Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th September 2015 - What small debt free things will you do to

Bobarella

When we start our debt free journies we focus our energy on doing the big things. Cancelling the gym, sky membership, & eating out are some of the main ones. But this can be a long haul commitment for many of us. Along the way we need to realise the power of the small things. Packing our own lunch. Taking a water bottle out with us. Cycling instead of taking the car for short journies. Dropping to a lower level brand at the supermarket. Picking up and using money you find on the street. Looking for reduced cost food at the end of the day at the supermarket to trim your budget. There are 1001 ways you can make the small things add up to help get you, & keep you debt free. That is what this thread is about. So come and join in with your own small things.

Bobarella

Good morning All

It's a chilly start here in South London. Am onto my 2nd coffee of the day. Our day started at 5.30 when my 6 year old decided he was awake and no amount of 'it's before 6 go back to sleep' worked. I don't mind really. I'm awake and on here, OH is snoozing, child is watching cartoons.

I've been over to the Payment a Day thread where I am volunteer counter upper this month to see how much was pledged yesterday & report on that. It's incredible how motivating the concept of shifting a small amount daily is. Anyone who is finding it a struggle might want to join in. So far I have managed to find another £30 after already paying off £130 on pay day. And I've targeted myself to find £300 extra in total this month so I'm 10% there.

Anyway onto the list
1) have son make a card for his friends birthday. Instead of a shop bought card. Nicer. And a saving of up to £3. - Done
2) Walk down to the retail park and look for a gift for the birthday girl up to £5 in value - Done. Found a sweet craft gift for £3.
3) Wrap using some paper from the never ending bag of kept wrapping paper. You know your a womble when you get excited at your own child's birthday party because of all the lovely new paper for your stash - Done
4) Take bread out of the freezer. I now have an entire draw just of YS (yellow sticker) bread items that I have paid pennies for. Recently I added 3 Hovis loaves that I picked up for 20p each. 1 loaf at full price is over a £. - Done
5) Feed cat from enormous pet food sack purchased using extra nectar point voucher at start of month. Cost per kilo is pennies compared to buying the 825g boxes at £2 a pop each week.-Done
6) Have to take the tube later. First time in several months. Will be putting the exact amount on my oyster rather than buying a travel card. And no balance sitting on it for months at my expense.
7) Enjoying free leisure time at the fantastic library near my son's birthday party. It is one of the last brand new ones built about 3 years ago. Has all mod cons including huge film library. If we get enough library books out you get free DVD hire. Worth looking into for anyone in London. -Done
8) Tackling small housework jobs - clean bathroom. Hoover house
9) Main meal to be a cheap pasta bake tonight. Probably tuna and cheese with veggies.
10) Looking for any coupons, roadkill (found money) & any thing else I can turn to my advantage

Have a great day everyone.

Bob

thriftychick

Happy weekend everyone!

Off to the allotment this morning to dig up the potatoes, don't think they've done that well this year, too cold.
Pegging out the washing as the sky is blue.
Freezing runner beans which are growing at a phenomenal rate.
NSD today, spent a small fortune on petrol and food in August, always more expensive with everyone at home.
The shops are filling up with Christmas stuff already so will buy one food/drink item a week for the Christmas cupboard.

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 )
• LuckyPhone free lottery with loyalty rewards (Link) New! Thanks, LegoMum.
  
• 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".

Suggestions to add to this list welcome.

allydowd

Morning DFW-ers,

Thanks for the starter Bob. I'd love to explore some of the other threads but I just don't have time.

I can proudly announce that Operation Happiness and Sanity was a success. My mind has calmed and I'm back to normal. I think cutting back on caffeine and being so busy helped.

Also relieved to announce that Fridge-mageddon is over and it now smells of 'nothing' as it should. The old me would've bought a new fridge. I meant to say that when I cleaned the glass shelves in the fridge with boiling hot water I took them out of the fridge and let them come back up to room temperature before exposing them to boiling water, otherwise I risked fracturing the laminated glass!

Nillionaire Month Three:

* Checked Finances online.

* Free ParkRun this morning. (Link)

* We were going to go to the Scottish Air Show down in Ayr today and watch the skies from a slight distance avoiding the entrance fee. However, the Police say there'll be traffic chaos in the area from 80,000 visitors so we are going to the second weekend of the Viking Festival down the road where there'll be a smaller air display for free. Ayr is an hour away so we'll save on fuel too. We toyed with going to the Lomond Food and Drink Festival but we haven't actually any spare cash for food so that would be kinda pointless and there are food stalls to drool over at the Viking Festival.

* Take coffee to festival and don't buy any trinkets.

* Check broadband allowance.

* Limit caffeinated drinks to three milk coffees today.

* Turn alarm clock off at the wall til tonight.

* Watching "Eat Well For Less" on iPlayer. Oh my!

* Job-seeking tasks.

* Went to petrol station and they offered me a free fancy car-wash as they wanted to test the machine. I said "yes". That was 'worth' £6.50.


