Thursday 31st December - 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 are important. :money:

allydowd

MONEY MAKING AND SAVING SITES AS OFTEN MENTIONED IN THIS FORUM:

• Benefits check-up ( Link )
• Coupon Shop Forum list of money-off coupons (Link)
  
• eBid ( Link )
  
• Freecycle ( Link )
• Free Postcode Lottery ( Link )
• FreeStuff ( Link )
  
• FreeUKStuff ( Link )
• i-Say Surveys (Link)
• Jack-At-A-Pinch, cheap recipes ( Link )
• List of online newspapers. At bottom of the linked page. ( Link )
• LuckyPhone free lottery with loyalty rewards (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)

Revised 31 Oct 2015.

allydowd

Hi all,

The rain is pouring down outside so I'm grateful to have finished my last shift of the year and be home in my thick dressing gown. Our area is soggy but most people's properties are ok.

And today is PayDay.


* Paid the bills then added to the Australia Fund. Paid the last Council Tax bill til April.

* Exchanging greetings with family and friends via Facebook for free.

* Have an offer of going to a party tonight with work colleagues. Undecided...will probably stay in.

* We have been using the credit card to buy everything and then immediately paying it off. We've another £8 of loyalty rewards due to us which is great. Money for virtually nothing.

* I've spend nothing this week, aside from on bills!

* Left over soup after nightshift.

* Decide what I'd like for my birthday. I'd quite like new sunglasses. Mine are broken. Will shop around though.

* Freeze candle before burning to prolongue its life.


Enough about me. What about you guys?

Bobarella

Morning All

Ally - Loving that Aus fund hope the rain won't bother you too much.

So today is the big financial shuffle and bill paying day in our house. Logged on from bed to start it all off
I have now paid £130 off my credit card for the month. I want to make it £225 in total so essentially I need to find another £95 to do that. I am planning to re list a lot of my husbands comic books on ebay as we have so many to shift and this is a stalled project from pre baby.
If I stick to this amount I will be clear of debt by next Christmas. .I'd like to do it sooner and think I can but this is a steady amount to try and find I think.

After we got home from our trip to the in laws I got bread out of the freezer which I'd frozen before we left. It sounds stupid but I've only really started using the freezer properly in the last year. I'd never have thought of saving a loaf and would have just binned it. Why??

I did the 3 loads of washing that had built up, hung them on the drying rack.

Have got the savings books organised to take into town today and pay Christmas money into the children's accounts.

Put all the change in my pot from the kitchen into my bag to spend. £10 in total. I will use that for a treat at some point.

Put £10 into our hope to go on holiday at some point pot. This is one of my aims for 2016. We can't afford to save for it properly whilst clearing debt but the odd £10 can go to it and we'll see what it amounts to. We have both said whatever we save well tailor a holiday or short break too. Someone has recommended me holiday pirates so I've put that app on my phone.

We have a dental appointment for my son today and inoculations for the baby so that's all got to be fit in. Hope it will be ok.

Right have a good day all.

Bob

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for starting the thread Ally - it is pouring with rain again here too, but similarly, properties and businesses are ok at the moment despite the sogginess and occasional flooded road due to either drains being unable to cope or in some cases the water running out of the fields onto small roads.

Didn't manage to check back yesterday, and didn't manage to achieve everything on my list, so some repeats here

Get OH to help me put the Christmas tree out in the garden. It will need repotting but it is too wet again today to do that
Take down rest of Christmas decorations and put them away
Dog walks x 2
See to hens
Unload business stock from my car if only it stops raining for a short while
HM meals from stores, a pie and a lamb tagine to make today (not just for today I hasten to add, will sort meals for a few days for the 3 of us - my brother is still here
Check over fruit in bowl to see if anything needs freezing (citrus gets frozen for marmalade making, bananas for cakes, apples chopped up and stewed etc - only thing I can't think of anything to do with apart from feed to the hens is grotty grapes)
Sort out remaining unused Christmas cards and wrapping paper and put away for next year (and see if I will need to buy any reduced cards in the sales when I am in town)
Go to post office to send postal survey items - I have huge stockpiles of these at the moment
Make hair appointment for next week as my hair is driving me mad (thick unruly mop :eek:)

