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

[needastrongone]

New thread.

I would freeze it too it'll be fine.

Fingers crossed her temp stays down.

Have finished the wrapping! Can't wait to get into bed.

Seacow hope dd gets better quickly and you can get home as there's more chance if her getting the rest she needs at home from experience xxx

Hello everyone else, thank you for new thread (late to the party again) happy Christmas eve eve!

I'm keeping on track at the moment and have finally got tax credits through so that's a nice boost.

I've forgotten to buy dark chocolate for cupcakes to make tomorrow for family Christmas Party.... does anyone know if 100 cacao will substitute or if it'll be too bitter?

Oh sea sending love and hugs your way. Poor dd. I hope she’s better soon.

Ds isn’t settling tonight. But it’s because he’s tired. He didn’t nap much today. So is over tired. Needs to sleep. But is moaning about how tired he is. So won’t sleep. Little bugger. Love him though.

Nsd tomorrow.

seacow here are some unmumsnetty ((((hugs))) I hope she is better in th emorning.Yes definately freeze fish pie or eat tomorrow , it will be fine.. I am here because DH is watching Miranda.. What is that all about? Am i the only person in the world who thinks it is total and utter rubbish? ( please tell me I am not.. )

Well... £240 in Waitrose! ..never go shopping with husbands, i say.. luckily Dh was paying out of his christmas bonus from work. I stuck to my list but he!! .. Words fail me..but we do have plenty of red wine now in the shed..

oh and cheese.. I love cheese (luckily)

Thanks for all the lovely messages. I feel a teeny bit bad for being quite sweary about her on many a night where she has been awake all night. Wouldn’t be without her.

I am parked mikes away as the A&E car park was totally full. I carried DD up here in her car seat and my arms almost ripped from their sockets. Not sure how I’ll get her back to the car without the benefit of adrenaline!

Wrapping not finished here, tonight was going to be the night. We’re supposed to be going to PILs tomorrow morning so not sure what we’ll do. Leave later I guess. At least I don’t care about the messy house any more!

£240 though!!!!.....well over my months usual budget in one swoop.. Well Dh does like to entertain and we now have enough now to feed and wine all comers until new year .....and possibly beyond....

All welcome if you are down this way..

100 I think it would be too bitter and I say that as a lover of very dark chocolate.

I am going to have to need to have a very serious word with him once we retire aren't I ? (and he thinks I am the profligate one)

the wine is nice though, he does know how to choose a good bottle

Once again hope lolly's person who thought we were not frugal isnt reading..

Spends below from my trip to town. Really enjoyed myself actually not least because I saw some friends and Cagletini charmed the socks off all the many people who looked into the pram. Also I did not twitch!!! Normally this last shopping trip would be rife with extra presents but the only things I got for the Caglets were stocking filler sweets, as intended. #smuggysmuggerson

£20 hmv, birthday present for friend I’m seeing tomorrow and two dvds - getting bored with the usual Christmas films so got Elf and Scrooged, neither of which I’ve ever watched
£9 m&s, bread sauce and treats, also one roll of half price wrapping paper. This represents an achievement in itself as in previous years I’ve bought one of every roll whether I love it or not but I actually properly looked and only loved one with polar bears.
£7 sweets (stocking and general yumminess including those orange and lemon slices of nostalgia)
£6 card factory on wrapping things
£13 wilkos, new kettle as ours has been broken for a while and the switch can no longer be bullied into submission, and chocolate coins
£? Sainsbury’s, lost my receipt but I think 15ish - oven gloves on sale (had none before) and small top up of forgotten stuff

One of the things I bought in m&s was a jar of chutney. I feel like this makes me a Proper Grownup. Well not as proper as if I made it myself I suppose but baby steps...

laksa I don’t get Miranda either. Or Mrs browns boys. Not funny.

sea take care of yourself xx

Ds has just woken up. Sigh. Sleepy sheepyface is on. So I’m going to sleep so well... must work on daytime naps.

seacow hope dd is okay and that you make it back to the car arms intact!

Thanks wreck.

Cag, elf and scrooged are awesome!

Hi all haven't totalled today's spends yet but tomorrow is just Lunch for 8 of us so approx €250 ish
I need to tot up Christmas spends too I think we went massively over budget

My sister cried today about her money troubles, they're minor to me but she's learning that you can't have it all unfortunately. Selfishly I haven't told her about this thread. I've told her about ynab though.

@ChristmasSeacow hope dd is better, they get sick quickly & recover quickly when they're small

Thanks everyone. We’re home. DD is finally asleep and I am wrapping stocking stuff 🙄. Conclusion was that it was viral (because her temp responded well to medication) so now just need to give her some tlc and keep a close eye in case of further breathing difficulties. DH is keeping an eye for now, I don’t think we’ll sleep well tonight with listening our for every breath!

