Sat/Sun 31 jan and 1 Feb 2015. What small DFW stuff will you do today?

Bobarella

DD265 - thanks for all the info that's really interesting. We are in a funny situation really. We bought a 2 bed Victorian ground floor conversion flat in 2004 which went up a stupid amount in 2 years (zone 2 in london) so we took the equity and bought a doer upper house in the same area. Which went up a stupid amount. But when I set up my business I couldn't raise all I needed via commercial lending so I sold the house took the equity and we now rent a lovely 3 bedroom house with a large garden. But the business hasn't been as good as I'd hoped and I also didn't plan to rent for 3 years when I made the decision. However I do feel happy in our home. It's peaceful, the size makes it easy to clean and as we are just a small family in any case why beat ourselves to death to buy a huge place? So we still own the flat. Which has gone up a stupid amount again. We have around 250k equity in it which would take care of another deposit if we sold it up. But I'm not sure I want to sell it. We have had a tenant in there for about 7 years now and she's great. Although we know if we re let it now we could charge about another £800 a month but I wouldn't do that to her as she's a great tenant. So here we are. I suppose at some point we will either begin to feel like we really want to own our primary residence again but as it stands we do own a home and could move back into it (just) if we needed to. The London market is so crazy that we may have missed the boat on a house now. But who knows. Also the fact that I am self employed meant I couldn't apply for a mortgage straight away anyway as you have to have at least 2 years audited accounts (which I now do) life eh oh AND I do worry about the fact Mr Bob is 44 now which means if we did apply for a new mortgage it may be an issue on a 25 year mortgage...sorry for long post!

Bobarella

Dawn how lovely sounds perfect.

Foxgloves -Mr F poor thing! How crushing.

sans_2

FatVonD - Re Paperchase - if you sign up for a membership card ask what benefit it gives. Mines was a free hot drink (tea/coffeeor hot chocolate) each week as they have a small coffee shop in store, I got £10 credit to spend within 10 days of my birthday and some other minor discount which I can't remember.

My dfw things for today:

DH took me and kids out for a late birthday meal in Pizza Express, saved £14.40 in soft drinks as I used my free 6 soft drinks voucher I printed yesterday

Asda - got my free 21 wash comfort pure as I had a £1 off any comfort pure voucher

M&S - A pair of toddlers soft shoes reduced to £1.99 (originally £7), 5 x birthday cards/occasion cards between 19p-39p each. Paid with M&S credit card and used tripple points voucher

Recycled glass at bottle bank

Found 2p

Changed the bedding.

Dishes all done

Bin emptied

Dizzy_Imp

foxgloves wrote: »

We were in Sainsbury's at the self-service check-out & mr f spots a Brand Match voucher lying in the bagging area & he says 'OMG, Babe, I think I've just found a Womble'. (We don't do 'wombling' but he's heard me mention how good some people on here are at doing it). Anyway, he says......'Have you SEEN how much this is for?' It was for £26-35. He was that chuffed with himself......until I rained on his parade by pointing out that it said that by shopping at Sainsbury's the unknown customer had SAVED £26-35, making it the exact opposite of a 'womble'.
f x

Oh my days! This made laugh and feel sorry for Mr Foxgloves at the same time. Just imagine if it had been a real womble though...

I've had a mixed day - lots of cleaning and tidying. My dad has been helping to decorate our living room so I had to buy some DIY bits and Bob's and annoyingly the can of radiator enamel seems to have been mixed incorrectly as it came out very pale pink rather than the expected white - definitely not what it said on the tin :eek: Will have to address that on Monday...

Made a bananas with over-ripe 'nanas - turned out very nicely, so I'll be doing that recipe again.

Met DH in the barbershop with DS1 and DS2 for a de-mopping. DS2 is only just 6 months old and this is his 3rd haircut!!! I have friends with sons coming up for four years only on their second cuts - both my boys have loads of hair. But so did my brother until he hit 17 and he started receeding - he shaves his head now LOL. Anyway - it was an expensive visit.

Also had Hungarian flatbread for lunch as a new cafe had opened in the town. Very filling, but best eaten hot. DH treated us as it was supposed to be date night tonight but the snow frightened off our babysitter.

Actually - looking back, I don't appear to have been very DFW today at all

DawnW

I was up early this morning having been summoned by the dog, who wanted to go out

Out again today, to lunch with DD1 and her family, to celebrate her birthday. She is cooking the lunch - but we are taking her a nice present We will share transport with DD2, her OH and baby GD, to save fuel and cost for all of us - if they pay for the fuel, we will pay for the toll bridge

Other than that:
Use hair colourant that I already have
Chase up Ocado customer services re voucher code that they keep sending me which doesn't work
Make bread
Continue with my decluttering mission - I can't believe how much paperwork I have got rid of over the last few days. Where does it all come from :eek: Lots has gone in the recycling, but I still have a pile to burn, stuff with personal details, bank details etc. I am getting rid of it bit by bit in the woodburner, as my shredder is old and doesn't work very well. It is ok with the odd thing, but not huge sackfuls :eek: I think I will tackle the top bit of the bureau later.
No cooking tonight as DD1 will do a big Sunday lunch

Happy Sunday everyone

determined_new_ms

Morning Dawn sounds like a lovely weekend!

