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.

Rafals I feel like budda too and think I have dyspepsia [turning into old gimmer at 40]
Spent £5 over vouchers on a hoover. £30 in toys r us , £5 at skate park. Retail park was crazy busy

Ah em that's rubbish

babs it's fine. I've taken half the money from the voucher out of our joint account to compensate myself. It was only £20. But it's the point.

If you can convince him you don't need it, could you send it back for a refund? It should be within the distance selling regs.

I hope those of you in the north are all ok. The rivers near us are close to bursting their banks and I didn't really think we'd had that much rain compared to the north.
Had lovely walk round NT place today, lots of muddy puddles for DD to jump in, she came home filthy - always the sign of a good day out! Spent £22 on lunch but did some frugal shopping this afternoon. Bought 3 rolls of Xmas wrapping paper 50p each and also a large gammon joint reduced to £3. DH is going to cut it in half and freeze it.
BTW didn't mean to sound ungrateful about receiving toiletries sets for Xmas, I never buy myself nice products like that so I will enjoy them.
Going to have a look at YNAB. How much is it after the free trial period?

The small town that the DC have their school at is completely flooded. These are all places I grew up around, it's beyond awful. The rivers are still rising, the devastation round here is terrible. I'm off to see what I can do to help tomorrow.

Sounds fun pointless Is she sleeping any better?

Not good em, not good.

So long as you are OK em.
Pointless I like getting toiletries too as I buy perfunctory ones in the year and get treat ones at Christmas.
It's grim isn't it north. More next week apparently

I need to menu plan too for the next few days.

Turkey broth tomorrow for sure.
Risotto
Game and hot potato pot roast.
Simple venison curry.
Some kind of egg dish.
Some kind of veggie dish x 2

yep. It's all good. Just a bit annoyed. I've shouted and huffed and puffed. But hey ho.

My house isn't flooded, I don't live on the Gaza Strip. No real problems here.

Food shopping delivered £49. I was just browsing office and saw those converse dh bought me reduced to £28.99! I daren't tell him, I feel really bad about it too

Sleeping much better thanks need, don't know what all that was about! Hope you are ok.

That happened with my birthday jeans, I made dh return them and ordered them in the sale.

It was £17, better in his pocket than theirs.

£7 on food in Tesco.

Dh won't have any paperwork for them now hell have thrown it all away plus it'll be me who ends up sorting it out!

Thanks for the replies about the grandparent presents everyone...I think maybe mum went especially ott this year as it we were spending Christmas Day with her so it may be more constrained next year.

Em I have that same conversation with DH all the time. Toothpaste lid being a favourite closely followed by our definition of what a tea-towel is used for. If he only knew the amount of small stuff I don't sweat!

We've got enough Christmas money to buy new curtains for our stupidly big windows plus a few other bits we need I'm going to make sure it doesn't get lost in my purse on bits and bobs!

Hi all, I'm still here, mainly lurking. Hope you have all enjoyed the festive season, and that no one has been badly flooded. I am in a district which has been badly flood hit however I don't live anywhere near a water course, thankfully.

DH had a £2,000 bonus in his December wage which was £1390 after tax (sob, weep, wail). It's a crying shame how much tax they take off it BUT it's certainly welcome. We're getting mould in our open-plan conservatory due to condensation from the tumble drier in the kitchen, so I'm using some of the bonus to get a door fitted, buy a condensor dryer and an oil radiator and see if this makes a difference. If it does, then I'll need to replace the blinds which are all mouldy now. DH also crashed our lovely new car four weeks after buying it so we have an insurance excess of £295 to pay.

It's my fuel annual review at the end of December so I'll be getting an overpayment back sometime next month. I'm £103 in credit with a final £132 to pay by DD on 31st December, so I'll hopefully get all of this back soon.

I've downloaded an app to track my spending and that seems to be working so far. Still updating my accounts spreadsheet daily. I pay myself a £31 per week allowance now, which I can fritter on anything I want guilt-free, and try to be stringent with the 'everything else' money.

Would anyone be interested if I posted a separate challenge thread like they do on MSE? Something like 'preparing for Xmas 2016' or 'the packed lunch' thread? I'd be mortified if I started one and found I was talking to myself. I love our thread on here, but it's mainly a chat one isn't it, rather than a specifically focused one?

Signing in, can't believe we have nearly filled another thread!

So am back home after a few days at my mums. Dd is now at her Grandads house till Tuesday as I am working the next two days, had a bit of working mum guilt earlier as have worked most of the holidays so far but quickly handed myself a grip

Dd is fine and it is good for her to spend some time with her Grandparents.

Spent £11.50 today on a new pair of wellies for dd as her old ones were soaked and caked in mud from the boxing day beach fiasco. Tomorrow need to get some petrol, milk and am going to see Star Wars in the evening.

I got some cheapie Crackers from Morrisons in the sale last year (12 for £3) and they were great, in fact better than the posher ones my mum had got in Marks!

I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get any chocolate or nice toiletry sets this year so am thinking will treat myself to some in the sales

Nice to see you bantam. Good news about the bonus. A packed lunch thread would be interesting although mine are usually either soup or leftovers so not sure how much I could contribute!

Bantam it is shocking how much tax they take isn't it? Dh stopped doing overtime because so much went in tax.

If you get a heat pump condenser you would save lots off your electric bill. They use so little electric compared to older vented models.

You could treat yourself to a Miele with that much cash.

Can the blinds be washed? Or sprayed with a strong solution of so Zoflora.

Have just had what started out as a blazing flipping argument with dh. About toothpaste. And ended up in me crying and telling him about all the things I'm super anxious about. And why I get annoyed with things. Etc. Feel better now things are all out in the open.

Have been dealing with some things (mil being the big one) since almost this time last year. Self confidence was at rock bottom and have slowly started changing things. Slowly being the operative word. Skyped her this morning. With dh. For the first time in a long time. and I wasn't afraid. Big step today.

Fluffy - I've sprayed the blinds with some Mould remover which I bought from a hardware store but they remained mouldy. They are roller blinds, and the material is textured - if you run your fingers over the fabric it feels quite scratchy. I really could do without replacing them - there are 5 large windows and 2 doors.

And this is the dryer that I ordered.

www.very.co.uk/beko-dcu7230w-7kg-load-sensor-condenser-dryer-white/928825821.prd?_requestid=292456

Welcome back, Bantam.

Hope you're ok, Em. It's usually something minor that triggers the biggest rows.

I spent rather a lot today, after 3 NSDs, but I used my free coffee and cake voucher in John Lewis, and I only spent on travel (taking DS to the airport), food, and a wedding gift and card for my friend. £60.55 in total, split between my card and cash. Over a third of it was travel- ouch!

Bantam maybe you could delurk and talk more here about money to bring us back to our focus? If you want a really focused one then you could try starting a new thread and just not worry if it's a bit quiet. I only have the time to be properly involved in one thread and I really like the chat/budgeting combination here but I'd be glad of your contributions to keep us budgeting-focused. I often find that I don't have enough to say about money matters, and end up just wittering about other stuff, because I enjoy chatting.

This thread has become more chat, which I'm not criticising. If people want a more focused thread let's have one. My packed lunches are leftovers and soup too!
Nsd planned today. May shlep to IKEA if the weather is bad though otherwise NT

We did have a combination of both with more focus on money on earlier threads. I'm happy to have my mind focused again. I think one thread would be easier thinking about it more. stop me being an ostrich