Saturday 9th January - What Small DFW-Style Things Will You Be Doing Today?

Bobarella

Hi All

Today so far I have:

1. Made a packed lunch for the 3 of us to take to son's dance class.
2. Also took water out with us to save temptation of expensive drinks.
3. Been to the bank to put some cash in.
4. Defrosted 2 mystery boxes from the freezer to use this weekend. One looks like pork and lentil stew. One I think is a butter bean and sausage meal.
5. Cooked a YS chicken bought for £2.69 instead of £4. Once it's cool I will divide it into meal portions and put away.
6. Will make chicken stock
7. Had a catch up with OH about any key dates coming up so we can be organised and on top of them
8. Having a quiet afternoon in. Our tea was some carrot cake I made that needed using up.
9. Husband is going to cut my hair once he finishes installing some software on the laptop. It's gotten so long lately and as I have straight thick hair it gets very heavy. Will feel like a new Bob
10. The cat hadn't really finished his breakfast meal of dry biscuits so I have reduced his evening portion accordingly. We have 2 other cats that come in and eat his food so no sense leaving even more for them.

NSD 6.

Bob

allydowd

I was thinking about what 100% free software I've been using for a while and can be relied upon. Here's a quick round-up:

Picasa: Free and simple photo editing software. Can also be used to turn your photos into a slide show with music in video format that works rather well with Facebook. (Link)

AVG Anti-Virus: Protects your computer from viruses and malware. (Link)

OpenOffice: Use instead of Microsoft Office. It takes up less space than M.O. and is less vulnerable to cyber attacks. You can still use it to open Microsoft Office files and you can save in Microsoft formats. (Link)

Sticky Notes: Free digital Post-It Notes for your computer's desktop. (Link)

IceDragon: A browser like Firefox on a diet, it's a very small program that doesn't take up too much memory. (Link)

allydowd

News:

* Santander123 fees go from £2/month to £5/month on Monday. Use this guide to decide whether the account is still worth having. (Link)

Offers:

* 15% off UK railcards code. (Link)

* 50,000 Megabus bus tickets for 50p each. (Link)

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone
Another busy but productive day. We did have a day off from the rain yesterday but its back again today with a vengeance...
Lots of love and hugs to all those needing them. Seems to have been a tough week all in all.

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Here's today's list[STRIKE]
check banking and PAD[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE] do at least one thing from the annoying list[/STRIKE] did a couple
[STRIKE] get ds to football[/STRIKE] dh did it :j
[STRIKE] get both kids to gymnastics[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE] get me and dh to hospital appointment this morning[/STRIKE] He's officially discharged now and next visit should be the CPN coming to the house to see us.
[STRIKE] do some crochet[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE] do some exercise[/STRIKE]
mark a set of exam questions cba
[STRIKE] hoover again (how has it gotten so dirty in here since 7pm yesterday?)[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE] plan the big batch cook[/STRIKE] not only planned, but finishing off in the oven as I type. Saves me time tomorrow.
[STRIKE] look on food rescue for recipe ideas[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE] make time for relaxing[/STRIKE] starting right now

ziggy2407

vickthestick wrote: »

Afternoon all,
I am really sorry if I upset anyone yesterday with the wedding dress/baby post. It wasn't my intention at all xx

Unless I missed something I don't think you upset anyone - don't worry this thread is an amazingly open and supportive place - we even have a facebook group (if anyone would like to join just send a private message to La E)

foxgloves

Greeting Weekend Frugalistas,
The main fiscal highlights of today are thus:
*Overspent this week's target grocery spend. Not unduly worried. Can do 2 more frugal shops for rest fof the month & hopefully still come in on budget. Bought sack of cat biscuits, stocked up spice cupboard & also on bargain coffee, but these are now items we shan't need to buy for a long time. If anyone else on here likes Taylor's Lazy Sunday Ground Coffee, Waitrose have it on offer at £1-74 a bag which is a good reduction. Forgot I'd selected it as one of my loyalty card 20% off items, so we actually paid about £1-40 a bag. bargainmongous!
*Bought birthday card for 39p, & such a nice one, too.
*Paid EE refund cheque into bank via post office (bank now shut on Saturdays)
*2 jobs done from my Annoying Things lists. One was a 'Fix it for free' task......I took to pieces & remade the double draught excluder we need across our lounge door. What a revelation that was. I paid £11 for it. Having taken it to bits & examined component parts, there was about 11p of fabric in it! And it was horrible. Chucked it out, re-covered with a vintage piece of 1980s furnishing fabric which had been in my stash for years & tightened up the construction so....fanfare.......it NOW FITS THE DOOR! Think had been designed by someone with limited knowledge of what a door looks like. Draughts cut massively. Other job was from List 2 - Annoying things that could be solved by a small spend of less than £10. Solved this one with a spend of 50p on a non-energy saving lightbulb. Light in 'Foxgloves HQ' had been badly flickering, impossible to work with. mr f reckoned it could be that the old dimmer switch fitted by previous residents who used room as nursery probably isn't compatible with our energy saving bulbs. Fitted old-style bulb. Problem appears to be solved.
*Updated grocery budget.
*Dropped charity shop bag off. Another big bag of stuff recycled rather than going to landfill or cluttering up our house doing b*gger all!
*Free Guardian courtesy of Waitrose loyalty card. One free coffee. Though I did treat mr f to a coffee. He should have been able to get a free one too, but he put his wallet in the car glove compartment, which then wouldn't open! He spent 10 mins in Waitrose car park trying to force it. It didn't break......which says a lot about the build of Suzukis as mr f is built like the proverbial brick outhouse (my preferred build in men, lol!) I tried picking the catch with a credit card, car key, etc, but no luck. So I squandered £1-95 of my money buying him some cheer-up caffiene. He did manage to break into it with a screwdriver once back home & we've decided not to risk using it again as mechanism has broken.
Relaxing night planned......want to start a new series on Amazon Prime & we're really enjoying re-watching 'Lead Balloon', which we both find really funny.
Must go now. The chef says dinner's ready.
Love to all,
f x

Bobarella

ziggy2407 wrote: »

Unless I missed something I don't think you upset anyone - don't worry this thread is an amazingly open and supportive place - we even have a facebook group (if anyone would like to join just send a private message to La E)

And the charity itself has been overwhelmed with donations apparently to the point they can't accept any more dresses at this time. It looks a wonderful cause. Thank you.

lego_mum

Vickthestick, I thought your post yesterday was great

ziggy2407

ziggy2407 wrote: »

Good Afternoon Everyone

Ally - Thanks for starting us off today.

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.

Quiet day planned as not much to do, so I will:

Pack Up for DH (only working 6.30 to 10.30) - Done
Check Banks - Done
Shopping with list - Done (although left list at home :rotfl:)
Dropped bag at Charity Shop -Done
Stew in SC - Done
Washing in - Done
DH & DS are going to Footie Match (DS bought the tickets for him & DH as part of Christmas pressie, he bought me an iPod - feel really blessed as he bought these from his own money that he'd been saving & also selling bits :A ) - Done
Spa at home for me - Done, only thing missing was a massage but I feel great
Enter a few comps - Done
All meals from cupboards/fridge/freezer -
Check https://www.freepostcodelottery.com - Remember there are now 5 chances to win - Done, not me
Check Lucky Phone - Done
Investigate links from Ally & CCL, we def need help with Science (me & DH so we can help/support DS) -
Read - Done (blog not a book tho)

Love to you all!

C x

Managed everything I'd planned. Keep up the great ideas you wonderful lot. Night all xx