Monday 7th 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:

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning, not feeling very well this morning so have rung in sick. Very rare that I miss work and I always feel a bit guilty.

Anyhow not going to move from the sofa so won't be spending anything! Will get OH to hang washing out before he goes to work and i have an Asd@ order coming later so at least everyone else can eat! Will check online banking in a bit and chase up wages for 2nd job if I haven't been paid.

Have a good Monday everyone.

determined_new_ms

Morning ziggy & yourshirelass! Thanks for starting the thread ziggy. Hope you're feeling ok today and are able to enjoy your day of complete rest. Your health is worth much more than a tidy house!

Hope you feel better today as well yorkshirelass! Try not to feel guilty for having the day off, if you hardly ever have any time off then it's fair enough to take some time to get well!

Very pleased with myself for showing some restraint on Saturday and not letting my emotional state take control of my credit card. My mood was very low (really just having such mood swings at the moment ) and I wanted to "treat" myself to a dressing gown & lunch out (I had a hankering for Thai food ), found dressing gown in TK Maxx and a jumper I liked as well = £40. Decided I would give it a few days to think about whether I really needed/wanted these items. Also decided to get a Thai green curry ready meal from Lidl (and delicious it was too!) rather than going to a restaurant. So all in all I saved myself about £53.51 by not making emotional purchases :T

Things for today:

* onepoll
* checked banking
* updated spending diary
* investigate how to repair washing machine
* put presentation together and onto powerpoint. Will present it to oh this evening to see how it flows and any changes/additions/reductions needed
* all meals from stores
* take dgd to local park for free fun
* might actually make the blackberry wine today
* take load of washing to ex-mil's for her to do for me :A will do it this morning so I can get it on the line & dry

Ok that's all I need to do. Have a great day x

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for starting the thread Ziggy, and hope you are better soon.
Yorkshire Lass, hope you soon feel better too - hope this isn't going to be a theme today :eek:

Today's list:
*Get OH to help me put away the nice rug (please kick me up the behind if I mention this again!) Done :T
*Washing on line to dry Done
*Clean spare bedroom/ ensuite after brother stayed over the weekend Half done
*Make up spare bed with clean linen for other brother who is staying over Tuesday night, and will travel with us to our Uncle's funeral on Wednesday Not done yet
*Walk to town to look in on sales unit and do some other errands Done, had quite a few sales over the weekend and again today :T
*Remember to renew library book to avoid a fine :eek: Done, must get on and finish it now!
*Pick more tomatoes Done
*Make more tomato sauce (I seem to have freed up a bit more space in the freezers :T Done, but not frozen yet, as OH's friend appeared with an enormous fish and that is now in there :eek:
*Finish drying batch of tomatoes and once dehydrated, store them away in jars of olive oil A huge bowl of tomatoes filled the dehydrator, and will yield 3 small jars of dried tomatoes in oil (so it does concentrate them down a great deal). I mostly use them in recipes that could do with a concentrated tomato hit! Done
Meals from stores (not a NSD though as I need more olive oil from Lidls) Done
*Any surveys that are available Did a few for Onepoll
Painted a nice wooden chest for my sales unit, just needs waxing tomorrow and it can go down
DD appeared with baby GD. We went to feed the ducks at the park (baby's favourite activity, but only if she gets to eat some of the bread :rotfl:) Then she played with the bowl of soapy water on the patio that I had got ready to clean some items for selling on. Got very wet, but it was a warm day, so no harm done. Then Grandad bought us all ice creams :T (the bowl of water came in very handy to clean up after that :rotfl:)
Puppy party this evening at the vet's. Pup was a bit overwhelmed at first as he is by far the smallest (he weighs less than 1.5 kilos at 12 weeks old). He got a little bit braver towards the end though :rotfl: Now fast asleep!

I am sure there is more, so I will pop back later to update.
Hope everyone has a good day

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".

allydowd

Mornin',

Trying to be 'disciplined' and do all the stuff I don't wanna do first today and no beggering about on the internet first!

