What small things will you do this week? W/C 17 March

La_escocesa

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 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 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!

allydowd

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

• Benefits check-up (Link)
• Birthday Freebies (Link)
  
• eBid (Link)
• Freecycle (Link)
• Freegle (Link)
  
• FreeStuff (Link)
• Income Tax Calculator (Link)
• Ipsos i-Say Surveys (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 Deals and Vouchers (Link)
• MSE Demotivator Tool (Link)
• MSE Credit Card Minimum Repayment Calculator (Link)
• NHS Minor Ailment Service article (Link)
• MSE Money Makeover (Link)
• MSE Reclaim Packaged Bank Account fees at no cost to yourself without using a claims company (Link)
• MSE Reclaiming guide (Link)
• MSE Stoozing Guide (Link)
• MSE Survey sites that pay for your opinions (Link)
• My Supermarket Compare (Link)
  
• NHS Free Prescription Checker (Link)
• OnePoll (Link)
• Parcel2Go: compare postage prices (Link)
  
• Parkopedia: compare parking charges (Link)
  
• Quidco (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. (www.resolver.co.uk)
• SayNoTo0870 cheap phone number finder (Link)
• Split Ticketing (Link)
  
• Super Saver Amazon Delivery Tool (Link)
  
• Swagbucks (Link)
  
• Toluna (Link)
  
• TopCashBack (Link)
• You Need A Budget site and App (Link)

Links last checked for workability 27th Jan 2025.

allydowd

Hi March Money-Savers,

@LaEscocesa thanks.

Still somewhat unwell but plodding on...

Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Nine:

Things I'll definitely do:

• Alarm clock off at the wall during day time.
• Reconciled my finances spreadsheet and made a backup copy.
  
• Sort out my own nails.
  
• Filled my pill box so I remember my pills and don't get sick(er).
• Cleared my Letter Rack.
• Checked TopCashBack.
• Cleared all my emails.
• Frugal birthday with DW.
  

carrielovesfanta

Hi all,

Still catching up with my week. I was away on Monday attending a funeral. It was a young person that passed in sudden and tragic circumstances and was deeply upsetting.  

In more positive news, it seems like everyone is taking the house moving date of the 17th seriously. Still no sign of mum's op being rescheduled yet so have had to shoehorn in a 3 day trip to Germany for work next week.

And breathe. 

My main MSE focus for the week is eat healthily from meal plan/stores and get to the gym 3 times. 

Have a good one all

clf x

DawnW

Hi all,

Late to the party this week!

Thanks for starting the thread @La_escocesa

@allydowd I hope you get better soon!

@carrielovesfanta it all sounds really hectic. Hope the move goes ahead as planned.

Work today, so not much else done.

Took my lunch with me

Dinner from plan

Watered seedlings.

Dug up a chunk of mint plant to give to my work friend

Wrote a birthday card and addressed and stamped it ready to post

It was actually a warm and sunny day today, but very cold in the shop where I work, where the sun never penetrates

I was wearing a coat over my thick cardi, dress, thermals, leggings and boots. Also a scarf and gloves. When I got home OH had just taken the dog out wearing a T shirt! (OH not the dog ) 

Another day in the ice box tomorrow   Hope it will be busier than today as the time drags when there aren't people in.

La_escocesa

Hi everyone, 

Nice to catch up. 

@allydowd - hope you feel better soon. 🙏🏻
@carrielovesfanta - sorry to hear you lost someone recently. You've got such a lot going on and you're tackling it all head on, you rockstar 💪🏻
@DawnW - brrr, I got cold reading your post 🤣

The main mse thing I've done is got a job 🥳 Remote contact so no travel costs. I'm so so happy about it. It's a job I've done before and it's better pay. Cannot wait to get going. 

Unfortunately I don't get paid until after the May bank holiday 😩 so that's going to be a killer, especially as OH has over 2 weeks of unpaid leave in April 😭😭

Changed mortgage date so we only need to make one payment before my first pay comes in. 

Submitted invoice for £800 so that'll be nice when that comes in next week and a great help before first pay day. 

Spent all day in the garden yesterday and still loads more to do. It was nice that my little one could play outside yesterday. 

I'm so sick of my garden. It's on a slope and needs a retaining wall/sleeper wall before we can put a patio in. I'm so out of my depth. Really don't think we could tackle it ourselves but it's a massive job for people who know what they're doing so no idea how else we could tackle it 😫 open to any advice!!

DawnW

Congrats on the job @La_escocesa

Can't help with the wall / patio unfortunately. Civil engineering type stuff I leave to OH. Sounds as though there will be a lot of digging needed.

Yes, it was cold again today at work, and pretty quiet, so boring too

Took my lunch with me, if a few crackers counts as lunch.

Macaroni cheese for dinner (yum)

The half wine barrel I ordered to replace my too small patio pond has arrived, and it is massive! Looking forward to making a big pond   

Early night tonight I think, as I was up super early to get to smallest grandchildren's school before work, as GD was getting an award in assembly, and Mum was working and Dad at a course. Had to get everything ready for work beforehand as the school is not in our town, and the traffic was awful at that time of the morning! Totally worth it, as they were so pleased that we were there   Got to work just in time!

rachmac3

I've done lots of house and garden stuff over the past few days. 
I've used up loads of old seeds, I'm sure some will germinate, but I'm mostly hoping to use stuff up and start fresh next year buying seeds that I really like.
I also cleaned out my conservatory, so I've got myself a whole new usable room and more space for seedlings. I used up the dregs of a tin of wood pain to re-paint the rafters. They'll probably need another coat but at least I made a start and used up paint that would have been taken to the tip. 
I also cleaned the two heavy duty wipe-your-feet-mats that were in there rather than buy new ones. I was really surprised at how well they came up with just hosing them down outside!

DawnW

I am using up old seeds too @rachmac3 . And I have seedlings everywhere, and soon to get worse when I pot on / space out those that need it   

Went to a market this morning as I often do on Sundays, to buy stock for my business. Not great today, but I managed to get a few bits.

Other than that I have:

Dog walk before we set off to the market.

Business paperwork when I got back.

Made lemon curd to use up the experimental lemons that I had been keeping in a jar of water in the fridge for over a month. They had kept brilliantly, and I will certainly be storing lemons and limes like this all the time from now on, rather than having them go dry and leathery in a week as they normally do. Apparently the water that they are stored in works well as a cleaner, but I must admit I didn't try this today.

Applied vine weevil nematodes to my strawberry plants, which are all in containers and would suffer if I didn't do this. The little horrors eat the roots of the plants and kill them. The nematodes are tiny parasites that kill only vine weevil larvae and don't harm anything else. The treatment comes as a powder which is dissolved in water and applied with a watering can.

Pulled everything out of the fridge to see what needed using up. I made a quick pickle to use up bendy radishes, carrots and a couple of mini cucumbers. I found the recipe in one of the River Cottage books, but didn't stick to it exactly, as I wanted to use up what I have rather than buy new ingredients. Looking forward to trying it in a day or two. Put a pepper, a courgette and a couple of red onions in the oven to roast.

Made shepherds pie for dinner. 

I now have to wash up for what seems like the hundredth time today, and that will be it!