Friday 4th September - What small DFW things will you do today?

ziggy2407

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:

ziggy2407

Good Morning All

Hi to all of the regulars and a BIG welcome to all the newbies, this is a really FAB thread with so many lovely, caring, considerate and supportive people.

Well, I'm tired and achey but feeling ok, little bit narked (annoyed) freegler arranged to call at 8.30 last night and then when 8.30 came and went I thought it would be a no-show - Oh no, he only turned up at 10.30 when we are all in bed - house in darkness and he's hammering away like mad :eek: Today's little list:

Packed lunch for DH & DS - Done
Clean fish tank -
Collect DH's prescription -
Investigate "Bounts" (thank you Lego mum) -
Hope freegler turns up -
Bump listings/stuff for sale -
Continue purge on Emails -
Surveys -
Check Banks -
Enter a few comps -
All meals from cupboards/fridge/freezer -
Read library book -
Check https://www.freepostcodelottery.com - Remember there are now 5 chances to win -

Have a great day, love to you all

C x

Bobarella

Morning All

Ziggy - jeez how rude. I hope your OH gave him what for?

Well. I've woken feeling positive and full of energy. I actually have a full weekend off to look forward to having worked 6 days last week, & I think that is making me feel excited and good enough to get through this last 6 hour shift.
I have been getting lots of enquiries about parties which is a good sign. And will be opening one full weekend in a few weeks as it's a local art festival and we are a venue. I am hoping to take enough that weekend to help pay October's shop rent, the last of 2015!!! And tide me over for a rest period when the baby arrives. So that will mean working 2 straight weeks. All the more reason to treasure this weekend!

So what have we got on. Well. Son is going to his first birthday party of the school year. It's a bowling party at a local leisure park. He has only been once before and absolutely loved it. So we will be taking him there for the morning. Huge treat for him and I'm so happy.
In the meantime I want to pop into the large sports warehouse nearby and get myself a bright coloured shower proof cycling jacket. My old North Face coat is 7 years plus old and leaks at the cuffs and shoulders so is just no good in this current climate. Plus it's black. And i need to be more visible on the roads going into Autumn.
There is also a lovely library in the same area with a cafe so me and OH may go there and hang out for the rest of the party period.

Today I will be looking for other ways to make a PAD. I found a £1.65 brand match last night when I went wombling. So I took that off my shopping. Might do that off the CC.

Not so much a list as a ramble this morning DFWs

Bob

xxxJOJOxxx

Ziggy
You think they would message at least to say sorry there late but would it be ok to still come and collect, not just show up! How rude!

Bob
A whole weekend off sounds lovely! Make sure you make some time to rest too.


I'm sooo sleepy this morning. Had about 2 hours on the sofa last night. All week I've been struggling to sleep and function properly. Been having a nap about 6pm and no matter how hard I try I cant not myself from doing it...


* Walk to school/child-minders and bus for the last leg of journey to work
* Packed lunch for me and dd1
* All Lights/plugs etc off before work
* Smile & try and earn some tips
* Lift home from work
* Pay child-minder
* Top Up gas & Electric
* Pick up some snacks and a little bit of food for over weekend, as cupboards are fairly empty
* Charge phone at work
* Make use of free drinks at work
* Phone Doctors - see why there hassling me now
* OnePoll
*Check Online Banking
* Check emails
* Fill up empty coke bottle with juice so I don't buy a drink whilst passing through town


That's all I can think of right now, need more coffee. Have a great day everyone

Ratison

Morning Ziggy, Bob and JoJo. Ziggy, hope you have enough energy to get through the day after the late visitor! Bob - your weekend does sound lovely, and good news on the art festival. JoJo, I hope you feel ok too, sometimes I just fall asleep on the settee for no real reason - I don't even have children as an excuse!

Foxgloves and Bob - thank you for the bathroom advice earlier this week. We've had another guy out to do a quote (awaiting cost) who seemed far more amenable to us sourcing our own stuff, but checking out prices with him first to see if he can get it cheaper with trade. We'll have to crunch some numbers this weekend.

Otherwise a spendy day for me. OH is meeting me after work for tea, and I need to pick up a card and some drinks for a birthday party this weekend. I have a budget set for the weekend that I don't plan on going over!

Had some feedback on getting payment for some more private work I did, so if that comes back soon, it'll be good timing for the fund. I'm also doing some more private work currently, but at this rate, the money will be paid in around 2018!

I have a potentially well-paying nectar points survey (if I am eligible), so I'll try and get that done this morning. I find the e-rewards surveys to be far more tedious than I-say. But it would be great to add to my nectar points for Christmas, as they're much lower this year due to my love of Lidl!


Better get on with some real work. Have a great Friday all.

lego_mum

Morning all,

Thanks Ziggy for the start, OMG at your buyer!
Bob. Sounds like a lovely day planned for tomorrow
Jojo, At 6 tonight, I'd try playing loud music and dancing round with the kids to stop you having that nap that's disturbing your night.
Ratison - did you mention the"C" word....Nooooooooooooooooooooooo

Quick post from me as I need to leave shortly for the gym
So far I have done
* Washed a load on 30 degree quick wash
* Hung above load on the line
* Kids had ys brioche rolls for breakfast
* Walked the boys down to the bus stop
* Run the dishwasher on the quick was

