Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd Nov. what small debt free things will you do?

GettingOrganised

Hi everyone, thanks for starting us off Bobarella.

Here we are in November already, and we enjoyed a beautiful Autumn day today. Over the weekend I am/will be:

All meals today from stores including home made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, with enough leftover for tomorrow too - yum.
Walked to DD's swimming lesson
Tidied, cleaned, polished and hoovered
Nipped to Mr T for bits I couldn't find at @sda yesterday and only picked up 2 cartons of juice as well (this is very good for me)
3 loads of washing done - all on quick cycle and one at 30 degrees
Ironing pile done and put away
Squeezed in some playing time with DD and we made breakfast and dinner together too
DH is now doing the lining paper on HS&L, I'm helping by staying out of the way and every now and then making a brew
Checked BB and PCL
Need to update spending diary (only Mr T anyway)
Need to check bank

Tomorrow should be a NSD, unless DH decides we need to get something from the DIY shop.

Bobarella

GettingOrganised wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks for
All meals today from stores including home made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, with enough leftover for tomorrow too - yum.

YUM! Save me one!:p

Bobarella

Good Morning All
My lovely boy decided 5 am is the new black so up we are. One of the tips I'd been wanting to try was boiling a kettle once then filling a flask for later. Well I did that last night. And OH nearly spat out his drink. It did have a certain ummm taste? I think I may well have to outlay some pennies for a new flask if I want to try that one again.
Not specifically debt free but I saw a fab picture of a squirrel head first investigating a halloween pumpkin so we are going to put ours out later. That way not a scrap of it will have gone to waste this year (we toasted the seeds and ate the flesh in a lasagne)
Not something I can action today but between the home insurance being paid up now till Jan, & the 2 months payment break from council tax in Jan, Feb I will be able to allocate £285 towards my baby emergency savings pot (borrowing the term from Mortgage Free in Threes blog) which is almost half of the £500 I want to save. A nice feeling to know that easier months of looking for savings are ahead.
My aim for today is keeping warm as it's looking very grey & overcast, perhaps the weather has finally realised it's November?? And being as thrifty as I can.
Good luck all
Bob

determined_new_ms

Hi guys :wave: glad to see everyone! I haven't been around for ages as having dgd and working full time means I rarely have the time or energy and money has been so tight (all of my disposable income is going to child are ) but I suppose that means I should try even harder! It's hard to be on top of finances and household stuff, I can't imagine how people with more than 1 cope!

Anyway getting back on the horse.....

Things yesterday:
* used £2…50 rewards in sainsburys
Got my hair cut and coloured. Tried a new hairdresser and it was £60 les than my last one :eek:
* got free food while there :T
* went and met a friend for a lunchtime drink and catch up, she treated me to. A drink!
* received £89 cheque for ppi

Today:
check banking, pay cc
update finance spreadsheet and work out financial situation for the month - dire for sure....
oh painting lounge
I'll take gdg to local animal centre to keep her occupied, using annual pass. Weather is supposed to be nicer later but if not they have a soft play area
hang up washing and do another load
pack lunch for tomorrow
paint windowsill and skirting board in hallway

Ok think that's all I'll do. Boberella can you give me your pumpkin lasagne recipe pls?

Bobarella

Hello Determined
Nice to see you. Think of how you'd use a squash. So roast spice and then mash it up. I used that along with carrots, onions, tinned tomatoes & stock. Plus around 125g of mince.
You sound very busy. Have you applied for any benefits if you have a full time child to care for? You should be able to get CB at the very least. £82 a month for one. How old is she? At 3 they should get 15 hours a week free. And I belive it may even be 2 in some areas.
Good luck with all your efforts today.
Bob

Ratison

Morning all - another lovely day here so hopefully no heating needed!

Today I'm doing something I genuinely think I've never done before - I'm fixing the holes in my socks! So on one hand I'm very proud of myself, but then I'm also reflecting on how wasteful I've probably been in the past. My debt isn't an unmanageable amount, but it's still not really acceptable. I really hope this is a mindset shift for me, where I always think twice about what I buy.