Well, that should keep me busy for a bit
Hope you all have a good day
And that the new posters / regular lurkers decide to join us again today :hello: - honestly, no list is too boring, see above for details :rotfl:

(And special thoughts for DNMS and her DD :grouphug:)

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
Well I'm back from my very relaxing break with renewed determination to get back on the wagon and not beat myself up about the past fortnight or so - other things have just gotten in the way. And although it didn't look possible right up until Christmas Eve I have had the best Christmas I can remember for ages.
We are going away again for NY tonight - it's all very MSE though, visiting a friend and staying overnight in a cheapo hotel. No late night partying though, dinner, early night and then a relaxing, family day tomorrow.
And with a few days off comes a HUGE list of things to do.
:heartsmil check banking and sort out Jan budget
:heartsmil cook up the rest of the leftovers and meal plan the weeks ahead
:heartsmil minimise heating use
:heartsmil get dh back to the hospital to check in and for review meetings
:heartsmil go to a cheap shop and get a few grocery essentials plus 3 things that I always get for Christmas but didn't this year (due to dh being in hospital) - diary, calendar and slippers...
:heartsmil get to my friend's house later
:heartsmil sew together crocheted unicorn, which is a present for my friend's dd - so I can't leave that for much longer...
:heartsmil 15 mins declutter - I have loads of stuff.
:heartsmil spend some quality time on here
So, I'm going to get on and get started with completing a catch up on here.
:beer:

allydowd

Wee money saving ideas from the news:

* Irn Bru. (Link)

* Train fares (Link)

* New fee-free basic bank accounts (Link)

* Free London transport tonight (Link)

maria3104

Morning all.
Been up since 5! Done lots of cheap rate machine operations. Love it.
Meat cooked for tonight.
Off to work now and it should be a nsd.
Thank goodness the awful storms have missed us in the main. Minor damage but nothing too bad.
Wish you all a healthy happy and debt free 2016.
Those who have been around a long time will know I have been dreading jan due to a massive bill load and much smaller income. Well it will still happen but I hope with a much smaller deficit than first dreaded. Having a budget has really helped me plan and control my spending ready for this carp 3 months ahead.
Good luck all.
Maria xx

determined_new_ms

Morning guys :wave: thanks for starting us off ally & kudos on the Aus fund, it really is mounting up :T do you guys have an idea of when you are going to go?

maria hope the next 3 months are a little easier than you are fearing x

Thank you all for your supportive comments yesterday. Ziggy your comment was just so soothing & what I needed to hear so thank you. Things still continue to be difficult. Right now she is hurting and in the blaming me for everything that is wrong in her life phase, which is so painful. It's really hard to be supportive of someone who is suffering when they are saying so many hurtful things to you

Anyway keeping things simple helped yesterday, as well as a short meditation to help calm emotions a couple of times & a 3 hour nap.

This morning we are going out for a walk in the woods with my best friend and her family so need to get a move on in a minute.

Will be a lsd as need to get milk - no other spends other than that

Hang up washing done yesterday

All meals from stores

ys salmon out of freezer for tea & beef joint for tomorrow

flylady bedrooms

work this evening.

Ok that's my lot. Happy New Year to you all xx

allydowd

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Morning guys :wave: thanks for starting us off ally & kudos on the Aus fund, it really is mounting up :T do you guys have an idea of when you are going to go?

Nope! 2016 is as far as we've got...:rotfl:

rising_from_the_ashes

Morning all thanks for the start Ally and great to see so many people around.

Had a busy morning - been up about 3 hours now - but it's taking ages to get anything done as my back is still a nightmare

Was cold & frosty first thing and is now lovely & sunny so hoping for a nice walk somewhere

Small list for today:

• Leave purse at home - don't need anything so aiming for a NSD
• Strip bed, wash & hang done
• Sort & put out recycling done
• Walk dog somewhere nice
• Check banks
• Meals from stores
• Do some colouring
• Sort through books to read
• Get home, have a nice soak in the bath, pjs on nice & early ..... wee glass of wine with my dinner & put my feet up & find something to watch on TV

Have a lovely day everyone