Countdown to Christmas 2022: The January sales edition (AKA, 'Where the bloody hell have I put that?' come next Christmas!) Thread 1

[ThatsMySantaHisBeardIsSoFluffy]

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Here we go, roll up, roll up!

I can barely move; I'm full of cheese and Bailey's. 🐷

Here's our new thread for the new countdown! 🎄🎅🏻🎄🎅🏻

That's good news, Wreck. I've years til I'm debt free. And then I'll be rich, ha ha (in comparison to now)!

Oh, just caught up from where I was!

I've just finished work. Thank god I can claim overtime! Utter nightmare at present.

We have two loads of washing out trying to make the most of the brief dry spell (with wind!) to get stuff as dry as possible.

You could've had a free dermabrasion treatment here this morning. 40+mph winds and hail! 😱😱

School has apparently been ok today, Crazy. It's not fixed yet, but they've managed to keep it a reasonable temp. The head thinks he'll be able to open it on Monday.

We've got a couple of birthdays in January and February that serve to lighten the post Christmas gloom.

Rain forecast for all day tomorrow here but apart from a quick trip to the butcher I don't have any plans to go out.

Puss if you can get to a John Lewis next Christmas I can recommend the personalised tins of Quality Street. You can fill them with pick'n'mix QS - we had purple ones, green triangles, toffee pennies and a few strawberry creams for DD2. No waste and no coconut 🤢

Yes , two weeks ago that warm fuzzy Christmas Eve feeling ( I actually thought that when I woke up this morning )

Blinking freezing here , ice on the windscreen .

DD and I went shopping ( just a quick Post Office , underwear and toiletries stock up )

I think this weekend will be tidying up (oh joy) and collecting anything for the Charity Shop/recycling .

I have some cake left , some chocolate , bottle of mulled "not-wine" wine
and the Christmas pudding from Christmas 2020 ! (It might make a guest appearance for Christmas 2022)

Yes, Woolly, we still have loads of green triangles from our JL QS! 😁 I don't let anybody else touch them, ha ha!

351

And only 50 weeks (give or take) till this Christmas .

Morning. I've been up for an hour which is early for me on a weekend. I'm trying to reset my body clock a bit as my sleep is all over the place and I think it's one of the reasons for the amount of headaches I'm having at the mo.
I've already put a load of washing on the radiators, filled the dishwasher and emptied the bins.

HeyUp I'm with you on the post-Christmas blues. I miss my twinkly lights.

Fluffy is your plan still to pay off debts then buy a house?

Morning!

It's chucking it down here...good job DH got the washing in last night! (Which had almost dried!)

I didn't go sleep until after 1am, stupidly, and for no good reason, so I'm knackered now.

Yes, that's still the plan, Crazy. Trying to save even a little right now is impossible with the cost of living shooting up though. And the NI increase in April really isn't going to help at all. Sigh.

Fluffy we've stopped saving and are piling that money off our loan (I say piling, it wasn't much a month we were able to save). I'm really worried about when our fixed rate on our electricity ends.

It's raining here too and dh has had to call off his work today which is really annoying as that's money lost.

Day ten of isolation here so dd and I are free tomorrow!

This is the last full year of my student loan, thank god. And especially as the interest rate is set by RPI, which is going to be hideous in March, so the last few months' payments will be higher. I might pay the balance off the smaller one at that point and then have that money to put back into the savings / top up the payment for the larger one.

I know they say you shouldn't save if you have debt, but I think a small buffer is helpful if something goes wrong! And it is only small. 🤣

When does your fixed rate end, Wreck? I'm locked in until August 2023, which I'm grateful for. I'd never normally do a 2 year fix, but as it was only £15 exit fee per fuel, decided to do it. Sensible, given the current state of play.

It ends in June we're hoping to have moved by then but that'll be bitter sweet as here we have solar panels and an air source heat pump so are lucky in that aspect. I'm only moving somewhere with gas though as electric only is too expensive.

I'm thankful my university fees are all being funded. Dh is going to need to borrow money when he goes self employed but his mum has offered to lend it to us and hopefully we'd be able to pay it back pretty quickly.

Yeah, we have an electric shower, and that's bad enough for bumping the bills up. Electric heating as well would be bad. But it sounds like it could be worse for you, given your set up.

I'm almost grateful my provider went pop, as if they hadn't, I'd have signed up to a one year fix last April, but as EDF took until August to sort out my account from GNE, I couldn't swap until then. And then, while I was swapping to a one year fix with Avro (who've subsequently gone pop!) EDF offered me an incentive to stay with a very similarly-priced deal, but for 2 years, so I did. I'm very pleased with myself on that front!

