Wednesday 25th May - What Small Debt Free Wannabe 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

NewlyFrugalMumof3

Hi


Thanks for starting the thread off lego mum, but where is everyone? Weird!


I haven't been on here for eons, since clearing debt. Alas, after Christmas, and after decorating 2 children's rooms and buying new hi/cabin beds and decorating landing hallway and extra OU course costs and bits and bobs - the credit card has racked up again after being clear :mad:

So desparately need to get back on the MS Wagon. So here goes, from today I will be thrifty and smart with our budget/money.

Get all boys up and showered and out door to school on time - DONE
Walk dog to/from DS3 school - DONE
Strip DS1 bed, wash, and peg out - DONE
Buy Family Friends railcard using cashback and 10% code - DONE
Check odd bank debit - DONE (just a company name change)
Empty dishwasher and clear up kitchen/dining room after breakkie - DONE

Plan for rest of day:
Weed one monstrously weedy bed - DONE
Remake DS1 bed, dust and hoover - DONE
Make dinner from leftover chicken - stew?? - TOMORROW
Make flapjacks and cheese scones FJ DONE, SCONES "
OU study -
Update finances and make new plan for clearing CC - DOING
Try and get pack lunches done before tonight
Find card for friend's birthday tomorrow and find nice present for little money!
Sort through messy paperwork pile and organise - TOMORROW
Walk dog to/from school - DONE
Find £15 for DS2 music teacher lesson - DOING


Plan on relaxing bath tonight and book, if can get boys into bed at reasonable time.

ziggy2407

Good Morning All

Legomum - Thanks for starting us off today
Bob - Son is really excited but funnily Hubby is even more excited :rotfl:

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.

Very quiet on here today :eek:, welcome back NFMof3. No sun here today and is very cold, today I will:

Packed lunch for DH & DS - Done
Check Bank - Done
Bump couple of bits for sale -
Pamper myself -
Clear Dining Table (again)
Read -
Continue purge on Emails -
Complete a few surveys -
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/Ashleigh/Numberplatelotto -

Have a good day! Love to you all!

C x

Bobarella

Hey All

Nice to 'see 'you all

Have made a PAD of £35 today. Itching to pay more but trying to be sensible.

This is the month our new mobile contracts kick in so my bill will be £20 cheaper and OH's £10. Added to the £60 saving on the gas and electric thats a great saving.

Have a nice day

Bob

make_the_change

Hi All,

Didnt get to bed until late last night, couldnt sleep and have woken very tired and not feeling great. OH took DD to nursery so I managed to get my head down for an hour whilst DS2 napped.

- collect DD from nursery and have lunch from stores to then take her back for afternoon session done
- try and eat something myself done
- write an email to DDs dance teacher
- house hunt (still waiting for other place we are interested in to be refurbed so we can view!!) done
- school run and meals from stores
- get home once OH finished work, settle kiddies for bed and relax
- surveys done

Pretty dull list tbh.... got lots done yesterday though.

Hugs to all x

foxgloves

Hello Frugalistas,
What a blimmin horrible chilly day! Was outside gardening in a t-shirt & bare feet yesterday. No such luck today! Oh well, here are today's bits of money saving activity:
*Did the laundry overnight on cheap tariff but it is too rainy to dry it outside so it's on the heated airer. I normally run it overnight to make use of cheap electricity but it's on now in the hope it will warm up the conservatory (where I'm sitting).
*Checked veggie garden & g'house for pests/problems. Launched a couple of suspiciously plump snails over the back hedge.
*Pulled last of the first radish trough & made another sowing.
*Cut the last of the 'speedy leaves' salad-mix for tonight's salad & re-used the trough to plant up some nice red lettuces.
*Potted on some trailing plants I'm hoping will be ready to use for my hanging baskets in a couple of weeks time. (Free seed)
*Divided up big pack of mince - £3 something....can't remember exactly for 750g. Have divvied it into 3. Quarter-pounders for tonight, chilli on Fri & the other third frozen to do mince or cottage pie another time.
*Cut nice bunch of home-grown coriander to use in my burgers.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch.
*Did quite a few surveys. Got thrown out of the first one with a message that there are no surveys for me today. Being a naturally suspicious individual, I continued with them to see if this was true......let's just say that 5 surveys later, I was still accruing points. Hmmmm!
*Finish craft project.......some bunting for my courtyard spruce-up. Should have finished it yesterday but then had a couple of emails I needed to act on sharpish & my time ran out. I also started not feeling that great.....no energy again (though was fine yesterday morning) & a sore throat!! Think I've been fighting off a lergy. mr f works with the public & brings all sorts of lergies home. His immune system is like Fort Knox......he rarely gets anything, but he's a carrier, nevertheless! Anyway, no sore throat this morning so hopefully I've seen whatever it is off. Need to finish tacking the bunting, then can sew it properly on machine.
*Collect up free seed packets from the pile of gardening mags I was recently given & pack away into airtight seed-box ready for next Spring.
*Fed birds with the powdery crumbs at the bottom of a box of cereal. The baby blackbirds are loving it. Must make a tasty change from slugs!
*Nobbled mr f over breakfast about having a non-spendy BH weekend. He has to work Sat, but we have decided on a picnic at local (ish) historic site on Sun & a gardening day and a BBQ on the Mon. Nothing too spendy there, thank goodness!
*Make bread rolls - dough just coming to the end of its first proving.
*Check ebay - a few watchers, but nobody willing to put their hand up to part with £1.50 just yet.
OK, that will do, unless I am suddenly struck by money-saving inspiration.
Keep your paws on your pence, everyone!
F x

make_the_change

Its very quiet on here today, hope everyone is OK.

