Friday 22nd May - 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 )
• 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 )
• NHS Minor Ailment Service article (Link) NEW!
  
• 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

Hi gang,

New Era Day 15:

There's lots of misinformation flying around Facebook about the NHS Minor Ailments Scheme. "Your pharmacist can give you any medicine or health supplies your child requires for free", being one of them. Even saw a message yesterday claiming the pharmacist would supply free nappies for all children whose parents presented themselves in the pharmacy...

"You can't just walk into a pharmacy and stock up on Calpol for your kids. That's not the way it works." Neal Patel, Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Here's the facts from a BBC article. (Link) There are links to the NHS website at the bottom of the page.

Must dash.

Bobarella

Morning All

Thanks for the start Ally. Have a good day.

Hannah - hope you have a better day as well.

Purple posting - Was really sorry to read how unwell you are feeling. Be kind to yourself as much as you can.

Foxgloves - thank you for the useful info on surveys you do. Really does seem a good revenue stream.

Me today. Last working day this week. Had a bad night. So need to try and go a bit slower today. Will be doing all the usuals to keep a lid on cost.
Looking forward to a relaxing weekend before the OH'S parents arrive for a visit over bank holiday monday/coming week.

All the best to everyone

Bob

Shortie

Morning all, sorry for disappearing off the forum for a week. I haven't caught up on the previous threads but it sounds like some are having a rough time {{hugs}}

I think I reached 'a point' last week where I was trying to tackle too much at once - the non-appearing builders, trying to find a second hand kitchen that would fit our space and that we liked, trying to save every penny I had, and starting to try and to lose weight. And it went by the wayside on Friday.

So, I'm tackling less things now to try and keep sane. I'm eating good where I can but ultimately (for the short term) it's about saving money to get the house done asap and then I can focus on the diet better.

Tomorrow sees us picking up the kitchen and dinding nooks and crannies in the house for it to be stored in to save money on (a) storage (b) a second van hire to collect it back out of storage when we need it. I may regret that decision after weeks of side stepping kitchen units and appliances lol

I have my food with me today again for work:
B: Strawbs and yoghurt (both reduced)
L: Salad stuff and pieces of gammon (the meat was reduced)
S: a bag of crisps (yea, not healthy but I know I'll get the 3pm munchies and they were available at home.

I think I need to suss some cheap but healthy snacks that feel like they have the 'naughty factor' - if that makes sense?

La_escocesa

Shortie wrote: »

I think I need to suss some cheap but healthy snacks that feel like they have the 'naughty factor' - if that makes sense?

What about: http://www.marthastewart.com/337688/cocoa-popcorn

Put some unpopped corn in a casserole dish (no oil required) and put it in the microwave until you hear the pop-pop-pop. Then sprinkle some sugar and cocoa and even some melted butter if you want to be really naughty then toss it all together. Simples. :T I usually just eat it plain or with some salt. If you don't have a microwave then you can do the same in a pan but then you need oil...

I can't actually believe people buy popcorn making machines or bags of microwave popcorn - seems crazy to me! This is by far the cheapest snack there is IMHO and it's relatively good for you/not bad for you

Happy Friday everyone :beer:

1HANNAH

Morning all & thanks for the start Ally.

Bob, sorry to hear you had a bad night.

Shortie, I get where you are coming from, I seem to go great guns at the beginning of the week but come thur/fri I run out of steam, maybe need to think about letting a few things slide whilst feeling like this.

Daily
Switched mobile off over night done
Heating off (get fleece blankets out if needed) done
Kids to school breakfast club not done, can't face the gym today so they had breakfast at home
Fill water bottle at gym nope
Shower at the gym (make use of their hot water, electricity to wash/dry hair) nope
Check FPL done
Use nectar search done
Check Banking/update spreadsheets nope
Unsubscribe from junk emails nope


Food & Health - got to start looking after myself (need to lose about 6st)
At least 1/2hr exercise at the gym can't face it today
Apply make up/perfume
Drink warm water rather than tea/coffee save the cost & less calories too coffee first then water I promise
All meals from stores - plan & prep -

Old school, make do & mend & use up
Try to use something out of the use up food box used two more porridge sachets for kids breakfast, I've just finished a bag of peanut m& m's for mine
Use up pamper box started with 18 nail polishes 4 handcreams 1 footcream & 3 perfumes - so far uu - 1np 2hc used handcream
Use up household box started with 5 shower sprays - so far uu - 3/5 done

Entertainment
Read a few pages of a book done
Check Sun perks done
Check o2 done
Remind my sister to pick up the freebie lego with newspaper for me. done but I forgot she's not at work so I need to get this
I went after school with ds2 to get the paper & lego

Home and decluttering
Wash a load at 30 degrees done
Hang washing on the line if it brightens up later done
Check out flylady email and complete todays task done
Clean & tidy fridge - if I keep on top of this daily, we don't seem to waste any food.
Clean & tidy freezer (RE-WRITE freezer list as I haven't found it)
Add items to charity bag nothing to add today
Check on contract end dates for both sky & talktalk not done but I think the dates are in sept/oct so no rush, will wait until the kids go back to school now
Tidy kitchen cupboards again, see if anything can be put in the use up box as its looking quite bare. added a couple of bits but didn't sort cupboards properly, again will get back to this after the kids go back

Earning chances
Do some Swagbucks running sbtv apps now
Check email survey oppurtunities 2 available, will try them at lunchtime. Transferred £5 agc over to amazon
Check checkoutsmart done
Check shopitize done
Check TCB/Snap Save - done
Check Quidco/clicksnap done


Hope everyone has a good day, I'm going to get off here now and make a start.

