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.

starmy November goals updatestar
finish Christmas and birthday shopping for 2015 using Clubcard Boost - failed
keep within the monthly food budget. - done
Chase Scottish Power - done and sorted!
find bargainous trainers for DH either new or eBay - failed
End the month without using overdraft - done
Make £20 on eBay - done
Save £35 to round up our "rainy day" fund to £200 - done
Open a new savings account - failed
Reach £25 on Nectar after redeeming £10 last week. It's currently on £20 - done
Have a frugal birthday for DS. We have his present sorted - done

I did quite well!

It's payday and we finished £80 in credit. Yay!!

quidco are doing cashback on nexium and there's a coupon in the tesco free tesco mag too.

I wondered why it was so pricey. One of our relatives has it and passes it round because they always request every item on their repeat

At least you got the money back North.

We have got plasterers today and ds is off school with a cold, so we'll be huddled in the living room watching Go Jetters.

I have almost worked out how to put my UpWork earnings into my stakeholder pension. It turns out that there is a website for it. I'm trying to do that before I get tempted into spending the money.

ipsos Well done for the earnings transfer to Stakeholder, if you can do it. I think it's disciplined of you to do that with a relatively small amount of money, very much easier to fritter it away on 'nowt!

Well done collie, especially finishing the month in credit! One of my monthly goals is to transfer money over and above our standard savings into further savings, but it doesn't happen. We do save a fair bit though.

Abel and Cole have delivered but I will have to unpack after work, it all comes boxed with ice packs though so will be fine.

Had a medicinal and cathartic rant at the DC this morning, haven't for a while so it needed doing

Thanks need. I have this great hope of still being able to heat my house when I'm old, so every time I'm tempted to fritter money I ask myself whether the amount would be a significant contribution to the cost of a new boiler. I think £174 would be.

I looked at Nexium but didn't have the money for it. Will look on their website for the voucher, thanks for that tip. Today should be an NSD.

Well done finishing with a credit Collie

Glad Amazon refunded North.

Hope you manage to transfer the money ipsos, very good idea.

I've stopped feeling sorry for myself and have to say Amazon were brilliant.
ipsos well done for transferring the money & not frittering
collie that was an ambitious list so I'm impressed at what you have managed to do.
Walked to school with dd, now a quick few minutes on mn, trip to asda to get my elderly neighbour's Christmas shopping, then bits & bobs at home. Shouldn't be too spendy, Famous last words........

Thanks everyone :) here are my December goals.

Not over spend on Christmas food. We wasted so much last year.
To not spend money on presents that are not needed.
End the month in credit.
Stay within food budget but only do the food shop in store for December only.
Make the most of our NT membership over Christmas.
No takeaways this month apart from on Christmas Eve.
Put aside £25 for a family treat in January. As we are often feeling low in January.
Make £15 on eBay.

north how lovely that you help your elderly neighbour. And well done Amazon for sorting everything out so quickly.

Collie, we too must make the most of our national trust membership over Christmas. I don't think we've been in some time as I couldn't walk far during pregnancy and after my section.

The plasterers have covered our upstairs hall in stuff that looks a lot like chocolate mousse. It's very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory up there.

-£4.67 in November. Could have been worse I can cope with that.

ipsos the plaster will dry off to a pale peach/terracotta colour in a couple of days

Taking inspiration from Collie's goals
I wanted to have Christmas shopping done by this evening and I've almost achieved that.

Dh's grandchildren are the hold up, waiting on their dm to come back to me with what they would like. Everything else is purchased. I was stuck on dh, so I got a deal for the hotel we had our wedding reception in, I will stalk the deal pages for a restaurant deal in next few weeks and if nothing shows up I will just buy a voucher for a restaurant in town to go with it. We will be staying in next town just 13 miles from our house but we can go out eat, have a few drinks and not have to worry about driving home and still be home for the kids early enough the following day.

We have a healthy balance left for Christmas spends so this will cover a couple of meals out over the holidays too.

I aim to wrap over the next two weekends and ship Santa stuff up with my mother to her house where we'll be spending Christmas then.

