Mon 6th April: What small DFW-things will you do today?

allydowd

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 canceling 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

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 )
  
• Coupon Shop Forum list of money-off coupons (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 )
• Tesco Orchard product testing (Link)
  
• Toluna ( Link )
  
• TopCashBack ( Link )

allydowd

Morning DFW-Ninjas,

Well, life goes on, and the debt goes down!

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter/Passover/sunny weekend.

Yesterday we went to a Food Fair up at Loch Lomond. What a lovely sunny day! We'd budgeted £20 to spend on local, good quality produce, but only spent £12. Then we lit our barbeque and had sausages for lunch. In the past we've taken a whole bottle of oil with us for barbequing even though we only use a spoonful. Previously this has led to the plastic bottle getting damaged en route and oil-ma-geddon all over the car so this time we took some in a tupperware box with a little garlic, onion and jalapeños peppers to prevent potential wastage. Then we had a lovely long walk along the loch and did some photography.

The List:

:starmod: Do i-Say surveys.

:starmod: Check online banking and tweak budget. Unexpectedly got two extra days off work this week so I need to adjust for that.

:starmod: Do some gardening. The raised bed has stood empty since we built it; need to get it in use.

:starmod: Woodwork in the garden needs another coat of paint using paint we already own.

:starmod: OH to raid box of cassettes for Terry Pratchett stories to eBay.

:starmod: Turn iron off for last item.

:starmod: Beef for dinner. OH found a half priced joint. Serve with home-grown mushrooms.

That's all for today. Good luck on your quests, Ninjas.

xJOJOx_2

Thanks for the start Ally. That's sounds like a lovley day, always wanted to visit one of the lochs

Today's listy

~ bacon for breakfast as a special treat, pinic for dinner and stew for tea using ys buys yesterday (done)
~ house is a mess so big tidy up needed, one room at a time
~ washing, drying and put away (iron baby clothes)
~ check banking and emails (done)
~ write shopping list for tomorrow
~ milk from shop using voucher (done)
~ any left over pennies from last week in pennies jar
~ something on ebay later
~ a few surveys (done)

Right time to start the bacon, have a good day everyone xx

determined_new_ms

Morning ally & JOJO! Happy bank holiday to you both (and everyone that follows )

So glorious to have another day of the weekend :j

Feeling so much better today. I have been taking some medication (to help me give up smoking again ) but if you have had depression in the past there is a risk it will trigger it. Which sadly for me over the last few days it has. I stopped taking it on Saturday and today the fog has lifted :j sadly no magic pill to help me will just have to do it the old fashioned way....

DFW things for today:

* [STRIKE]hang washing on line[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]another load in[/STRIKE] - ok I've been doing minimum of a load a day and my basket is still overflowing! :eek:
* all meals from stores
* think I will make a crumble for desert using tinned peaches
* bake some cakes & pasties for dgd's packed lunches during the week
* do a inventory of food supplies, meal plan & shopping list
* [STRIKE]contacted a colleague who lives near work to see if she would go in and give a key to someone rather than doing the 45 mile round trip and she said yes :T[/STRIKE]
* nice trip to the park later and a nice walk along the river bank for free entertainment
* [STRIKE]message dd and see if she's ok[/STRIKE]
* submit meter readings
* at some point do at least 10 mins of sanding door frame - cannot muster the enthusiasm but there's the saying any of us can do a task for 10 minutes!
* [STRIKE]researched best way to get rid of weeds in paving[/STRIKE]
* list a couple more bits on ebay/facebay
* play mins game. Yesterday I decluttered 5 sheets that we don't need/use which are just cluttering up the cupboard. Think I'll attack the larder today!

Think that's my lot for today. Have a lovely one x

milliemummy

Today's little lot:

Washer on twice..last minute bag of DS2 clothes that need to be ready for tomorrow morning.
B/L/D from stores
NSD...staying in
Check bank
Check one poll, etc
Carry on decluttering
Purge kitchen cupboards, sure I can make more space.
Hoover through
Sweep front path
Sort out various letters to be posted tomorrow


Hope everyone has a lovely easter Monday.