I'll be back to post later!

twiggy86

Morning all!

Haven't read this weekend thread yet so hope everyone is ok.

Yorkshire Lass, hope you feel better soon.

Today I have/will:-
* Check banks
* Take curry out of freezer for dinner
* Pay £1.31 received from QC off CC
* Take lunch to work
* Update spreadsheet, signature and snowball
* Write meal plan
* Write shopping list
* Shop to list on lunch break
* Upload receipt for 1p!
* Earn more on OnePoll
* Go for a run after work
* Dinner from stores
* Make lunch for tomorrow as got to be in work for 6.30am
* More crochet!

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

maria3104

Hi All

Had a lovely weekend, back in work now and have a lengthy list of work tasks that will keep me busy to the end of the month!

Also need to clean kitchen, iron, do meal plan for next 2 weeks, process VAT.
Have a good day all.

M x

greensalad

Ah back to work for another week! The ongoing saga with my bank is due to reach it's end soon. The payment that company took from me will be released by Wednesday morning because the company won't have claimed it. Phew. So hopefully I'll have the £200 I'm owed firmly back in my bank account! I'll be paying off £200 of it straight onto credit card which is a nice feeling and will push me to 60% paid off! Just got to rip through that last 40% before the end of the year.

Also this year I might have had a splurge sort-of and purchased a new phone on contract. I was saving for the same phone, and I realised that if I got the phone on contract it would cost barely more than the cost I was planning on saving, I think about £100 worth of 'interest' over the next 2 years. It seemed like a good decision and I'm happy I've got the phone now rather than later when my old one breaks and I'm stuck without one.

Any way onto today

:starmod: [strike]Shake for breakfast, fast day today[/strike] Accidentally ate cookies! Gave up and had a salad for lunch. Still have shake for dinner (still less calories than normal!)
:starmod: [strike]Reconcile YNAB[/strike] All in good order except the missing £200
:starmod: [strike]Renew railcard[/strike] and managed to get £3 off
:starmod: Work on trouser pattern this evening (drafting my own pattern to sew well fitting trousers!)

Also some good news. Though I haven't had a letter or anything yet, Barclays have refunded the account fee they charged and refunded £25 into my account 'with our apologies'. Awaiting a letter to see if they will hold up to my request for a free account for 6 months. If not I'll go elsewhere.

Got a letter back from healthcare company saying £46.50 should be with me in a few days. Will part-pay for my next dentist appointment next week (£18 or whatever the lowest band is).

Weekend is all planned up and won't be toooo expensive. Meeting a friend in London in the morning and going for breakfast at the members room of the V&A which is discounted for us. Then off to the shoe exhibition which is free for us. Then we'll be visiting Goldhawk Road to buy fabric for which I have set aside £40 and written a list of a few possible purchases. Then on to Oxford Street to spend the free £100 of vouchers I was given by a friend, and home! Cocktails from our extensive bar, BF is cooking a pork joint and then Sunday we're going out to hunt down sloes to make gin in time for Christmas.

I'm also waiting on that £60 refund from Southern Water so I'm at £158 income from complaining in the last month.

twiggy86

Hmmm - just had a thought. My CC is currently interest free for about another 2 years. Any payments I make off my CC I actually make off my CC (if that makes sense!) I know interest rates are abysmal but should I just make the minimum payments and save the money in my ISA and then pay it all off in one go - i.e. gaining a small amount of interest on it?

greensalad

twiggy86 wrote: »

Hmmm - just had a thought. My CC is currently interest free for about another 2 years. Any payments I make off my CC I actually make off my CC (if that makes sense!) I know interest rates are abysmal but should I just make the minimum payments and save the money in my ISA and then pay it all off in one go - i.e. gaining a small amount of interest on it?

Is the small gain in the interest worth it for you emotionally? It's the financially sensible thing to do but personally I find I'd often rather have the money paid off and gone even if it means foregoing a tiny amount of interest.