What small DFW things will you do this week? w/c 13/02

DawnW

allydowd wrote: »

* Despite acing my job interview I didn't get the promotion. Long story. Won't bore you. Move on.

* Going to start a free mental health blog for myself. It's not money-saving, as such, but it may save my sanity.

"Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck," Dalai Llama

Sorry to hear that Ally, but I agree with DNMS's earlier comments, that sometimes looking back you thank heaven that you DIDN'T get a particular job. That rings true for me as well - a bit like the Dalai Lama quote in your sig Take care of yourself xx

Gorgeous day here today, which makes SUCH a difference Ambitious list today, done loads already
No heating on downstairs, no need (only have the towel thingy in the bathroom and the tiny radiator that heats the airing cupboard on upstairs)
Pegged out a load of washing on the line, and it has dried too
Mucked out the spare bedroom / ensuite currently being used by DS :mad: His DD (GD1) will be sleeping in it tonight, and I wanted it nice for her. DS will sleep on the sofa bed in the lounge.
Made up bed with nice fresh linen
Washed bedding and towels, now out on line as I got the original load in, folded and away to the airing cupboard
Finished up rest of old bread as toast at lunchtime (it wasn't that old!)
OH washed the floors over downstairs while I was tackling the top floor :A
OH helped me move some paving stones which were covering a nice border in the front garden. We haven't really done anything to the front garden since we bought the house, except relay the path, which was uneven and dangerous. Most of it is gravelled with a membrane thing underneath, and I just stand pots on it (flowers only due to unhygienic local cats :eek: which luckily don't venture into back garden due to small yappy mutt), but I now have a little border in which I have planted a rose bush, some lavender and some lilies (I already had these so no extra cost) It is quite pretty as it was already edged with bricks with their corners sticking up (if that makes sense, but it looks pretty and cottagey anyway). It was there all along, just covered up with paving slabs Not sure if the plants will all take, as they were big to transplant, but I have others to try again if not!

DS says takeaway on him tonight, and as he is living here completely free to help him out, and he has now been paid from his new job, I am not going to say no!

carrielovesfanta

PS: I downloaded an app called Our Groceries which you can add on multiple devices. It seems very easy to use so far.

You can add multiple shopping lists so I am adding one for each week's meal plan, plus one household staples lists.

It updates across devices very quickly so it will be good as me and OH will hopefully use it.

HTH

angelpye

CCL - thank you, its less stress taking up head space for sure!

FVD - rasberries will be awesome. I thinking of doing one will left over and slightly out of date panotone...its the out of date things that bother s me - end of Jan? Bushy park was somewhere my grandparents took me as a child and is one of my favourite memories so thank you for the reminder

Got more freebies today as I complained (look at me, on a roll!:rotfl:) to a pizza chain for not being reminded that the pudding I ordered was not on the deal (which meant a loss of £4.50) and got two free main meals voucher. Plus for doing their feedback online I got free dough balls and the usual entry to the prize draw...fingers crossed my luck holds. :beer:

So this week, I got £156.10 worth of freebies, £50 back on my CC and £21.50 refund for something I paid for 2 years ago. That to me is a very good week. Still plucking up the courage for the Experian miss sold claim which could be worth up to £20 but starting to feel greedy!
:rotfl:

Have decided against hair cut and will hold out until college back in where I can get it cut for 1/3 of the price and as I never go for anything dynamic it would be difficult for the level 2's to get it wrong. Plus they have a rather nice salon so it doesn't feel cheap even if I don't get a head massage and hot chocolate with whipped cream like I do at the my usual place but can't afford it so shan't have it!

carrielovesfanta

angelpye wrote: »

FVD - rasberries will be awesome. I thinking of doing one will left over and slightly out of date panotone...its the out of date things that bother s me - end of Jan?

It will be fine. Possibly slightly dry but not an issue for bread and butter pudding

Treadingonplaymobil

Man, I wish bread hung round here long enough to go stale and be used in B&B pudding. My uncle used to make the most amazing chocolate B&B pudding ever. I should ask him for his recipe. And then bribe my children to lay off the bread for a few days .

I have created a baking list for next week based on the completely random cupboard contents, including mincemeat cake and lemon polenta cake (WHY did I buy polenta in the first place?!). Have made two banana loaves (one with coconut flour), which will get sliced and frozen for DH's work snacks next week. Also homemade nutella (three bags of hazelnuts in the cupboards!) which my children don't love (I seem to remember this is why the hazelnuts got abandoned in the first place) but I've found a recipe for nutella brownies which I'm sure they'll manage for force down for pudding one day.

I feel I should point out that we do sometimes eat savoury food as well .

somuchindebt

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Hi & welcome somuchindebt sounds like you're making great inroads! Sorry to hear about the change in family dynamics for you, but honestly wonder if it's sometimes easier! I brought my children up on my own, my way, my rules. With madam I have to negotiate with oh which is sometimes trickier!