FatVonD

Afternoon all, last day off before work, boo hoo! (But short week, yay!)

Today I have:

Cooked another full English, it's bliss to have the time to do it.

Been to Mr S to replace DS's Easter egg which we gave to DH's kids' half sister (reduced to 50p now, so we bought ourselves one too )

Picked up some yellow-stickered chicken and potatoes in madeira sauce for dinner tonight and also some YS grapes.

Leafletted the 4 roads we'd ideally like to live in (again!) raising the price we're suggesting we'd pay by £10,000. It is lovely there, even DH agrees it is nicer there than the one we have under offer, I am kicking myself for not buying one of the two that were on the market just before Christmas :mad:

foxgloves

Hello Money Savers,
This list is for my efforts over the whole of Easter weekend, as I haven't been posting. By the way, DNMS, glad you've taken up the Minsgame baton.......I wrote a blog-post listing every item I decluttered when I did the challenge, & I couldn't believe what a silly lot of old tat I'd been keeping! It's very empowering.
*Pulled our crop of forced spring rhubarb & made rhubarb & custard cake, which is lasting us a good 3 days. Also stewed some & divvied up for desserts & freezer.
*Rescued some useful leftovers from family fuddle on Sat. My Mum views leftovers as an inconvenience that has to be dealt with, so when I saw the remains of 2 legs of lamb destined for the bin, I intercepted them & brought them home. One big pan of lovely stock & enough meat left to make 3 portions of lamb stew for the freezer.
*Did rubber beef. mr f cooked a joint yesterday for a lovely roast dinner. I've divvied up the leftovers for lots of beef madras, 2 days of 'Monday beef pie' & some sandwiches.
*Knew we'd fancy a takeaway today, so planned a 'fakeaway' curry night instead. Have got the beef madras, there's loads of bombay potatoes in the slow cooker at the moment (smelling lush), I've already made a mushroom curry as a side dish & will do garlic rice later. We have a jar of my home made lemon pickle left in the pantry, & a re-sprouted coriander plant on the window-sill which I might chop into some leftover yoghurt for a quick raita. I've made plenty of everything, so can freeze enough for at least 1 further curry night another time.
*Harvested 2 trays of fab free compost from our worm composter.
*mr f planted his seed potatoes, shallots & red onions.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Entered a competition.
*Unpacked another box of my Mum's wonderfully random gifts: 3 cat dinners, a pack of Easter napkins, a bath bomb, a pile of magazines, 2 boxes of tissues, a soap, a shampoo, some more packets of seeds, 3 spare strong carrier bags & a packet of crumpets!
*Watered all my baby veggie plants. Really must do some more potting on this week.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch....let's just say that mr f will be eating lots of leftovers tomorrow!
*Won some free bunny ears. Wore them most of yesterday.
*Will not be buying any treats this coming week as have lots of Easter chocolate.
*Found some un-needed green peppers in the fridge drawer, so sliced them & froze.
*Re-purposed 2 nice deep plastic mushroom trays as seed trays. Free, & much better than sending them to landfill.
*Will be loading washer later for an overnight wash on Economy 7 tariff.
Hope everyone's had a good day today. It's so cheering to see some sunshine. mr f is back at work tomorrow. I'm going to try & have a really good rest of week & achieve loads.
Bye,
f x

Bobarella

Hi All

Glad to hear everyone has had a good easter monday.

Ally - Your sausages by the loch sounds amazing!

JoJo - Your comment about the rent at the park cafe is probably bang on. Good insight Glad your tips jar is mounting up too, thats great.

Determined - Sorry you have been feeling low. Well done on your giving up cigarettes though, thats great, no matter how many times, its the end result that matters. Hope you feel better soon.

FVD - Glad you've had time to indulge a bit this weekend. Cooked breakfast can be such a treat.

