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What small DFW things will you do this week 16/11/20?
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determined_new_ms
Posts: 7,867 Forumite


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 😀
DF as at 30/12/16
Wombling 2025: £87.12
NSD March: YTD: 35
Grocery spend challenge March £253.38/£285 £20/£70 Eating out
GC annual £449.80/£4500
Eating out budget: £55/£420
Extra cash earned 2025: £195
Wombling 2025: £87.12
NSD March: YTD: 35
Grocery spend challenge March £253.38/£285 £20/£70 Eating out
GC annual £449.80/£4500
Eating out budget: £55/£420
Extra cash earned 2025: £195
4
Comments
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Morning - hope I haven't cross posted with CLF! Been up FOREVER! Woke up at 4.50
Ziggy glad you continue to remain well. est wishes to dh & ds
Have an appointment for pre-op assessment today in the middle of the day, which is a bit of a pain but a necessary evil!
Other than that:
*TOMM
* slice and freeze lemon cake made yesterday - more chance of it surviving to last madam's packed lunches this week!
* load of washing, double spin & hang on airer
* put considerable washing away
* (disappointing) cauliflower soup for lunch
* do free exercise class
* book myself on to a lecture/session about SW master application process
* jig meal plan around as I forgot to get chicken out! Although some investigation multiple sources say you can cook a whole frozen chicken in a pressure cooker. Should I risk it???
* do some banking
* go grocery shopping after appt
* do some painting in the hallway
Ok that'll keep me busy. Hope you all have a great week x
DF as at 30/12/16
Wombling 2025: £87.12
NSD March: YTD: 35
Grocery spend challenge March £253.38/£285 £20/£70 Eating out
GC annual £449.80/£4500
Eating out budget: £55/£420
Extra cash earned 2025: £1953 -
MONEY MAKING AND SAVING SITES AS OFTEN MENTIONED IN THIS FORUM:
- Benefits check-up (Link)
- Birthday Freebies (Link)
- 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)
- Parcel2Go: compare postage prices (Link)
- Parkopedia: compare parking charges (Link)
- Pick My Postcode Lottery ( Link )
- Quidco (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)
- Split Ticketing (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) Site closed
- 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.
Debt-free day: 8th May 2015 "Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck," Dalai Llama5 -
Hi November Non-Spenders,A blessed day off. Was (miraculously) up at 6am.
Thanks for the starter DNM.Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Six:Checked online banking.Alarm clock off at the wall during day time.Turn off Wifi box when not using it.Do some online voluntary work.Defrosted the bigger freezer getting back about 3 litres of space. Put the stuff we've bought for Decemberfest in the very bottom.Breakfast is cooked random items from freezer.Batch cooked lasagna.Found new home insurance provider and cancelled old one.Read meters.Ordered a Morrison's re-loadable voucher through company scheme saving 3% on supermarket spends.Bought socks on eBay using discount code sent to me for £5 off a £10 spend.Went for an hour long cycle along the coast and used the free outdoor gym equipment.
Debt-free day: 8th May 2015 "Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck," Dalai Llama3 -
Morning allThanks for starting the thread DNMS
Personally I wouldn't risk cooking a frozen chicken, but that is just me. I am pretty lax about things like use by dates on most things (why on carrots?? And stuff I grow / make myself doesn't even have them
) but a bit wary of not playing it exactly by the book with chicken, fish and pork.
((Hugs)) to ZiggyDog walk done, breakfast eaten, coffee drunk, read news free online, now need to get on! Didn't really do anything yesterday I am ashamed to admit. Just seemed so pointless, and cba. So today I will:Use up a lemon and a lime that are getting shrivelled in the fruit bowl - may make drizzle cakes. I haven't made a lime one before, but why not?Check banks and update spreadsheet. Shockingly expensive month, with car going to the garage, car insurance due, bought beef box from a local farm, bought a new dishwasherWrap an ebay sale, print out drop and go paperwork and take accumulated parcels to the post officeCar needs to have a new battery fitted this afternoon - will take the dog and go for a walk in village near garage while it is being doneUpdate grocery delivery arriving tomorrowSort a place to store the compost I am having delivered - not sure how availability will be next spring. It wasn't great this year with covid, and next year we will have the pleasure of covid and br*xit. Makes sense to get some delivered now while there seems to be plenty.Make some soup for lunchesDinner will be broccoli and pasta in cheese sauce, veggie day todayOK, better get on. Hope everyone has as good a day as possible.3 -
I'm doing it Dawn!I've searched and searched and 3,330,000 results say I can! If you don't hear from me tomorrow....DF as at 30/12/16
Wombling 2025: £87.12
NSD March: YTD: 35
Grocery spend challenge March £253.38/£285 £20/£70 Eating out
GC annual £449.80/£4500
Eating out budget: £55/£420
Extra cash earned 2025: £1953 -
Morning all
NSD
Eating from stores
Working from home
Taking parcels to post office later
Checked mortgage account and it's in the 80k's 😃😃
I have an overpayment for the loan but will wait until Friday as l get paid then.
