Monday 1st Feb - What small DFW things will you do today?

crazy_cat_lady

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:

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all.
Another Monday has ticked around already. Hope it's a good one for all of you, and stay safe out there in storm Henry...
Here's today's list for me:
:undecided check banking and PAD.
:undecided update YNAB
:undecided Full day of teaching
:undecided mark a set of books
:undecided observed lesson
:undecided make time for me somehow (exercise or crochet)
:undecided aim for nsd
:undecided meals from stores
:undecided do not stress at work
:undecided load of washing
Think that's it... Have a good day all, and I'll see you later. :hello:

xxxJOJOxxx

Thanks for the start cat lady & good morning to everyone else!

Day off today, need to try & get on top of the house again, dd1 has trashed it again. Can't wait until it's not such a battle getting on top of housework. Some sucess with getting her to start popping the odd toy away.

Today's listy;

Pure Money
Check online banking tick
Life insurance sorted
Check all dd's & set up a couple of standard orders to feed a) car fund b)Disneyland just a few £'s each weeke
Set up budget for week, very tight has half wages due to illness

Home & Decluttering
List bed on everything available to clear
Old handbag sorted & popped in charity shop bag tick
Tidy upstairs
Tidy downstairs tick
Sort one cuboard/drawer
Washing, drying & put away
Pot one plant tick

All things old school
Make 'sunday roast' pie with l/o's, it's going to have everything in it tick
Lights off/switches off when not in use tick
Prep lunches for tomorrow
Walk not taxi if weather ok tick

Leisure & Entertainment
Ballet for dd1 tick

Italy fund
Onepoll - £38 keep eye on surveys throughout day tick
Pay in one of my jars of money tick
Check if cash back gone in nothing yet tick
List somthing for sale
Added to fund today; 54.90 total fund; £104.91

That's a start for now, better get on with the school run!

Baileys_Babe

Morning everyone

CCL Thank you for getting us started this morning.

Bob get well soon, wishing you a full and speedy recovery.

I'll be back later with my list, just the standard stuff.

ziggy2407

Good Morning All

CCL - Thanks for starting us off today
Bob - Sending love and hugs, you don't do things by halves, wishing you a speedy recovery

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.

Today I will

Stop worrying -
Packed lunch for DH & DS - Done
Pay Cheque into bank - Done
Craft -
Check Banks -
Bump all sale listings/freecycle/facebook -
Read -
Create my annoying list -
Continue purge on Emails -
Enter a few comps -
All meals from cupboards/fridge/freezer -
Check https://www.freepostcodelottery.com - Remember there are now 5 chances to win -
Check Lucky Phone - Done

Have a good day! Love to you all!

C x

determined_new_ms

Morning cat, JOJO & lego mum :wave: thanks for starting the thread cat :A hope you manage to not stress throughout the day cat x

Bob poor you! Hope you have a speedy recovery x

My house is a mess every morning JOJO & lego mum! I'm trying to get on top of it by doing an extra job each day, so things get tidier and the bigger jobs are done but by the time lo goes to bed I then lose any ability to be conscious of the mess

Had a head start on days jobs as dgd dropped moomin in the toilet so had to put the washing on quick. Have now hung it up and put another load in. Well the dryer is going to be on anyway later so thought might as well have it full Decided to quickly sweep the downstairs while oh was around and having breakfast with lo also tidied up the kitchen, put away washing up and froze a couple of items.

Small things for today:
[STRIKE]
* Need to go through the fridge, decide what we're going to eat and freeze some other bits
[/STRIKE]* lo moroccan stew for lunch & dinner as it needs using up! Will have it with some of the ys 13p noodles I got yesterday
* [STRIKE]put away washing basket of clothes - jeez it's never ending! I get on top of it and then before I know it it's unmanageable again![/STRIKE]
* check onepoll
*[STRIKE] send in expenses form to work - have already passed on the receipt[/STRIKE]
* Going to go for a walk in a bit and hopefully we will see some ducks to feed
* will nip in the coop while there and get milk and squash. Hoping to keep this week's groceries at sub £25 :T
* call up alleged broadband supplier and see !!!!!! is going on :mad: I applied to transfer to them months ago as my deal had run out with the current supplier and it is costing us £27 pm for phone & bb and the new supplier's deal is £12pm. But this has been going on for months now and we have easily spent an extra £75 on BB because of it. I think I'm going to send a complaint letter to see if they will give us some money back
* get forms for oh to renew passport - remind him to go and get his photos
* work tonight and will get tips & holiday pay so will make a pad to the overpayment pot :T Have hunted around the house and emptied my purse and put £7.50 in the pot :T It's quite addictive trying to find ways to make pads
* check for any ms ops - now I know my shift patterns will be easier to pick up
* photo some bits to stick on fleabay
* do 1 job from my annoying list - thanks Mrs F! :A