Other plans are to take the dog out - her bed is currently in the washing machine and will go outside to dry soon - and to tidy the house after a family Halloween party yesterday afternoon.

Should be a no spend day today too, and I'm hoping to keep that up until Friday if possible.

Have a lovely day everyone.

GettingOrganised

Bobarella wrote: »

YUM! Save me one!:p

Sorry Bob, already ate them all this morning before I saw this! I'll save you some of the next batch

Having another lazy morning (tomorrow is going to be a shock to the system!) Currently watching Runpunzel with my little Runpunzel in my PJ's. I suppose I should get ready once it's finished.

I haven't been totally lazy, I have managed to put the bedding in the wash and keep DH in supply of coffee whilst he continues with the lining paper - this decorating malarkey is so hard!

I sold 5 items last night on e bay and several more finish today. Nothing of great value, but everything helps and the clutter is starting to go down. I will use the money towards the cost of the decorating (so I am helping really).

Got an email from Amazon this morning with an offer - buy £20 gift voucher and receive a £5 credit. I will be buying some Christmas gifts from there anyway, so it's basically £25 to spend for £20.

DD and I are going to make some bird feeders using some pine cones we collected on our Autumn walk during the week and filling with a mixture of bread crumbs, dried meal worms and some nuts. The nuts are the only thing we have bought specifically for this, as we'll use the last of some bread and the dried meal worms were bought for the tadpoles we raised during Summer.

We may do some more baking too, or go to the park later if it's nice. Anything to keep me away from decorating - you may have picked up that I HATE decorating and DIY!

All of the above should cost nothing, so I'm hoping for a NSD. Also going to try no heating today, I did put it on for an hour yesterday.

I will also:
Check bank DONE
check BB and PCL
Update spending diary for yesterday
Get organised for going back to school/work tomorrow

Enjoy your Sunday everyone, whatever you're up to.

JaneDoeJohnDoe

Went & fed the ducks on local duck pond with significant other. Amazing how much fun can be had from chucking (brown) bread (Lidl cheap loaf that was after it's date so no real £ cost) at birds.

DawnW

Morning all

Bobarella wrote: »

One of the tips I'd been wanting to try was boiling a kettle once then filling a flask for later. Well I did that last night. And OH nearly spat out his drink. It did have a certain ummm taste? I think I may well have to outlay some pennies for a new flask if I want to try that one again.

Before you splash out on a new one Bobarella, you might try bicarbonate of soda (the sort you use for baking is fine, though I know some people buy a different format for cleaning and I am sure that is ok as well). Just put a couple of heaped teaspoons of the stuff in the offending flask and fill with water from the kettle. Then leave overnight, empty and give a good rinse. I guess you could try baby bottle steriliser instead if you have that. Worth a try?

For me today:

Did a Yougov survey

Sold some items on ebay and made £65, which is way more than I was expecting (a coat I bought in a sale about 3 years ago and have hardly worn and a pair of jeans bought in a charity shop which turned out not to fit me properly) . They were both 'brands' which obviously made a difference. Another nice coat made only £19 a couple of weeks ago, so not sure why this one has done so much better :huh:

Done a BIG shop and spent loads :eek: This included a full week's shop including meat (have only been doing little shops for ages), and also the ingredients for Christmas puddings and mincemeat which DD wants us to make tomorrow.

Still to do:
Make a big beef stew in the SC using the stewing beef I bought in Lidls

Find some more items to put on ebay

Tidy dining room

Hoovering upstairs if I get to it

Leftovers to use up for dinner

Hope everyone is having a good day

peony40

Afternoon all,

Lovely to read everyone's posts and it definitely helps in giving me ideas, thank you all.

Sometimes I feel that I am taking one step forward and two steps backwards:o

We are in the middle of selling our house and so have viewings, I have washing to keep on top of, but I don't like to have it out on the airers so have been using the tumble dryer. :eek:

Dinner for today is going to be toad in the hole, all ingredients are in the house so no expenditure is needed.

Going to be a quiet afternoon, I will potter around to make sure the house is looking its best for viewings and then I will sit down and watch downton tonight.

Take care all,