I would also check your dw as my dw is very energy efficient and in terms of water it is much more eco friendly to bung it in rather than do the washing up. I cut the dw tabs in half so they last twice as long

Thank you, I do try to stay positive but not always easy
You may have a point on dishwasher actually, mine isn't old but don't remember rating. Good idea about the tablets.

I am not great cook unfortunately but feeling quite determined to do loads myself! Someone mentioned nutella?!

FatVonD

I've just been to Mr T and their value clothes washing liquid is reduced to clear, not by a great amount but if, (like the washing up liquid I stocked up on last week), they aren't going to replace it with anything it might be worth stocking up.

foxgloves

Hi Saturday Savers,
Well, I thought today had the potential to get spendy, as met up with an old friend for coffee, shopping, lunch, etc, but it was surprisingly restrained. Here are the money saving efforts:
*After a few weeks of groceries going over budget, we came in at under budget today. £45 target, Spent £35 in Aldi, £1 on the market & £5-ish at Wilko's the other day on cat food. That's more like it!
*Shopped around for my hair colour. the 1st 3 shops had it at £6.99 which is more than I'm used to paying. Found it in Wilko's at £5.50, so £1.49 saved.
*Picked up paint colour charts while I was in there. We are planning to redecorate a room this Spring & I think we could save a bit by buying their own paint rather than the big brands.
*Friend insisted on paying for my coffee :-)
*Bought a cookbook mr f had been wanting from the Oxfam bookshop for £1.99 (one of my favourite shops)
*Looked at cards in well-known chain then went to local independent card shop & bought a really nice card for Dad's 80th, a Mothering Sunday card, a birthday card & 3 nice Easter cards for just over £5. I find it hard to spend over £2 on a card now, & I used to spend £2-£4 each on them frequently during the Spendy Decades.
*Had lunch as planned at local restaurant. mr f has a loyalty card for it, so he paid. When he got to the till, they said 'Oh, you've got a £5 voucher on here' which he had no idea about. He said it would make up for the £10 birthday voucher which he was unable to use in December, & the guy on the till said 'Oh, actually, that's still on here, so I'll knock that off your bill too".....so we chose sensibly as our February 'Personal Spends' are getting a bit low....& then got a completely unexpected £15 off the bill!
*Was not tempted in Monsoon, White Stuff, Phase Eight, Accessorize, M&S, lovely bath smellies shop or Frighteningly Expensive Shoe Shop........though even in my worst Spendy Years, I wouldn't have paid £469 for a handbag! It looked nice when I saw it through the window but up close, I thought it looked quite tacky.
*Take home-baked muffins out of the freezer ready to pack in our picnic tomorrow. We are going out & I'm happy to buy a coffee there, but I am not intending to buy lunch out on a card when we're getting to that 'final week before pay-day' feeling.
*Free leisure for the rest of the day.......really want to get on with reading my library book (I love a bit of Scandi-crime), I might knit & we're planning to watch a film or another couple of episodes of 'Vikings'. We ate at lunchtime so will only need an inexpensive meal of cheese on toast or cheesy crumpets, etc, tonight.
Have a nice evening, everyone.
F x

Treadingonplaymobil

somuchindebt wrote: »

I am not great cook unfortunately but feeling quite determined to do loads myself! Someone mentioned nutella?!

I can highly recommend getting the Girl Called Jack book out of the library if you're not a great cook but need money saving recipes (I know there are loads of resources on here too, but that's one I found before I found this forum that works for me). Also, on the Nutella front, I thoroughly recommend buying it from the shop - I can officially declare that making your own is NOT WORTH THE HASSLE (unless you also have half a kilo of hazelnuts kicking around your cupboards for no good reason).

foxgloves wrote: »

*Free leisure for the rest of the day.......really want to get on with reading my library book (I love a bit of Scandi-crime), I might knit & we're planning to watch a film or another couple of episodes of 'Vikings'. We ate at lunchtime so will only need an inexpensive meal of cheese on toast or cheesy crumpets, etc, tonight.
Have a nice evening, everyone.
F x

Oh, you've reminded me that one of the things I want to do is knit up all the sock yarn I have kicking around - have a bit of a sock yarn habit (I love knitting socks, but have enough yarn to knit socks for a small village). Going to do a couple of pairs of socks with the cheap stuff then find some nice wrist warmer and cowl patterns for the nice stuff.

La_escocesa

Hi guys :wave:

Gosh it's great having visitors coming round - OH all of a sudden decided to deep clean the bathroom and put the new toilet seat on He's also cooking tonight so my main duty is to serve drinks.:D Another hour and a half until they get here so maybe I'll crochet :think:

Still need to look up train tickets for April...

Watching stuff on net flix for good value entertainment, reading free ebook... :cool:

PAD to cc - £2 I wasn't expecting

Right, I'm offski - catch up tomorrow xxx