What small DFW things will you do w/c 31st January?

PurpleFairy26

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:

PurpleFairy26

Morning thought I'd get us going as I'm planning on dozing over soon on the sofa. I was woken up by a sneezing fit

My plain for today:

Small shop (been pushing this back for the last 3 days but really will have to go today) - have list
Check banking, update sheet
Go for a run later if head feels clear
Make sausage rolls
Make some cupcakes or something child friendly for pudding
Quick tidy round
Meal plan for next week or so based on what we have
Shuffle freezers around with aim to switch one off in the next week. Likely will focus my mind on meal planning :rotfl:
We have friends over later but will be using what we have in rather than going out and buying lots of extravagent food

Have a great NYE folks and I wish you all a happy and healthy (and of applicable - debt busting) 2019

Shortie

Evening/morning (neeeeed to get to sleep)

Hope you don't mind a joiner-iner

For today:
- Cook up pork loin joint (as shredded jerky pork) to take to a friends for NYE
- Take rolls out of freezer to go with the jerky pork
- Pop to town to hunt down a dress for a themed murder mystery in Charity Shops
- Grocery shop (not sure I can put it off any longer)
- Make macaroni cheese for lunch using leftover homemade cheese sauce


Due at a friend's for NYE but at the moment I'm super warm and keep waking myself up with a sore catchy throat so will need to see how I feel later

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)
  
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• NHS Minor Ailment Service article (Link)
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• You Need A Budget site and App (Link)

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

allydowd

Hi Decemberbest Devotees (last time I'll be saying that for a while),

Morning!:coffee: Lovely day off. I awoke early and decided to fling mysef out of bed and (ahem) straight to the toaster and kettle.

Thanks for the starter PF. Hope the sneezing ceases. Welcome Shortie.

:exclamati This Forum has been a bit glitchy this morning. I recommend saving your post in a word processor before posting to guard against loss.



Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Four:

* Check online banking. Done.

* Continue my new Challenge 500 miles challenge. I am going to travel 500 miles for free before the end of 2019: walking, hiking, climbing, cycling, running and swimming. (There is a charge to use the local pool but I will offset the cost in other ways so there is 'no charge'.) Walked 2.5km today around the shops.

* Check loyalty points. 96% of the way to a Morrisons £5 reward voucher.

* Use a treasured Decemberfest gift. 10 years ago I bought an address book for recording passwords. It's finally come to the end of its life. Every year I meticulously cut off the letter tabs and moved them along to a blank page at the back. All passwords are recorded encoded, of course. DW bought me an actual internet password book from WH Smiffs so this weekend I need to transfer the data across to my new book.

* Today will be a bit spendy. DW and I are going to a big out of town shopping centre so DW can buy me a sub-£10 memory card for my camera for my forthcoming birthday. I have managed to irreversibly damage all of my three cards this year. Then we will walk around Ikea for the fun of it, spending very little. Lunch will be taken in Ikea. Then we're going to a massive ice-hockey match at a semi-local ice arena for our Hogmanay treat. At £20+£18 a ticket it's not free, but it's certainly cheaper than many alternatives. DW got a concession and there's 59p TCB. Then home for some light drinking for The Bells. Awesome match: <singing> "5-2, 5-2, 5-2....5-2".

* Still writing..



If there is no struggle there is no progress.

crazy_cat_lady

Good morning all :coffee:
Thanks for the starter PF - hope that you've managed to get some more sleep.
Welcome Shortie - I hope you are also managing to get some sleep.
I'm not very well so far today. I've been awake for much of the night with what I thought was a headache but now suspect that it's a migraine. Paracetamol and ibuprofen are so far ineffective - but I have proper migraine meds which I will break out at 9am if I'm not feeling any better. On the plus side I don't have any plans for the day so I can relax and rest if I need to.
The car is in for its annual service, but the good news there is that it's paid for monthly, and the garage will pick it up and drop it off for me, so I don't even need to leave the house.
Everything else will depend on my headache so I need to try and go with the flow a bit today.

carrielovesfanta

Morning all!

Thanks to Purps for starting us off
Ally - sounds like a fab day
Welcome to shortie
ccl - I hope that migraine clears soon

I'm feeling a bit ropey today. I had a bad night's sleep as was in a bit of pain (nothing sinister - just ladies' issues!). Enough to disturb my sleep, but not enough to fully wake me for a bit. Finally woke up, took some paracetamol and was fine after half an hour or so, but enough to make me not want to get up for work at 5.45am

Can't say that I'm big on NYE. We are going to MIL's for a meal but I've decided that I'm not drinking at all. I quite like to start the New Year as I mean to go on. Sober and refreshed! We might not even last til midnight. I reckon OH won't drink either and we will just go home.

Did the month end/month start for the budget. Due to being very well behaved last month, we are looking healthy for this month. Jan-Feb-Mar are lean times for musicians!

Today's mission:

• B/L/ from stores. Dinner at in laws.
• Weekly hair wash in cold water (sure did wake me up a bit) - done. If anyone is wondering why I would do this, my hair is dyed bright purple and pink so it's to preserve the colour.
• Hope that work let us go home early!
• No alcohol. I will stick to this.
• Charge phone in work - done
• Go for a run at lunchtime - feeling a bit crappy so went for a walk instead

Have a good one all

clf x

1LuckyLady

Good morning all,

Thanks for the start PF, although looking at the title of the thread it looked like I slept a lot better then I thought! 31st Jan alreay!

Clf & Ccl, I hope you're both feeling better.

Ally, Sounds like you have a lovely day planned.

Welcome Shortie! I'm another one with a sore scratchy throat

1LuckyLady

Todays is going to be a day at home, we don't do anything special for NYE but our youngest has asked if he can stay up til midnight to see in the NY so will see how it goes, dh & I haven't stayed up to see the NY in for years!

So far this morning I've chopped up lots of limp veggies into slow cooker with some leftover wine for xmas day (that no one really liked) and some diced beef & some gravy from the freezer. Will have stew and dumplings tonight. (also chopped & froze some - onion, swede, parsnip & carrots into a reused freezer bag so that I have a grab bag of casserole veg ready in the freezer for another day to throw into the sc when I'm short on prep time)
I've diced and frozen a green pepper and the tops & tail of a yellow pepper - I use these in spag bols or anything I need to pack with veggies! The body of the yellow pepper has been sliced ready to go with the last of the dips/hummus with our lunch
Peeled and cut some carrots into batons (again to go with lunch)

Still to do
Check banking/update spreadsheets (keep reminding myself its Monday!)
Breakfast from stores - more panatone (sp?) or ys bread in the freezer
Share bath water, let hair dry naturally and continue use up of lotions and potions
Find a film to watch with the kids later, look at the back of the board games cupboard for something we've not yet played this Christmas
Radiator shuffle away washing thats dried
See if there is another load to go on the quick 30 degree wash not a load
Run the dishwasher on the quickwash
Close off Decembers cashbook


Thats my starter, whatever you're all doing today I hope you have a good one!

DawnW

Morning all
Thanks for the start Purplefairy

Hope all poorlies feel better soon.
Today's plans, such as they are:
Check banks and update spreadsheet (Done)
Clear up kitchen, start up dishwasher and wm (Done)
Transfer appointments etc to new calendar (Done)
Finsh off my 2018 spreadsheet, check spending diary to see if there is anything else that needs to go on there Done
Check shiny new spreadsheet Done :j

Load of washing out on the line already, but it doesn't look as though it will dry much It dried quite well for a change - now on airer
Freecycle item supposed to be leaving the premises today It has gone
Plenty of stuff to finish off for lunch Done
Dog walk after lunch Done

Oxtail casserole made yesterday for dinner Enough left for another meal for 2
No plans to go shopping or spend anything Nothing needed, nothing spent. I have been hatching plans for a project in the garden which will involve modest spends though!
Had a long and pointless conversation with BT with regard to possibly reducing their exorbitant bills. They offered some small temporary reductions if I signed up to a new contract, but I decided to leave as is until my line rental saver thing has finished, and then probably just dump them and go elsewhere. It isn't as if their customer service is worth their bills being bigger than other providers :mad: The only thing that has put me off dumping them before is that the broadband is pretty reliable. Any other recommendations? I was looking at plusnet, who are apparently owned by BT.... but their prices seem to be lower, and their web site a lot more informative!

No plans to go out - doubt if I will be able to stay awake to see in the NY anyway :rotfl:

Shortie

Morning all. So the lack of sleep meant a late start but illness-wise I feel fine. Phew

Thank you for the welcomes xx

Right, off to town - after something I can pass as being 1920s for a murder mysterynight in Jan. I was contemplating not going in as I want to start sorting the loft out but figure that before NYE is an ideal time for sparkly dresses in Charity Shops. I also want to take a peek and see if one of them still has any murder mystery games in - the 1920's one I bought for just £2 - utter bargain!

Will report back later. Possibly from under a capsized pile of loft-hording while the pork cooks :rotfl:

Ediited to add... Ihave just realised that thr dogs were part of my money saving this morning too.. Straight after Christmas dinner I processed all the leftovers - some for bubvle and squeak, some to munch as is and some was boxed up and popped in the freezer for the dogs. I took one out yeaterdy and they shared sone this morning - less calories for one of them who is getting pudgey with age and also less dog biscuit used. Now to exit the house and leave the kids with the impending doggie cabbage wind :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: