What small DFW things will you do w/c 29th October?

determined_new_ms

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:

determined_new_ms

Morning guys thought I'd start us off before getting ready for work - madam woke me up at 5.30 :eek: and got sent back to bed with a flea in her ear!

I still have some things from my list yesterday I need to do but don't think I'll manage to get much done which just makes my life busier tomorrow!

yesterday I ended up going out to dinner with my ds - he hasn't been speaking to me for the last year but out of the blue he contacted me and asked if I wanted to go for a roast Being his mum I picked up the bill so £55 poorer! But it was worth it to see him, he was in good spirits and life seems well. That's all you can hope for!

Things for today:

* B/L & snacks from stores
* meeting up with dd for dinner tonight - going to be an expensive week!
* submit expenses and ot at the end of the day
* read kindle/library book
* oh & madam will eat at the outlaws
* madam will have free school dinners :money: (will be sad when she goes into yr 3 and no longer gets these!)
* drop pup at co-sharers
* leave early to get petrol as have been on the red since sat!
* make 3 Halloween bean bags for a game
* oh carving pumpkin with madam and will have instructions to save as much flesh as he can!
* might make bean and pumpkin stew when I get in - just depends how late I am....
* onepoll if time

Ok that seems like more than enough!

PurpleFairy26

Morning DNMS thanks for starting us off :hello: to all that follow. My list today:

Call swimming pool and book dd in for an assessment to see if she can move there
Call an pay for an insurance that they said couldn't take my payment
Pay some school related things for small people
Make soup with chicken stock from yesterday's roast - done and lunch for DH and I
Make a cake/biscuits - didn't do this yesterday
Another load of washing to keep on top of it, stick on airer
Make a Christmas page in my bullet journal for food/plans. I bought a frozen salmon side for £7 at the weekend and want to start to keep track so I don't over buy
Work from home, so heating will be off and I'll be under a blanket
Drink OOD earl grey tea

Have a good day everyone. Purps.

allydowd

MONEY MAKING AND SAVING SITES AS OFTEN MENTIONED IN THIS FORUM:

• Benefits check-up (Link)
• Birthday Freebies (Link) New-ish!
  
• Coupon Shop Forum list of money-off coupons (Link)
• Cooking On A Bootstrap, cheap recipes. (Link)
  
• eBid (Link)
• Freecycle (Link)
• Freegle (Link)
  
• FreeStuff (Link)
• FreeUKStuff ( Link )
  
• Income Tax Calculator (Link)
• i-Say Surveys (Link)
• Jobseekers Railcard (Link)
  
• List of online newspapers. At bottom of the linked page. (Link)
  
• Marriage Tax Allowance (Link)
• Martin Lewis' Weekly List of Deals and Tips (Link)
• MSE Bank Charges Comparison Tool (Link)
  
• MSE Boost Your Income page. Gateway to lots of money-making links. (Link)
• MSE Budget Planner (Link)
  
• MSE Abbreviations Explained (Link)
  
• MSE Deals and Vouchers (Link)
• MSE Demotivator Tool (Link)
• MSE Credit Card Minimum Repayment Calculator (Link)
• MSE Money Makover (Link)
• MSE Piggybank Budgeting (Link)
• MSE Stoozing Guide (Link)
  
• MSE Wow Offers (Link)
  
• NHS Minor Ailment Service article (Link)
• My Supermarket (Link)
  
• NHS Free Prescription Checker (Link)
• OnePoll (Link)
• Pick My Postcode Lottery ( Link )
  
• Quidco (Link)
  
• Reclaim PPI at no cost to yourself without using a claims company. (Link)
• Reclaim Packaged Bank Account fees at no cost to yourself without using a claims company.(Link)
• Reclaim phone credit (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)
• Start Rescue Breakdown Cover (Link)
• Super Saver Amazon Delivery Tool (Link)
  
• Survey sites that pay for your opinions (Link)
  
• Swagbucks (Link)
  
• Swapit (Link)
  
• Tickety Split cheap train tickets (Link)
• Toluna (Link)
  
• TopCashBack (Link)
• Wombling Guide (Link)
• You Need A Budget site and App (Link)

If any of the links are broken, let me know.

allydowd

Hi October Overthrowers,

Thanksfor the starter DNM.

Morning!:coffee: It's my w.e.e.k.e.n.d. :jDon't know what I'm doing today yet....


Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Four:

* Check online banking. Done.

* Energy suppliers billing website is still offline continue to try to get the exact balance of my account. I was chatting to an operator through their Facebook page and she went quiet 15 mins ago leaving me hanging. :mad: Done. We have £166 saved in our energy account and I think the bill will be about £121 so we should be ok.

* Exercise. We are going to drive to Loch Katrine, DW will walk beside the loch and I will cycle beside it. Done.



To be continued....

Things don't have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Thrice

Morning all!

Thank you DNMS for starting us off! Hope everyone is keeping well today :-)

I should have a list for this week, I should have a list for every week its just .... Time seems to be slipping away. We were on holiday the first week in October but it feels like a lifetime ago already! I've been all over the place since we got back!

