What small DFW things will you do this week W/C 31st July

determined_new_ms

Morning Hi littlemiss2017 I don't think I said hello when you joined. I have some counter wisdom for potty training, that you might not want to hear! I potty trained my dgd early as for frugality reasons I wanted her out of nappies as soon as possible. However everyone I know who has waited until they are around 3 training has been done in a couple of days. Whereas for us it was months of stress and accidents. If she had her time again, I think I'd wait

aw another day off feeling a bit sluggish right now but wanting to get going to the allotment for an hour before oh goes to work. Hoping my 2nd coffee will give me some umph!

things for today:

*[STRIKE] hang out washing & do another load[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]flylady[/STRIKE] I've been trying out this thing where I do bursts of crazy 15 minutes. Seems to be working very well in next burst I will vacuum whole of d/s,
stairs and hallway Did 1 hour in 15 min slots - sorted out bathroom, lounge, vacuumed & polished whole of downstairs, vacuumed stairs and hallway. Did 2 loads of washing :money:
* [STRIKE]all meals from stores[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]make hummous & cake[/STRIKE] - work colleague coming round after work. Think I'm going to serve hummous, warmed pita bread and a slice of cake
* bacon out of the freezer for oh & madam
*[STRIKE] hoeing/weeding at the lottie for an hour[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]review letter/cv, ask oh to proof read [/STRIKE]and send off
* [STRIKE]take madam out. Might go to the local wildlife park using our membership cards and take a picnic [/STRIKE] she wanted to mooch around so we did that then went for a walk to the local park for an hour
* ds is threatening to come down for the day
* NSD no 2 in a row :money:

Ok that seems enough. Prob will also spend some time in the hot tub with madam.

Right 10 more minutes then I'm getting ready and going! x

crazy_cat_lady

Morning :hello: :coffee:
I was so tired when I got back from work last night I just lay down in front of the telly and had an early night. I'm tired this morning again but feeling much better than I was yesterday. I'm ridiculously excited because I have managed to get myself a really cheap ticket to go and see Wicked at the theatre tonight. :T I love shows but don't get to see many, so I figured that I would treat myself today as I'm working pretty hard.
I filled up so much on free food at the meeting yesterday that I didn't need dinner last night - planning to do the same again today :D
Other than that, all of my spends are reclaimable on expenses (other than my night out but I'm planning on literally seeing the show then coming back to the hotel) so I suppose it should be a frugal day ahead. Not much to report as I'm still away from home so the little things there can't really happen.
Welcome littlemiss :wave:

La_escocesa

Hi everyone :wave:

It's the last day of my summer holiday today. Had such a lovely time away. Totally fell in love with North Wales. Back to work tomorrow...

I skimmed last week's thread...you should get a Beebag rather than a skip... https://www.clearabee.co.uk/beebag/ They also collect the yellow skip bags you buy in DIY stores but are a little cheaper.

I've got a few good bargains recently...
- Pets at home - signed up for their free VIP club thingy - got a 15% off voucher and then an additional £5 off that I could use at the same time.
- Got paid £103 cashback and put that towards another purchase with 20% off! :T
- £100 cashback ^ was from a £10pcm ISA that we pay into. Win win really - like 10 months of free saving... :think:
- got paid my bonus!!!!! :j :T :j
- got a payrise!
- OH has a job interview today - crossing fingers here!!! _pale_
- 33% off at frankie and benny's - just signed up for their newsletter and you can use it over and over again

I need to have a Big Budget Day a la foxgloves with a nice big cuppa and sort out for real what we should do with my bonus. It's such a nice feeling to know that all my categories will be topped up for future expenses like insurances and other yearly bills. :T

You'll never guess what, when we were on holiday the dog fell down a well!!!! We had to take him to the local vet on Saturday morning and previously I would've been worried about where the money was coming from but it was so nice to know there was dosh just sitting in the 'dog bills' fund! #budgetingpower

I also want to change my road tax to yearly rather than monthly to save a little there... :think:

Then going to have a bit of a clear out.. Shoes are next on the KM checklist that I've started again....

