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.

I'm trying to be good now and not buy anything until the January sales. Whenever I think of something we need I'm putting in on a list of things to buy in the sales. Currently bed sheets and jumpers.

I seem to be back with careful eating today which is good. On the mend. :-)

I'm trying to be more organised today and I'm setting my google calendar to email me when it's homework day for ds or spelling practise or whatever. I'm hoping that will mean I have all the good structure in place with none of the thinking required to remember it. :-)

Thank you What - I had no idea how to do that. It's fixed now :)

Ipsos that sounds very organised, j always mean to start the year off organised but never quite manage it.

I've got slimming world friendly (think I'll start in the new year everyone raves about it) camp fire stew in my slow cooker today. Husband and son will have mushrooms in theirs. I won't as they are evil.

Ds' nativity was soooo cute. There's only 16 children there and they did such a good job. Ds yawned all the way through and didn't sing a single word

That sounds great spotty. Well done for talking to people at the school gate too. :-)

Spent £5 this morning on DD's haircut plus I tipped a pound as I walked into a local salon I've never been in before without an appointment and they squeezed her in even though they were really busy.
Off to complete the Xmas shopping when DD wakes up. Only need a few bits, hoping to be in and out of town in an hour and hopefully won't spend too much either.

£2.50 for a £25 scarf at M&S
Was 30% off and then I had £15 in vouchers from swagbucks (finally reached the payout threshold!!) so it was £2.50. I am stupidly excited about it!

£5 on a biscuit tin gift
£4 on tissues for DS. He has fought so hard at his nose cleaned that he has a tiny little cut now

Very intrigued by a budgeting spread sheet. I try to hold everything in spending in my head all the time!! I get confused a lot!

MrsRats I find the spreadsheet fantastically useful. I just use it to write down everything I spend. For grocery shopping I add it all up over the month and average it out so that I see what I'm spending per day as the month progresses. I do the same for bits that I spend on ds. It really gives me a feeling for what's going on.

The really big thing about it is that if I know that I've spent very little so far in the month (e.g. only 50p a day on ds fun and home-ed) then I can have a bit of a splurge at the end of the month and buy, for example, a set of rollerskates. If they cost £30 then that takes my total monthly expenditure on ds up to £1.50 a day, which is really okay for me. Averaging it out really helps me think about the relative costs of things.

I'm not sure that that's clear but what I mean is that it helps me understand that impact of buying one set of rollerskates versus e.g. ten cbeebies magazines, which would cost the same but might have different amounts of play and learning value.

This month the spreadsheet is helping me keep on top of a building project in our house. It surprising how little bits add up, and how the price can be creeping up another £1000 without me really being aware of it. The spreadsheet helps with that, and lets me know when I might really need to think about getting B&Q budget stuff, or cheap paint, or when I can afford fancier trims or more expensive paint.

Have you looked at the YNAB tutorials online? I don't use YNAB software but the tutorials really helped me when I started out in the Frugaleers.

BTW my spreadsheet was only for Christmas :) I've been adding all related spends to it and keeping a running total (first time I've even vaguely kept track and oh boy has it been a wake up call!) in the hope that I can set a sensible budget for next year.

Spent £2 on the bus. £4.99 in Boots & £2.75 on a card for DH.

Everyone was really grumpy in town. I was getting out of everyone's way & holding doors open - not one person said thank you. The Ghost of Christmas Past will creep up on them all one day and shout Bah Humbug. Haha. Bunch of c's....

Fuzz mine was a bit of a shock too. It came to £500. I really had no idea.

collie what did you do when you were working in London? I think you said before ages ago but I've forgotten now.

It adds up so quickly doesn't it ipsos it's really shown me where my money is going! I'm really pleased with what I've got for the DCs though - I know they'll see loads of use throughout the year. They have some interests that are quite unusual and in the past when they were at school (DD's school in particular had a major bullying/peer pressure problem) they couldn't really 'be themselves' as much as they can now IYSWIM. They did have a few things on their lists that were purely down to the sodding adverts on Milkshake (chocolate coin maker anyone?) but I know that they won't be disappointed not to get those, because they will absolutely love what they've got as surprises. I LOVE finding presents for them and this year's presents are for the most part very geeky.

ipsos as a job? I was a senior web and graphic designer.

If I misunderstood the question its because I had a bottle of ale. [santa]

Previous to that I was a buyer.

