Festive Frugaleers - Chatting and saving through Christmas.

[CathodeRayTube]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from an old thread grin

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Glad you're feeling better, Girlie and Life. Don't over-do it though.

Very interesting perspectives, Seacow and Cag. I'm pretty sure my DS is high functioning on the spectrum too. He was actually assessed twice by different paediatricians when he was younger, but both times they said there wasn't enough evidence to diagnose either way. He has immense organisational difficulties, very high anxiety levels, which lead to meltdowns at home, and very slow processing skills in some areas. I myself have sensory issues and some contamination fears and an obsession with order. My anxiety these days is under control with Citalopram, but it was off the scale as a teenager.

This is our second year doing Secret Santa in my closr family, Mammy. We do adults though and our gift limit is £20 /€25. There have been a few teething problems, but it works well on the whole.

£9 cat food and lunch.

£19.99 on two new bras from debenhams. Have horrendously painful boobs so going to try some non wired ones to see if that helps...

£36.55 postage. Ouch! 2 parcels to Rep. of Ireland (£6.95 + £13.45) and 5 cards at £1.05 each. The rest was on 18 2nd class stamps and 1 large mailing bag for the final present I have to post, which is in the UK, thankfully.

Postage really messes up the Christmas budget doesn't it? It means that it almost always makes sense to have gifts sent straight from amazon, which rather takes the romance out of it.

Sounds good creme

I'm recording the postage that I'm paying to get things from the UK separately but it's still cheaper than buying over here crt postage is a lot alright. It's going up again in Ireland as we're not in line with rest of Europe

I tend to find posting parcels is cheaper than posting cards I posted two large parcels which came in at around £2 each (2nd class, U.K) but stamps they just seem extortionate!!

Each year I get more ruthless at who I send cards to

Had a nice, quiet day. Finally got on with some wrapping, done about 50% I think and otherwise pottered about. Back to work tomos

Dds last football session tonight, they will each get a medal which she is very excited about!!

It's about time we banned cards. There's relatives we really like but don't send cards to.

£3 Aldi.

Cat has uti again.

Scarecrow, just to reassure you. My DS is diagnosed high functioning Aspergers. His primary school was useless but high school fantastic. My Sil has done absolute wonders with him. I too wish the world were more empathetic and kind (he's had a rough ride at times) but it simply isn't, so she's equipped him with the skills to cope well with a world that works best for normal functioning folk. He's being interviewed for Oxbridge today. And he's bloody great.

Postage is cheap for me, I send it all from work. Makes Ebay sales and Christmas a bit easy at least.

£30 M&S on all my pigs in blankets, Brandy butters etc. Still using DH's cash.

I only posted a few cards.

Seacow I hope you didn't think I was giving my opinion when it wasn't wanted or anything I just feel all warm and fuzzy when I see my friends ds with the baby it's so lovely to see especially as we didn't think it would happen.

Leek and potato soup with cheese toasties for dinner. Using home made stock

Hello again. Just popping in to wave cheerio. I'll be back in January. I just can't keep up with the thread and we're going away for Christmas soon so we're really busy prepping. I won't have a chance to post nearer Christmas so I thought I'll just let you know I'm heading off for a bit.

Have a great Christmas everybody! xxx

Have a fabulous Christmas Collie 🌟🌟🌟

You too, Collie. Hope you have a great Christmas away.

Big day in the Need household. What a marvellous (albeit stressful too) experience an Oxford interview must be!

I'm not sure I'll send Christmas cards again. I don't send them every year anyway, but I think it's a dying tradition. We've only received 3 cards so far this year. Even last year, it was more at this stage.

I did a Sainsburys online shop to come on Thursday for £43.69. My Christmas shop is booked for Thursday 22nd too.
Meal plan up until next Friday, subject to swaps
Tonight: Quorn stirfry with noodles.
Tomorrow : macaroni cheese (from the freezer).
Thursday : I'm having a Christmas Fayre lunch out with a friend, so it'll be something like scrambled eggs or fried egg sandwiches.
Friday: veggie burgers and chips with salad.
Saturday: pizza.
Sunday : vegetable cakes with mash, Yorkshires, mixed veg and gravy. All from the freezer, except the gravy granules!
Monday: gnocchi with pesto.
Tuesday: Med. Veg. pasta bake.
Wednesday: same.
Thursday: jackets with cheese and beans for me and cheese and pesto for DS.
Friday: veggie burgers and chips.

Shit, that was meant to say DN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a bit confused then Need!! DN makes more sense.

Have a very Merry Christmas Collie

Poor puss Fluffy

I wasn't wondering how I hadn't realised about your DS Need :o hope his interview has gone well, how exciting :)

WAS wondering. Le sigh.