Also need to sort a bit of a meal plan... May do an online shop as have a £10 off voucher and free delivery offer... :think:

Then just the usual tidying round, cleaning up...

Bit of crochet - making myself a little shrug - got yarn for under £5 down from £12.99 so happy with that.

CCL - have an awesome time at Wicked - it's my favourite show!
FVD - hope the commute wasn't too bad today...

Catch up soon, my favourite bunch :beer:

foxgloves

Morning Campers,
My back is still bad, so I have promised mr f I will have a gentle day with no heroics in the garden, reaching into washing machine, to back of pantry, no lifting, just resting with a hot water bottle behind my back, reading, knitting, etc, & a walk around the garden every hour so I don't stiffen up. So not much activity here today, but defo an NSD as don't fancy getting up & down the bus steps!
*Jacket potato night tonight....freezer dive yielded a large portion of chicken stew for mr f & a nice portion of chilli for me. We regularly include JP/Freezer dive night on our meal plans & it just shows how worthwhile it is freezing those extra or leftover portions for a 'free' meal another time.
*Pick french beans - it may only be the ones I can reach without bending, though, as my back is starting to be depressing & I want it to recover asap. It has already really improved, so I could only feel the tiny little bit of muscle or whatever it is that was originally injured/overused, but I went back to full on activities again & am back to square one. Booo!
*Water greenhouse. Can hose veggies without bending. Don't think I can reach the tomatoes which need picking. Will see,
*Frame print......this was part of my mini-conservatory makeover which involve spending as little as possible. So far, I have spent £11 from a well-known Swedish emporium on a large frame & a print. 'New' rug was one I previously had in another room, 'new' tablecloth is one I haven't used for a long time & I re-potted all the conservatory plants, tarted the pots up & moved them around for a new look. Another 'free' thing was moving the garden table & chairs nearer to the conservatory door & putting pretty ceramic coasters, a teapot stand & flowering plants on the table, so it's nice to look at from inside. It honestly does feel like we've had a little makeover, but that's it for spending. Any other 'new' stuff will be re-purposed from what I already have.
*Catch up on surveys. That's something I can do while I'm resting my back & will make my vouchers arrive quicker.
*Finish library book - have started a bag of stuff that needs to go back.
*Continue 2 current knitting projects - blanket & a gift to go in the present box. Think I will lay out all my completed blanket squares on the table today & see how many more I need. It's not a double-bed sized blanket, it's more of a throw, which will live on the old chest in the lounge ready for autumn movie-watching on chilly nights.
*Two more gifts to add to the presents box today as am waiting for delivery of 2 books ordered last night using some of my survey vouchers. I do like to put presents away all year round, rather than have all the expenditure concentrated around Christmas & all our winter family birthdays.
*Remove free seeds from the big pile of magazines Mum gave me & pack away in my seed box ready for Spring.
*Remind mr f to pay holiday cottage balance (money saved up for this, so unlike the old days.....) & shuffle the funds around to keep budgets straight.
*Start thinking about plans for when we have visitors staying later this month - I will save money on catering if I plan ahead now & get stuff made & into the freezer, more time for shopping around too. Already decided on a very low-cost day out & will pack a big picnic.
OK, realistically, I'm not going to get many physical jobs done today, so that will do. It's quite warm & sunny here at the moment, so I've decamped to the conservatory with the doors open. Hopefully the codiene & hot water bottle combo will kick in soon - I've never had back problems before this last month & I can't believe how disabling it feels. Even the smallest movement towards bending or twisting, even pulling or pushing a stiff door, seems to involve back muscles. Oh well, must stop moaning & get on with some surveys so I at least feel I'm doing something.
Cheers all, enjoy the show, CCL.
F x

La_escocesa

Decided not to mess around with road tax. Figured it's easier to pay monthly D/D rather than annual as it's only costing an extra £5.50 to do it this way (5% surcharge). Not really worth it for the 50p a month saving... :think:

determined_new_ms

whoop budgeting wins I have been planning to get dd one of the senstationail sets as she has over the last 6 months been growing her nails.

