December debt destroying *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Okay, so probably not much debt will be getting destroyed this month, but hopefully we won't add too much to it.

Here's the thread you want if you need to keep a spending diary somewhere, confess money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.

Welcome to any newbies

Ooh you could do one with stuffing balls too!

Fail safe stuffing recipe;

500g sausage meat in the big tube (£1.19 in Aldi)

One onion chopped in a food processor

One slice bread grated in the food processor

Two teaspoons dried sage

One teaspoon dried parsley.

Mix everything together, mould into balls, cook in oven for 25 minutes while the turkeys resting.

Ghetto send a gift card next year.

Just got great deal of boots alot of sanctuary and soap n glory sets are 25% n 3 for 2 n online the 3 o2 comes off before 25% so i got 3 sets at £12 each originally £16 for total of £20 free delivery to store £20+.

£71.53 total on posting my parcels. . This doesn't even include the cost of various jiffy bags and mailing boxes. Only £10.40 of that was for the U.K., so £61.13 to send 2 mailing boxes, 3 large jiffy bags and 1 medium jiffy bag to the Republic of Ireland!

Luckily, I had the money as an extra in my PayPal account ( as I've made about £450 selling on eBay over the last two months), but as I said earlier, vouchers and gift cards all round next year!

Apart from that, £20.30 between Lidl and Tesco and I'm treating myself to cheesy chips from the chippy for supper later, now everything's wrapped and posted!

£45 on a mirror off eBay.

John Lewis are flogging all the baubles. Nothing I like though.

It was my Xmas do last night, quite a low spend £23.80 including taxi home so not too bad. Had already paid for the meal back in October.

£5.38 on a sandwich meal deal for me and my youngest

Oven at 200c, tray of hot fat.

Put the parsnips on last and cut them in chunky pieces, or the thin bits burn like no ones business.

Yep pre-heat the fat.

Hotukdeals is brilliant for the bargains, I didn't "get" it at first but now I use it every day.

£24.97 on a 1st birthday present, a Christmas present for DS's keyworker at nursery and Christmas present for my dad's girlfriend.

I am wondering if supermarkets will have any amazing reductions on boxing day. Do they even open on boxing day?

Reckon I'll try the roast potato trick!

£73 at asda as got the FIL a whiskey which is cheapest there (sainsburys was £10 more than asda!!). Plus cheese and port (and the cheese was on a deal which got us a slate cheese board if we bought 3 packs (at £1 each!!) so I got 6 packs of creamy blue and creamy white cheese and 2 slate cheese boards for £6?!
Mad. And some clothes for kids... Will prob try and wrap them up.

That is mad NK5. Was that a yellow stickered number or just an ongoing offer? Might pop into asda tomorrow.

FluffyCloudland77 - yep. Although it will be cash rather than a gift card as I live overseas. Cash will be easier for my Dad to understand, he's something of a troglodyte, bless him !

Yes, I realise cash should not be posted. However, I'm really got going to go through the hair shirt performance that I've just gone through again.

Picnic - nope not yellow stickered. Just a deal. The cheese was on rollback (?! I don't usually shop at asda so have no idea!). The brand is castello and it's £1 for a semi circle of cheese.

That cheese and slate deal was on hotukdeals.co.uk in the week.

£37 in aldi
£10 petrol

We had planned Sunday lunch out but period pains are epic. They are going now so hopefully it's John Lewis later for free cake and tea.

Might buy baubles.

I had a word with myself and convinced me that I do not need cheese or a cheese board even if it is a bargain!

Today should be an NSD as im yet to leave the house and think we're just popping to a friend's house later.

so far have monumentally failed. This month we will be spending £5k on re-doing bathroom and bedroom (tiling, new shower, toilet, sink, wardrobe built in, carpet, paint...). We had the money saved so it's not all bad. but still. eeeep!!

WE have however raided fil's allottment, and I have made soups, and pasta sauces for the freezer. have been walking into work to save on parking and petrol (tank has lasted almost a month now), and we have done a lot of the easier bathroom stuff ourselves. ie the painting, the ripping it out, the sanding down etc. nails are ruined. but i didn't have to pay someone else to do it.

tomorrow should be a no spend day. we have things to get from b&q but have tiles to return so should be able to ue the refund money. :o)

Hello everyone, it's been a busy weekend! All doing so well as this time of year just screams 'spend'!

So went to London for friend's birthday. Spent much more than last extremely frugal trip but friends were really understanding - cooked food before we went out and breakfast at home this morning, arrived at the venue early enough for happy hour cocktails and was treated by friend and also my lovely friends clubbed together to buy me a new dress which they gave to me when I arrived as they figured I haven't been buying myself anything new recently due to frugality (so true! Am really bowled over by such a nice gesture). I spent money out of my personal account rather than joint and didn't write down my exact spends but roughly - £22 drinks, £16 taxis, £3.50 on a card and about £10 on snacks, drinks and mags for the coach trip. About £50 in all. Not brilliant. I'm justifying it to myself though that a) i haven't been out on a works Christmas do and b) the arrangements were already in place before I started seriously cutting back so hopefully I can avoid similar spends over the coming months.

£40 petrol in car on Saturday morning.