Ok that'll do for now

Foxglves I have a terrible confession and a pleading and apologetic request to make I went to get my knitting out and I can't find the pattern I've looked everywhere and suspect oh has thrown it out (as it was on the coffee table when I last saw it). Is there anyway you would either scan it to me if I give you my email or send again and I will give you some money to cover the postage & photcopying? Pretty pretty please and again am very sorry and frustrated about the situation x

maria3104

Morning all.
Get well soon Bob. Take care.
All quiet on the maternity unit with us. Now ds2 home full time I feel i can relax a bit and go back to being in support team. Lucky sheep. I do a mean water bucket but my epidural are a no win no fee solicitors gift. Thank good mess our sheep can't use a phone.
Training day at work today. I seem to spend so much time being trained and doing returns it isincreasingly harder to find time for clients.
Bought a sack of spuds and s sack of bird peanuts and some mixed corn this morning. Only £6 is food. Need to update signature.
Keep well everyone.
Maria

twiggy86

Morning gang!

Just caught up on the weekends thread before posting on here. Really feel like I need to make more effort over the weekend as don't feel like I achieved anything compared to you lot!

Bob - I hope you feel better soon.

Today I have/will:-
* Check banks
* Check FPL
* Make smoothies for breakfast
* Take mince out of freezer for dinner - half will do burgers fro tonight and probably make sheppards pie with the other half
* Take smoothie to work as was running very late today so didn't have time to drink it!
* Take lunch to work
* Update spreadsheet to reflect spends over the weekend
* Go for a run(?) - signed up for another run so really need to improve my fitness!
* Dinner from stores
* Sort out the mountain of clean laundry!
* Tidy living room
* Clean bathroom (although suspect this may get rolled over to tomorrow)

I think what I need is to actually have a routine to my cleaning rather than doing things as I think of them. So clean the bathroom on a Monday, bedroom on Tuesday etc. Hmmm - think this could be the way forward as I hardly live in a mansion!

Hope you all have a good day!

determined_new_ms

twiggy that's the whole point of the flylady thread - have you checked it out on the old style board? People who do it actually say over a few months it makes a big difference to their house. I think our troubles are both me and oh are naturally untidy and lazy! So after a certain point we stop seeing it until everything is a big mess!

Anyone else with wooden floors surprised by the amount of mess on the floor each day? I'm going to start getting in the habit of sweeping twice a day as think it'll make a big difference.

Ok time to stop frittering time away on the laptop! Have a lovely day eveyrone x

twiggy86

Thanks DNMS - I'll nip over and check that out! I echo your problem about both being naturally untidy and lazy. But I also like to blame it on lack of storage and living in a building site! (However those are really just excuses I tell visitors!)

lambda

Morning Everyone!

Not very happy it's Monday today. I really don't want to be at work today at all.

Had a reasonably productive morning and weekend.

This morning I have checked my bank balances and reconciled my budget on YNAB.

Yesterday we decided to go and give CostCo a try. The OH is working in the medical profession so we qualified for a membership. We also took her friend, as you can sign up an additional member on one card. The membership was £30 (including the VAT), and they halved the cost between them (so, £15 each). That's for a one year membership.

I have to say, I wasn't really blown away by it. We went because we were told it's so much cheaper than normal supermarkets and that you can buy everything in bulk. Well, I am not sold on that. For some items, it was actually a lot more expensive. Take mince, for example. In Aldi, I can buy a pack of 500g of mince for under £2. That makes it about £4 a kilo. Costco had mince for £6.99 a kilo! And they sell it in huge packs (like 2 kilo versions) so you think to yourself, 'oh, it's such a huge quantity, it must be cheap'. It's really not. Again, other chilled stuff is just not cheap at all. In fact, it's more expensive in a lot of cases.

We did, however, purchase some items that I thought were 'OK'. 40 packs of quilted loo roll for a tenner (and about the same again for the kitchen roll); 12 bottles of highland spring water for a fiver (we can't drink tap water where we are, so thought this was quite a bargain); massive jars of herbs (you get 200g for the price of 30g in the supermarket); cleaning wipes and a few other bits and pieces.

I'd say, in conclusion, that it's good if you buy things like washing powder (very cheap to buy a huge box of the stuff), things like loo roll, some frozen stuff is cheaper. Everything else you have to be quite careful I'd say.

Anyway, back to business. My car seems to be driving really good at the moment. I had some problems with it before christmas, but all seems to be repaired now. Almost 109,000 miles on it and still going very strong. I'm a firm believer in keeping cars well maintained, fixing issues as soon as they arise and doing preventative maintenance, and the car will run forever. Although I get sick of the 'when are you going to buy a new car' question that is asked to me 100 times a day by family members.

Nothing much else to report really. Horrible weather as usual.

Oh, one last thing. I subscribed to YNAB at last. If I did it before end of January I locked myself in to a 10% discount for life. I figured it was totally worth it. I understand how business work, they need money to survive and the product is good and it does the job well. So I paid it. $45 for a year is about £31. Considering how much it is has saved me in terms of cash but also in my mindset it is a bargain really.