Sat/Sun 30th/31st May - What Small DFW Things Will You Be Doing This Weekend?

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 importan! :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

Good morning DFW-Devotees,

I'm back! Won't bore you with details about recent family crisis; crisis has now stabilised.

Looks like it's going to be a lovely day. Giving free run at ParkRun (Link) a miss today as I have a cold:

New Era Day 23:

:grinheart Need to renew car breakdown cover which expires today. Have got a good quote. If not using the car today I won't renew until tomorrow or gamble and leave it a few days.

:grinheart May stroll up to local fly-tipping hotspot and look to see if anything can be scavenged for the garden. Not sure if I look more like a womble or Albert Steptoe...(Local landowner doesn't mind us scavenging.)

:grinheart Enjoy new enlarged broadband allowance obtained through a complicated solution*. See below for gory details. Have set up online account to monitor new allowance online.

:grinheart Shopped around for two new fleece jumpers for work. I've been wearing the same two on and off for two years and they are falling apart as they're washed twice a week each so it's time for replacements. My wardrobe only consists of 30 items, excluding underwear, and almost every purchase I've made in the last two years has been from charity shops, so I don't think I'm being too frivolous. Found new fleeces at £8 each in the Millet's sale (Link) and purchased through Quidco to get 2% back. TopCashBack were only offering 1.01%. The old garments can be kept for gardening. Used Martin's mantracard (Link):

Do I need it? Yes
Can I afford it? Yes
Have I checked prices elsewhere? Yes

:grinheart Read electricity and gas meters. We've used £7 less than budgeted for.

:grinheart Awaiting delivery of new computer parts for OH's machine. All purchase with money made from selling old audio cassettes on eBay, thus cost of repair was £0. Will install parts ourselves. Bought OH a new keyboard, mouse and speakers for £20 from wee shop in next village, rather than driving to town. Will get the money back when OH sells old broken components on eBay. (People will buy anything if honestly advertised!)

:grinheart Free backup of some photos into cyberspace.

:grinheart Listen to music we already own.

Good luck with your Devotions, Devotees.

_______________________________________

Footnote:

*Found a really creative solution to our 15MB per month broadband account problem that's been bugging us for months. We never have enough data each month but this is the only company that can supply us as we can't have a line to our property as we live in Timbuktu so our internet comes through a mobile Wifi Dongle device with a SIM card in it. We are already on the package with the largest amount of data so we can't pay more for more data. Local library is miles away. And if we run the internet through our mobiles we'll be broke. Solution: Take out a second SIM card only contract that'll give us 10MB per month with the same company. Then, 60% of the way through the month, take the 15MB/month SIM card out of the device and insert the 10MB/month SIM card. Thus we now have 25MB per month. (We're still paying less for these two contracts than most people pay for unlimited broadband because I haggled.)

1HANNAH

Good morning all,


Thanks for the start Ally & good to see you back posting.


Nice & sunny here this morning so we are going to get the kids out on their bikes again (still in my car ) so that they can show daddy what they can do!
We've had a yellow sticker breakfast of teacakes.
We have a 5 of £40 voucher to use for l!dl, will split this bill with my parents and get milk etc
Other then that no plans for day.
Gotta go


have a good day all

NewlyFrugalMumof3

Good Morning Lovely DFWs


Thanks for starting us off Ally. What a great idea with the fleeces from Millets. I have checked them out, and may buy one for the winter as old one is all bobbled with broken zip - but am checking with self, 'do I need it-can I afford it' mantra.


Today is not much other than OU exam revision and a few DF bits:


So I will:


OU revise - most of day and late into night
Hang washing out
Have a NSD
All meals from stores, & no cooking as made huge batch of bolognaise/chilli yesterday
Get DS1 to walk dog


Have a great day.


T x

Bobarella

Thanks for the start Ally. I think the fleeces sound well needed. Sorry you've had dramas this week. Hope all is resolved now?

Hannah - have a lovely free day. Bikes are such fun. Have you got one too?

Well so far have managed coffee & using up a croissant I brought home from work yesterday. I am such a chav when it comes to them, just eaten the whole thing cold with a ton of lurpack wacked on it. Who puts butter on an all butter product Well plenty of us I bet. But it's not the done thing dont'cha know .

As we have no plans today it will be a chance for some rest which I actually feel the need for, for once.

I'm getting ready to do another round of #minsgame from Monday as I was tagged by one of the others. I think as it's been 6 months since I last did it there should be plenty to re home.

