Sat/Sun 16th/17th May 2015 - What small DFW things will you do this weekend?

BettyBoof

Hello,

I hope you don't mind if I join you - this is my first ever post on MSE so please forgive any newbie errors!

Today I have:
*Chased up a salary underpayment
* Baked some biscuits instead of buying them
* Updated YNAB

I plan to:
*Meal plan from the fridge/pantry
* Make Sunday a NSD
* Bake some bread

Looking forward to getting to know everyone and picking up some money-saving tips.

Cheers :-)

Tidy_Up_Tash

Good Afternoon!

Thanks for the start, Ally.

I've not been on the forum for a few days. Returned to work on Tuesday, on temporarily reduced hours, and have been pretty much shattered by the time I get home. Not been doing too well on the frugal front, or dealing with my ever increasing girth. I'm snacking way too much. Almost tempted to join Slimming World, but it's expensive.

Anyway, this weekend I will...

• Catch up on threads (looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to )
• Update Money
• Update Snowball
• Catch up on Laundry
• Take a Gas Meter reading
• Subscribe to Old Style Weight Loss thread
• Try and do some sort of organising in the house (it's got a little out of hand while I've been resting up)

Hope you have good weekends

1HANNAH

Hope everyone is having a nice day.
lovely and sunny here. We had a lovely time at the theatre last night We went to pick kids up from my parents and then walked with them to the library (ds1 reads lots, ds2 not interested at all) so we took them and got ds2 signed up at the library with his own card etc, hopefully he will like using the machine for booking books in and out and it might encourage him to read some more! Its a lovely big library, nothing like libraries when I was a kid, its got a lots of dress up stuff for kids, chalk boards, computers, dvds, story times etc, really must make more use of it. (My dad lives really close to the library so ds1 usually rings granddad up and asks him to pick him some books)
There was a family fun day with lots of vintage cars so we had a wander around there too (free)
Walked with the kids to Whsmiths to get a daily mail, so that they could have the freebie lego from it, two happy lads busy making it up as I type!
Bob - I had chance of a lie in this morning with the kids being away but I woke up at exactly the same time as usual! I can't lie there, had to get up.
Daily

• Switched mobile off over night done
• Heating off (get fleece blankets out if needed) done
• Check FPL
• Use nectar search
• Unsubscribe from junk emails done
• 
  

Food & Health - got to start looking after myself (need to lose about 6st)

• Walk from my parents to the library & back, then into town and back done
• Apply make up/perfume done well perfume I did!

• Drink warm water rather than tea/coffee save the cost & less calories too erm not done this yet!
• All meals from stores - plan & prep - Not exactly.... kids stayed at my parents so we went to pick them up & had cooked breakfast there (needed to buy them some eggs but they provided the rest!)
• Lunch, didn't really have lunch, after we'd had the cooked breakfast we went for a walk to the library then back to theirs for toast/crumpets
• Tea, this is going to be leftovers of whatever we can find in the fridge!
  Old school, make do & mend & use up

• Try to use something out of the use up food box
• Use up pamper box started with 18 nail polishes 4 handcreams 1 footcream & 3 perfumes - so far uu - 1np 2hc
• Use up household box started with 5 shower sprays - so far uu - 3/5
  Entertainment
• Read a few pages of a book
• Check Sun perks
• watch films tonight from our stash
  Home and decluttering
• Clean & tidy fridge - if I keep on top of this daily, we don't seem to waste any food.Clean & tidy freezer (update freezer list)
• Add items to charity bag
  Earning chances
• Do some Swagbucks
• Check email survey oppurtunities one done
• Check checkoutsmart done
• Check shopitize done
• Check TCB/Snap Save - done
• Check Quidco/clicksnap done

Do Geolotto done, just short of a £5 payout


We also called in at the theatre booking office and I've booked for me to take both ds's to a science show next month, hubby won't be able to get home from work in time, so I thought about asking my parents but changed my mind and just booked for the 3 of us instead. It would have cost £43 to book online with booking fees but as we were in town I saved ourselves £2.20 The money for this is budgeted from our family day's out savings.

Bobarella

Hi Guys
Nice to see such a busy thread, hello to Betty Boof welcome aboard!
Today has been pretty good.
Ally - interesting about your Mr T's not showing up yet. Mine don't even show online either. My reciepts in store still show my high total accumulating but online are now down to 45. So they are obviously doing something.

Ziggy - good luck getting ready for your hols. Also I wanted to thank you again for flagging up the Orchard Mr T programme. I recieved my £4 off steak voucher today (enough for some free steaks) plus £3 off future steak purchases. As I can't recall the last time I chose steak at the shops I'm looking forward to that once I do.

I had my credit card statement through for the coming month and noticed a £12 late fee for last month. Unfortunately this is still the affect of my husbands pay date moving but me not realising how much it would affect some payment dates. We paid on time but I forgot that by not using my super fast business banking which means payments can be recieved in 2 hours by some companies, I did it on our account and it was late due to the bank holiday. Anyway the nice man I spoke with suggested refunding it right away before I did. And was very helpful in moving the dates going forwards to accommodate the change. So a good win all round.

Found 1p roadkill today.

Used a £5 customer loyalty bonus in Decathlon to buy a new bike lock as my old one the key snapped off in this week. And a water bottle for OH's bike. So zero spend there.

We cycled a lot today in total. Around 15 miles. It was very hot out there so glad to be home and dinner in the oven.

FVD & Ratty - no such thing as a boring list. It's always useful in some way seeing what others are up to.

Hannah - Glad you had a lovely time. And I agree libraries are amazing now for kids. Our local one is full of brand new latest dvds to hire, a great selection of children's books, room to hot desk, a cafe, and holds really good events. I hope your son can get more of a love of it now he has his own card.

