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.

No I can't knit. But I'm hoping to learn very soon

My only idea so far is buying plain white mugs and using ceramic pen / sharpies to decorate them. I actually think they'd love them but I need to think of a few more ideas too.

Gosh that's difficult luxy.

I think vodafone are having a hard time just now because a lot of my friends have been ranting about them on facebook.

We just painted 48m of architrave in the garden, because I had it in my head that it gets dark at 7.30pm, but of course it's 7.30am that the light changes and it's dawn not dusk. D'oh! My architrave is now drying in the dark outside. The weather forecast says it's to be warm and dry overnight though so I may be in luck. We got very painty doing it and it was quite fun.

Really sorry to hear this, Luxy. I wish I could help more, but all I can say is just keep talking when you feel up to it. Hopefully it helps a bit, knowing there's always someone on this thread to listen.

Collie, what an awful night. You poor thing! I hope you're feeling a little better today.

My tree is up with lights on, but waiting for DS to come home to help decorate it. Too be honest, it looks a bit small for this room, but I'll make do this year and get a real one next year.

NSD and I made £85.56, on Lego and a card game on eBay, so thrilled with that.

Luxy I know the chances are slim but are you an o2 customer? If you sign up to o2 priorities you can claim a free roll of Christmas paper from W H Smiths and a Star Wars Micro Machine for free from The Entertainer.
But I know the chances are pretty slim that you are already an O2 customer.

Love the chocolates idea!

Luxy I'm Scottish but living in Cambridge. It's dry and about 12 degrees over night here. Cambridge is arid, so it almost never rains, but when it does rain the puddles are filthy.

Just because it never never rains. The roads here are kind oily too and the stopping distance on the motorway is much longer because we have so much less rain to wash them.

For those of you looking for cheap presents have you checked out The Entertainer? Was in there on Friday and they have lots for under £5 other good bargain shops are Poundstretchers, Wilkos and The Works.

Primark also do nice toiletry and jewellery sets for a few pounds.

We are back from the Christmas fair, spent £7 on food, £7 on rides for dd, £10 on a top for my nephews Christmas present, £2 on a bday card for my mum and £7.20 on a present for my dad.

Eek must stop spending!

Luxy any time you like, but have a look at rightmove first. The house prices are astronomical. I spend much of my time drooling over huge Scottish houses on rightmove.

If you want a nice dry sunny place, try Norwich. It's cheaper because it's not London commuter belt, but they have dry and blue skies all year. Arctic in winter, but lovely.

Luxy dip in and out as much as you need we are always here

Thanks girlie I also had a look at The Works.

Darth Vader notebook is £2. And a star wars memo board is £1.50. Amazing!

Blimey, all my winning bidders have paid up already! I'll be up and down to the post office all day tomorrow!

Sorry to hear you have all that going on Luxy, come and chat as much as you want to.
We've had a lovely Christmassy day, DD adores the Xmas tree and has spent much of the day just gazing at it and touching the decorations. We also made mince pies, put up lights on the house, went for a walk and watched The Snowman. It's been a lovely day and yet I feel really down in the dumps tonight. I don't know why. I didn't sleep well last night so it's probably just normal Sunday night feeling made worse because of tiredness. Going to watch Strictly results and cuddle the cat for a bit!

Thanks Luxy, so am I. It means I don't have to squeeze £85 out of next month's budget and have this to cover living expenses this week now... I didn't get paid for the day of supply I did at the end of October, as payroll made a mistake, so this eBay money almost makes up for that.

Collie hope you recover very soon. Sounds similar to something we kept picking up in Chile, but that was down to poor water/hygiene of other people, it caused the runs too. Sorry for the TMI.

for you Luxy

NSD yesteray. Today DD2 needed to do Chrismas shopping with her pocket money and I spent far too much money on far too much just to split a £20 for school dinners plus £10 on two storage boxes for DD1's room and £4 on 4 lots of colored twine for DD2's art classes.

We're doing make shift stockings this year, we have about 8 of the things in a box somewhere in the garage so I am not willing to buy or make yet more. Have told DDs they've have to use a pillow case or cardboard box.

Adora we used to have tesco carrier bags no wonder I go over the top at Christmas with my dc

Luxy so sorry to read that you must be very worried for your dc

Well I've decorated our tree I think I might go to bed in a minute.

Christmas tree arrived !!!!!!! ITs bloody huge and is taking over the living room. It's so bushy. See picture.

But. £45 well spend. Loads of tree for our money.