Oh come all ye frugalers, joyful in December, oh come ye, oh come yea and chat

[babsmam]

New Fred, hope I've done it right I've never done one before.

Sainsburys mark their baubles etc down the week before christmas. So do homebase.

I think they get a bit twitchy.

collie I am sure with twinkly lights and tinsel your decorations will look super and the DC won't care anyway.

I am a Northerner through and through, and Yorkshire through and through I am afraid

My black treacle and ginger tray bake wasn't quite 'gingery' enough, so I made ginger icing (icing sugar with lots of ground ginger) and it is now lovely.

The pound shops and IKEA might do you till the sales?

Very tempted to wait until January. And make some felt Christmas trees and gingerbread men this week. I found some cuties on Pinterest.

Paperchains to the rescue

We don't have an IKEA really wish we did though. Our nearest one is 2 hours away

Collie I'm sure they are fine and look great in the dimmer fairy lights rather than the 'big light'

ipsos is that an old article or this weekend?

Spent £2.49 in Boots on their own version of Gaviscon, and £1.49 on a pack of 6 Flakes. DD2 saw a few things she likes. She's not easy to buy for unless I put no effort into it just buy art materials. She showed me 3 things in the art supply shop she likes.

Had a knock on the door today, fisherman selling his wears. I'm brassic until Tuesday so asked him to come back next week. I'd rather buy from him than a supermarket, we don't have a fish monger here.

Hope you get the mice sorted Blue

Fluffy either spray vinegar or apply bicard and work well into the weave of the carpet, leave overnight then vacuum thoroughly. May need repeating.

Blue not sure if it will work on animals but Tea Tree essential oil deters spiders and their ilk. Or you could get a plug in thing that emits a noise they don't like, they'll leave of their own accord.

I've been looking at Xmas ideas on Pinterest too, some lovely decorations and things I might have a go out. Spent £30 today at the garden centre on outdoor lights and a cuddly penguin for DD's stocking, it's the third time we've been in lately and each time she's made a bee line for these penguins, I've been trying to resist but I know she will love it!
Have just done a recky in my Xmas box, we def need wrapping paper but only about 20 more cards as we still have some from last year's sales! Going to get extra tinsel too to decorate the play pen that will be surrounding the Xmas tree this year to protect it from DD!! Feeling very festive now [santa]

I saw the woman who is doing the no spend for a year interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning. She did acknowledge that there are plenty of people doing this out of necessity already . I guess if she makes just a few people question how they spend their money and change their ways then it's worth it.
I'm not going to buy any decorations now but betwwen now and Christmas I'm hoping to use Christmassy fabrics I bought a few weeks ago to make a table runner and some bunting. If I manage all that then I may also try to make a cushion cover although if I finish just one item I'll be quite proud! We also have a book which dd got a couple of years ago (Usborne I think) which has lots of paper for paper chain making so that is going to come out. Let the mega crafting December begin in the Northend household!!
We have the same tree decs we've always had (buy a new bauble or string of tinsel now & again) but I try to buy and ornament each year.

I was so pleased as I am every year to discover I bought loads in the paper chase sale, so we have loads of wrapping paper and boxes, but no tags! I'm hoping the pound shop will sort me. I am planning on using my hobby craft vouchers on some bits to make Christmas decorations. I just need to find time to go. I don't want to take both kids though!

Northender we have that same book I think.

I've booked ds to have his haircut tomorrow it really needs it that'll be £11

What every new year's day we take down the decorations and I cut all the pictures off the cards with pinking shears to make tags for the following year so we always have a free supply!

When I was little I thought we had the most gorgeous tree ever, when I got older I realised it was 4ft high with old baubles and the fairy wasn't all that.

Kids don't see things the way we do. They've not leafed through the white company catalogue comparing their tree decs to yours.

I would have loved making paper chains when I was young or snowflakes.

Adora Have you ever tried Ranitidine? it's only 79p for 6 days supply but keeps stomach acid down. It's good if you know you will have a hangover the next day as a preventative. Homebargains sell it.

