Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th April - What small DFW things will you do today??!

lego_mum

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:

Bobarella

Morning All

Thanks for the start Legomum hope your teeth are ok now? Your dh sounds like he's pushing it a bit on the heating ours has been off a month almost now. I can't wait for the next request for meter reading as I know we will have saved around £50 to £70. That said I am currently sitting in bed to keep warm as it's freezing this morning...

Well. We are out of bread this morning which I didn't know as OH makes the morning toast usually and his lunchtime sandwich. It's fine. We usually have quite a good system of him letting me know when things run out so we had crackers and marmite instead.

Things that are lingering on my to do list

1. Sort out a sim only deal now my phone is out of contract. That was the 11th so I am a bit slow off the mark. We will do both of our phones at the same time which would make quite a difference so what's stopping me?
2. DS had like all kids born then, a £500 child trust fund from the governement. We paid into it for a while but the performance was rubbish. Having stopped contributions over 2 years ago it was worth £2,000 last year, the annual statement showed it to be £1982 this year. I really need to move it. We also invest in a Baillie Gifford product for him which has done very well. I am wondering if they'd let us merge the two. Note to self...
3. Weed the garden. This is a major frog. We have a small front garden but the back is enormous. I feel like all I ever get time to do each year is keep the front tidy and weed the back by the time the weather gets cold again. It is a funny garden. Herbs like it. But vegetables won't grow in the Borders and they are so long the cost of putting plants into both sides would be ridiculous...so anyway. If it warms up a bit I will task myself with doing 1 or 2 hours on the front this weekend. DD allowing.

Need to buy my mum a birthday card and get that posted. And nappies are on the list this weekend too. Pampers sent me a £2 off coupon, usually use own brand nappies from Mr T or Mr S but I will check and see if the coupon would give me anything worth doing.

I have a free card to get a coffee from Macds from all my wombled beans so will be taking that up too..

Rather a rambling post this morning, good to let all the thoughts out into the page though.

Have a great day everyone.

Bob

PurpleFairy26

Morning all, thanks for starting us off Legomum hope your DS grading goes well. I was poorly last night so my night out with a friend was very cheap indeed as there was no way I could eat :rotfl:

My today will mainly look like:
Check banking, update YNAB, check surveys and FPL.
Show hubby how YNAB works
Got free sample of a product to test though the post - will be used today
Quick tidy round
Hopefully can get some washing that is currently on airer on line
DD to swimming lesson
Both smalls to dancing
Quiet evening, aim for early night as yesterday wiped me out a bit
Investigate sheds and measure how big the space is where we want want and think about what we might need for laying a solid base for it.

Think that's about all, have a good day everyone. PF

PurpleFairy26

Hi Bob we cross posted. Loving your total reducing dramatically

crazy_cat_lady

Morning everyone :hello:
I can already tell how today will go because I read that your ds was doing karaoke grading Legomum :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Restless night, but more rational and less exhausted than I was yesterday so that's good. I have a cough starting and don't feel physically great, but thankfully I don't have too much planned for today.
Bob - both of mine have CTF and I've been meaning for ages to look into converting them into ISAs but have never gotten round to it. Naughty me.
So today's plans are a bit selfish but yesterday was horrendous for me in terms of running about so I really want to relax a bit.
:cheesy: Check banking and PAD
:cheesy: Stay on top of washing up, washing and hoovering.
:cheesy: Get the kids to do other house chores as I ran round for 4 hours after them last night
:cheesy: Try and find a milkman. DH is drinking so much milk it's ridiculous and he never thinks to replace it so I'm looking for a bit of a time saver
:cheesy: Start a shopping list for the big online shop next week (payday on Friday)
:cheesy: Visit my mam later for tlc and a free feed
:cheesy: Get some crochet done - I have a few projects on the go and am starting to fall behind.
:cheesy: Marking - I'm less than half way through these test papers, which is a bit depressing but I suppose that will be my frog for the weekend.
:cheesy: Get ds to gymnastics
:cheesy: Get my 7000 steps for Bounts (find this much more difficult at the weekend)
:cheesy: Aim for nsd, but I may have to go to B M later to get stuff
:cheesy: No heating - even though it's only 5 degrees here If I would get on and finish some of these blankets I've started then it would be a happy and warm day :rotfl:
Have a good day everyone :j

Bobarella

Thanks PF I have to put it down to the stretch target concept which I began in earnest last summer. I work out what I can pay off then I fix a new number of my dream target for the month. I have been managing through extreme frugality to hit it often. But it has been hard work.
I don't think I will make much of a dent in May as we have a few grenades coming that will reduce our available funds. But as of Monday I will have paid off 50% of the £2,700 I started out owing in January which works out repayments of around £326 a month I think. If I can keep that going I ought to be DF by September instead of December. But only time and will power will tell.

