Thread 5 - Jesus I sent you a pm about a pug hoodie

[Reastie]

See post two for some helpful links. Here's to a budget conscious yet amazing Christmas.

wow crumbs that table is brilliant!

Whyam that is very tricky! What about a big teddy or a doll. Mine don't need anything either and I still buy them things but maybe that's something to avoid.

Crumbs that's brilliant!

White Stuff code is gone now.

Wornout the other thing to think about is if you buy your ds a console then there will be pressure to buy bigger presents for your other children. My dc think I am the meanest mummy too, I am also overprotective apparently because I wont let my 12 year old watch Deadpool!

@notpennysboat we have those, from Argos, chad valley ones.

Were on offer for a set of 5 last xmas.

will go try and find them.

Not stocked any more @notpennysboat

check out Asda's Sparkle Girls ones, some are similar?

haha I had the "12 means 12" talk with him last month about some film he wanted to watch, yumyumpoppycat
he hasn't asked for any 18s yet!

"aaaaaaaaaaaalll my friends are allowed to play/watch it!"
"well I'm not their mam, am I?"

I'm the mean mother who won't let him play online no matter what, he's currently in a total screen ban (not even allowed to choose what's on tv) because I caught him playing roblox.

they love us really!

No fear of me getting him a console of his own, anyway. Big expensive things like that are for the whole family or not at all. He doesn't have his own tv so it'd be a moot point anyway!

Seen a post on fb that's Argos 3 for 2 is rumoured for next Wednesday 27th, hopefully they don't put all the prices up before then!

crumbsinthecutlerydrawer I am not crafty at all! But thanks for the idea. Might be worth me looking into if all else fails. Looks amazing though, well done you 👍🏻

Crumbs, I love that table.* If I wanted to replicate it...is the central bit of board a 48x48 by any chance? Do you know the size of the extra bits round the edge and how many there are? Thanking you in advance as it’s a great idea for my DS.*

Somebody was saying that their DC wanted pandora stuff? It's 3for2 at John Greed and free engraving on the heart charm

Wow, I'm late this year! Got a good excuse though, house renovations.
Struggling with my nearly 10 yr old dd as she still likes toys but likes older things too!
Hope the argos 3 for 2 is on next week, have my list all ready!

Thanks everyone. In the spirit of the thread it was a bargain, I think it cost well under £30 to make.

friskybivalves the centreboard is 48x48 and I’ve left that one whole. Measured the table eleventy million times to get it as central as possible!

I think I used two of the standard green boards around the edge, might have been three, I can’t remember now. There was a lot of trimming with these. The bottom edge is 11 studs deep and the top is 10, the left side is 10 and the right is 11. If that makes sense. The whole table is 69x69(studs). Oh and I tried to keep the original rounded corners of the boards for the corners of the table. (Photo)

It’s fiddly but not difficult, lots of measuring, a sharp knife and a metal ruler. Or someone who’s into diy to do that side for you. I remember panicking a lot because I’d left it to the last minute and then found no glue would adhere to the table. The plan was to have runners underneath with a sliding tray to keep some bricks in but I ran out of time and it works as it is and it probably wouldn’t hold many anyway.

Debenhams are offering a free goody bag (today only) with beauty & fragrance purchases over £70. They are also offering two small Benefit gifts (Fun size GoGo Tint + Brow Sampling Kit) with Benefit purchases over £40 as well as a Benefit gift set (BeneBundle Sizzling Six) with Benefit purchases over £70. All these offers can be combined, so with a Benefit spend of £70 you would be getting this for free:

• Benefit Fun Size GoGo Tint
• Benefit Brow Sampling Kit
• Benefit BeneBundle Sizzling Six gift set
• Debenhams Goody Bag *

They have some Benefit gift/value sets on offer at the moment too, with 25-33% discount (such as the "Kissy Missy" gift set, Beauty School Knockouts make up kit, "Feelin Dandy" lip & cheek kit, "Sugarlicious" lip & cheek kit), that works with the offer, so going for some of those would make it an even better deal. Obviously £70 is quite a lot to spend in one go, but would be good if you're a big fan of Benefit or if you are looking for gifts.