I have failed to use my monthly spreadsheet for 2 months! And what's worse is that I haven't even calculated how much I spent on gifts. All I know is that we havent used our overdraft. I'm so complacent . I'll get on top of it for the New Year. Feeling really ashamed now.

DH said he should be getting a Christmas Bonus no matter how much it is its going towards our little holiday in May.

When we were in London on Monday people were so nice! I had Gabriel in my sling and so many people offered seats, held doors and looked out for me, here everyone is grumpy!

£2 donation for jumper day, £8 on filter for my perfect prep. Think that's it.. Quite good I think!

I gave up with Primark clothes for dd, they never seemed to fit her very well and/or shrunk in the wash. Plus their clothes for girls always seemed to be more aimed at teenagers than 8/9yos! I find Sainsburys TU and Asda much better value and quality Fuzz.

Well done Spotty I am quite glad i only do the school run once a week as it can be stressful at times!

Have managed a nsd which is good, off to dds swim lesson in a min - last one of term. Apparently next term is only going to cost £50 which seems pretty cheap for a whole term of lessons!

Needa have inboxed you with a horse related question - hope you don't mind!!

what yeah when we lived in London people were SO friendly. The first person I spoke to when I moved back to the South West told me "put your fucking pin in then" at the checkout I was gutted.

ipsos I'm starting next year organised as f*

In both work and life. I've spent my afternoon putting reminders in my work calendar. For days things are due. And for a week before things are due.

For home I've set up a shared calender with dh. All appointments paydays insurance renewals etc are on it.

I'm starting a spending spreadsheet and am slowly having a clothing clear out. And am making a list of things I need. Which I will endeavour to either buy in the new year or forget I need them if I forget I need them I obviously don't need them iyswim

2016 will be my organised year. I'm taking a couple of days off in January to sort organise and chill. Without dh.

Spends today £11.50 on waxing ouch in more ways than one

And £2.45 in tesco.

Dinner tonight will be homemade chow mein.

Today at work I recieved Christmas gifts from clients. A lovely bottle of bubbly. And the most gorgeous leather notebook cover. Buttery soft tan leather to fit small (A5) handbag sized moleskine style notebooks.

Secret Santa and mulled wine after work tomorrow. Am so glad I'm not a practising lawyer any more. Ex colleagues are pulling all nighters to get things over the line by Christmas. I'm home at 5. And just look after filthy stinking rich clients money! Ha!

I agree primark can be quite the mixed bag! Had some things from there which lasted ages - like sleepsuits that stayed lovely and bright through both DS and DD using them - and others were just not worth it. I can't get to a Sainsburys but I'll go to Asda if I can (I need to get a food donation anyway for the St John Ambulance party). Most of DS' jeans are from Asda and they've done really well. I can be a bit fussy with clothes and I hate things that are too grown up for girls. It's also proving harder than I thought to find blue girls' clothes (other than stuff with Elsa on!) - it's DD's favourite colour. I did find a lands end skirt though down from 20 to 7, she will love that.

I was speaking to mum earlier and she seemed to imply she would have a look out for clothes herself when she's shopping tomorrow - asked what they needed and what size they need. I didn't ask her to but I feel a bit guilty she's already given us money for their presents!

I don't mean I'm fussy about brands of clothes BTW, more with what's on them (hate slogans etc)

Impressed by the plans for being organised in 2016! I really need to follow suit. Being disorganised is a very expensive habit, I find.

£41.56 on postage![santa]. £8.10 of that was 15 2nd class stamps and £33.46 for posting 4 parcels and 6 cards to the Republic of Ireland. Every year, I say I'm getting them vouchers next year and I always forget and get shocked by postage!

£3.10 bus fare to the next village, as our post office was experiencing technical difficulties and today was the last official posting date for ROI.
£4.20 on cappuccino and brownie, as I had time to kill until my next bus home, and I needed something sweet for the shock.

That's weird Collie I had no idea the south west was like that. Nice to know what you did in London. It must be really odd to be isolated and not working after such an exciting career. I did something kind of similar and used to get sent on my own to the US a lot to give talks and training courses. It's very very different to be sitting at home washing and folding clothes now.

Em what do you do now that you get such nice presents? That sounds like a good job. Glad you're not working all night.

I'm trying to get oranised for 2016 because I keep forgetting ds's homework which is no good at all. I've set up google calendars to remind me in the hope that I will actually start doing it on the right day next year. :-)