovely comments: Bob, I'm back in January- took 9 months off so coming towards the end of it now, hence the fact that I want to really enjoy it now while I can. I'm a teacher so evenings are usually spent marking or some such activity. Very true about being invisible at home. I am making more of an effort to switch things off and try not to have heating on unless necessary. Have found that in some ways I can make life cheaper- no diesel to and from work, sticking to meal plans and always eating food from home and not grabbing something because I've been too lazy to cook.


Dawn, your daughter is very lucky to have your help- my Mum loves bubs but she still works and isn't quite close enough to help out when I go back to work. Interesting that your daughter teaches too. I wonder how she is handling being back?


Today I've had only my 4th NSD of October- would have been more but my husband is terrible at changing plans for meals or suggesting the odd thing here. I decided that although I can't control his spending when not with me, if I benefit from it, I can't call it a NSD even if I'm technically not doing the spending!


Pretty pleased I managed this NSD as went to visit a friend I haven't seen for a while. Lovely to see her and other friend who went- free lunch too. She also gave me a load of baby toys her boys have grown out of- bonus!


She is a pretty crafty girl and I came away inspired by her talents- I have a tendency to buy the stuff, talk the talk but not follow through. She knits, sews and is generally very hands on.


Unfortunately I have had to have heating on a bit this evening and have had to hang washing indoors. However I did put washing on last night when cheaper.


No surveys today- maybe later this evening but dinner was leftover pasta and toast with leftover avocado (leftover from baby trying some today).


Also feeling quite pleased with myself because friend I went to see helped me to feel more confident with weaning bubs using Baby led approach. I'd wanted to try it but bit scared about choking/ doing something wrong but she reassured me and gave him a slice of mango that he basically played with for a bit. Got home and tried some other things- he seemed to be happier than when I was feeding him with a spoon. Anyway I digress, basically I'm thinking this could be a far easier and cheaper approach as he will eventually be eating pretty much what we do.


Does anyone have experience of this and if so what did you do?


Sorry for unnecessary waffle

foxgloves

Oh I see. Our cat is only 3 so he may be younger than yours for the insurance quote? The deal when we took it out was just that when we paid our first monthly payment, £25 went on our nectar card. I'm not very hot on 'double-ups' as I've never used Tesco & to be honest, we don't use Sainsbury's all that often as there isn't a branch in our town. It sounds like you've found a good deal, anyway, that's the main thing.

GettingOrganised

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good day?

Glad to gear you got your boiler sorted twiggy (and your parents sound ace)!

Had both a spendy and very MSE day today:

All meals from stores, final evening of the eat whatever's left in the fridge/freezer/cupboard as I went shopping after tea. Stuck to my list and I'm still well under budget for grocery spends so far this month.
Ordered a new fridge and freezer - mine are desperately in need of replacing, they are both around 10 years old and falling to bits. I chose the ones I wanted a couple of months ago and then checked to see if I could find at a better price - ended up buying at £60 less than I had originally budgeted for. They should also be more economical to run.
Checked bank and transferred money to my savings account which I recently opened for an emergency fund and to save monthly for some annual bills.
Also made an overpayment to a CC - this is the first time I've done this on payday. I was a bit nervous about this, but as I will spend any 'spare' cash if left in my account, I think that this is the best way forward.
Posted an eBay item
Took some photos of some more items to go on eBay, I will list later on in the week
Potted over £12 in my sealed pot - this was mostly from the winnings of the lottery syndicate at work, which paid us all out today. I used the rest of the winnings to pay up until Christmas, so that's £2 per week saving for the next 10 weeks.
Checked BB and PCL

Off to start a tracking spreadsheet for my savings account, so I can keep track of the money in it.

GettingOrganised

ott09 wrote: »

Also feeling quite pleased with myself because friend I went to see helped me to feel more confident with weaning bubs using Baby led approach. I'd wanted to try it but bit scared about choking/ doing something wrong but she reassured me and gave him a slice of mango that he basically played with for a bit. Got home and tried some other things- he seemed to be happier than when I was feeding him with a spoon. Anyway I digress, basically I'm thinking this could be a far easier and cheaper approach as he will eventually be eating pretty much what we do.


Does anyone have experience of this and if so what did you do?

Hi Ott09, I did baby led weaning with my DD (she's now 6) and I can't recommend it enough. There were some gagging instances particularly in the beginning, my advice would be try not to panic (hard I know), but gagging is a natural reflex, and usually there is no need to intervene.

I know it's not for everyone, but it really worked for us and we never looked back. If you have any questions on it, please feel free to ask

DawnW

ott09 wrote: »

Dawn, your daughter is very lucky to have your help- my Mum loves bubs but she still works and isn't quite close enough to help out when I go back to work. Interesting that your daughter teaches too. I wonder how she is handling being back?

I took early retirement at the end of April this year Ott09, and being more involved with this grandchild was one of the things that made me decide to do so I have other grandchildren who are older, and am sad to have missed out on a lot of their babyhood because of work, although my career was very important to me. I also taught in the dim and distant past, but later returned to uni and changed direction iyswim

My daughter is lucky in that she has only had to go back 3 days per week. Her husband also works 3/4 days (he is self employed), so they each look after baby for 2 days each week, and I have her on the 5th. Obviously they have her at weekends as well! It is a bit of a struggle financially for them, as DD is the main income earner, but as baby was conceived by IVF and she went through quite a lot to get her, she is determined to make the most of her