Pollygarter

I've just hired a carpet cleaner for the long weekend. Spending money ? Yeah to save money... Am moving in a month or two's time and need to do a deep clean of the house. I was quoted £500 to do this. What? A good bossy organised friend of mine is coming to supervise us both doing a mega clean. £41 for the carpet cleaner til Tuesday and a lot of elbow grease and cleaning materials I already have is all it will cost. In my old way of thinking I would have just written the cheque but phoned about and found a decent deal for the cleaner and am prepared to do the rest myself. I do clean the house of course but this is the top to bottom spring clean scrub which will be a lot of hard work. My arms aren't broken yet though so why not!

NewlyFrugalMumof3

Morning All,


Well after a very productive day on the organising front and sorting children out front, but hardly any studying achieved, today I hope to feel a bit more in control rather than being taken on a fast ride of 'do,do'do'! However, I have parents coming to stay so more cleaning and tidying etc and groceries to get etc.


Today I have/will:


Clean, hoover & fresh bed for room they are staying in - DONE
Clean bathroom and loo - DONE
Hoover around and general tidy up - DONE
Get runners in ground if I can
Do 2 x 1 hour of OU study
Pack for activity w/e - loads to pack - agh
Find and buy pressie for friend's birthday that I failed on yesterday
Try and have a LSD if poss
Walk dog at some point
Check bank a/c - DONE


Hmmm... Have a great day everyone.

foxgloves

Morning Frugal Friends,
Slightly weird start to the day. Noticed mr f had left his packed lunch on the worktop, so phoned him & he'd only got as far as the roundabout out of the village, so he popped back to collect it. Only took about 4 mins, but when he got back to the roundabout, there had been a really bad accident (2 cars & a lorry). I can still hear emergency vehicles & police helicopter as it has shut an A-road & the traffic is crawling everywhere else. I phoned him to be money-saving as didn't want him to have to buy a sandwich when I'd made him plenty of lunch........but am so glad he forgot it as he would have been on the fly-over at the exact time of that crash & it might have been him. Really hoping drivers not too badly injured.
So on with the day:
*Cleaned whole house using minimal products. Managed to hoover all of upstairs while still on Economy 7 tariff. Done.
*Took some bits out of freezer to do a packed lunch for tomorrow. We're going into the city centre then doing grocery shop on the way home, which will be tempting re buying lunch, so I'm going to save money by taking something to eat. Done.
*Do a few Onepoll surveys. Done
*Claimed next £10 John Lewis voucher from Ipsos surveys. Done.
*Wrapped birthday gifts using my bag of recycled wrappings resources & a home made gift tag. Done.
*Parcelled up item nephew left behind at our house using recycled wrappings. Done.
*Wrote letter - recycled envelope & paper.
*Put vouchers in purse ready for shopping trip tomorrow, also Savings Pig cash in case we need it. So much easier to budget if spends come out of the correct budget. Done.
*Water veggie garden.
*Finish last bit of meal plan. Done.
*Write shopping list. (Started it).
*Library bag of books back to library. Done.
*Plant out at least another 2 trays of bedding plants (all grown from free seed).
*Do general & financial admin. (Started it)
*Wash hair......use free sample of straightening product....let hair get almost dry before just finishing off with electrical devices.
*Change bed linen & load washer for a cheap overnight wash. Done.
OK, onwards with the list. I've achieved lots already as was up & about at 6.30 am, thanks to cat's effective 'person wake-up strategy'.
Cheers all,
f x

foxgloves

PurplePosting - Sorry you are having such a stressful time. It might not feel like it at the moment, but it will pass. All you can really do is try to stay as calm as possible (easier said than done, I know) so that the cumulative effect of the stress doesn't affect your health any more than necessary. I'm not a Christian, but I have a silver bangle inscribed with the following words from medieval Christian mystic, Mother Julian of Norwich - she was a hermit & used to dispense advice to people from a little stone hut. The words are:

"All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well".

I think this is a calming positive mantra for people of all faiths & none. I find myself twiddling my bangle & saying them often during tough times. I am generally a strong person, but there was a period in my life when a difficult time got on top of me mentally & I became ill with anxiety. It can happen to anyone, & I found saying these words to myself helped a lot, as did learning not to beat myself up over stuff that wasn't my fault.
It sounds as though you are cutting back unnecessary spending during this difficult time, & that will at least mean retaining a bit of control, & not making a stressful situation worse. Be kind to yourself. This will pass.
f x