Bob

allydowd

Had a leisurely run this morning. Volunteered as First Aider and took my time round the course. Free munchies at the end.

The List Continued

:grinheart Double checked my Finances Spreadsheet, Found I'd made a mistake and we're richer than we thought. Will carefully plan what to do with the extra cash.

:grinheart Made a chicken cous cous dish for dinner from stores.

:grinheart Backup spreadsheet.

:grinheart Received a £4 voucher to buy steak from Tesco to test on their behalf through their Tesco Orchard panel.

:grinheart Finishing off last weekend's alcohol.

:grinheart Tidied up. In my 'old life' I was always losing things but since I started bring tidy a few years back I've saved a fortune by not losing things.

:grinheart Hung picture using picture hanging kit in tool cupboard.

:grinheart Veg growing well in the garden.

:grinheart Fell asleep for three hours s'afternoon. No electricity used or money spent.

:grinheart Watching DVDs from the bottom-less-pit of a cupboard upstairs.

:grinheart Bought two last minute opera tickets: £10 a piece for tomorrow.

1HANNAH

allydowd wrote: »

Had a leisurely run this morning. Volunteered as First Aider and took my time round the course. Free munchies at the end.

The List Continued

:grinheart Double checked my Finances Spreadsheet, Found I'd made a mistake and we're richer than we thought. Will carefully plan what to do with the extra cash.

Now that's the kind of mistakes I like!

1HANNAH

Bobarella wrote: »

Hi Guys
Nice to see such a busy thread, hello to Betty Boof welcome aboard!
Today has been pretty good.
Ally - interesting about your Mr T's not showing up yet. Mine don't even show online either. My reciepts in store still show my high total accumulating but online are now down to 45. So they are obviously doing something.

Ziggy - good luck getting ready for your hols. Also I wanted to thank you again for flagging up the Orchard Mr T programme. I recieved my £4 off steak voucher today (enough for some free steaks) plus £3 off future steak purchases. As I can't recall the last time I chose steak at the shops I'm looking forward to that once I do.

I had my credit card statement through for the coming month and noticed a £12 late fee for last month. Unfortunately this is still the affect of my husbands pay date moving but me not realising how much it would affect some payment dates. We paid on time but I forgot that by not using my super fast business banking which means payments can be recieved in 2 hours by some companies, I did it on our account and it was late due to the bank holiday. Anyway the nice man I spoke with suggested refunding it right away before I did. And was very helpful in moving the dates going forwards to accommodate the change. So a good win all round.

Found 1p roadkill today.

Used a £5 customer loyalty bonus in Decathlon to buy a new bike lock as my old one the key snapped off in this week. And a water bottle for OH's bike. So zero spend there.

We cycled a lot today in total. Around 15 miles. It was very hot out there so glad to be home and dinner in the oven.

FVD & Ratty - no such thing as a boring list. It's always useful in some way seeing what others are up to.

Hannah - Glad you had a lovely time. And I agree libraries are amazing now for kids. Our local one is full of brand new latest dvds to hire, a great selection of children's books, room to hot desk, a cafe, and holds really good events. I hope your son can get more of a love of it now he has his own card.

Bob

Thanks Bob, me too Glad you got a refund for the CC x

FatVonD

Well, the car is sold... as expected they knocked down the price quoted online from £1,650 to £880 :eek: but when I said we'd leave it and that we'd been offered £1,300 as a trade in price (a lie as they'd offered £1,000) they upped it to £1,250 so a whopping £450 more than if we'd just rolled over and accepted it. It's not brilliant but £250 more than she would have got by trading it in and it's saved us the hassle of selling privately.

She found it really hard not being able to speak for all of about 20 minutes though, (I had given her a stern talking to after she scuppered all attempts to bargain down the new car and reiterated it all on the way there again too), she was literally making funny breathing noises with the effort of holding it all in and kicking the chair as she had nowhere for the nervous energy to go!

foxgloves

Evening Fruglalistas,
Not much from me today but have kept the faith.
*Enjoyed a low-spend day out. Visited NT property - we're members so that saved a massive £12 or so each to get in. We took a picnic, so just paid for coffees & shared a cheese & leek scone......fab...why have I never thought to bake that combination in a scone? Did not get tempted in any of the shops. In fact, me f was laughing at me because I kept looking at plants in the garden shop & pronouncing '£3.95??? I've got 2 trays of those at home I've grown for now't'. Oh.....& 2 more stamps on my NT coffee loyalty card so that's a free cup next time :-)
*Sainsbury's visit. Stuck to modest list like the stickiest glue you can imagine. Remembered to use 2 coupons & paid with £30 gift cards earned from Toluna surveys. (I shall now transfer the cash saved by doing this into savings).
*Watered veggie garden.
*Did a very few surveys.
*mr f made a very nice meal using a half pack of the £1.85 chicken drumsticks we found in the reduced section at Waitrose the other week. Bargainmongous!
*Discussed next month's camping trip & its financial implications. Site paid for & we will self-cater for food most of the time. Will aim to budget a little extra spending money & not forget cattery fees (which is what happened last time, just as I was congratulating myself for doing such a great holiday budget, grrr). Only need 2 items before we go - a gas lamp (seen good deal on 'Go outdoors' & we now have a store in next town) & some heavy duty metal tent-pegs which mr f can't smash to smithereens with one titchy little bash of the mallet. Being married to a rather lovely brick outhouse has both its ups & down sides.
That's it from me today. Nice to read what you've all been up to.
F x

Pollygarter

I walked about my garden mowing and chopping and getting scratched and spending not a penny. In the sun. A very good day!