Milliemummy - Good luck with the kitchen attack, hope it went well.

Foxgloves - That indian feast sounds incredible. I can almost smell the potatoes from here!

Small things today.
1) Used over £5 in vouchers, including the foraged brand match coupons at Sains this morning. Now have £2.50 towards my next shop too in Nectar points.
2) Have completed the 5 £30 shops to get the 2000 extra nectar points at some point soon.
3) Have checked both sets of banking, still in love with Paypal to be getting money in on a bank holiday. Amazing.
4) Had a wonderful cycle home tonight, cant say why, other than the roads were quiet, the sun was bright, I felt comfortable & happy. One of those moments.
5) The house is fairly clean and tidy & all washing done
6) Son & husband had a lovely day out in central london whilst I worked, they packed lunch & took drinks with them.
7) I got a great deal of prep done today at the shop because it was quiet. Made so much food, which will really help the week go smoothly.
8) Sons day care is paid for, for tommorow from last weeks cash flow
9) Having a cup of tea & early soak in the bath whilst husband does lunchboxes for tommorow
10) Updated all spending to my spends app.

Right all, enjoy your Monday evening.

Bob

1HANNAH

Hello all, Sounds like everyone's had a good day.

Its been a lovely day (and week off with hubby & kids, will be sad to see hubby back at work tomorrow )

Couple of bits we've done today....
Lovely day so spent a lot of it in the garden..
emptied out the summer house, cleaned the plastic garden furniture (had a lovely family lunch outside with the family)
Pulled out the summer swing seat things (sorry can't think of the correct term!! lol ) When stuff went back in the summer house I moved things round so that I can easily get to the pegs/poles etc for the washing line.

* Fix Daniel's pillow case - 2 new buttons - raided mums button jar
* Switch mobile off over night
* Make hubbys lunch for work tomorrow
* Heating off
* Do some Swagbucks
* Check Sun perks * Check FPL * Check TCB * Check Quidco
* Check email survey oppurtunities
* Unsubscribe from junk emails
Took youngest to Argos to use his pocket/easter money and used a Argos gift card for the majority of it so more cash left in my bank Called into M&S as they're next door to get some milk (wouldn't usually get food there but easier then driving further to Mr T) we got lots of YS bits & pieces for lunch/meals next few days including luxury hot cross buns

We've just gone through hubby's work diary to work out when he is going to have time off this coming year (hols run April-End March) So we've spaced the time out quite evenly so he doesn't go too long without a decent break

After our posts the other day about friends etc I decided to do something I've been thinking about for a while and deactivated my facebook account. 2 days on and I'm so pleased I did as it was just a zap of my time


Anyway better go and enjoy the last couple of hours with hubby xxx

DawnW

Evening all

Glad everyone has had a nice day

Late post for me, and I have been missing in action for a few days, initially due to a rotten cold, and after that I decided to blitz the end of tax year stuff for my little business, including a marathon stocktake :eek:. I finally finished it today, and it is all ready to give to lovely accountant now, once I get info from my pension, savings accounts etc :T :beer: :j I like to get it over and done with as soon as possible so that I don't have it hanging over me for months - I don't know how people leave it to the last minute :eek:

So, I have just celebrated with a piece of cake and a hot drink (we know how to party here :rotfl:)

Other things for today:
Did a car boot this morning and got rid of loads of business [STRIKE]carp[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]valuable antiques[/STRIKE] small bits of junk from the bottoms of auction boxes, plus a few unwanted items that I found round the house. Made just under £100 so I am pleased with that

Only bought a few baby plants at the boot sale, no other spends today :A

Meals from stores

Made a lemon drizzle cake

Made stock in the SC from the chicken carcase

Watered seedlings etc in the garden, and put the tender plants from the conservatory outside on the patio so they could enjoy the sun too. What a lovely day

Housework beckons tomorrow as it looks like a bomb site in here :eek: