O come all ye festive frugaleers, gather round for festive chat and frugaleering

[northender]

Haven't been on the old thread for a few days so thought I'd start a new thread as it's nearly full.

Don't be too jealous mrs it was wet. And windy.

But I've been outside today. And that's what counts. forgot my hat so am back at desk with wet wet hair

I'm rubbish at make up too, and hair, nails and other "girl skills". I've looked better since I stopped straightening my hair and started wearing blusher though.

LOL! Glad that was okay Em. :-) Sounds like a lovely walk.

£34 on new shoes for Ds, his feet had grown a size and a half though so I'm feeling a bit bad £5 on stamps too, at least it's a job ticked off the list though. I also spent £5 on the Christmas Beano for dd1, she reads them over and over again so it's good value for money

NSD for me. I think I have finally finished Christmas shopping (She says, tempting fate.)

Putting my feet up today.

Nsd.

Pointless how horrible hope you feel better.

We just had a long walk. DS has grown out of his wellies. So we need to look at new ones.

So busy afternoon finishing off Christmas shopping.

Spends, £15 ish in Wilkos on various toiletry gift sets and selection boxes, £15 on a scarf that was in the sale in Laura Ashley for my God mother, £26 on getting the duvet laundered, £2.20 parking, £6 on stocking fillers and £31 on some posh face creams for my mum - well actually it was la Rouche stuff and it was on 3 for 2 offer so got two bits for my mum and one for me!!

Dds teacher called me over at the end of school, dd apparently swore at another child today not something she would ever do at home so not sure why she thinks would be o.kay at school! Am now trying to think up a suitable punishment.......

Oh no girlie! Have you asked her why she did it?

I'm that patent at school dd got a sheet of high frequency words to learn, the same as all of year one, and asked to learn them as an ongoing project, I wrote a note to say dd knows all of them would it be worth her having some more? Anyway she wrong back to say ages aware dd can read them confidently but she would like her to be able to spell them too (she definitely can spell them all already) anyway I find this kind of thing really embarrassing and wish I hadn't said anything!

Spotty get her to write them all down without help, take the page in and say "Okay we've done that. She can spell and write them without help. Please can we have some more?" The teacher should then give you more. If she doesn't then pick some new words yourself, get dd to the point where she can read and write them without help and take that sheet in and say "she can do these too now." and so on. If the teacher isn't stretching her then you can do a bit of home education until a new teacher comes along next year.

She's got this teacher for two years. She's really lovely and I know dd needs to know the basics but it seems strange to me that she's being given the same words to learn as the children who are still getting to grips with their reading. Hey ho I'm not the teacher. I might get her to write all the words in sentences over the holidays.

£7 on small gift for friend's daughter, we should be seeing them soon after Christmas.
£16 on gifts for DDs on behalf of my sister
£2 on a coffee
£2 on two bars of chocolate, 1 put away for the weekend.

Hope you feel better Pointless

Hope you get the bottom of that Girlie

There are lots of make up tutorials on YouTube.

DD1 was talking yesterday about the cost of cigarettes so I showed her how much food I could buy for the price of a packet of 20, and she worked out how many handbags she could buy with a year's worth of money not spent on cigarettes. I'm using all the tricks I can as I know some classmates already smoke

All the shoes I ordered have gone back. I had forgotten that Kurt Gieger shoes, while lovely, are not suitable for monster bunions they were really nice too

NSD, although my £44.05 online Sainsburys order came, so that will come out tomorrow, I expect.

I think she did it because this boy was annoying her! She said he kept saying the same word over and over in her face and so she told him to f* off was mortified tbh when the teacher told me. I don't swear around her so not something she would hear from me. She said she heard other kids at school saying it but she knows it is a bad word and it is not o.kay to say it!

Anyway we have had a chat about it, she has written me a 'sorry note' and also written a letter to her teacher to apologise.

Hoping it was just a one off........

Sounds like you've dealt with it well girlie!

Dinner was feta, tomato and basil pasta. It was really nice.

I realise it's early for dinner but I was up at five and ate with the dc!

Girlie You could suggest in future that she says "Oh go and boil your head." or "Buzz off" or similar. Nice to have some stock phrases available for tight corners.

You dealt with it really well girlie.

Dinner sounds so tasty spotty your meals always make me feel hungry.

Fuck off is so much more satisfying though

It is indeed Spotty. That's why ds had to give me a star chart a few months ago to help me give up swearing. I'm still pretty good. If people had got in trouble for swearing at my secondary school the teachers would never have had time to do anything else.

Sorry girlie, I am speaking as one with teens. I know that your DD shouldn't have sworn, but she understands that was wrong, and she does show some spirit from your posts. I think I would like her if I met her, she's like my DD

NSD, although I might send DS up to the shop for some crusty bread to have with tea, less than £2 spent today then.

at spotty!!!

I saw such an interesting little thing in the FT yesterday (I think it was then).

Just recently George Osborne has changed the taxation of buy-to-let flats and made it higher. To try to avoid the higher taxes, the people are now starting little companies, whose sole purpose is to buy a buy-to-let flat. That way they can evade this new tax.

Well this article said that George Osborne is now trying to alter the way that the assets of companies are taxed (I may be wording it wrong, but this was the gist). It didn't mention buy-to-let at all and was a very quiet little article, but as far as I could see he was doing to to try increase the tax to stop people from making more money by buying these flats through companies.

He seems to be on a mission to get people to stop buying property as an investment so that the rest of us can have a better chance of buying a house or flat to actually live in.

If he's serious about doing this then I could properly just hug the man. It's the best thing I've heard in donkey's years.

True need. If she wants to learn a few other swear words then she can always come to us for advice. I know some real belters.

I would not hug the man if i ever met him ipsos, I might just take a leaf out of girlie's DD and tell him to fuck off

I have bought DH a subscription to Private Eye for Christmas, I think he might enjoy a cynical look at the world.