What small DFW things will you do this w/c 10/02

carrielovesfanta

When we start 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 canceling 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 every day 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 😀

carrielovesfanta

Morning folks. Sorry for tailing off at the end of last week. Work got a bit hellish! 

@dawn - I'm sorry to hear about your brother x

Off over to the hospital with OH today for his appointment with the kidney consultant. I felt like I might want to ask questions, or at least hear all the info first hand. Other than that, still working on this stressful job at work. Thursday will be my last day in before my 2 weeks off though. I really thought I'd be beside myself with excitement but am struggling to see the wood for the trees at the moment. 

Was a bit of a spendy weekend, mostly on food! So this week we need to eat it all

Today's MSE things: 
Take snacks and water to the hospital. OH will def be hungry after the appointment.
Heating on low-ish. Am trying to wean myself back down to 17'C
WFH - saves petrol

Have a good one all

clf x

allydowd

carrielovesfanta said:

Off over to the hospital with OH today for his appointment with the kidney consultant. I felt like I might want to ask questions, or at least hear all the info first hand. Other than that, still working on this stressful job at work. Thursday will be my last day in before my 2 weeks off though. I really thought I'd be beside myself with excitement but am struggling to see the wood for the trees at the moment.

You got this.

allydowd

Hi February Finance Fans,

Thanks for the starter @carrielovesfanta.

A precious day off today and I am taking it easy. My job is 80% physical, I need a rest.

Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Nine:

• Alarm clock off at the wall during day time.
• Reconciled my finances spreadsheet.
  
• Lunch will be batch-cooked soup made from scraps.
  
• Clearing the laundry using as little heating as possible.
• Sort out my own nails. No point in going to a salon, I work in an outdoor occupation. They'd be wrecked in no time.
• Soothe my sore feet with a bucket of cold water.
• Tonight's entertainment will be a small beer at home.
• Renewed car insurance for £30 less than last year, and I will also get £25 back from TopCashBack.
• Try to stop my blanket from slipping of my chair with a bulldog clip. The leather is peeling off but I'm not replacing the chair. I'm popping a blanket over it.
  
• Converted some Tesco points to a £1.50 voucher.

Not so MSE:

• I bought DW a cheap mini fragrance bottle that can be filled from any larger bottle when travelling. It was only 36p. Didn't realise it can only be filled from perfume bottles with a valve, it's not a screw top. This doesn't fit DW's fragrance bottle, which doesn't have a valve, and she's disappointed so I stumped up £3.99 for one that will fit. Should've read the description more thoroughly.
  

allydowd

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Please click Thanks if this post helped you.

DawnW

Thanks for starting the thread @carrielovesfanta. Hope you enjoy your time off and things soon get less stressful.

Miserable weather here. I fancied going out and doing some tidying / reorganising in the garden, but it was too cold and wet, so I didn't.

I spent some time this morning getting the hang of using the new vacuum cleaner, whose instruction booklet seems to belong to another model entirely, as even the picture of the thing on the front looks different.

I then cleaned the fridge and larder out a bit. I refilled some of my storage jars and made a shopping list for tomorrow, corralled all the wilty veg for tonight's stir fry, froze some chicken stock, made a trifle to use up some stale cake and some cream on its use by date, and blitzed a couple of slices of stale bread into breadcrumbs, which I have frozen.

Lunch was some veg soup made with mostly sweet potatoes which was I thought very sweet and cloying when I first made it, but a day in the fridge has improved it. Made it super yummy with the addition of some lardons fried till crisp and sprinkled on top, and a bit of ciabatta bread from the freezer. There is enough of everything for tomorrow's lunch too

My chilli seeds have germinated   

I still need to check the banks and pay the milk bill.

determined_new_ms

Hi guys  here's to us at the beginning of a new week, may the odds ever be in our favor!

Carrie thanks for starting us off  what an amazing thing dh is doing for his brother, so loving and courageous. I'm in total awe  reminder to myself to be the best most loving version of myself I can be (I say this at a particularly difficult time with dd so could do with the inspiration not to be angry, bitter and mean spirited).

ally I think when all is said and done £4.35 is pretty MSE and the loving feeling DW will get from your thoughtfulness is priceless!

