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.

girlie and pin We've used owners direct an few times and been very pleased.

Yes a few other people have said that to me, like after a late shift at work my colleagues really dread their drive home so it's nice not to have to worry. When I was working, I really enjoyed having the time to read.

Fuzz Keep telling us all this. It's very interesting to hear about other peoples' challenges and gives very useful perspective. Also I'm in awe of your musical ability and suspect that any minute now you're going to throw over all your life problems and become a blazing-hot piano teacher with 2 year long waiting lists.

Need I'm glad you are bouncing and healthy. I have several relations like you and they are always healthy too. I think that personality does affect these things a lot, strangely. The more stress bounces off a person, the less likely they are to become ill, from what I've seen. The flip side is that in my family the stress bounces off the healthy family members and lands on the others, who then keel over. It's a tricky one.

thank you for the welcome. xxx

My next frugality challenge is that I have to choose paint for our hallway. I always have used Little Greene Paint Company recently because their paint doesn't smell, but their tester pots are expensive and the colour samples bear no relation whatsoever to the actual colour as it appears on the wall.

Any ideas? Does the current popular infatuation with Farrow and Ball mean that their paint is better? Their tester pots seem to be even more expensive.

Hahaha! Thank you ipsos that's put a big grin on my face. It's funny, my mum has been on at me for YEARS to offer lessons (I'd not taught privately before but worked in a music school during my teens) and it was only this year I got the guts to actually try. I think it's the way forward :) if we can get DH's work situation sorted too we'll be all set!

I agree with ipsos, keep talking fuzz

Interesting ipsos. Who so you think in your family is/isn't stressed. Do you mean you are landed with additional stress do you think? Good luck at the doctors btw.

As an aside, I have noticed that one of the things I do stress about is being late, absolutely hate it. DD is the same, worse even. This is most definitely nuture and not nature, which is interesting in itself. And shows how our actions affect those closest to us possibly.

We've been upgraded to one of these.

www.stagecoachgold.com/comfortable-seats.aspx

It's got wifi too. Dread to think what this will do to the cost of the bus pass next year. I don't suppose the handstitched leather seats are going to look good for long on our route.

ipsos No to F&B. Would rather not elaborate too much, but we have access to highly specialist labs as part of our work. All manner of specialist materials and coatings, including paint. Crown or Dulux are perfectly fine. Don't use cheap 'own brands', but no need for specialist either.

Checking in. Thanks for the new thread

Place marking welcome to the new people, tell us more about yourselves you know lots about us

We use F&B

I even have Elephant's Breath in the kitchen. It's such a cliche.

I ponce on about how the Pelt painted mirror brings out the magenta inflections in the Elephant's Breath to family.

Now I come to think about no one visits much anymore.

fluffy

Fuzz that sounds great. You always glow when you talk about your piano teaching. Keep telling us how it goes. Progress is a slow step-wise thing, but you have a lot of good stuff to build on there.

need yes we have a funny mix in my extended family between people who strongly believe in putting themselves first, and people who are incredibly soft and kind and absorb everyone else's problems as if it was their job in life. These two personality types can combine rather poorly within one family, as I'm sure you can imagine. I also am an early bird.

LOL! about the paint Fluffy.

need - interesting about the labs. I used to use Dulux everywhere but it smells too much for me now. Little Greene Paint Company paint doesn't smell and the colour palette suits our house much better. However, actually choosing the colour is tricky. I often end up mixing several colours and adding a bit of white or whatever, to get what I want.

Loving Elephant's Breath *Fluffy. The description of the colour on this page is hilarious.

www.farrow-ball.com/elephant's-breath/colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100229?gclid=Cj0KEQiA1dWyBRDqiJye6LjkhfIBEiQAw06ITrXKrv2zDoLmOjHzKbCmwehEL2MJidQq0VMZMOvLkIEaAvZR8P8HAQ

£195 an hr for a F&B colour consultant, + travel fees.

I feel a career change coming on.

LOL! Rafa. I bet some people round here pay that too.

I bet they do. That's the bargain option too. If you want the international consultant it's £250/hr.

It's all about the customer's colour preferences apparently. I'll come round, you tell me what colours you like then I go away and write a report telling you what colours you like. Sorted, and I'll do it for the totally frugal price of £150/hr. (Discount prices are available to posters on this thread)

Thanks for the new thread

Marking spot

Thanks for the welcomes. And for all the links.

Girlfriend and needastrongone, I'll be checking out Owners Direct. Just need to work out where to go...

Evening all. Sorry to have been AWOL so long, but it's been really busy here.

Christmas shopping is going well. Got a bargain today for DS, he needs a new phone, been watching a Samsung in Tesco, but it had disappeared off the catalogue. Checked Argos and bought a refurbished iPhone 4s for £100.

Today £51 in Tesco, including £20 on tights, £7.20 on pre cut sellotape bits for the dispenser. I only use them at Christmas.£5 on more socks for DS, £10 on gifts for Christmas hampers of the girls' school.

Paid £20 for tights and leotard for panto, will get change back.

On Saturday I have to drive from a Panto rehearsal up to central London fifth a charity cabaret. Last year one mum paid £38 for parking.

I have pre booked parking for 1pm to 10pm (longer than I need) for £5

It turns out there are advantages to being up in the night with a temperature and lurgy thing. I just logged into the Tesco website and booked all my December shopping deliveries and I managed to get a slot on the 23rd December. Really astonished to see that half of the time slots are already sold out by 2am on the first day of release.

December is so weird isn't it, just for not being able to pop out to tesco without climbing over crowds.

Something quite impressive has happened to our gas usage since the weather turned cold.

Wow that was very fast for them to sell out ipsos.

Christmas food slots are crazy.

Spendy day today, getting the train to the city to go Christmas shopping