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.

Hi all, sorry to hear about your sil North

Fluffy do they have cctv of the alleged altercation? Poor puss not only having to deal with a uti but slander as well

Am watching Supervet for the second time tonight, how is this guy not married? He would be my perfect man; rich, Irish, loves animals, reasonable to look at and hardly ever home

Managed a NSD

I KNOW, I think he's perfect husband material. Some women are really high maintenance though.

I am very low maintenance, seriously I would be perfect for him

I'm the worst kind I think. High maintenance but think I'm low. Dh said so. After I made him watch when Harry met Sally.

Sorry to hear the sad news North. It is terrible. My DD had 2 miscarriages and coped really badly both times. Has 2 little ones now though.
Spendy day again but only on tiles. I think I an single handedly keeping TopTiles in business. I have bought hundreds. But the kind tiler let me use his account and I got 15% off, so frugal win really.
And I am using the builder's account for the light fittings, so they are cheaper.
Should all be in place by end of January. ...cloakroom, bathroom, and 2 ensuites.
Need to buy a tree and some food.

Sorry to hear your sil's bad news north, in the weeks ahead she may suffer.

I will never forget my miscarriage, but Em is right in that I had a very young baby to look after. Getting pregnant literally the month after helped enormously, and obviously I can't imagine having any one else but DD as DC2.

Expensive time Trying, bet you are looking forward to the end of January.

I'm high maintenance for sure

Spendy day! And very long. Started with DD's paediatrician appt which went really well I think - the doctor was lovely and patient and really listened. It's going to be tricky because DD is not at school - normally the next step would be to contact the school for another view on the child. She also said they are getting a lot more home ed children coming to her - no coincidence there as so many are just not coping with school. :( Anyway she said the waiting list for a full assessment is 6-9 months. But we have got the ball rolling.

Then after gymnastics we went to Pizza Hut where we surprised my friend with birthday cake and presents. She has a Christmas birthday and frankly her DP is a total dick about birthdays and she never normally celebrates. :(

Then on to St. John and as we got there early we browsed in charity shops and got 2 pairs of lovely jeans and some sparkly leggings for DD for under £8! She needed trousers and so I said if I get you these it will mean you won't get trousers at Christmas (she knew she would get some clothes) and she was happy with that. So tomorrow I'm nipping into town to return the trousers I'd got her for xmas, hopefully refund but credit note would do if there's other bits she/DS do need.

Housing form has arrived. Seems to be only saying one person so may need to check if I can still talk about the kids' need for bedroom/outdoor space etc or if I need separate forms for them.

Oh yeah and I twitched on a present today 😳😳😳 had realised a few days ago that DD has more books than DS for Christmas... the other day DS discovered one as we were having a clear out. It's called Tidying Up Art and basically the creator takes well known paintings and then reorganises them by lining the elements up in size/colour order etc. DS fell in love with it and he's taken it to bed with him, he even created his own 'messy' and 'tidy' versions of a still life. Anyway I found out there's a sequel. Had to get it in German as the English version is out of print. But it's the pictures that he loves. I took my friend up on the offer to use her prime membership so I didn't get tempted to spend up to the £20 minimum. DS will love it, so £8 well spent I reckon :o

I twitched too. The past few weeks ds has been saying he wants a remote control motorbike with a motorbike man on it, a green one. We hoped he would forget or wouldn't worry when he saw all of his other presents but when he opened his present from fc after his Christmas party yesterday he was very sad not to have the motorbike. He's just turned four, he was very good about it but I could see he was disappointed so se ended up buying one.

Today hopefully a nsd. School finishes at two and I'm working until 1:30. It's my works Christmas do this evening all paid for apart from drinks but I'm driving and there'll be water on the table.

Christmas jumper day at work today!!!!

And team photos. 😀

And dinner with parents later. Dh has his works do so no doubt he'll roll in at silly o clock. Then I've got mine tomorrow.

Nsd today hopefully. The restaurant that overcharged me the other day sent me a £20 voucher for their cafes as an apology (I complained about service not food food was delish). So I can use that for lunch for the next few days.

Hello all, went awol for a bit:)
I have been working my socks off basically, this month I did an extra 38 h and it's only the 16th today! Crammed 3 weeks of work into two. But we are short staffed and I can always do with the money.

