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.

It's okay I am going to paint the hall. :-)

I did a lot of scientific photography as part of my undergraduate degree. I've just sort of branched out into community photography recently. I like ti though. This time I was photographing robots.

Ds and I just went to the School Christmas fair. Weirdly exhausting. I don't know how the teachers do it.

Have all of you with younger kids heard of Portable North Pole? You can personalise a message from Father Christmas for free, they add extras for a few quid but tbh the free one is fine. I have done it for the last few years and its definitely helped dd keep the faith link

Fluffy he has really, he seems to be settling down a bit already so im hoping things are going in the right direction.

Five guys is a burger chain, they've just opened here. They do such lovely burgers but they really aren't cheap.

I was thinking about making mont blancs for Christmas but I cannot justify the cost of the chestnut purée etc so I might make a pavlova instead.

I'm going to put in for petrol for this afternoon as I only did 1.5hours and it's a 24 mile round trip.

Fluffy I have an iPhone 6, I've had iPhones for a few years now and just can't go back.

Busy busy girlie. We had someone in this morning who'd had the paramedics out she was ?tia but the paramedics sent her to gp ?bellas palsy. Gp admitted her as disagreed with paramedics. Lots of admissions today actually.

Frugal fail, DH was off sick, he was feeling better by this afternoon but I had/still have a banging headache so I met him for a coffee after work. Was going to make pizza for tea but felt ropey so got one in Asda plus painkillers and a few Xmas nibbles. Came to £7 plus about £5 for coffees. Should have been NSD and I'm piling on weight at the moment. Feel like I am on a downward spiral with eating and spending! I suppose it would have been worse if we'd got a takeaway.

Pleased baby g is feeling better what.
Pointless ikwym money like water and I need my mouth sewing up.
Never heard of that burger chain.
PNP is awesome

Thanks for new thread!

Well done to need ds!! Amazing!

We fly in 4 days! Not packed but don't care much. Will get there. Being off has been an eye opener. I need time to get over this accumulation of stress. Happy weekend all!

I alternative between big spend days and NSDs pointless. Hope you feel better soon.

Spends today

£65 Morrisons, including beer and sandwich stuff.
£40 Aldi, mainly Christmas hamper presents and a big box of clementines, shampoo and face wipes.
£60 dogs clipped and groomed.

DH is away so it will be a low spend weekend anyway.

£6 something in tesco on pizza, garlic bread and some gift tags.

Girlfriend yes DSD is still in FT education so the lenses will be free I guess which will help! :)

On a really really petty note, I was a bit disappointed in Waterstones the other day (DD had a voucher to spend) - they had an item I've been really wanting to get DS reduced to £1.99 from £11.99, so my friend and I both got one. Turned out it was a mistake and it was supposed to be full price. They didn't honour it sadly! Some places will (DH got an amazing bargain in HMV a few months back, they just shrugged and said it was their mistake so why not) but I guess it's at their discretion. Shame though as DS would reeeeally love it!

Fuzz pig that's rotten.
I got soooo lucky in Lands End store last year. Was an outlet and everything was 10% discount or more. Saw a gorgeous soft high neck fleece and though it would be great for the bitter winter nursery walks. Price should have been £55 - 10%. But girl had labelled it wrong at just 10%. It was £5.50! I practically ran to the till. Girl shrugged and said 'meh. Says so on the tag so cool'

I ran out the shop, got in my car and went home. I luffs my jumper and over shares this story

Fuzz It seems that Waterstones were legally in the right there:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3277262

Oddly, since I switched from Vodafone to Tesco my phone has been working much better. We've had a lot of trouble making calls since vodafone switched to 4G and my battery has been running down in hours. Since I switched to Tesco my battery now lasts days. Score!

Mrs I love it when stuff like that happens!

Have a tesco delivery coming later. There will be reindeer in town today so might take the dc to see them which might involve a costa.

I think a lot of shops do just accept that it's their 'fault' and therefore honour the price but yes it's not a legal requirement. I remember learning about it when I did a customer service thing.

When I worked in a shop many moons ago we always honoured it. It's a good will gesture isn't it.

Morning!

Sainsbury's weekly shop today budget is £70 this week. Also there is a Nectar offer for those with online Nectar accounts. (You have to log in and load it to your card) You get 10 x points at Sainsbury's and the petrol station for this weekend only. We have to put £30 fuel in the car too.

Going to Costa for Christmassy drinks today too. So a spendy day.

Same here, we also honoured any mistakes, although that was a long time ago too.

Just off to walk the dogs, then do some running around after the DC, and some pottering today.

I have allocated Wednesday as the day I finish my Christmas shopping. In truth, it's just a trip to Primark to get socks and pyjamas etc, but I can't face going at the weekend. DS is off on Friday, so I can work extra long hours at work to cover.

Getting the tree out in a minute! Dd very excited will be a very Christmassy day doing the tree, going to local garden centre to see Father Christmas and will have tea there I think. Also going to be wrapping presents, writing cards and making decorations [santa]

Snow here! Have you got any, Babs?

£11.50 Costa
£4.05 in boots on that stuff to try and stop dd sucking her thumb need toothpaste too but it's extortionate in there.
£5 between in lines on birthday cards for dh from me and dc

Also fed some reindeer

We had a few flakes of wet snow this morning - I was out runnonog & I got so wet and cold.

I sent my boys to Aldi to buy some extra hot warm

It's mild and damp here

Awww Spotty! Too cute. We saw some reindeer babies at the local llama farm a couple of years ago. Love them.

I'm very proud this morning - DD had her 4th ballroom dancing lesson and they've said she's ready to go into the group class after Christmas! She is so excited. I've been paying a fiver for a private 30mins, but the group lessons are even cheaper at £15 a month (even if 5 Saturdays) so that's a bonus. I'll be putting some money aside for her shoes as I still think it's a bit early (I want to make sure she's happy in the group for a few weeks) but yay! :)

And while I was there I got a phonecall from the lady whose book I typed up a few months ago. She's going to send the manuscript again with her adjustments, can't deny the money will be very very well received at this time of year! And it should be fairly easy work other than reading her tiny writing. :o

Oooh and I just saw that the item I was referring to in Waterstones (where they didn't let me buy at the wrong labelled price) is on Lightning Deals tomorrow morning. Won't be as cheap as £1.99 but think I'll probably get it.