Yesterday was speedy for me as bought dd some bits - leggings top and pjs. She's having a ready bad time so wanted to let her know I love her. Also bought things for dinner for her, then predictably she cancelled so ended up feeling quite let down last night...

Dizzy imp dgd is 19 months and her hair has only just started to grow. She has beautiful strawberry blond curls at the moment although it is quite fine and patchy. Can't imagine we'll get her hair cut in the next year!

Bob that sounds like such a huge amount of equity! Ever think of selling up and buying just outside of London? We are hoping and praying our fixer upper has been worth all the expense and hard work! We bought it at the end of 2012 and are out of our fixed period of our mortgage. We paid £147k. We have almost finished the renovation with just the main bedroom and garden to finish. There are 2 houses for sale in our street, a 2 bed and a 3. Both are dated but have lovely gardens. They are on for £199950 and £210k respectively. Just hope and pray ours is worth similar!

Things for today
hang up washing, more washing. Bain of my life!
bake biscuits for dgd's packed lunches
all meals from stores
odd jobs guy coming to look at the bits we want doing. Hopefully he'll be able to do them in a day. He's a good day rate, works quickly and to a high standard.
photo and list 3 things on facebay/ebay
clean upstairs
do 1/2 hr work
picking up some summer bits for dgd for our holiday off of a woman from facebay using £10 de gave me
going swimming with BFF and godson this afternoon, will pay using the rest of the money from dd

Ok that's all I need to do. Have a lovely Sunday x

Bobarella

Hi Determined
Hope you have a lovely day with the little lady. And not too much washing to do
Is yours a 2 or 3 bed place? I really hope you get the valuation you want. Is it a place that has gone up a lot historically too?
In terms of moving I don't think so at this point. My son is at a school that he will finish in 2015 at the year 2 stage going into year 3 for next school. We have both said we'd like to keep things stable for him until at least then.
I have very little to motivate me to change the status quo really as we are happy and settled where we are. It's more that niggle you get knowing you 'should' own. Which is silly. Our rent is very cheap although I do live in fear they'll realise and hike it but when we moved here 3 years ago it was not considered a great area. And maybe they think like we do regarding our tenant. Good ones are hard to find. Apparently the last people to live in this house trashed it.
I think long term plan is get DF start paying down the mortgage to a point we could take a decent chunk again as a deposit and then move. But life gets in the way doesn't it. So we'll see.

allydowd

Morning DFW-Jedis,

Well, life goes on, as does the almost everlasting quest for solvency and sanity. Woken up to ice again and I'm going shopping with my OH.

Thanks for the starter Maria.

The List


:starmod: Check online banking and reconcile monies.

:starmod: Do i-Say surveys.

:starmod: Turn off electric alarm clock at the wall til tonight.

:starmod: Read news online instead of buying a paper.

:starmod: Make some cheese.

:starmod: Spend £5.50 Tesco Clubcard vouchers for food.

:starmod: Take up new pyjamas so they fit my gnome-height frame.


Freebies

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Well that's me for today. Good luck on your quests, Jedis.


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maria3104

Morning all

Sat beside me is the stinkiest farm dog I have ever met, the long haired covered in cow poo lumps type! Yum. He is happily watching the aus open with me and sharing his extensive tennis knowledge with Andy.

Today I intend to do as little as possible to reward my miserlyness so far this year. Perhaps knitting, although on reflection I am going to have to hoover and air this room, yuk.

Have a good day everyone, it will be a NSD for me first of the month, I am hoping for 15 at least.

M

Baileys_Babe

My DFW plans for the weekend are:

• Update spending diary done
• Meal plan 5/7 days done
• NSD Saturday done
• NSD Sunday done
• Work out how much I have spent on sisters behalf and how much she has spent on my behalf and settle up done
• Check online banking to confirm mortgage has been paid and how much (1st month so normal payment plus interest for extra days, plenty in account to cover it) done less than £20 more than a standard month
• BLD form stores Saturday done
• BLD from stores Sunday done
• Cull 100 emails Saturday done Managed to delete 3700 emails in January need to continue in Febuary
• Cull 100 emails Sunday done
• Adjust downstairs manifold, to make heating more responsive and more efficient In progress
• Put away shopping from wholesaler done
• Close curtains before dark Saturday done
• Close curtains before dark Sunday done
• Email local shop to see about borrowing some resources for free done
• Plan cash spends for Feburary done

This thread is brilliant as I was sitting down to report my progress their were 2 items on my list I hadn't even started as I wanted to report some progress on them here I did completed both of them in less than 15 minutes :j If it wasn't for this thread they would be hanging over me for days or even weeks.