My goal for December is to put any cash gifts I receive at work straight off my credit card balance.

I have a few things to sell on fb will put up photos during the week also.

Thanks Lilac. That sounds nice. The walls look amazing already and they've only done the first coat. I'm so glad I have nice plasterers now. So much easier.

My plasterers have gone home now. They were very nice, they plastered the walls beautifully, and then have left the hall tidier than they found it. Excellent.

Oh! And I have chosen a paint colour. It is going to be Little Greene Paint Company's Julie's Dream.

www.littlegreene.com/julie-s-dream

It was easy because I tried the three tester pots I had in the shed and one looked just right. :-)

Ooh very tidy. The exciting part comes next. Painting.

£35 petrol.
25p multipurpose cleaner.
£2 coke zero but clicksnaps paying for £1,86 of that.
£2.49 cat food.
£20 new shoes but I cashed a redemption cheque from E2save today for £20 so I will pay that onto the credit card when it cashes on Friday.

A successful NSD. Toddler group was free.

DH is away with work and its stormy outside.

Hope everyone had a good Monday

Great stuff, ipsos.

£20 on gas and £6.41 on groceries (bread, milk, cheese, 2 carrots, kitchen roll, biscuits and Tunnocks tea cakes). Strangely, I built up enough food from my last two weeks' Sainsburys orders for this week too, even though they both came in under £45.

Anyway, my meal plan is:
Pasta, pesto, avocado and olives.
Tofu and veg stirfry, with noodles and sauce.
Quorn sausages, mash (froze two small portions last two times we had this, get me!), peas and gravy.
Lentil Bolognese (hope to make enough for 2 days dinner for both of us and 1 for next week, in the freezer).
Veg burger and chips.
Veg bake (kale, mushroom and sweet potato, I think. It's very nice and is from Asda) with frozen rice. I had this yesterday and it was lovely.
I think that takes me up to next Monday.

ipsos that paint colour is fabulous and will make your hall lovely and inviting. It's not a colour I would have considered before but you've made me think for my sitting room which is currently Old School Blue or Dulux Equivilant and we're so finished with it. I'd have caffe latte colour everywhere but that's not happening. Maybe Julie's Dream might be a runner in the new year.

Lilac I'm glad that was useful. There is another similar colour that is lovely called "Old Paper II" that is just a bit warmer. It's lovely for rooms with lots of natural light. Enjoy the colour thinking. :-)

I have perfected almost making rice and will never buy a pouch ever again [polishes halo]

Hello all, tis mighty stormy here as well! Not very cold though not complaining though as good for my electric bill!

Have managed a NSD got my Morrisons delivery turning up later so will work out a menu plan then.

Dd has a party to go to next week so need to pick up a gift at some point and still have a fair amount of Christmas shopping left to do found out we will get paid almost a week early in December as well which is great in theory but in reality makes January ridiculously loooooooooooong!

Blue I was speaking to a Gp today who looked totally stressed, I think its the same across the NHS at the moment. We seem to be getting busier and busier but with no additional resources.

Ipsos its looking good.

Needa I think I may do the same with moaning dd later on, honestly she whinged about dinner as the spaghetti was a bit clumpy and then made some ridiculous remark about wishing she was blind so she wouldn't have to look at it

Girlfriend gp's always seem to be in a worse state than I am when I go to see them. I feel like offering them a lemsip and a shoulder massage.

Well done on the rice Spotty.

NSD - hooray!

Looking good ipsos

girlie, sorry, but the wishing she was blind comment has made me laugh out loud, cheeky sod but very funny too

Pasta bake in the oven, bacon (DH and DS like some meat), leeks, tomato, cauliflower and cheese sauce with mascapone.

Might do some stocking filler present shopping later. DSIL has pissed me right off by not telling me they weren't coming for Christmas day. I don't mind, but it takes the cooking from 12 people to 6, and I have already ordered all my food from M&S as I had vouchers

Abel and Cole delivery today so lots of fresh veggies in the house again. £50, Morrisons will be £60 but that's with a bottle of Jack Daniels for a Christmas present so quite a cheap week for shopping hopefully.