I am feeling very meh about the debt at the moment. 6 months into the year & I've cleared an enormous £500 roughly. My plans haven't worked out on that front. I feel like constantly focusing on it is actually making me less happy. Which isn't the intention. Need to find my mojo again I think.

Anyway will keep posting and hopefully refind the joy!

Have a good day all.

Bob

allydowd

Bobarella wrote: »

Thanks for the start Ally....Sorry you've had dramas this week. Hope all is resolved now?

Crisis is under control, thanks.

Susan1962

Going into town to meet a friend for lunch so not very DFW. However will combine with a visit to another friend, dropping off donations, selling a couple of DVDs and going to the (cheaper) butcher over there so at least I'm making the most of it.
Otherwise - one load of washing on the line and another just brought in ...

Pollygarter

Working on house clean up, planning on expending energy not cash!

1HANNAH

Bobarella wrote: »

Hannah - have a lovely free day. Bikes are such fun. Have you got one too? Thanks Bob, yes the kids really enjoyed. Ds2 is getting much better but the path we were on was quite a bit busier then the other day so he was more distracted. I do have a bike in the garage that I bought when ds1 learnt to ride his bike a few years ago but haven't ever used it I should do, (haven't rode a bike since I was about 13! omg about 25yrs ago! As I am on my use up/make do etc I will get the bike out over the next week whilst kids in school and make sure I can ride safely! Thanks for your question as I probably wouldn't have thought about it otherwise

Well so far have managed coffee & using up a croissant I brought home from work yesterday. I am such a chav when it comes to them, just eaten the whole thing cold with a ton of lurpack wacked on it. Who puts butter on an all butter product Well plenty of us I bet. But it's not the done thing dont'cha know . Its the only way to eat them!


I'm getting ready to do another round of #minsgame from Monday as I was tagged by one of the others. I think as it's been 6 months since I last did it there should be plenty to re home. Me too, I'm starting Monday too.

I am feeling very meh about the debt at the moment. 6 months into the year & I've cleared an enormous £500 roughly. My plans haven't worked out on that front. I feel like constantly focusing on it is actually making me less happy. Which isn't the intention. Need to find my mojo again I think.
Hey that's still progress. Hope you find your mojo


Bob

Polly - that's very mse!
Susan - hope you enjoyed your lunch.




We enjoyed our walk by the beach with the kids on their bikes, then popped in to my parents for a cuppa (and much needed loo stop! :eek:) Popped into c0-0p to see if there were any useful reduced items, picked up a goats cheese & chocolate triffle
Home for lunch which was hm leek (ys) & potato soup & crusty bread.
Dinner will be raiding the fridge & using up whatever we fancy (kids love it, they call it crazy tea!)
Planning on washing/hoovering our cars this afternoon, free entertainment for the kids, as they love a water fight!
This evening it'll be a movie from our stash.


Enjoy the rest of your weekend all.

FatVonD

Hi all,

I haven't been posting as it's been busy, busy, busy at work with the odd late night and my Big Brother addiction

Today we're off to a big Mr T to do a shop as the local ones don't stock all the best offers/value range and I wasn't organised enough to do an onine delivery. There is a pound shop in the same town so will pop in there first to check out the soap/shampoos etc.

The house is officially off the market, the people last weekend didn't like the separate sitting/dining rooms (the one they'd made an offer on had been knocked through) and the other couple that came only offered the same as our existing buyers so I'm going to put it back on in July/August. It will be sods law that a house in one of our preferred roads will come on now but it's a relief not to have to worry about viewings for a while.

Tonight DH has a gig which is local so I will be going to that. Entry will be free to me (I'm damned if I'm paying to see him!) and I can make one diet coke last all evening so it'll be no spends for me which is just as well as my bank account situation is dire...

I'm a couple of hundred pounds off of my overdraft limit BUT I do have £600 in my emergency savings account and it's two weeks until payday. I'm really tempted to move it back as it's not actually savings at all since I'm so horribly overdrawn BUT I'm no more overdrawn than I was last month and the savings have increased by £200 so the 'out of sight, out of mind' method does seem to be working.

DS has been out handing out CVs in town for the last couple of days, I'm still not holding out much hope of waitering jobs until he's old enough to serve alcohol but one was in a coffee shop so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something comes of that one. It would make a HUGE difference to my finances if I no longer had to be handing him money for socialising etc.

Have a great weekend everyone!