Monday 16 February - What small DFW things will you do today?

ziggy2407

When we start out on the DFW 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 .

So be proud of those small steps, they really are important :money:

allydowd

Morning DFW-Jedis,

Well, life goes on, as does the almost everlasting quest for solvency and sanity.

Thanks for the starter Ziggy.

Bargain hunting today:

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: Have a look at why OH's computer won't boot up. Will repair ourselves if we can.

:starmod: Do Royal Mail Surveys. We're due a voucher from them.

:starmod: Do our own housework. Gone are the days of paying someone to do it for us.

:starmod: Work out what wee things I'm buying for OH's birthday. Keep saying I'm going to do this and am just not getting round to it!

:starmod: See if I have a birthday card kicking around the house instead of buying one.

:starmod: Read Martin Lewis' email. (Link)

:starmod: Washing out on the line if the weather holds up. It was gorgeous here yesterday.

:starmod: Having a Sunday lunch today from the freezer.


News:

:starmod: Orange/EE Wednesdays ends Wed 25th Feb. Last chance to get the two-for-one offer. (Link) Our local cinema does a two-for-one offer on Mondays if you buy a local newspaper for a coupon. We'll be doing that in future instead.

Freebie:

:starmod: Free foundation (make-up not buildings!) (Link)

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

MONEY MAKING AND SAVING SITES AS OFTEN MENTIONED IN THIS FORUM:

• A Girl Called Jack, cheap recipes ( Link
  
• Benefits check-up ( Link )
• Birthday Bingo, daily free game ( Link )
  
• eBid ( Link )
  
• Freecycle ( Link )
• Free Postcode Lottery (Link)
• FreeStuff ( Link )
• FreeUKStuff ( Link )
• i-Say Surveys (Link)
• List of online newspapers. At bottom of the linked page. ( Link )
• MSE Boost Your Income page. Gateway to lots of money-making links. ( Link )
• MSE Abbreviations Explained ( Link )
• MSE Deals and Vouchers ( Link )
• MSE Wow Offers ( Link )
• My Supermarket ( Link )
• OnePoll ( Link )
• Quidco ( Link )
• Reclaim PPI at no cost to yourself ( Link )
• SayNoTo0870 cheap phone number finder ( Link )
  
• Survey sites that pay for your opinions ( Link )
• Swagbucks ( Link )
• Swapit ( Link )
• Toluna ( Link )
  
• TopCashBack ( Link )

DawnW

Morning Ziggy, and thanks for starting us off

Horrible wet morning here, but not too cold.

Jobs for today:
Write note to solicitor to accompany amendments to draft wills (why am I being so lazy about this and keep putting it off?) Done, also delivered it by hand whilst out
Check banks Done, no surprises
Fold items on airer and put away - some may need ironing :eek: Folded most items, but some have ended up in the ironing basket for posterity
Last check over books sorted yesterday, might find a few more for the charity book bank Found another bagful
Take books to book bank - I have 5 carrier bags full so far 6 bags gone in the book bank for Oxfam
Put rest of books away - I will have another sort through them at some point. Not yet
Fill holes in wall where the book shelves we removed yesterday were secured, and paint over when dry (OH might do this :cool:) OH did it, looks great now. He even found a tester pot of the right coloured paint more than 3 years after we last decorated, so didn't have to buy one as I had expected :T
Go to sales unit, take in a few new items and tidy up after the weekend, popping into solicitor's office on the way back. I will use the car today as it is raining and I can combine the journey with getting rid of the books. All errands done, got thoroughly wet in the process
I have soup in the fridge for lunch, and the rest of the stew I made yesterday for supper, so hoping for a NSD. With all of the above, I probably won't have time to spend anyway :rotfl: Nothing spent :T:T:T

Right, more coffee and get on with note to solicitor! Hope everyone who has been poorly is now better, and we all have a productive day

allydowd

Computer won't let me add to above post...so here's a new post....mysterious...

The List 2:

:starmod: Chase up missing parcel delivery.

:starmod: Buy a gift for an Australian relative on Australian eBay so that the item is shipped from Australia to Australia and I don't have to pay postage from Scotland to Oz.

:starmod: Cooker cleaned with hot water, lemon juice and stardrops.

:starmod: Car headlight bulb replaced with one bought from eBay.

Freebie:

:starmod: Free coffee sample. Not sure that it's fairly traded. (Link)

:starmod: Free sample of Knorr Mixed Herbs Flavour Pot through Tesco online grocery shopping. Quote code GRJ7RT. Valid for the next two weeks. (Link)

allydowd

DawnW wrote: »

Last check over books sorted yesterday, might find a few more for the charity book bank
Take books to book bank - I have 5 carrier bags full so far

That's lovely. In our town we also have a shop that buys unwanted books by weight and gives you cash for them.

Bobarella

Good morning all

Thanks for starting the thread Ziggy.

Morning Ally & Dawn

Thanks very much for all that left comments about the break in on the weekend thread. Your all lovely.