Just was able to pick one up in the boots sale for £30 instead of £45 and used money in the xmas fund piggy

DawnW

Afternoon all
Hope you enjoy the show, CCL
La E, all sounds good, except for your dog falling down a well :eek: Hope s/he is ok.

My list for today:
HG fruit with breakfast
Dog walk
Walked to sales unit too, put a few new bits in, and was pleased to see that several things had sold since I last looked It was payday, so recorded income / expenditure in my accounts.
Went into library as I was passing and renewed my expired ticket. Borrowed a book on forest gardening, which I really like the sound of, but not sure how it would work in such a tiny garden :rotfl:
Load of washing on line to dry

Still to do:
Ironing
Putting stuff away, it is really untidy in here
Cleaning - I would like to finish washing down the kitchen, just a small shelf unit, my corner cookery book shelves and a small bit of wall left to do now I still have the insides of the cupboards to do though :eek:
Water whatever needs it in the garden
Pick any produce that is ready
Check for surveys
Read RM survey stuff, to see if anything has changed since I last took part

Sunny here today, but the forecast for the rest of the week is dreadful

FatVonD

You're sounding really upbeat, La E, after your break, lots of good stuff going on

Foxgloves, take care of your back, you only have one

CCL, enjoy your show! Are you signed up to the mystery shopping site that does mostly restaurants? You could get reimbursed to eat out while you're down here (plus a few pounds payment) and then get reimbursed twice (you don't have to relinquish the bill, just take a photograph of it.)

The journey in this morning was back to normal, I have picked up the form to claim a partial refund for yesterday as it doesn't go on automatically on a weekly ticket. I bought another weekly this morning which will cover me for the first day of the forthcoming reductions so I can see just how crowded the trains will be. (There are currently about six per hour in the morning rush hour and it is going down to two.) If I have to buy a first class ticket to make it bearable (there are talks of having to queue to get into the station even) then I will but I'll test the water first and hope that lots of people have decided to WFH/take annual leave.

I cooked an extra jacket potato last night so that was lunch today with some cheese and only slightly out of date coleslaw. I have resurrected the 'bring your lunch to work' challenge which should keep me on the straight and narrow!

Got a lovely notepad from the free table that I will keep next to the computer at home. There are also some books :cool:

I've not heard a peep about the local job (I was supposed to hear yesterday) so I'm assuming I didn't get it, oh well

I think I've worked out a way to hang curtains in my car on the days it becomes a camper van. If I put up some plastic suckers with hooks I can make panels to fit each side, attach them to elastic (or bunting) and then hook the elastic over the hooks and existing coat hangers. I already have some union jack bunting that I could attach some (gingham?) fabric to but I've also seen a couple of second hand duvet covers on fleabay that have 50s pin ups all over them that would look good cut down to be curtains.

Dinner tonight will be something with courgettes though production seems thankfully to have slowed down a bit! I don't want to waste the celery I overcut last night so I'll throw that in too.

I'd like to make the YS run tonight, my partner in crime has gone back to her home country for a couple of weeks so the raspberries are all mine (if there are any!)

Work is annoying, lots of 'it's lovely but just change the head to...' with no concept that the shape of the headline determines just about everything else you do on the page. If you don't like the headline change it before you frikkin' put it through!! :mad:

La_escocesa

Thanks everyone, do seem to be on a bit of a roll - OH got the job! :T

Dawn - the dog is absolutely fine - OH jumped in the well with him and lifted him up towards me so he was out in no time! We didn't even notice his leg until later that night when I caught him licking it. He's not bothered by the staples either so hopefully it'll heal nicely.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough to pay off the loan like I was imagining but I'm going to pay off the car loan instead and top up all other little savings categories - that will be ace :cool:

determined_new_ms

congrats on the job Mr La E! (and congrats to you too La E )

1LL you know I'm very lazy by nature and love nothing more than hanging out at home, crafting, playing, relaxing. Enjoy x