Still to do....
* Gym - 40 mins walking done - also done 7000+ steps so got my points on bounts
* Check banks/update spreadsheet
* Hang kids swimming stuff on the line
* All meals from stores - need to decide on whats for tea
* Clean a few more stairs Hoovered but will give them a good go on Monday
* Ironing (if the clothes dry on the line)
* Check Rm surveys
* Check Luckyphone
* Check FPL
* Swag$s
* Talk to sis about shopping using shopit/cos
* Delete junk emails
* Continue catching up on Corrie via the itv player app on my phone using the wifi (2 1/2 weeks behind I think!)
* Surveys if any a yougov & pinecone done
* Sorted out the freezer, pulled out 3 packs of beef burgers, and the blackberries we picked last week. Weather forecast is good for the next few days so we'll plan to use these up. [
* Made a blackberry & rhubarb crumble (an over soft kiwi & nectarine in there too)

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for the start Ziggy. Amazed at the cheek of your freegler :eek: Not surprised though - I put a box of car boot bits free to collect on a local FB page yesterday, offered it to the first person to request it. She asked if I could just leave it outside. I was reluctant to do that as it was raining (again), and why could she not come to the door or drive round the back? 'I don't drive' came the reply, followed by 'I'm too busy today' and 'I only wanted x item from the box'. So presumably she was expecting to turn the box out all over my front garden and select the bits she wanted without even speaking to me? Some people :mad:

Anyway, the box is now going to the charity shop!

Good news on the free weekend and the arts festival Bob
Jojo, hope you are ok.

Right, list for today:
Find the instructions for the heating controller and turn it back off after baby GD managed to turn it on the other day. For some reason I have a ridiculous blind spot about it and have to use the instructions every time I want to change something. It is ridiculously complicated though :mad: Done, it was embarrassingly easy
Clean floors downstairs Just waiting for it to dry
Hoover stairs
Any surveys that are available A few for Onepoll, including one for Onepoll worth £1 and one for Pinecone
RM surveys tasks Done
Make a beef stew for dinner in the SC
Dehydrate some tomatoes as I am seriously running out of freezer space now :eek:
Pick any garden produce that is ready
Need milk and olive oil (for tomatoes) from Lidls

Must also moth protect and put away the 'posh' lounge rug (don't worry it was £25 from a junk market - but is an old Middle Eastern one ). Currently using a more expensive 'cheap' one from ebay, as I don't mind too much if the puppy chews that one!

Right, now to get on with some of it while the puppy is asleep!
Hope everyone has a good day

xxxJOJOxxx

Nice easy £1 survey on Onepoll right now.

determined_new_ms

Morning! Thanks for starting the thread ziggy. And how rude of the freecylcer! I sincerely hope he emails today to apologise!

Bob glad you've found a second wind to get through the day! Sounds like you have a lovely weekend planned! I love my time with dgd but also really looking forward to the years from about 4 when we will all be able to do more things. Right now at just 2 it is very toddler centric!

Ratison excellent news re the bathroom. I found when doing mine, shopping around for supplies saved us loads, as well as doing as much as we could ourselves. Also do you know anyone with a trade card? My brother has one so we were able to his and got a massive discount on the tiles. Our bathroom is tiny (so small we had to get a smaller than standard bath!) but we tiled it throughout, had lino laid (doesn't sound very nice but it is! Likes like slate laminate very "trendy"!), ripped out all of the fittings and installed a bath & minimalist (space saving ) toilet and we spent around £2200 on the whole job. We were lucky as my db was able to do the tiling and a lot of work for us so in the end paid about £400 for labour.

JoJo hope you get your energy back soon :A

Bailey's Babe thanks for the post about porridge I have book marked. Sounds like your porridge it a lot more delicious than mine!

Feeling a bit out of sorts today I've found this last week my mood has been quite up and down. I'll be ok in the day but in the evenings my mood can dip. I was like this for the first 6ish weeks after loosing my job & my mother dying but after going on holiday seemed to improve. Hopefully my mood will pick up today.

Am trying to keep it simple and focus on the few most important things and actually get them done well without feeling stressed or disappointed by the end of the day.

* checked banking
* tidied up the whole house and vacuumed while oh was still here so dgd was with him
* froze 1/2 a blackberry crumble as we won't eat it all today
* load of washing in machine and will put out. Bit overcast here but hopefully it won't rain (can't believe summer has gone so suddenly :eek:)
* make an amendment to ms report I did last night
* complete other ms report which I wasn't able to do yesterday but looks like I can now
* post ebay sales
* all meals from stores
* going to soft play later and meeting up with 2 friend's and their children for a playdate/catch up
* will take drink for dgd but might buy a coffee and a snack for dgd - tesco have fruitshoots on 1/2 price offer at the moment. I buy these and take them to places that sell them so it looks like we've bought it there this is a massive saving! They have cost me 18p a bottle and at the soft play they are £1.20 :eek:
* onepoll - so nearly there! Need £1.80 for the payout!
* start prep for interview on Wednesday. Hopefully dgd will have a nap after soft play and that will give me an 1 1/2 hours to get some done. Otherwise I will be doing it this evening...

Ok that's my lot! Have a great day everyone x

allydowd

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greensalad

So things still aren't looking up re: the banking situation Essentially I made a payment to a company for £202. They 'held' the payment as usual and posted the items. However, they charged only part of the order because the other bits are coming at a later date. So they took out £132 from my account, but the full £202 'hold' remained.

They've now taken further money from my account (they've withdrawn £153 in total so far) but the £202 hold STILL remains.

I'm hopeful that the amount will be un-held either soonish, or when the final item is delivered. But the final item might not be here until the 22nd September! So I'm not sure when they are going to release the held transaction.

Problem is I can't complain to the company because this purchase was on behalf of a friend and I don't want to get them in trouble

Apparently this isn't unusual. Apparently companies sometimes do this, for example the Sainsbury's pay-at-pump will hold the maximum £99 when you enter your card, then deduct the actual spend at a later date. How bad is that? If they don't return it immediately then you're down on money you never spent!