LegoMum here's a thought. Draw out £50 and put it somewhere visible. Then work out how much you'd save daily by not having the heating on and show him that the £50 stays in your pocket instead of the energy companies or something like that. Men are visual creatures aren't they.

CCL & LegoMum I will let you know if I find anything useful on the CTF moving front.

Bob

Bobarella

lego_mum wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion Bob, If I left money visible we'd be tempted to spend it but I think I've come up with something that will work better with DH to get him warm .....nudge nudge wink wink

Also thanks for asking after my teeth, I was still taking painkillers yesterday but as yet none today which is definitely positive

CCL I struggle to hit the 7000 steps on a weekend too, I must try harder!
Re - milk, Could you have a supply of long life carton milk in stock? I get mine from lid! and use it as and when we run out of our usual milk.

Ha ha ha:rotfl::T

Bobarella

Just been having a read about a lady who is making £3,000 a month on side hustles and has quit her day job plus paid for a 30k wedding in cash. The comments? All about her weight. People can be so cruel. I have just read a few of her articles and she is brilliant.

System

Morning everybody. Yesterday was a busy day, so didn't get time to post.
So today went food shopping first thing and OH came with me...I hate it when he does that as I always end up spending more than I intended.:mad: He somehow talked me into buying him a botttle of beer in Aldi, that wasn't on my list and then I weakened and bought a plum tart thing, just because it looked so good, was only £1.49, but that is still money I needn't have spent. ....Actually ended up spending £32, when my target was £25! On the other side of the coin though, we popped into Sainsbury's as they do cheap Earl Grey decaf t bags, that OH drinks and I had £2.50 in points to redeem so that wasn't too bad.
Washing is on the line after a 30' wash and OH is having a clear out in the garage and cleaning the fish pond. Probably do a tip run later.

So a few more items to FB and ebay and reduce the ones that aren't selling and then sort out some more stuff to do a car boot in a couple of weeks.
Try and do some more surveys
Sat here with a blanket round me as it is sooo cold and I refuse to put the heat on.
Everybody have a good day.:)

sandalsandsocks

Hi DFWs!

I've been following this forum for a short time and finally got motivated to make an account and get involved. I love how supportive everybody is and I hope I can also return that along the way :j

@Bobarella - I read that article too and checked out her blog. Its brilliant, and really shows what you can achieve with the motivation and right attitude. £3000 a month, a girl can dream!

I'm gearing myself up for next month's "£10/day challenge" but in the meantime here's my DFW for today.

(I'm a Brit living in the NL so there's sometimes a bit of a cross-currency mismatch )


- Earned 166 SB
- Registered for a product testing site and a trial (The Insiders I don't know if they have a UK site but seems to be all over Europe)
- Earned 60 Toluna (noticed that i qualify for more surveys here in NL than when I lived in GB, could be less Dutch members; as a result I've had 900 pts in GB account for months compared with 40,000 in 1 month on my NL account)
- Signed up for Toluna product test (fingers crossed, I need some new mascara!)
- Brought back a plastic bottle to local supermarket to get €0.25 off the bottle of wine i picked up for a dinner this evening
- collected loose shrapnel (5/10 cents) around my house and deposited it in the bank (€7.31)
- 7,000 steps for bounts
- 140 points GTM

- Used up the last of my M&S reduced chilli peppers by mixing them with cheese, garlic and tomatoes, popping on toast and splashing with Worcester sauce. Perfect brunch!

Hope everybody is having a lovely weekend and looking forward to posting more in the forum.

& out
SaS

LuckyPenny

Having a productive MSE weekend so far. I have looked into switching my DD's child trust fund to a Junior ISA. I went with Nat1onw1de as they are my bank and have one of the best rates. When you have chosen who you want to switch you have to order a switching pack: done and just waiting for it to come through the post.


Just opened a new T$B account for the 5% cashback on the contactless payments (£100 limit and you have to pay in £500 into the account each month). This means you can earn £5 per month.


I have transferred my overdraft to a 0% card because it will be cheaper to clear this way. The transfer fee was £45 but I am saving £14 OD fees each month and I have until June 2017 to pay off.


I have listed a loads of things on eBay and Facebook. Getting a bit frustrated with people saying they want things on Facebook and changing their minds or not turning up. Fingers crossed the 2 out of 4 people still yet to collect are going to get it sorted soon. Looks like I'll sell 2 things on eBay. Won't count my chickens before they hatch but looking positive on the sales front.


I used my b00ts card loyalty points to get some hair bobbles for my DD and wombled more C0sta loyalty points; looking forward to spending them.


My DD won £25 on the Premium Bonds this weekend.