I am ready to stop now, just enjoy the holidays and seeing friends for a couple of weeks.
I also need to look at the budget for next year. I have paid for the holiday and got some euros for spending for next june.
I am switching to ocado I think. So much easier to budget, meal plan, saves me time and temptations.
I just did a whole month's shopping , filled the freezer and the cupboards, got party food and champers for £80. Waitrose and ocado's essential range. Included soap and detergent too. Not bad at all. Oh, and got lots of fruit too.
I am going to add £100 to the 'bills' account and just do ocado twice a month from there.

Hope all is well with you all, I'll try and catch up with the thread on Sunday :)

Wow 8 3 weeks into 2?? How??? I have one full week left until January #excited and have about 4 weeks worth of work.

I'm tempted to go in on Sunday morning. Just to clear things.sigh.

I'm not rushing in today though. Slept amazingly well and am enjoying breakfast. Also dh doesn't have to be at his work until 930. He'll drop me in closer to 9 and he can then park the car. It is still so dark.

Thanks again for your kindness. need sorry you went through that. It is their third miscarriage plus 3 failed IVF/implantation attempts. I wonder now how much more they will feel they can put themselves through when they at least have a baby they thought they might never have.

Dh & I are both off work today so we will be doing some present wrapping later. He has gone out now to pick up a couple of things from Argos & Debenhams and a few bits from aldi.
Bargain of the week was 2 x 3 foot artificial trees from Homebase for £5 each! The dc are having 1 each in their rooms and having great fun decorating them!

So sorry to hear about that North. I have friends who had 5 miscarriages and then after that had three healthy babies within 4 years. I don't know how they managed that. One pregnancy and baby was all I had the stamina for.

I think John Lewis are getting quite confused about their deliveries. So far:

• I ordered three things
• so far I have received one thing, and somebody else's order, which I have returned.
• I then received one of my missing items today and phoned to ask about the other missing one.
• I have now received an email giving me a serial number to return the second item that I received so I can have a replacement, which is not what is meant to happen.
• No word about getting the third one delivered.

They must really be very confused, poor souls. I should have done my shopping in October, clearly.

Spends today:
€6 lunch (frugal fail as I forgot to take soup out of freezer for lunch)
€40 in pharmacy on make up
€17 in butcher, I'm hoping to do a nice roast on Sunday.

That's annoying CRT not the hassle you want this close to Christmas!

Popping into town on my own in about. Going to return those clothes. Can't find receipts so store credit it is!

Ive had one of those days where ive been busy but have achieved nothing. Oh well. Must start thinking about Christmas!

True Cag, but I can't hold it against them. They are so perfect normally. Also I've managed to get everything wrapped so the other wrapping paper can arrive in its own good time now.

CRT that sounds like a palaver, hope it gets sorted out quickly.
Just broken up for Christmas thank goodness, this term seems to have gone on forever.
Spent £4 on DH's Xmas card on the way home, wouldn't normally spend so much but after traipsing round about 10 shops I was pleased to find a nice one. Why are there about 25 designs in each shop that say "wife" but only about 3 that say "husband"? Out of those 3 why do two contain a lengthy, badly written and nauseating poem and the third a rubbish joke?

Snuggly card boggle my mind too, especially the poems. Glad you made it to the holiday.

I wonder the same thing too snuggly, i decided against buying a nice card for €5 in Tesco but then went back and bought it a couple of weeks later as I couldn't find a nice one elsewhere. It's the only expensive card I buy though, everyone else's come out of a multipack .

Updated spends:
€4 Christmas RTE Guide
€10 stamps.

Sent some items back to Asos today so looking forward to some refunds hitting my A/c soon I hope.

I'm also doing some research into heating options for our new home, would love to have gas installed but I think it will be too expensive as we won't have mains gas so would have to have a tank installed.

I always just buy the ones with a nice photo on the front and blank inside. They seem to work out okay.

I haven't read written any cards this year. I will do one tomorrow though for the music education company as we are seeing that concert they gave me free tickets to - so more of a thank you card really.

Exchanges 1 and 2 made with no problem - turns out M&S have half price wrapping paper NOW whereas I usually wait til new year. So I got 4 rolls and a pot of bread sauce for £1 after credit note. H&M I got one thing for DS on sale and I'm leaving the rest on the gift card, £20, as there was nothing else I thought would suit. DD is in the older range there now and it's all so very grown up :(