Omeprazole is the shizzle for hangover stomachs but it's prescription only. Dr's probably wont prescribe it because you know you'll be sozzled over christmas. I had it when they thought I had a stomach ulcer and it was fab.

I am not an alcoholic.

Fluffy have to admit - I used to think my childhood Christmas tree was magical. And my parents chucked it all out a few years ago. Kept two decorations I was really pissed off. Ha!

pointless I'm also a big fan of cutting up Christmas cards for tags. I love it.

With my magical beans vouchers. I bought a candle from Next that smells like Christmas Trees. I didn't have much faith as I've sniffed some terrible candles lately. However it's beautiful, gentle and accurate. Just had a look online and its not on their website I have £18 in vouchers left and I'll be buying two gifts with them.

Thanks Fluffy I will see if I can find that. The Boots stuff isn't having much impact tbh and the Gaviscon may not either. It's just one of my stress responses unfortunately. At least it isn't migraine or back spasm.

And yes, the house in Chile had been on the market for over 3 years. DH has now moved out and the remover guys have stolen a few bits but he has no proof, FFS.

Point - we did this as kids! I must do that this year. Frugal fun. I also have to locate my set of fancy scissors.

Well I'm seriously tonight as it appears I've been scammed by an Amazon marketplace seller to the tune of £145 for a phone that has never materialised. There are 2 other review comments on there tonight saying the same thing has happened to them. I feel so so foolish. One of the others has already had the money refunded by Amazon though so I'm hopeful. Having a live chat with an Amazon worker now, keep your fingers crossed for me.

So far so good spotty but Im quite the chatty type so get on with most! All the staff seem lovely.

North - that is exactly the situation and not only will I never be taking on a partnership I am rethinking medicine altogether! Problem is Im (touch wood) relatively good at it and good with patients, but the workload is unmanagable and the amount of litigation based defensive medicine and red tape shocking! Thats why Im frugaleering. Id like to save up a cushion so that when I finish (next Jan) I have a bit of a freedom fund to play with...

Collie Id make do. We were for buying a new tree / lights etc but have since got down the old faithfuls and theyre up, so thats that! I will treat myself to a few new individual baubles for DD as DS has a name one and a '1st christmas 2013' one so Id like the same for her :)

Its freezing in NI tonight and its for snow tomorrow apparently... DH has been out winterproofing the cars. Stay warm everyone

Oh! DH was up laying poison and found our furry friend dead in one of the old traps. Not sure if there are any more but ot has definitely been more quiet. Felt a bit sad for it when he brought it down

North that's awful, it could happen to anyone.

Blue, what would you prefer to do?.

Amazon have come up trumps and issued a refund already. Phew!

Thanks fluffy I know it's easily done but you still feel foolish when it happens to you. There are some seriously horrible people out there

That's a good idea on the meningitis vaccine. I'd like ds to have that.

Blue I'm sorry to hear that. We've had such trouble keeping hold of a good gp recently as they keep retiring, and our current one looks exhausted. I seriously wonder sometimes about switching to a private one, just for the good of the gp's health.

Collie I also thought my parent's tree decorations were magical when I was small, but when they decided to chuck them out a few years ago they gave them to me instead. Because of that I now think our cheap tatty decorations are the best thing ever. I was quite proud of that bit of frugaleering.

Blue what about locuming?

North I would feel the same but at least you got it back quickly.

Fluffy I'm sure you can buy omeprazole in boots but it's £9.99 a pack relatively new thing. Ranitidine is amazing I lived on it when I was pregnant.

Ds is still asleep! Yesterday he slept until 8:30. He's often up at 5!

Spotty it's nexium which is esomeprazole so it's omeprazole in a slightly (economically) different way. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esomeprazole But it'll do the same job, it's a proton pump inhibitor. I liked it when I tried it, I have omeprazole from the GP during pregnancy and hate the price tag! Apparently nexium have a money off voucher in their website.

Boots do this... Luckily I don't suffer much when not pregnant!