Thought for the day:

"There are people who have money and people who are rich." Coco Chanel.


Have a good day all.

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for the start Bob. Reading the posts from yesterday, I cycled almost to the end of my pregnancy with DD2. My GP happened to be driving through the village about a week before she was born (she was a couple of weeks early), saw me, stopped and suggested it might be time to stop though :rotfl:

Well, up at 6, cleaned up puppy's messes and washed the floor. I am going to try him in the kitchen tonight (stopped him howling all night by allowing him to sleep in the lounge :eek:). He is now shut out in the conservatory / garden and doesn't seem to mind.

Other jobs for today:
Extra babysitting duties today, but only from 10 - 3 Done, phew!
Might take baby to our small town's food festival (she is into food, and there will be music / free kids activities too ) Done, but she fell asleep and missed it :rotfl:
Walk for free exercise and to avoid using fuel Done
Pick the few raspberries and blueberries that are ready - she will probably eat those too :rotfl: Done, and yes, she did eat them
Must get dehydrator going later for these tomatoes :eek:
Put away nice rug out of puppy's way
Get cash from machine while in town Asked for cashback at the checkout in Sainsburys, but unfortunately the cashier was distracted by the customer in front of me walking out without paying for her shopping :eek: (I think due to age related memory problems as opposed to dishonesty) and after all the formalities that demanded forgot to give me the cash. And I was distracted by GD and forgot to pull her up on it I didn't realise till this afternoon when I went to my purse and realised that she had given me only a receipt and a voucher. I went back to customer services, and was very embarrassed, thinking they might suspect I was trying it on :eek: At the very least, I assumed they would take my name and address and deal with it later, when they reconciled the till, but no, the assistant simply filled in a form and gave me the cash :eek:
Make a nice Thai chicken curry for dinner tonight

Hopefully I will achieve more, but no point in being too ambitious while baby is here.

Received £50 payout from Yougov

Hope everyone has a good day

Bobarella

Ally- totally get it. And I was writing more with the occasional readers in mind. I think at the weekends there are more likely to be new users reading than during the week. I didn't discover the challenges or the diaries section for probably over 3 years of site usage! And as you are part of the ever growing group of amazing folk who have chopped the chains of debt (& wear the coveted red lock badge, which makes me get a bit Gollumy -'my precious' I WANT one!' PAD is less relevant anyway. Have a wonderful day out

Dawn - that is very inspirational to hear. Well done you! TBH I don't do it as any big statement thing. It really is the easiest and most direct way of getting to and from work,school etc. And I am still scratching my head about how transport generally is going to work going forwards. Glad the pup has settled down a bit. Enjoy DGC.

Thrifty - I think everyone has been saying the same about how having the kids off is so much more expensive. So your not alone

allydowd

Bobarella wrote: »

And as you are part of the ever growing group of amazing folk who have chopped the chains of debt (& wear the coveted red lock badge, which makes me get a bit Gollumy -'my precious' I WANT one!' PAD is less relevant anyway. Have a wonderful day out

Gollumy....that made me laugh. Won't be long Bob.

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.

Gosh, I am really, really tired, the last couple of days have been a real struggle to get out of bed Today's little list:

Party this evening for OH's sister -
Packed lunch for DH - Done
Investigate "Bounts" (thank you Lego mum) -
List few more bits on Freegle -
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 weekend, love to you all

C x

determined_new_ms

Morning guys thanks for starting the thread today Bob

Today is again going to be a relatively simple day trying to get a couple of the most important things done rather than loads!

* post 2 ebay sales
* while out pop to Lidl for their weekend deals
* work on presentation for interview next week - oh taking dgd out later to give me time to work on this. Have been working on preparation for interview questions since I'd had my first coffee at 5.45
* all meals from stores
* refund ebayer as there was an issue with something I'd sold was listed as being from principals when it isn't. I contacted her when I realised before sending so wasn't out of pocket postage costs
* bottle of wine tonight (from stores) and play new board game oh picked up a couple of weeks ago

ok that's me. Gonna get on x

Baileys_Babe

Morning

Bob Thank you for getting us started.

I didn't even manage to read the thread yesterday let alone post.

Today:
Open curtains fully to make the most of the light and heat
Report in on the weekly spends challenge
Catch up on yesterday's thread
LSD
Meal plan
Write shopping list
Go shopping and stick to list
Post on this thread for support, motivation and inspiration
Close curtains before it gets dark
Turn off lights and appliances not in use
Post letter today so it can go 2nd class
Take meter readings
Submit meter readings
B/L/D from stores
make bread
Check and reconcile bank accounts
Soak porridge overnight
Set DW to run overnight
Set WM to run overnight
Check FPL
Make card
Educate children for free
Entertain children and us for free
Project toothpaste tube 7/16
Dry laundry outside
Cull 100 emails
Pick blackberries
Make limoncello

Hope everyone has a good day, off now to enjoy my first cuppa of the day and to read today's thread.