Sat/Sun 25th/26th 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 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

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!

I've been off the grid all week but I did manage to pop into the Forum yesterday and reply to a question someone asked me on Tuesday!

OH had a job interview. Will hear next week if successful.

Spent nothing all week except for on bills. That's probably a first. I contemplated doing overtime at work but decided that, as I have a bit of a "hyper" personality and I really should rest.

OH and I are trying to eat more healthily. My cholesterol is every so slightly raised and hers is through the roof! Cue the cutting up of many carrot batons...

La E: Sorry for your loss.

Today I'll be going for a free run this morning courtesy of ParkRun and catching up with all the things I've been avoiding all week.

The List:

:starmod: Work on repairing OH's desktop PC.

:starmod: Make plans for the weekend that don't involve spending much money and involve dodging the forthcoming rain.

:starmod: Do RoyalMail Surveys.

:starmod: Run free AVG Virus Scanner this morning (Link). I think I have a gremlin. Yup, Malware removed!

:starmod: Meals from stores.

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

Pollygarter

Last weekend I managed to spend only £5 by keeping the purse shut. Not going to be possible this one. Am doing a four hundred mile long organised trip to see an old friend. That will not be cheap. Sat with another friend who tells me that by driving at 60mph all the way I will save about 25% on fuel costs. That's going to be quite a lot of cash. Will it keep my foot off the pedal...we will see!

Have good weekends all.

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for starting us off bright and early Allydowd

List for today:
Whizz round and clean / tidy where needed
Dry washing outside if dry (it rained here during the night, but seems to be brightening up now)
Small top up shop needed
Sort out some items for my sales unit, and take them down once OH returns with my car
Make a game pie filling in SC using ingredients from the freezer, and mushrooms from the fridge that need using up

Well, that is a start - I am sure I will think of plenty more once I get going!

Hope everyone has a nice day

determined_new_ms

Morning ally and everyone else who follows, thanks for starting us off. I recently had a health check and my cholesterol is high and was given advice about changing my diet but was also told that omega 3 capsules would also lower it. Best price I have found is Aldi/Lidl.

Small and big things this weekend. Had a meeting with oh last night as life has been so chaotic and it has been causing me a lot of stress. We have just become so disorganised since having dgd, working f/t and trying to renovate the house (almost there but means I often have dgd at the weekends so oh can get on with work so the things I always did to keep our home/lives ticking over just aren't getting done). So we have come up with a load of ideas that will make our lives easier/more manageable. Some of these I have started doing this morning! :T

* [STRIKE]call ex-mil and ask her if she will make us a calendar - if she says yes then I'll email her some photos. If not going to go on line and order one[/STRIKE] she couldn't do it so have gone for a The Hungry Catterpiller family planner calendar rather than personalised
* [STRIKE]cancel mobile contract. Can get a good deal by buying a smart phone and getting gifgaf. If they will beat the price then I will stay but to be honest it would need to be pretty special deal as I HATE vodafone after they took over £300 from my account last year just after we took on dgd[/STRIKE] Ok they made me a very good offer. Sim only deal unlimited calls & texts, 5 gb of data for £11pm
* found a babysitters agency in our area and will contact a couple of them to arrange to meet them, see how we feel about them and check paperwork/references. Not that we go out a lot but as we are grandparents bringing up our dgd we don't have grandparents to have a break!
* [STRIKE]put a batch of spag bol in the s/c for meals for oh & dgd while I am away for the next few days[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]change washing machines - have another in garage and ours has had it's day. Think I've had it for about 8 years so pretty good going[/STRIKE]
* swap fridges - bought a new second hand one which is also in our garage
* make some potato, onion & cheese pasties for dgd's packed lunch
* [STRIKE]going for dinner at friend's tonight so will pick up a bottle [/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]check banks[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]pay gardeners 10% of quote to secure the work. Starting this week :T[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]going to have breakfast with bff and collect dgd as she had a sleep over last night :T[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]box up some items to donate to work and start clearing our clutter[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]make a shopping list of bits needed for the next week[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]submit meter readings[/STRIKE]

Ok think that's all I will have time for! Have a lovely day x

Bobarella

Hi All

Ally -Thanks for answering my questions 8 years is a slog, well done for sticking with it. I'd say I've been going around 3 years so far but with some points the debt has just increased due to bad times & so I should be further on than I am. But hey the figures can't lie so on we go.