Today I worked at a different location which is about 15 mins closer to home, and then there was a terrible traffic jam so I got to work 1 hour later = 1 hour less of stress! win

* NSD
* All meals from stores- defrosted xmas dinner soup for lunch, batch cooked and shredded chicken drumsticks and a number of use ups for dinner  
* Read birthday book
* exercise for free

I'm trying to stay away from social medium - due to it being a cesspit and a time suck - and have had a bad day (see comments above) and I decided to pop in here and say hello and it remined me how lovely you all are, no hate spewing, no divisive discourse. Just decent people, being kind and supportive and I felt a lot of gratitude for you all  

DawnW

((Hugs)) DNMS

determined_new_ms

Morning - posting early as I'm delaying getting ready for work 

Today's small things:

* WFH - saving 1.5 hour travel time and petrol
* I do a long day today until 7. It's my intention to keep to my hours this week....
* checked bank accounts. I couldn't seem to reconcile why we had as much coming out as went in last month so will need to drill down on that on Friday
* NSD (aiming for NSDs Mon-Fri)
* All meals from stores - will need to freeze some of the pulled chicken I made that isn't used today
* free training course tonight on kinship care and managing contact. We need this atm (we always managed the relationship with dd very well but this last 3 months things have broken down completely.)
* listing something on facebay. It's madam's high sleeper bed, no mattress. Can't work out whether to give it away or sell for £50, it has some wear and tear....
* read birthday book
* free exercise

Ok think that's me. Hope you all have a great day

allydowd

Hi February Finance Fans,

Another precious day off today.

Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Nine:

• Alarm clock off at the wall during day time.
• Reconciled my finances spreadsheet.
  
• Lunch will be a shared tin of soup.
  
• Converted some Tesco points to a £1.50 voucher yesterday. Couldn't park at mini-Tesco on the way past today, so I'll spend it another day.
• Went for groceries at Morrison's. Wanted 'my' coffee pods but the price was too high, I'll try again next week. (I'm afraid we have a coffee machine that takes pods, bought secondhand. We use it about once a week and I do enjoy the coffee it makes. DW bought it for me as a gift when we we in poverty and I hadn't the heart to tell her that I'd rather we didn't use pods. She'd saved up for it and everything and she'd gone without her treats to buy me it because she knows I enjoy coffee. 💔😢 I won't tell her.) Kept the Morrison's More coupon dispensed at the till in case we want to use it in future.
  
• Cleaned my own car inside and topped up the oil and water. Didn't do the outside of the car or the tyres as it was bucketing down. That can wait, might do it tonight as I managed to park the car outside Dowd Towers today. Zero spend on that mission, anyway.
  
• Entertainment was drinking a flask of coffee in the car with DW. Viewpoint overlooks the sea. Not much to see in the rain, but nice for DW to be able to get out today with me for a bit of fresh air. She isn't well at all lately.
• Activated a new credit card. I'm debt free but we do sometimes spend £10 or so on the credit card the week before Pay Day and then pay it back almost right away if we've misjudged the price of something. If we make a big purchase we buy on the credit card for extra consumer protection and then instantly pay it off. Got rid of a card that's about to go from 0% to 25% and started a new card that's at 0%.
  

carrielovesfanta

Morning all

Big hugs DNMS, ally, DawnW and everyone else who is having a bit of a time at the moment xx

So OH's op will likely be the summer. That was a bit of a shock as we'd anticipated autumn. OH is quite scared really and as he said, what choice does he really have? It's either give it up or possibly see his brother d13 from it. We've always known this day would come (b-i-l's kidneys were damaged as a toddler) but could do with one thing at a time at the moment! 
Slightly weird moment as OH has been trying to lose weight and get his cholesterol down for the op. They weighed him and he was 3kg heavier than before. Cannot possibly believe that as his clothes are fitting better. I wonder if they misread 98kg as 90kg at the first weigh-in. 

Had to pick up some bits for tea as we ate at m-i-l's but but bought some sensible healthy bits. 

In MSE things: 
WFH
OH has a gig tonight with a friend but moved his teaching to tomorrow as not to lose the money
In between work, pottering about and normal housework bits
Gym tonight with my friend
Reconciled the budget sheet
Cracked and put the heating up to 18
Need to think of something for lunch. OH is having tea out with his friend. I mustn't keep eating cheese and crackers for every meal. - some ys olive bread topped with fromage frais, roasted veg and a couple of quorn fillets

Have a good one all

clf x