Festive Frugaleers gather round the (best value and carefully researched) Christmas Tree for support, advice and chat. All welcome.

[needastrongone]

New thread.

Girlie what a fantastic surprise
can we see your christmas cupcakes?
Bornlazy.. its easier to do things now we have adult children,and DGCS but in someways doesnt feel so Christmassy.. We cant all get together either as only DS is living on the IOW and the rest are on the mainland.. we will go and see them all after christmas though...

No decs up yet either .. I might dig them out later this evening.. we now only have a 'twig' with led lights and a few 'tasteful' baubles rather than a proper christmas tree.. We do have lots of fairies / angels though which we hang from the ceiling .. and of course DS 'loo roll santa' he made at nursery school has to come out ..

It's clearly christmas baking day!
A batch of Clementine pressed cookies, and almond macaroons and horseshoe things, that are for my dad he'll be lucky

Later on it's the Norwegian cake tower (also basically cooked marzipan) and a batch of brownies are in the oven (for rocky road).

ooh lonely yours look a lot more professional than mine.. I love your cooling rack..
Kransekage? I love buying it when we go to Denmark but have never thought of making it . (goes to look for recipe)

Am done !
Did all our food shopping locally at farm shop and greengrocer
Relative has asked me what tree gift I have bought for distantvrelative
Erm what ?
Too bad ,Im not going out again

Nice baking.
I haven't done any as I haven't decided what im making.

No pink, don't go back out.

I can't work out how to attach a pic from my (rubbish) phone laska on the laptop is can work it out!!

Pink My current response to that situation is grab something already in the house and wrap it, like a tin of soup or something. If it causes eyebrows to be raised then I assert that life is too driven by consumerism and that we should be getting back to giving wholesome gifts that people can use, rather than useless stuff that takes up space, and that that way we can also save the environment.

This year I have given myself the gift of space by freecycling everything in sight. Our house is now very tidy and clean. Yay!

Although in fairness, no one is going to come to visit us at Christmas, or expect any tree presents

Girlie Very generous of your godmother.

Laska I'm basing it on my old neighbour. He was a right arse. I've been on the wine since 4pm.

Not an NSD after all, decided to go for a walk to the shops to collect DD's meds and spent £12 in Coop (double discount for us too). Main reason for going was to try and get the little madam to sleep, she hasn't gone more than five mins ALL day! Normally the buggy is guaranteed to send her off but nope. She loved all the christmas lights on the walk though. Definitely joining the local autism charity in the new year as they have a sensory room and lots of our friends are members anyway, they do stuff for older kids.

That's a lovely gift from your good mother girlie. £13 on takeaway tea. Knackered and cba to do much.

What's a sensory room Cag?

A room generally for babies and toddlers (but also for older kids with SN) with lots of things to look at and touch, different lights, bubbles, soft play stuff etc :)

Oh righty. :-) Exciting!

I've had a massive frugal fail. I have a copy of Adobe creative suite (software) that I bought cheap secondhand several years ago, and I need it to do my new science thing. However, I need to reinstall it and it seems that I can't because Adobe have discontinued the server that checks the serial number when I activate it. There are all sorts of instructions online about what to do and they don't work, so effectively my software is a dead parrot. Ratso.

That is so awesome girlie and I admire your sensibleness in putting it aside for next year!

How to get the Tesco shopping in with a baby attached to me?! If it was a small shop I'd let the Caglets do it but there is so much more this time. She is crying as soon as she's off the boob. I am so sore right now aaaarggh

It looks like I may be getting a soup maker. Same one as mum has which has a cleaning cycle and everything, it's awesome

Cag I have a friend who puts the baby in a sling and walks around with him latched on. I think that's quite a skill though. probably requires a certain amount of elastication in a critical area

I know what you mean though. I found shopping really epic when ds was a baby. So glad about delivery shopping.

It's she feeding cag or comfort sucking? Dummy?

Sunny
The gift was to be taken to another relative for a visiting relative .
Im not doing it. THE END

Everything is all clean,christmas candles and fire lit
Curry shortly .
Finances
Have spent but its all been planned and sensible.
Debt still paying down and on track.
Nil spent on CC this Christmas

This year I haven't bought anything on credit for Christmas which is up from last year baby steps...

Brilliant! Same here, not gone into overdraft at all so compared to last year when I was near the limit it's a big positive!

I'm not sure if she is hungry or not really. She just seems to be snacking all day today rather than having big feeds. Not tried a dummy yet but feeding is well established now so we could if this continues. Wondering if she is having a growth spurt or development leap though as she has changed SO much in the last few days, growing physically and in terms of what she can do.

Feeding in the sling is the next aim sunny currently feel like I'd suffocate her though

I did manage to get the shopping in though, DS helped bless him he was putting most of it all away. Driver showed up early. A few substitutions and no gluten free yorkies for DH (he makes great ones though it was just easier with small oven)

Feeling a bit more relaxed alcohol induced and starting to get into the Christmas spirit

Might make tablet tomorrow to give to my friend as she loves it. It's always a bit hit or miss so fingers crossed it turns out.

@cagliostro I know that feeling! DS 2 just fed non stop for the first 4 months, day and night. He was on 3 meals a day by 5 months and went from below the second centile to over the 75th in about a month once on solids. Undiagnosed tongue tie and turning out to be bludy massive (now age 8, the size of a 10-12 year old and size 7 feet) was the reason.

Slings are your friend tho, if she’s not hungry but needing comfort they are awesome. Mine would snuggle in and sleep for hours.

Absolute final final shop done today, and I’ve £140 still in my Christmas account ready for next year, woohoo!