Thursday 2 June 2016 - what small dfw things will you do today?

DawnW

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:

DawnW

I am up and about, on my second cup of coffee and thought I may as well start the thread

My list for today is as follows:
HM meals from stores
Package up and post yesterday's ebay sales
List more items, as it seems to be free listing for the whole of June
Check banks
Check for surveys
Wash the curtains I took down from the dining room the other day - hopefully it will be dry for at least part of the day to enable me to peg them out on the line!
More ironing
Plant cucumbers in their big pots (must ask OH to drill holes in the bottom first -yes, I know I could do it, but given he does 'tool' type stuff for both his hobby and his business, he will have much more fun doing it than I would )
Make some scones to use up slightly past it milk
Walk all journeys for free exercise - unless it is really bucketing down with rain and my parcels would get too wet!
Feed strawberry plants

I am sure there is more, but I am going to aim at these first, and see how I get on! Hope everyone has a good day

Grandad's_Offspring

Rather than going out for cake and coffee (twice!!), I am making my own cake and I'm having everyone here.

also, I paid £70 for a dental check up and hygienist yesterday. I go twice a year, £140. I never budgeted for that, I just paid it upfront leaving me short. So from this month onwards, £15 a month goes into the dentist pot.

Bobarella

Morning All

Thanks for the start Dawn hope you have a nice productive day
Ziggy Finding £20 is my dream! What did he spend it on?
BB God the amount of times I've gone to sit down and almost fallen through the lav, blooming boys!
Grandads Offspring well done on your dentists budgeting.

Well shockingly DD is still asleep. So I am enjoying some peace and quiet. We will get there with a routine eventually.

Is anyone else finding this weather makes it so hard to stick to a meal plan? I feel like I should be making stews not salads.

Hoping to get more bidders on my ebay item. 2 days to go. The fact that someone is willing to pay £5 for a dress up costume I paid £30 for 5 years ago (DS 3rd birthday) is fantastic to me. The fact ita branded Disney helps Im sure. I wont bother listing anything else till it sells.

Have a great day all.

Bob

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 )
• Free Postcode Lottery ( Link )
• FreeStuff ( Link )
  
• FreeUKStuff ( Link )
• 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 )
• Swagbucks ( Link )
• Swapit ( Link )
• Tesco Orchard product testing (Link)
  
• Tickety Split cheap train tickets (Link)
  
• Toluna ( Link )
  
• TopCashBack ( Link )
• Wombling Guide (Link)
  
• You Need A Budget site and App (Link)

Checked 7 April 2016.

allydowd

DawnW wrote: »

Plant cucumbers in their big pots (must ask OH to drill holes in the bottom first -yes, I know I could do it, but given he does 'tool' type stuff for both his hobby and his business, he will have much more fun doing it than I would )

If he sticks some thick tape over where the holes are to be drilled first the drill bit won't slip when he starts drilling.

allydowd

Hi June Jubilatants,

<Sneaks back in through the back door. I'm back, albeit temporarily! Sorry for the absence, but the real world was more important than the digital one.

Beautiful day today so DW and I are doing some last minute holiday shopping and staying as outdoors as we possibly can.

Where to start? We fly to Mallorca in a couple of days for a week using our holiday fund. (Hoping to go to Oz in February.) We spent ages getting a great package deal, buying cheap insurance, and making plans. Plan A was to stay in the UK, but I'm afraid, the Mediterranean weather, and my new-found love of outdoor swimming, won us over. My DW lived in Spain and is dying to show me all things Spanish. Most importantly it's not being bought on credit. :beer: This will be our first foreign holiday in four years and the first since we became debt free. Particularly proud of our insurance purchase which was £19 for the two of us, even though DW has 5 medical conditions and I have 3. The first company I looked at wanted £230! I used CompareTheMarket.com to find this bargain and read a smurf of a lot of terms and conditions.

So I have to work tomorrow and then I've two weeks off. Then when I go back to work it is 90% likely to be as a Manager for a wee while. Just managing 200 folk instead of 450 like I was at Christmas. This means a 30% pay rise and using my brain instead of my body. Hurrah. Just waiting on the final approval for this to come through, which is juddering my nerves a bit. Had a small episode of paranoia yesterday, but it's fading.


Debt Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Two:

* Home cooked breakfast.

* Read meters and entered details online. Used less gas than last month but more electricity as DW is now in full Electric Garden Tool mode. The overall cost is less than last month, however, which is what matters. And we'll be even better this month because we're away for a week.

* I managed to get away without having to see the Dental Hygienist this time. For the first time in years Mr Kirk pronounced my gum health as excellent. Huge relief: hate that more than being drilled an filled, and also £28 saved. Still had to pay £69.50 for a white filling to replace a dodgy amalgam one, but it was worth it. Looks lovely and, more importantly, it has saved the tooth, which means I do not need to get a new plastic-ma-bob bit. (I broke my face a few years ago. )

*EE are doing a competition to win 30 free mins to call from the UK to a foreign country. Text "CALLFREE" to 150. This text is free if you're an EE customer. I won and will be using the minutes to call the US and Oz.

*Checked payslip.

*Another free Spanish lesson from DW. Also recommend the Duolingo Android App. It's a language learning App and it's really fab, and free. There's lots of languages on offer. (Link) Through nationality I am multi-lingual but I can't speak Castillano very well, just some Catalan. I find that it's more fruitful to barter in markets in the host language. :rotfl:

* Plan what we are going to do abroad for next to nowt.

*Bought new trainers from charity shop. £12. Needed for work.

How about you folks?

foxgloves

Morning all,
Just a quick one. Didn't achieve much yesterday, so need to crack on today.
*Two baths from one lot of bath water.
*Towel radiator switched off as soon as towels were pretty much dry.
*Ironing done. Once I'd sorted out what could get away without showing it the iron, there was 1 shirt, & 2 tops left! The best ironing basket ever!!
*Made loaf in the bread machine.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch,
*Started next week's meal plans & shopping list. Will finish later.
*Pick salad from garden for tonight's meal.
*Entered 3 competitions.
Still to do this afternoon:
*Plant out remaining bedding plants (grown from free seed)
*Water greenhouse veggies.
*Pot up chillies into their final pots.
*Clear raised bed ready for runner beans & sweetcorn.
*If time, start digging out & filling runner bean trench. Have got plenty of kitchen scraps & old newspapers for this.
*Finish library books ready for return.
*Hem tablecloth (part of upcycling project to improve patio for extremely low spend)
*Research a postable gift for b-in-l's birthday.
OK, must get on. Think I shall stop for an early lunch, then head out for the veggie garden while I've still got the energy.
Cheers,
F x

make_the_change

Hi All,

It's been rubbish weather for half term week this week. Had a spendy day yesterday with the kids but I rarely treat them to days out that end up costing a fortune and they loved every minute so every now and again isn't too bad.

Visiting family today so nothing to really post except free food and need to do the ironing tonight. Managed cleaning this morning too.

Enjoy your day all x

Grandad's_Offspring

Ah! I queried the solicitor's letter that asked for £195+ vat for something already itemised in the original quote at £150!
Just got the email to say 'we won't charge you, because we already said £150'

allydowd

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