Heating is on at the moment, hopefully will turn it off soon. I have a thick jumper on!
Positive vibes this week...not sure it does anything other than make me not grumpy, but l will take that!
Good luck with the chicken @determined_new_ms4 -
Hi DNMS thanks for starting thread. Am working at home and eating from stores today. So should be a no spend day and I'm still discussing if I'm going running tonight, as want to run everyday for 2 weeks - because I'm stubborn, had to self isolate and my weight went a lb the wrong way. And I thought - no I should not run, I need a rest day - and then I looked at some running websites and and really it's fine, as long as I"m doing under 30 M a week. Like I'll manage to do 30 M in a week! That said I am trying to do 70 M before the end of lockdown, but theres no penalty if I don't! Did the first 9.5 this weekend. (sorry for Bragalarm).
Isa help to buy: 1000/3000 33%
Emergency fund: 100/1000 10%
Weight loose 8.6 kg - while having fun. 0/8.6 0%
Focus debt to clear HSBC £10/1111, 0% updated May 253 -
I'm trying to only put heating on for an hour as it's currently clement enough to heat the house for the whole evening if we put it on 6-7pm.
We're keeping pretty well to our £30 Maximum a week groceries at the moment, so far since Saturday we've subsisted entirely from the cupboards/freezer which has meant I've spent a grand total of £4 on cheese and that's been it.
Sold most of the 44 things I listed on ebay last month so I'm going to root around some more cupboards and get stuff listed.Bottom line;
£49k paid off
Car HP paid off
Debt Free!
Saved Escape fund and moved out.
Current focus; saving Emergency fund5 -
determined_new_ms said:I'm doing it Dawn!I've searched and searched and 3,330,000 results say I can! If you don't hear from me tomorrow....
you've been busy reading all that lot. I'm sure it will be fine.
Bleurrgh what a day - needless to say I didn't get all my list doneMade soup for lunch, spicy sweet potato, very nice and plenty left for tomorrowAlso boiled up a pack of salad potatoes I had forgotten about in the fridge. Browned some off in the oven for dinner. Strange dinner, broccoli in cheese sauce, 'roast' potatoes and peas. It was tasty though!Posted the ebay parcelsCar went to garage for an expensive new battery - but at least it will start now without a lot of fuss. Walked round the nice village near the garage while they fitted it. I would love to move back to a village, or right out in the country (though it isn't going to happen cos we can't afford it) but not that village, as the traffic was awful! Lovely houses, but not a relaxing walk at all. It is quieter where we live, near the edge of a small town - ok, you see more people, but the traffic is much less! Someone had left cooking apples out with a note to take some, so we didMust deal with those tomorrow, as windfalls don't keep for long.
Didn't get round to making cakes, but the shrivelly lemon and lime will still be there tomorrowStill haven't checked banks, but will do in a minute, or at least the current accounts. I ought to check savings accounts too, but no way is that getting done tonight (I have bits in different places and I will need to get the banking file out to find all the details).Hectic day tomorrow - the new dishwasher is being delivered, as is the compost I ordered yesterday plus the groceries. Also a large item that OH has been asked to restore. I have horrible visions of the old dishwasher (now put outside to be taken away tomorrow), the new one, 8 bags of compost, Mr S shopping which comes without bags, and a huge, broken antique coat stand in the form of a family of bears all arriving at once and piled into my tiny front garden
4 -
Hi November Non-Spenders,Another blessed day off. I woke up at 4am so decided to seize the spatula and get up.Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Six:Checked online banking.Alarm clock off at the wall during day time.Turn off Wifi box when not using it.Do some online voluntary work.Currently waiting for focaccia dough to rise. It's months since I did any baking. I've got lazy.||Homemade Chinese Lemon Chicken for dinner.Debt-free day: 8th May 2015 "Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck," Dalai Llama5
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