Festive Frugaleers - Chatting and saving through Christmas.

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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.

Em hope you got some good rest last night.

Dh is despatched to town, he was going anyhow so I gave him a short list about 10 items, he was muttering under his breath about not intending to be in there so long, I ignored it because I don't want a row & I would implode as I've done everything else so deep breaths!!

em your deli haul sounds fab I also hate olives!

We've come so far & achieved so much together this year, wonder will many lurkers join in with us next month?

mammy I was in bed by 8 and asleep by 9 apparently. Woke up at 7.

In 2017 I am going to try and get up earlier and make the most of the mornings. My cat alarm goes off just after 6. After she's been fed I generally go back to bed. The plan is to make a cup of tea and sit in the living room with curtains open. And watch the morning happen.

Happy Christmas Eve everyone.
Where's Cag? She may be at her Mum's and I don't think they have wifi.
Em, can you post the recipes for proseco jellies please.
Because what I didn't say is that DP also brought champagne, cava and a 2 litre bottle of proseco and an ordinary bottle. So, if I have the ingredients in then I would like to make the jellies.

trying

Pics of recipe below. I know it says white wine and muscat but I didn't use that last time. Just prosecco.

This is the picture from the book. I don't bother with the gold leaf.

I love goats cheese, beetroot and balsamic vinegar! However capers and mushrooms are gross.

Mmm stuffing smells amazing. All on my fb is posts from companies about their sales. We don't need anything though so I need to be strong I'm not even going to look. The only thing needed is new trainers for ds as his have a hole in.

Feeling grateful for my dh now. I don't remember the last time I changed the loo roll. Ds and dh are both really very helpful round the house here , oddly.

Enjoy your Moet Need It sounds good, and well deserved.

Good luck with Christmas Eve everyone, and Christmas when it comes.

Hi everyone, I am still here! Just not keeping up with the thread I did post last night but can't see it now. So maybe I fell asleep before posting it.

Anyway things are good, had DSCs round for Christmas yesterday and there was much merriment.

Really quite pleased, DH took all the presents down to put under the tree (apart from santa ones obviously) and there is definitely markedly less than last year. So the cutting back plan has worked. Except for books, they have far more books than ever this year.

Hi all Merry Christmas Eve

Cag am feeling bad as haven't bought dd any books this year she has tons of books on her shelves that she is still working her way through and am hoping my dad will have got her some!! She will def get some for her bday though. I'm feeling pleased as have also cut back, she will still get lots of things she will love but whereas on other years I have just kept picking up bits, this year I made a conscious decision to stop and other than my small twitch ystd I have done!

So plan for Christmas eve is to go to paint your own pottery place and collect the bits dd made the other day, will also let her paint something for mums bday (on the 3rd of Jan!!) Make a triffle, collect some bits from the post office, pop into work (has to be done as I'm back to work Boxing day and don't want to be checking what I'm doing on Christmas day) and go to a local Christingle service

Just logged back onto the computer and found my post that I obviously fell asleep before posting :

Aw hi seacow thank you yes I'm good thank you, just haven't caught up with the thread

We had a lovely day seeing DSCs but it was over so quickly - curse them all having jobs hopefully we will fit in a proper game night soon. I ran the quiz though and that went pretty well.

Finally paid for an audiobook download for DD. Turned out it was cheaper on iBooks than Amazon so I got it on my phone and played it via my speaker. I feel it will be worth the money as it is such a faff every night finding the right one on youtube only to find it's been deleted or full of adverts.

I bought some hard goats cheese and it's all mouldy. That's not right is it? I've had it before and it's never mouldy!

Em i put balsamic vinegar on my strawberries, yum. And I love all the rest (except capers). Can't have any worthwhile goat's cheese at the mo though. I was lusting after the Camembert in our local deli today

Glad all is well Cag.

I have had a productive morning- done the fruit /fresh bread shop at 8am (high st was quiet but there was a queue out the door of the butchers even that early!). I have also made cauli cheese, cauli in parsley sauce for DH, sticky toffee pudding and half a trifle. Yorkshires are in the oven - I don't normally do them with Christmas dinner but susoect it is the only bit of the meal DS will eat and I think my oven will struggle to get hot enough tomorrow with loads of other stuff cooking. I have also watched DH vacuum the house .

Still to do is make the Yule log and finish the the trifle. I might make the prawn Marie Rose sauce today too. Then no more cooking - just heating yesterday's fish pie for dinner later. And clean bathrooms, kitchen and mop throughout. And put away laundry. Then I can relax! Hopefully all done by 5ish.

My most important task tonight will be stocking and then nail painting. Very important.

Today will be a NSD except for our meal out!

seacow i don't think we could be friends in real life. That's a heinous thing to do to strawberries!!! (though I was at a drinks thing the other day and one of the canapés was strawberries on sticks. You dunked them in vodka then rolled in crushed black pepper absolutely divine!)

Am frantically cleaning the house. Dh is cooking. Am itching to wash up/clean kitchen but I'll get in the way.

NSD. Very chilled out and lazy day here. In fact, it's a PJ Day.

£6.75 nip + fab pads. Two months supply.

My mum was feeding me cream cheese, strawberries & black pepper 30 years ago. She was ahead of her time 😂

Hap hap happy Christmas eve everyone.
Ive just had a lovely bath, am sitting on my bed listening to music, doing my nails and drinking Champagne - its my first glass of alcohol for about 9 month... So fingers crossed 😊
Ive spent far too much this year, despite 'trying' to be careful.
I think id like to go on holiday over Christmas to somewhere hot and where they don't celebrate, but of course that will be mega bucks. Dream dream.

Oh, and I'm eating olives

We are done. Presents wrapped. Table laid for tomorrow. Food prep done. Yippee

Indian eaten (dc didn't like it and ds has a sore throat and fever). Dc in bed. Just waiting for them to be asleep and we can start building presents/getting everything out. I'm tired just thinking about it

I'm done now. Turkey cooked ready for butties on Boxing Day.
Off to DS's tomorrow.
Em. Jelly will have to wait til new year as I am missing some of the ingredients,
Have a lovely day tomorrow everyone.

Is there any news on Teddy Adora?

Happy Christmas Frugaleers!
We have almost everything prepped here. Just need to peel parsnips in the morning and put things in the oven. DD is SO excited! It's the first year that she's really understood about Christmas and she's just adorable, jumping up and down with excitement when we put out the reindeer food and hung up her stocking. It's made us really excited too.
We've spent more than I expected to. I underestimated the food budget but luckily we had a lot of Sainsbury's vouchers which covered a big chunk of it. Think I've persuaded DH to start online surveys too so we'll have even more next xmas! DD has loads of pressies from grandparents and friends so I think we'll get her a bit less in future, especially as we'll have 2 more to buy for by this time next year.
Plan for next week is to avoid shops for as long as possible except for buying next year's cards and wrapping paper which I always get reduced after Xmas. I also keep gift bags that we have received and reuse.
If I don't get a chance to check in tomorrow then I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas day!

Happy Christmas Eve frugal family!!

Have a lovely relaxing happy healthy joyful day tomorrow x x

Isn't this a lovely Christmas present to myself! Trying to decide if I should dose myself with alcohol or cold & flu remedy!
Everything done though so getting into my pjs & going to put kids to bed & relax.