I am knackered, I've been decluttering all day! Feel like I've achieved a fair bit though.

Figured that out alright need
Collie have a wonderful Christmas holiday.
Currently sitting under ds who cut his finger in a scramble with dd over Christmas cards, usually they get on very well.

An early night planned in our house as we were out late last night. Dd had rehearsals.

I spent €8.60 on soup & Diet Coke for my dinner while she was rehearsing & then €8.40 on a kids meal & chips & a maltesers reindeer each for dd & au pair last night.

Today I cleared balance on Littlewoods account - €33.08.
I've €470 worth of stuff upstairs that I'm going to return. I might keep one pair of jeans, that'll be €25 to pay off & €159 back onto my debit card.

I don't need the stuff.

This was this mornings moon pic not great.

My nails - debating making this a regular treat but that'd be bordering on high maintenance as my hair is short & needs cutting every 3 weeks.

Sorry, been out all day and I am falling asleep on my feet!

Really interesting to hear about your kids who you think may be on the spectrum Girlie and Creme. Lots of people are undiagnosed and I guess it doesn't matter if their challenges are manageable, though I am sure it helps you in managing it to be aware of it. Are you worried about it or just getting on with it?

Wreck I wasn't at all offended, I was genuinely grateful to hear a happy story about a new sibling! I chatted to the family at my group again today who have the 5-year old son (ASD) and the newborn and they say she has made such a difference to him already. Warmed my heart it did!

Need My boy isn't classed as high functioning but time will tell. It's great your nephew is doing so well. I went to Oxford and to be honest, looking back I can recognise that a lot of people there were high functioning on the spectrum. It's a great place for everyone finding their niche - no one is too clever or too odd or too normal! I found the interviews okay but I think that was aided by blissful ignorance - I didn't come from a school that sent people to oxbridge so none of the teachers really knew much about it. Consequently I wasn't pressured or whipped up to horrendous nerves. I also wasn't well prepared but that doesn't matter much - a good interviewer finds the level of your existing knowledge and then sees what happens when they push you past it. good luck to him!

Off out for s couple of drinks tonight with a friend. I am on the sodas so it won't break the bank. That'll make up a bit for B&M (£30, oops)

Good luck to your nephew need. If he's in my neck of the woods, the weather's lovely. Warm and sunny and just what you'd want.

Have a great Christmas, Collie!
NSD here but working on meal plan/shopping list.
It is interesting reading all your experiences of ASD. I have worked with many ASD kids at school but we never really hear these perspectives from their parents. I've observed that one of the things they really struggle with is differentiating between banter and actually being rude to someone. They hear other kids teasing (in good nature) other and try to copy the behaviour to join in but often get it wrong and call someone a name etc out of the blue which doesn't always go down very well with the other kids. It is hard to explain to them why X didn't mind when Y called him a twat because they are good mates and no malice was intended but Y was upset when you called him a twat because he doesn't know you and thought you were just being rude.
All these subtle social rules must be so hard for ASD students to cope with.
I would like to see more education about ASD for the other kids but they are not always mature enough to get it. We try to do circle of friends and that sort of thing but once they are about 14 that seems to become a bit uncool. Sadly I think there is a lot of bullying because of children not being understood by their peers, not always verbal or physical but often being left out of things because the other students don't really know how to include them or get bored of them talking about special interests.
If any of you have any positive experiences of how schools have helped with this I'd love to hear them. Sorry I've gone off on a complete tangent from frugaleering!

Have a great Christmas Collie!

£12 WHSmiths
£13 Superdrug

Have a wicked Christmas collie much love for the new year! 2017 will be our year. All of our years. I can feel it.

£39 on nails. French polish with white glitter tips. They're way more sparkly than the picture shows.

£7 on proper coffee today. I found out yesterday that a) we'd run out of coffee for the cafetière and b) that dh had switched my coffee out for decaf about a month ago.

Awful day. Just feel sad tired and hurty. fuck off hormones Stomped to the coffee shop and bought decaf coffee and ordered 200g decaf and 200g of their choice for Bil. The lady gave me a free hot chocolate. Because I looked like I needed it. Lovely lovely lady. Delicious chocolate

Have a fabulous Christmas collie, see you on the other side.
£8.99 breakfast, £2 sweets, £4.14 home bargains, £15 Morrison's.

Snuggly, that's exactly the sort of thing DS does. Several times I've told him to take down social media statuses as they've really crossed a line. Once in Year 7, he even commented on a classmate's social media if he was a paedophile, as the classmate had put some photos of his little cousin and their friends up! He complied and apologised to his classmate, when I told him too, but I don't know if he really understood how inappropriate he was. That's exactly the sort of example I can't think of when put on the spot, to illustrate his behaviour.