Food for the week is sorted, I've not nothing bar possibly a pint of milk to buy til Friday. BLD's all planned out, we have plenty in the stores to see us through next week as well tbh.

Picked up more bargains at the weekend for Christmas, I'm probably more than 50% done now, just some picky adults left to sort! Need to re-do my list and tick off the completed people.

I applied for a Santander card to do a balance transfer, but was declined. My credit score is slightly down on last month, I'm not sure why though. I don't remember ever being declined for a card before, so I'll need to come up with a plan B for this. I'm not paying a huge amount of interest, but I was hoping for at least a years 0% so I could pay it all off.

Took a payment holiday from my loan, first time ever doing this! (done this after the decline above!) I got an email saying it cost me £48 in interest to do this, so I've made a payment of £50 to cover this. Plan was to pay the £503 loan to my lowest balance CC, leaving a £210 balance to pay off next month. Now DH has asked for half the £503 payment to we can each pay £250 to our CC's.... Not what I planned but it's his money as well.

Sorry, I'm rambling a bit. I should probably start a diary, then I can ramble along by myself :rotfl:

DawnW

Afternoon all
Very sharp frost here first thing :eek:
Working this morning (restocking my sales unit) so not much else done yet:
Washed hair and let it dry naturally
Load of washing, now blowing outside on the line
Bought home boxes of unsold items from shop, got as far as carrying them up from the garage at the bottom of the garden to the house. Still need to get them upstairs and put away. I should be thinner than I am!
Listed a few items on ebay
A bit of dusting in the house
Put a couple of potted fuchsias in the greenhouse, to give them the chance to survive the winter

Still to do:
Check banks and update spreadsheet
Pack 2 ebay sales ready for posting tomorrow
YS pork chops for dinner tonight
Put unsold sales stock away till next time
Mash and freeze 2 brown bananas
More housework
Might do a bit more tidying in the garden
No plans to spend anything, and just as well, since we are out for meals twice this week, which is very unusual for us :eek:

carrielovesfanta

Morning folks!

Just been catching up with last week's thread as I didn't log on while I had my days off.

Foxgloves - it's good to see you back. Sending much love xx

It's been nice and not too spendy. MSE things that happened:

• Sealed unopenable kitchen window with left over caulk
• Carved pumpkins (kept us quiet for 4 hours)
• Availed myself of in-law's booze cupboard (but regretted it after having the worst night's sleep I can remember!)
• Nabbed lo salad, rolls and spag bol from in laws for a free meal
• Made the Christmas cakes

Today's mission:

• B/L/D from stores
• Charge phone in work - done
• Gym after work
• Heating ON! But timed for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. Hopefully this will appease the utility company gods who are not happy with my gas usage. - done
• Knit Christmas gift sock. I have finished 1 sock (bar the Kitchener stitch) and am through the heel and onto the gusset of the second. Have made good progress.
• No alcohol (have drunk way too much for the past 3 weeks)
• Close the curtains to keep the heat in
• Fridge tidy/triage. It's a blimming mess in there.
• Dry shampooed hair - done
• Email car people about raffle win - done
• Munch a cake left over from a meeting - done

Have a good one all

clf x

carrielovesfanta

Hooray! My gas usage has reappeared :rotfl:

foxgloves

Thanks CLF. Hope to be back properly soon. Funeral tomorrow. Hoping things will feel a bit more like normal after that in terms of getting back into my routine. Treated myself kindly today & watched a film but I also....
*Pegged out overnight laundry (until it rained & it all had to come in & go on the heated airer).
*Did rubber pork from yesterday's leftovers - hot pork cobs with apple sauce & jacket wedges tonight & the remaining chunks frozen with other odds & ends to go into mr f's next Epic Man Stew.
*Did a few surveys.
*Wrapped a Christmas present for a relative I shan't see before Christmas because can give it to someone tomorrow who will.
*Sorted out my yukky roots. Can't believe I used to spend so much on salon colouring back pre LBM.
*Read my book - a charity shop novel. I love our local Oxfam bookshop. It always has such a great choice & is very professionally laid out.
*mr f scrounged a cardboard box from work for his Ziffit trade.
*Two baths from one lot of hot water.
*Did not succumb to cat's demands to light the fire until 6pm.
F x

1LuckyLady

Evening all, just a quick pop in from me as we've had a busy few days, 5hrs drive yesterday morning then 5hrs with the inlaws before another nearly 5hrs drive to a hotel which was an hour away from our current holiday location will be very happy not to get in the car again until Friday now!

Hope you all have a good week, we'll be keeping up with the small things
- have brought our travel cups with us rather then coffee shops onsite,
- got food for tonight/tomorrow morning from l1dl £7 for the 4 of us rather then the meal plan which was going to be £260 for the 4 days! I think we'll come in a hell of a lot cheaper then that!
- lots of free exercise walking everywhere
- make the most of the hot water and heating just had a lovely long hot shower.
Now in pj's downloading last nights dr who to watch with the kids with some pop corn we brought with us. bliss

Take care all.

Hope the funeral goes well Foxgloves