Sat/Sun 24/25 Jan 2015. What small dfw stuff will you do this weekend?

foxgloves

Greetings all,
Busy day, some of it money-saving:
*Bed linen all dry overnight on heated airer, making the most of the cheap tariff.
*Trip into city centre to exchange Kenwood stick blender. Had only had it 6 months & the motor blew last week. Model not made any more.....exchanged it for the nearest one which was a more powerful motor & had to pay the £10 difference. Luckily I had my stash of John Lewis vouchers earned from surveys in my bag. Annoyed about the extra £10, but it's an upgraded model & it's an important bit of kit in my money-saving arsenal, as I use it for all my soups, pesto, breadcrumbs, etc.
*Downstairs heating all off until 5pm.
*Dinner as per meal plans. Mr f is making his fab cauliflower cheese with jacket potatoes.
*Almost paid £5 for half-price calendar in WHS, then found a really lovely one with recipe cards in Oxfam bookshop for £1-99. Obviously someone had donated it as an unwanted gift. Now on our kitchen wall.
*Avoided temptation to buy magazines. Still have some unread current ones given to me by my Mum, so no need whatsoever to waste money on buying more!
*Free fitness as will be doing my aerobics DVD as soon as mr f has finished with Star Wars.......y...a...w...n...........
*Free entertainment tonight as planning to start watching another series while we still have the free 30-days Amazon Prime trial.
*Knit some more mitten.
*January's grocery budget came in with a £34 underspend. Used this to replace energy-saving lightbulbs, rather than using Household Piggy, which we will soon need for compost, seed potatoes & shallot sets. Will still have a small underspend which will transfer to savings.
NOT so money saving:
*Had a coffee & scone each in John Lewis. Ouch, no vouchers this time! We did use our monthly spends though, so no impact on bank account or budget.
*Bought a FULL PRICE dress in 'Monsoon'. Did not have Clothing Pig money with me but will adjust when I do my Big Budget on Tues. Tried dress on & I think the combination of it being a lovely dress, still fitting into a size 16 (I used to be a 26!) despite the festive podge around my waist & the effects of the sexy bra I received for Christmas having a startlingly positive effect on the Foxgloves boobs just all added up to an 'I must have this dress' moment! It passed my test of standing in front of the fitting room mirror & wanting to shout 'I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN IN THIS DRESS', lol, so b****r it, I had it :-)
It has dropped very cold again here tonight. Planning a day at home tomorrow (NSD!) & a bit of quality time together.
Bye,
f x

MinnieMousesMummy

Good evening, I feel that I really need to join this forum again as I checked the bank this morning only to see that almost £200 had come out that I was not expected (some was for a Xmas present that I ordered online and they have taken the money almost 2 months late and also BT).

This shock this morning has made me realise that I need to get on top of things so that I know what is happening, this week is going to be a struggle, as we have £20 to do us till Friday when I get paid and we have not even done the weekly shop.

Anyway today I have:

• Looked through old survey accounts and things to see if there is any money but too no avail
• Organised diary to build in some money making ideas.
• Found the budget that I had done for this month and updated it so that I at least know what still needs to go. Luckily there is no direct debits due until 31st when I should have money in.
• Breakfast and lunch from stores

Plans for the rest of tonight:

• Schedule Avon as I need to get back to my round
• Catch up with this thread and hopefully get some ideas
• Dinner from stores
• Update £10 challenge
• Persuade DH to look for another part time job, he is currently only working part time.
• Contact HMRC to get information as can't get logged in to do my tax return
• Make a list of shopping that we will need for this week and see what I can do
• Do course work that is in for today
• Decide on the best way to get paperwork organised as we never know where anything is
• Try to avoid arguing with DH, as things are tense at the moment due to finances.

I think that is enough for today, as feeling mighty stressed and DS2 is not feeling well (asthma), which adds to the stress at the moment.

DawnW

Hope the funeral went ok Maria
Congratulations on becoming debt free Abimonster, and on your good news re the PPI :T
Foxgloves - I would have bought the dress too! In fact, when I was working I usually bought Monsoon clothes for work meetings / functions where I had to look smart I still have some dresses etc. although I did sell / donate some after I retired, as I mostly live in jeans now They are very resellable if you ever tire of them - I made quite a bit on ebay from the best pieces, and had a couple of nice letters this week from the charity shops I support, telling me that my recent donations, including the clothes I didn't think good enough for ebay, had raised over £120. It was lovely to think that I was able to make such a nice donation to local hospice charities
Mothernerd, it is nice to 'see' you on this thread. I am sure we have 'met' on others

Done well on the decluttering front today, with 2 big bagfuls gone to the rags / clothes recycling bin at the supermarket, and a bagful of paper also recycled. I put an unused hairdye I unearthed on a local facebook free offers page, and that was collected this afternoon, so that will have been moneysaving for someone if not for me for buying it in the first place :eek:

Plenty more to do though :eek:

Baileys_Babe

Evening everyone

Thanks to you guys feeling more positive about making progress with the decluttering, I even woke up wanting to enthusiastically tackle the kitchen unfortunately my time was already allocated to other things but that is quiet a turn around.