Is the money to buy himself the van he needs? Does he already have tools? My DH has to keep his at his parents' house as we have no secure space for how many he has! 🙈 We need a house with a garage!

He needs a van and tools. He has some tools but not the big ones. It's always going to be tough for the first year or so though, I'm earning more now so that takes the pressure off a bit, obviously I wouldn't be able to cover it all.

Oh yes the shower. Dd spends about half an hour in the shower every day, I can't get her to go any quicker! She has the thickest hair ever but I'm sure she could be quicker.

Morning all. Delightful morning here, drizzly chilly rain 🌧 cheers you right up!

Got to get back into the swing of life...Sainsburys big shop later. 😆

We always had a little bit of money in savings when we were paying off debts. When things were very tight all credit was £££ so we tried to keep just enough to pay things like insurance excesses or basic car repairs.
Moving, doing work on the house and replacing the broken washing machine & fridge has pretty much obliterated our savings though so we don't have a lot in there at the mo 🙄

I'm dreading our energy deal ending too Wreck. I think it's up in March and although we have solar panels I still think it's going to expensive.
Have you seen any other houses you would consider moving to?

Does your DH know people who have the tools who may be happy to lend them to him sometimes while he gets up and running?
My dad has been a tradesman since before I was born so he has a stupid amount of tools and he often lends them out to people who are getting themselves up and running. I think a few people did it for him and it helps. Doesn't help with the van though - the prices for them have gone up a fair bit since Covid because so many people want to convert them into campervans.

HeyUp I feel like we're living the same life. It's grey and raining here, I'm doing tidying and cleaning, meal planning and doing a Sainsburys food shop today too!

We managed to see the bottom of the wash basket yesterday! And the washing was well on the way to dry last night when it came in. Winter clothes = full basket quickly, however. I put the hoody and joggers I've worn all week in the wash last night, and it doesn't then take much more to get to a load. It should be dry for long enough early next week to get a load done though!

Today we're also going to Sainsbury's (in the damp weather, though hopefully it might stop beforehand), and also to Waterstones for the kids to spend Christmas money, and to Primark for more undies for DD. Oh, and Wilko for bird food. The starlings which live in the loft have trained DH to put food out for them...they fly past, shouting at him, until he puts it out! 🤣🤣🤣

Jealous of you getting to the bottom of your wash basket Fluffy. I was 1 wash away but I changed our bed, the spare bed, mine & DHs towels, the hand towel and bath mat yesterday 🙄

I've just had scrubbed my kitchen cupboards inside and out so having a cross stitch break now. I've realised if I do 'sprints' of cleaning I get more done so that's my plan for the day.

DH is still in bed (watching tv) so I'm enjoying the peace. I've also broken in my new mug - after years of wanting one, I finally bought a blue and white strip Cornish pottery mug when we were away over New Year

Woolly DH eats everything except toffee pennies and I only have a few green triangles or orange octagons from each tub. It's just a temptation for me that I could live without unlike a bottle (or 2) of baileys 😹

We have set days for bedding and towels (Sunday is our bedding, Monday is towels and Thursday is the kids' bedding), so they're upcoming. Sometimes they aren't washed on those days, if there isn't a dry spell to get them outside, even for a short while.

It's still tipping down here. Delightful! We're only just getting to showers though, so we likely won't go out til after the kids have had lunch (we won't have anything as the bacon sandwiches from breakfast will last us til dinner).

puss there's a full, unopened tin of QS here. DH had shoved it in a random cupboard in the utility room and I found it yesterday.
I like the purple ones, pink fudge ones ans the coconut ones. DH doesn't really eat any of them

Fluffy you're very organised! We change towels at the end of the week (ish) but everything else is done on whichever random day I remember.

No nothing he can borrow as everyone is using their own tools.

Sometimes Aldi's middle aisle has tools which are actually really good, weirdly. Not everything, but some items. They had a good chop saw the other year, for instance! Their drills are never good enough, but odd bits are.

DH's drill was £175, IIRC. Partly as it had two battery packs.

Fluffy you're just showing off having an empty washing basket.

Energy Bills...have you seen the comments from Martin Lewis? I've sort of stopped DH worrying too much, but ours is likely to go up by 50% 🥺😭. ML says to do nothing, but wait until the next energy cap. (I'll be honest - it went over my head, but DH was slightly happier.

Crazy Its rock and roll these days ha ha.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget I had a bit of a clear out and I know you put together a Advent Calendar for your DD. I've probably got some bits and pieces you can have. If you want to PM me the sorts of things you include I'll glady check my stash and post you some bits x

speaking of washing basket bottoms....