I am freezing cold, cant stop shivering and about to leave to brave it and collect the children. Where is this heat wave I read about last week!?!?

xx

determined_new_ms

Hi everyone :wave: thanks for starting the thread legomum :A hope you are recovering well x

Foxgloves your post about the weather made me check the forecast (have just put a second jumper on!) and it looks like it's going to be warmer over the next week :j so have just decided we will go to a local festival at the weekend :beer: must get oh to contact his parental so about borrowing some camping gear

Have been out with dgd all day. Caught the bus into town, went to the library is o return/borrow some books then went to the toddlers cove park. Got in about 4 and little madam has fallen asleep on the sofa so have a little down time

Made lemon drizzle cake this morning. Froze 4 banana muffins as this is then3rd batch I've made in the last 2 weeks and I think we're a little tired of them!

Need to get washing in and put away

Checked banking. Have been paid. I think I'm going to quit the cafe. I've enjoyed it but over recent months it has become too much hassle. I did stick it out for 6 months which was the original plan. But it is scary to think of not having any income! In reality after petrol etc I only have about £80 pm for working Friday's and Saturdays. After having been off for 2 weekends I have come to the conclusion I'd rather the time with my family. Just have to be brave and resign!

Will make tuna pasta for tea and use up peppers - quick, easy, cheap and tastey what more can you ask for?

Might quickly go and clean the bathroom before madam wakes up

Do some preparation this evening for my interview tomorrow

Make dgd's packed lunch for tomorrow

Called employment agency and asked them to finalise my paymeNt (holiday and overpaid tax) and send p45. Said I should be paid tomorrow :T

Used boots points to get hair mouse for free picked up 2 buttons at a cs to repair 2 items for 10p treated myself to a pair of sandals in the cs too cost £14 but are lovely. Also got a little fitted jacket so going to photo and list a jacket I don't wear on fleabay. Hopefully will be cost neutral :T will also look to see if there are a pair of shoes I can list as well. Really trying hard with the minimalist/konmarie'd wardrobe. Trying to make sure I only get things that fit well, I love and compliment my wardrobe. It's hard!

Ok think that's it for me. Happy Wednesday everyone x

La_escocesa

Hi everyone :wave:

Wow - it was quiet on here earlier today. I left early to go to a client meeting. I ended up getting back to town about 4.30 and decided to come home and log in from here (rather than go to the office for an hour...) then just felt guilty since! Don't know why really - I had still worked 7.5 hours as it was a working lunch so I shouldn't really care... I will log out now and get over it!

Thanks for the kick off Lego mum :A

DNMS - sounds like a good decision about the cafe - your time is valuable and I bet you could easily make your £80 a month back by fleabaying etc. I'm still trying to decide about what to do about my empty yoga classes - might be time to get my evenings and weekends back too.

MTC & foxgloves - I hear ya - blimming freezing here too... I'm going to follow NFMo3 and head for a long hot bath tonight!

Bob - wow, your sig is fab!!

Ziggy - sounds great about Wembly!! :T

Catch up soon everyone.

xx

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone :wave:
It is rather quiet on here full stop at the moment... I have to apologise for not checking back in last night or this morning. I'm time poor at the best of times but this week has been utterly hectic juggling work, kids, dh's broken ankle, exam season and trying to find time to wind down as well. I am trying to stay up to date with everything, but sacrificed coming on here last night to make sure I had time to exercise and do some crochet. Tonight I've binned off the exercise to catch up on here and make sure I crochet.
Other than that I have
checked banking and PAD
done lots of schoolwork prep for next week
full day of teaching
bit of shopping at Aldee paid for by dh
used up some sorry looking veggies in a tomato based sauce
Not used the heating even though it's grey and pittling down outside
got the kids to muck in and help
Plans for the rest of the evening are to eat, make tomorrow's lunches, wash up, catch up on here and crochet. Still busy.

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)
  
• Cooking On A Bootstrap, cheap recipes ( Link)
• eBid ( Link )
  
• Freecycle ( Link )
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• Income Tax Calculator (Link)
  
• i-Say Surveys (Link)
• List of online newspapers. At bottom of the linked page. ( Link )
• LuckyPhone free lottery with loyalty rewards (Link)
  
• Marriage Tax Allowance (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 )
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• Toluna ( Link )
  
• TopCashBack ( Link )
• Wombling Guide (Link)
  
• You Need A Budget site and App (Link)

Checked 7 April 2016.