Today I plan to:

• Clear kitchen table a work in progress, underneath is clear and about half the top has been cleared, will continue with this on Sunday
• Meal plan done
• write shopping list done
• buy ONLY what is on my list done
• Use £5 off voucher and % off vouchers, but only for things we would buy any way done
• B/L/D from stores done
• Put porridge to soak before bed so a delisious cheap quick breakfast in the morning done, in fridge
• WM on overnight done
• DW on overnight done
• Close curtains before it gets dark done
• Keep spending diary up to date done
• OH to do his tax return done

maria3104

Hi All

Thank you for the support. The funeral was lovely, impossibly handsome nephews carried her at shoulder height, beautiful 3 daughters supported by a range of uncles and loving family. Music was stunning and the vicar was top class. Friend had a wonderful life and as long as I did not look at sobbing daughters I coped. My friend and I went for a much needed hot chocolate after, we had both found it very difficult. So sad, 57 is much too young.

Anyway came home and DS2 and DD and friends still out playing with clays. So had a mad flylady half an hour, hoovered, polished, washed floors, bleached kitchen, did washing m and dishwasher and tumble and then ironed what was dry, put away. Crowd then came in, fed them the stew which DH had prepared. Laughed, chatted re friends etc.

Then pinned DD and BF down in back room and conned them to pass me books of shelf to dust and cull/save/sort. 4 hours flew by, 2 shelves done. Decided to stop and restart tomorrow.6 bags in rubbish, no one would want these books. 1 and a half shelves left to do. Why on earth did I buy so many cookbooks?

Am making progress, just small steps. Everyone now watching I Jones film of him finding treasure, the irony of me throwing treasure is not lost on me!

Turkey defrosting as I type ready to use some of the foil tomorrow.

Take care everyone, enjoy the dress Mrs F.

Maria :money:

missflirtuk

Well DD is at Nanny's tonight so I might run a nice bath, then browse the forums on here, and get an early(ish) night. Tomorrow I am going to clean the cooker top down and might try and clean inside the oven and when I go and pick DD up I might leave my purse at home to avoid spending x

Bobarella

Maria - so sorry to hear your sad news. It sounds as though the funeral was a lovely celebration of your friends life I hope you will be OK.

Nice to see you back MMM. I hate it when money goes out you were not expecting.

Determined - have a lovely holiday. Where is cape verde?

Dawn -hope you find some good bargains tommorow.

Abi - wow nice Mr Postman. Congrats!

Mothernerd - hello. Not often we see you this side of the tracks

Foxgloves - ouch indeed. John lewis cafe is soo expensive.

Baileys - glad you are still feeling the declutter love.

Hi to anyone else I missed.
I worked today. I'm just doing the weekend now. Had free lovely coffee, lunch & earned £5 in tips.
I used the money to buy a chicken pie, chips, garlic bread, pizza & salami.
Found 2p on the way home.
Transfered the spare council tax money to the emergency fund.
Another charity bag had been collected when I got home.

Think that's the main ones

Bob

maria3104

Am about to go to bed, but wanted to say.

Brave woman facing cleaning cooker. I only ever do this when backup is available.

Good luck.

Night all. Maria

sans_2

Hi all,

A few things today...

Dishes done
Hoovered house
2 x lots of washing done
Bedding changed
Phoned Sainsburys regarding poor product packaging, wasn't looking for a refund but thought I'd give feedback as product good just poor packaging. Got refunded in Nectar points which I wasn't expecting
Used £2.50 off coupon in Farmfoods when I spent just over £25
Rubbish put out
Ate a banana that was going brown

FatVonD

MMMummy, I don't know if your HMRC problem is the same as mine but I swear it took me a good couple of hours to find the self assessment section, I was almost crying with frustration :mad:

The link to take you to self assessment is in tiny text buried on the bottom left hand side of the first screen and further disguised by being called 'verify for self assessment'. If you hit the far more visible (and logical if you're already registered) button that says something like 'services you are registered for' then it is lost until the next time you log in.

Then even once you've found it you have to verify who you are with Experian or similar which was equally frustrating as it wouldn't accept my passport as it has my Christian name in full whereas my tax return is the abbreviated version so they didn't match :mad:


Sorry for the moan, today I have...

Returned a roll of wallpaper to b and q.
Purchased a reduced roll of lining paper.
Papered the old kitchen now study really badly, may have to resort to textured paper.
Painted the black wall in the sitting room using leftover paint (now 'leafy cottage' green as can't see potential buyers liking the black. Still have enough left for the study.
I've also regrouped the bathroom tiles though that involved spending money on grout so wasn't at all money saving though it was the cheapest they had.
Brunch was eggs on toast.
Dinner was half price creamy chicken pie from my last MrT delivery.