Tuesday 18th Aug - 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 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)
  
• My Supermarket ( Link )
• OnePoll ( Link )
• Quidco ( Link )
• Reclaim PPI at no cost to yourself ( Link )
• Resolver tool. Helps you draft a letter, send it, monitor replies and then escalate it to an Ombudsman or key complaint body if it's not sorted. (Link)
  
• SayNoTo0870 cheap phone number finder ( Link )
  
• Survey sites that pay for your opinions ( Link )
• Swagbucks ( Link )
• Swapit ( Link )
• Tesco Orchard product testing (Link)
  
• Tickety Split cheap train tickets (Link)
  
• Toluna ( Link )
  
• TopCashBack ( Link )
• You Need A Budget site and App (Link) New link!
  

If this list helps you today please click "Thanks".

determined_new_ms

Hi ally good luck with today! Am sure you'll be amazing. One thing I do with interviews is before I go I visualise myself feeling relaxed and happy at the end of the interview, I find it really helps set my frame of mind x

Carrie welcome back :hello: sorry to hear you've been having a difficult time x

Yorkshire if I'm worried eggs might not be good I put them in a bowl of cold water. If they float they're no longer good!

Welcome to our friendly thread Snowwhite :hello:

Bob how exciting for your dh to have a lovely bike :j hope he loves it!

Today I've decided to not spread myself too thin & just concentrate on a few things:

* [STRIKE]check banking & do some money shifting (so I meet the requirements to get interest/£5 reward) [/STRIKE]
* list minimum 15 things on ebay/freecycle
* [STRIKE]call up and make appt for MS assignments[/STRIKE]
* submit meter readings
* bake cake & make salad with veg from garden to take to friend's tonight as she has invited us for a bbq
* post ebay sale
* all meals from stores
* NSD (don't include ebay postage as paid for by buyer)
* all meals from stores. Use up last of tuna
* flylady
* tidy up garden, water and prune plants - tomatoes starting to go red :j
* dgd's packed lunch & bag for tomorrow
* check onepoll

Ok that's all for me today. Have a great day x

allydowd

I'm visualizing free coffee and cake at John Lewis.

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for the start Ally - is it your interview today? Good luck if so

Today's list:
So far - dishwasher on (I have been washing up by hand since OH went away on Friday, but did lots of chopping and cooking yesterday afternoon so have indulged). Not sure how much money, if any, this saves, as the machine is pretty efficient, and it only goes on when there is enough to fill it, but at least saves a smidgen of wear and tear on the thing if nothing else I suppose.

Washer on, and the laundry will go out on the line once done

Home grown rhubarb with my breakfast yogurt to avoid using bought fruit

Put an unopened pot of houmous, whose date is up tomorrow, in the freezer. Not sure if you CAN freeze houmous but it is worth a try as I won't be able to eat it - not that I take much notice of use by dates but wouldn't want to go too many days over with something like houmous. Also froze some wraps to avoid them spoiling.

Used free sample moisturiser - I got sent loads of sachets of one of the brands I buy regularly (among others, depending which is on offer) via an email offer

Still to do:

Phone for an appointment to get my hair cut. It is starting to really annoy me

Housework

Pull a basket full of weeds for the chickens (two jobs in one, as it does the weeding as well )

Sow some more lettuce seeds

Chop up and freeze some parsnips that I dug the other day, and don't need to use at the moment, before they go too bendy

Return the jeans I bought yesterday as they are too big

Start on the garden pots and baskets, which all need tidying / trimming / feeding etc - might need to source a few end of season bedding plants for the flower ones at the front, if I can find some reduced. Don't aim to spend more than £5 on this though!

Sort through a big box of sales stock in the garage, not sure what is in there

Do any surveys that are available

Stick to diet - easy as I have made a big pot of veggie chilli, and have no cakes, bread, biscuits or anything like that!

HM meals from stores. I will need to buy celery, carrots, yogurt and some fruit at some point though.

Pick French beans, courgettes, rhubarb and the few tomatoes that are ready

Water anything that needs it later

Well, I think that lot will keep me busy! Hope everyone has a good day

DawnW

allydowd wrote: »

I'm visualizing free coffee and cake at John Lewis.

You've got me visualising that as well now! Especially the cake :rotfl:

*snow*white*

Morning all, thank you for the warm welcome.

Good luck with the interview Ally.

Slowly getting over this rotten cold but need to crack on with some bits to feel human again.

Todays list:

* check online accounts & update snowball. done
* check postcode lottery. done
* bread in breadmaker.
* see when college near me re opens so can book hair apt.
* see what time gcse results are collected Thurs.
* get son to sort his stuff for camping trip with friend tomorrow.
* shred some of paper mountain.
* all meals from stores.
* fill flask when make cuppa to reduce kettle boiling.
* 1 load of washing & dry on line.
* clean floors.
* list an item on gumtr££

Appetite coming back now so off to make some breakfast

twiggy86

Morning all!