well its raining here this morning. Have to round everyone up shortly to get on with today's list. There was drama in our street last night. I was walking passed the house of an old lady and she started calling 'help me' she was sitting on a chair in her porch and didn't look in immediate distress. So I went over and asked her what was wrong. She told me she hadn't eaten in 2 days and would I get her some pitta bread.
anyway she didn't seen right and I was uncomfortable to know what to do next but as I was going to Mr T's anyway thought I would get it for her and then pop round to her neighbours rs and ask if they had more information as I see the wife in and out of there.
Anyway in the 10 minutes it took me to get to the shop and back there was another lady in with her. So I knocked and she let me in. She said she is the old ladies carer and was obviously a bit fed up about the no food accusations, which I put as delicately as I could. She insisted on letting me come in and showed me the old ladies fridge which was full. Full fruit bowl. Food on her table sitting uneaten and food thrown away into her bin. The carer said the old woman has dementia and that is the issue not food. In the end I took the carers mobile number and left. Anyway about 20 minutes after that I saw a fire engine turn up, then an ambulance, & finally the police. I don't know what had happened as the fire engine left very quickly, but the police and ambulance remained. Finally an ambulance car type vehicle sat outside her home for the rest of the evening and was there when I went to bed but gone this morning. So I don't know what to make of it all. The carer said that someone had called the ambulance the other night too despite the carer explaining the same facts but I suppose if you see someone calling for help it is hard to know what to do.
Not a great advert for getting old.

right well I'd better get on. Good luck with your money saving efforts everyone.

Bob

Bagpuss741

Today I have/will:

1. Checked online banking Done
2. Checked credit card accounts online Done
3. NSD Done
4. Paid £10 extra off Capital One Done
5. Change bed linen and clean bedroom Done
6. Update programme on laptop and scan with free anti virus
7. Meals from stores
8. Give cat her flea treatment and give her a brush
9. Listen to free Spotify whilst cleaning bedroom Currently listening to janet jackson - Control
10. Check FPL
11. Update spreadsheets and snowball Done
12. Update signature Done

Bobarella

P.S sorry Dawn, Polly and Determined I spent so long writing my post we crossed.

I just had an email from PayPal refunding me £30 for a transaction where the buyer failed to send me the item. Do you remember I mentioned a 2nd hand till? Well that was for that. So £30 up on the day!

PollyPrissypants

Morning everyone,
Hope you all have lovely weekends lined up. Today I'm sending DH grocery shopping on his own whilst I stay home with the boys :rotfl: I know, this is quite possibly nuts.
This is definitely a DFW thing to do though, as if it's not on the list, it won't even cross his mind to put it in the trolley. He's a shopping ninja - in and out as fast as possible - he hates it. Ah well, the things we do to keep on budget

xJOJOx_2

Happy weekend everyone! Hopefully a NSd day today, can't think of anything I need. Would of been paying some money of cc2 today, however with not knowing what's happening with money etc at the moment will kept hold of the money for now, til I know what's happening.

Daily Dfw's
Check Banking/Emails done
Postcode Lottery done
Check Onepoll and any other surveys done
Nightly routine (plugs/doors etc)
Phone up pharmacy4u and register

old school and making things last
Use same 'daily' eyeshadow/lipstick to use up some supplies done
All lights/switches/TV off when not in use done
All meals from stock done
Seam to acquired a lot of half jars of stuff need to use up, next peanut butter
Got lots of reduced veg yesterday, so prep slow cooker with stew and base all meals around them done
Pick up some unused posh wine carriers to use as storage in house (free from work)done
Free cake from boss in work came in little glass jars so kept them for future use done

Entertainment and leisure
Read one chapter in book
Price up new release in kindle and purchase if good price (my sister has brought the last so many books, so I want to get this one, even though I'm not ready to read) done

Home and Decluttering
A little more tidying in dd1 room done
A load of washing done
General tidy round for later done

Upping my income
£5.50 in tips yesterday and hopefully some more tonight
Overtime tonight
Ebay at least one Item today
Another box to sort for music magpie (on the ones with best prices)

Have a good day all xx