Today's small things
1. Got an email from music magpie to say another order for £7.80 has been processed. That was for a small broken laptop. So its good to get cash in for that. I've already had £25 from music magpie this month which I paid straight off a card. Will do same with this.
2. Son's on half term. Taking him to his friends for a 2 hour play. Will walk us there and back.
3. Need to return a dvd to the library to avoid a fine.
4. Have planned tonight's meal around leftovers.
5. Have a few ebay items ending in a couple of hours with watchers on them. Fingers crossed.
6. Will check banking later on.
7. Try to have a NSD
8. Use reward credit card to order some items for the business. Will repay money immediately. Useful for both the rewards and the guarantee the card offers on goods.
9. Won't be running washing machine today as all caught up.
10. Invoice last week's hours to old part time job. Officially worked last day yesterday.

Have a good monday all.
Bob

foxgloves

Morning all,
Chucking it down with rain here. Just popping on quickly with underwhelming list:
*Did laundry overnight on Economy 7. All on heated airer which I'm not switching on till much later so as to hammer cheap tariff. Re-loaded washer for another cheap wash tonight.
*Read energy meters. Kind of a bit better than last week, but still not as good as this time last year. Will keep even more of an eye on switching stuff off this week & try & get the figures to drop again.
*Meals as per meal plans.
*Made dough for bread rolls, which is proving next to radiator.
*Did a very few surveys.
*Earned another £5 Amazon voucher for a brand online survey community forum thingy I'm on at the moment. Updated signature.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & work snacks.
Next job will be to de-clutter today's 16 items.
I'm intending to spend less time online this week & more time progressing projects, so please don't think I'm lying in a ditch or have stomped off in a virtual huff........I just sometimes have spells when I think that the internet is a bit of a thief of time & I'm in one of those spells now! Will check in at the end of the week & hopefully have a decent amount of money-saving activity to report!
Have a good week all,
f x

kettlenic

Hi

Its been ages since I joined one of these .... forever lurking!

1 - Made packed lunch for work today
2 - have chilli con carne in the slow cooker for dinner - will save some to freeze for my toddlers meals.
3 - managed to fix my mom's kindle that she now longer wants so yay free kindle!
4 - going to read all her books she has bought on there before deleting and setting up my own account.
5 - They have free fruit at work so have got a few bits out the bowl for snack today
6 - charging my phone at work

I am on massive debt free mission - its tough but will be so worth it!

Bagpuss741

Today I have/will:

1. Checked online banking
2. Went to wilko and stuck to list
3. Consumer pulse
4. Surveys
5. https://www.freepostcodelottery.com
6. Meals from stores
7. Read free kindle book

xJOJOx_2

Afternoon all

Well it's half term so need to try and save penny's and do free activities as much as possible! In the overdraft this week :-( unexpected bill, need to pull back from next weeks money

- wellie walk with children, stomp in puddles and look at interesting stuff (DONE and found .13p)
- quick tidy up (DONE)
- Ds1 ballet lesson (DONE)
- pick up milk, potatoes whilst in town (DONE)
- free sample of peanut butter arrived- save for pancakes tomorrow
- order free sample of coffee, cheers ally (DONE)
- use free calls to talk to sister and catch up (DONE)
- 15 minutes of excercise when little ones asleep
- all meals from stock - opps got a bag of chips on way home
- walk to and from town (DONE)
- charge kindle and read one chapter of book (DONE)
- take bottle of juice to town so don't buy one (get dehydrated a lot) (DONE)
- check banking (done)
- check emails(done)
- start using makeup up, use up brown pallet no 1 up haha

That's it for now xx

FatVonD

Afternoon all.

I have just got up so have saved on breakfast at least!

Lunch is going to be a half-price bag of scampi (shared between DS and myself) with Greek salad.

Dinner will be home made spag bol made with mince from my first Aldi shop (more about that in a minute) bulked out with grated carrot so I should have enough to either freeze for another evening meal or to top jacket potatoes for lunch tomorrow.

Not specifically money saving on account of electricity used but I'm going to use today to get on top of the washing (DH usually does it as he works shorter hours than me), I hope that by the end of today there will be two empty linen baskets.

Later today we're going round to do some odd jobs for my mum which will save her some money as she was intending to pay someone £130 to do them! She will insist on treating us so I may suggest a Harvester meal at the weekend while we still have a third off voucher.

I've just discovered that one of my mugs is leaking so I will add that to what will be my (outdoor) windowsill mug garden. I am obsessed with china in all forms but especially pretty mugs and if I see a new design I love I will often buy just one to use at work rather than a whole set for home but that means I have lots of pensioned off odd mugs so... I'm planning to plant them all up using a pack of free Aquilegia seeds that were stuck to a magazine at work (that bit at least is moneysaving!)

My Aldi experiment wasn't a raging success for many reasons, I did what I intended, went with my MrT order and bought anything I could find cheaper but then I forgot to amend the MrT order in time so I have two lots of some things :mad:

The savings I made were:Feta cheese 75p £1.35
Apple juice and orange juice 59p 65p

Bread was more expensive than MrT value bread (55p as opposed to 45p) but I bought some to test the quality, ditto their washing up liquid (49p as opposed to 33p.) Their cat litter was waaaaay more expensive than the MrT value stuff but I can see there are savings to be made on vegetables and meat.

I think the fantastic savings people rave about are when people have previously used brands but if you've already weaned yourself onto value ranges then there's not a lot of difference. I will still pop in whenever I'm in that town (for Brazil nuts and fruit and veg) but I can't see me switching my entire shop.

Anyhow, (preaching to the converted!) have a lovely money saving day all