Free delivery with code - SH65
...and don't forget Quidco or TCB

• Debenhams Goody Bag - Your gift includes:

• L'Occitane Cherry Blossom Hand Cream 10ml
• Urban Decay Naked Pallette & Perversion Mascara DLX 8 PD 7ml
• Nude by Nature Loose Finishing Powder & Flawless Liquid Foundation W4 Soft Sand
• Too Faced Better than Sex Mascara 2g
• Tiffany Eau de Parfum sample 1.5ml
• Bareminerals Deluxe Skinlongevity 1.2ml
• Guerlain La Petite Robe Noir Black Perfecto 7.5ml
• Vince Camuto Bella 1.5m

HUKD link, for the dedication they showed typing this out.

I have a refer a friend link for Radley - but it's for min £100 spend and excludes same stuff. You and I both get £15 off. PM me if you want one.

For those of you with men or teen boys, I highly recommend saltrock.com clothing for hoodies. My 16 year old wear the one I got him last christmas practically daily. Right now they have some nice ones on sale and BEANS10 gives you another 10% off.

As I suspectebeauty advent calendars now reduced in price at superdrug

For those asking about mini sewing machines, the one at John Lewis here is fab! My neighbour has one, obviously can't do as much as my bigger machine can but if you have the right fabric and follow the instructions it works great! My dd prefers using that one to mine tbh.

The Lego table above is really similar to what I did for dd3 thanks Pinterest! but if you wanted to buy one this looks really good.

I was in b&m yesterday and they had lots of fab Christmas stuff in already that had me rather excited! I also had an email notification from Matalan that the wrapping paper sets I wanted were back in stock so I managed to order those to click and collect. My cute Christmas cushions were delivered from Asda too - I love them!! Bedding will still be another 4 weeks to delivery.

QVC have an offer this week, spend £100 and receive a £10 voucher, spend £200 for £20 voucher. Unsure if it will work with the 15% code above? Not bad if you were planning on buying something bigger, and their prices are quite good these days and you have the option to spread your payments out on some items too.

Does have any ideas for dd2? (will be 11 shortly after Christmas). I'm really stumped, have her main present sussed and for smaller girls I've got a Lego set and some Harry Potter pop vinyls. She isn't into toys, and with 3 girls here we have every book imaginable, lots of craft kits, games etc.

Does anyone know of any good stop-motion kits for DS (10)? I am still kicking myself for not getting one of those £5 Sainsbury's ones last year (had it in my hand and put it back!) but I think he'd like something that he could use with his tablet to make little films.

I also have my eye on the Match Attax calendar and hoping it comes down from £20 before December 1st as DS would love it!

I mentioned last year on one of these threads and it went down well so I'll say it again...you can get personalised Match Attax cards on their website. They don't seem to have updated for 17/18 yet but I will definitely be getting some for DS when they do! I think it's really good value, about £5 for 5 cards (one of which is shiny!) Really easy to upload a photo and adjust the stats. Nice little stocking filler for a football fan

Jenny I'm afraid Argos have already done it I had a screenshot of a toy and iv just checked and Argos have put the price up!

That's typical Pop, I'll have to compare their prices with smyths etc then before I get the rest of DC presents.

Absolutely gutted just checked the bbf date on the Maltesers chocs from Debenhams and they're dated before Christmas

I have the John Lewis mini sewing machine that llamacorn linked to and can verify to jessiesgirl and annwithnoe that it's a lovely easy to use small machine that has been perfect for sewing projects that I've done with DD.

@IToldYouIWasFreaky

StickBot £17.99

This is the kit I bought my nephew for his 12th birthday last year (he'd had an iPhone that year because of starting secondary school) - it went down really well with him, his 8 year old brother and his cousins! You can buy extra people for it too.

@wornoutboots here are some inexpensive things my 8-year-old DS and 7-year-old DD have loved. DS would quite happily spend his life on screens given half a chance, so similar to your DS!

Bungee Bouncer. Think I paid less than this. We keep ours indoors and it's used all the time.

Disco lamp Again, you can probably shop around and find it cheaper

Super soft blankets like these ones. Get used for both snuggling and den building

Cheap rip-off Minecraft swords, pickaxes, etc Ours have survived years of abuse and still look good. Link is the first seller I found, so shop around and check reviews. On a similar vein, Minecraft plushies are well loved. We have a selection of genuine ones and rip-offs and can't tell the difference

Binoculars. I bought proper 'grown up' ones. You can pick a cheap set up for £10, although it's worth spending more if you plan to use them for astronomy

Newton's cradle DS bought this one with money he'd saved himself. Every child that comes here is fascinated by it.

Realistic animal plushies. Wild republic and Keel do good ones.

Pamela that sewing machine is pretty!

Shame I am the least 'craft-y' person in the universe