Good luck Ally!

Today I have/will:-
* Check banks
* Check PayPal - OnePoll money not gone in yet :mad: (angry face maybe slightly OTT as it did say up to 28 days!)
* Wash bedding on 30 degree quick wash
* Hang washing on line
* Take lunch to work including salad OH left last night and a couple of new pots
* Check FPL
* Transfer money to parents for boiler service
* Go shopping at lunch sticking to list!
* Keep eyes peeled for receipts (and of course money!!)
* Upload receipt for 5p
* Earn more on OnePoll
* Dinner from stores
* Drink water whilst out tonight (last time seeing friend before she goes back to Aus )

Think that's everything for today. Hope you all have a good day!

greensalad

Feeling very positive today. I think the good vibes from having nearly paid off my OD are helping. I won't feel completely comfortable with it until I'm in that bank appointment though. Very looking forward to Saturday when I can officially close it down and upgrade my account. :rotfl:

Also received Halifax £50 cheque in the post so will pay that in on Saturday. :rotfl:

BF is still away with work but is hopefully back tomorrow evening. He'll be tired when he gets back but I might suggest going to the cinema on Thursday. £5 per adult ticket with out discount card so not expensive for a nice evening out :beer:

But today, sadly not a NSD as I have purchased some plastic mailing sacks to post the wool I sold on eBay last night. I have got some but not enough. I will be packaging up as many as I can this evening to take to Doddle to post. I have withdrawn nearly all the funds from what I sold (currently around £140 pre-fees) and paid all the eBay fees so far for the sale (around £15) so really made some good money.

:starmod: [STRIKE]Cycle to work[/STRIKE]
:starmod: Fast day, 2 of 3 shakes down
:starmod: MUST LIST CAMERA ON EBAY one just sold for £120 similar to mine
:starmod: Clean bathroom
:starmod: Hang up washing and get another load on
:starmod: Relax and play some Minecraft. Yes 'relaxing' is on my to-do list. I need to have a break before the storm starts next week :P

Also just paid off £12.83 from my CC. A small amount I know! The remainder of my eBay sales came through. I have set aside £29 of it for postage and the rest went to CC. Any leftover after I've posted everything will also go to CC.

Updated signature to 58.9% paid off, lets see if I can make it 60% by the end of August.

carrielovesfanta

Morning all!


Thanks to Ally for starting us off. Good luck today *crosses fingers*


Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome back


I tried to update my list last night but it's nigh on impossible to use MSE on a smartphone!


Sooo update:

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

Today's mse things:

• Take money to bank - done
• Print out groupon vouchers at work - done
• Attempt to reconcile spreadsheet - partly done. need to wait til Tues when account reconciles as am missing 2 receipts.
• B/L/D from stores - done
• Go through fridge and sort out weird bits of bbq food still lurking in there - will likely need binning (sorry guys - I tried not to waste them but could not eat that much coleslaw!) - done
• Wipe down fridge shelves as looking empty in there - done
• Put wash on - done
• Washing in off line- done
• Put washing away - done
• Tidy round - done
• Hoover if time
• Loaf of bread on in breadmaker
• Rough meal plan for week
• Help OH with his budget for the month
• Water the garden - done
• Charge phone in work - done
• Not drinking. Am trying to be very good and cut down (again... those of you who remember my failed attempt at dry January may have an inkling of my complex relationship with the dreaded booze!). I have downloaded the drinkaware app and although it's quite complicated at first, I'm finding it very helpful. - done

Decided not to make bread as had tonnes of left over dinner to take to work for my lunch. OH got in very late and was exhausted so didn't sort his budget.


Today's list:

• OH to hoover house later
• B/L from stores - done
• Go for a run at lunchtime - done
• Make bread tonight
• Put away all bits in veg box. Freeze/process anything that we are unlikely to eat soon. I'm getting bad for wasting food
• Dinner out for a birthday. Try not to spend too much but am not sure how we are splitting the bill. It's not going to be straight forward just to pay for mine as it's tapas - apparently we are splitting it as everyone watching their money - makes my life easy. Stick to budget of £20-£25 then.
• Charge phone in work - done
• Reconcile spreadsheet and banking - done
• Flylady mission - done
• Water garden
• Tidy and sort yarn stash - started

ok, that'll do me


Have a god one all


clf x

determined_new_ms

About to make cake and realised if I use marge we'll run out so decided to use oil. But only have basil infused oil! So dug out a recipe for lemon & basil cake. Will it be nice???