I also can’t stand Mrs brown’s boys or Miranda. My sister bought me the Christmas radio times and said she’d fixed the Christmas telly - when I got to Christmas Day I saw she’d completely obliterated the entry for Mrs Brown’s boys with a Sharpie

Our Christmas has gone over budget but not too much so. Saved by not hosting!

On with wrapping...

Seacow hope dd improves quickly. At that age they seem to go downhill very quickly but also have amazing powers of recovery. And yes I would (and do) freeze a fish pie with cream in it.
I have been trying to keep up albeit intermittently, well done to need's ds on uni offers
I've not posted for a few days as I've been working. I work in the community with patients with chronic lung disease so winter is our busiest time of year. I usually work 3 days a week but this week it's been 5 and some extra hours on top. Now I'm shattered but can't sleep grrrrrrr. I keep thinking of the money which will be great when we get it. Yesterday I worked 8-4 but finished at 6.30 which seems par for the course at the moment.
As a result, Christmas prep has been hit and miss, but our dc are of an age where it doesn't matter so much. I still have wrapping to do so today I will just put a no entry sign on the door and get it done. I'm not wrapping at midnight again for anyone!!
We have enough food and drink to sink a ship and have gone a bit over budget, but I know that it will all get eaten eventually, I'm creative with leftovers and have a big freezer so there will be minimal waste. I think today will be a proper "all hands on deck" effort to get the house and food prepped.

Phew finally caught up! Being up at early o clock with babies does have advantages occasionally!

Christmas I do hope DD is on the mend and you are not stuck in hospital.

Not much to report here except that Christmas has come in under budget! Putting the money aside each month has been amazing as I just paid off the cc bill yesterday and that's it! Will be able to start 2018 in the black although probably not for long now my mate pay has stopped! Will definitely try to do the same next year but won't be able to save as much as we'll be spending so much on childcare.

It's helped that I banned the purchase as alcohol as we are always given loads and sure enough we have a kitchen full of beer, fizz and Baileys without purchasing any of it ourselves! There's probably a hundred quids worth which we'll be drinking well into the new year!

Enjoy Christmas eve everyone! I have a very excited DD!

Great that ye are home seacow hope the night went well
I'm neither a lover or hater of mrs browns boys but my mother comments the whole way through it which is very very annoying, there was an episode on yesterday & she did it again. She claims to hate it yet is glued to it

Snuggly that's fantastic about being on budget, we also save for Christmas but I used credit card for purchases as well as cash & debit card & just need to see how we fared out.

Ds was very bold last night at my parents & angered me & my parents. His behaviour has really improved and this was the first time in ages that he clammed up & misbehaved. I'm going to try get an apology out of him this morning.

Morning all! DD slept quite a lot but is still poorly - temp is over 39 and breathing is still rapid and shallow. She’s very listless but they said she didn’t need to go back unless she was making unusual effort to breathe (or fits, stops feeding etc). So I think we’ll just be cuddling her all day. It’s hard not to worry about the breathing though! And she’s feeding but much less than normal. and she’s already a skinny Minnie. I wish we weren’t going to PILs as we are nearer to a hospital here and I know the way/parking etc. But I think we’ll go as planned since DD will probably just sweat it out.

Anyway, wrapping is all done at last and the house is sparkling upstairs (that’s as far as I’d got when we went to hospital yesterday). I guess I’ll worry about downstairs when I get back from PILs! Fish pie will go in the freezer today. I can look forward to that between Christmas and NY.

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas Eve. It’s usually my favourite day although I’m not feeling the love as much this year with not being very prepared and still worrying about DD. DS isn’t really excited either because he doesn’t completely understand the business of Christmas and doesn’t like changes to routine so finds the excitement a bit much anyway. He doesn’t even usually open more than a couple of presents (which really bothers PILs ) so we’ll see! I hope he’ll at least like his new scooter, rather than just asking for his (old) red one!

Still, it’s DD’s first Christmas so quite special.

Enjoy your nice family days and festive food, all! Food-wise MIL is very much a creature of the 70s (and habit) so I expect we’ll be having meat fondue tonight

Glad to hear you're home Christmas. I hope DD keeps getting steadily better for you there. Well done for doing all that last night. I know how hard all that is, especially with the breathing being off.

I had a minor miracle yesterday. I've been struggling to do my science project because my old copy of Adobe CS3 packed up because it was not supported by Adobe any more. I can't upgrade because of accessibility problems with new computer screens, so it was a real problem. Anyway I wrote to the CEO of Adobe and the person who replied solved my problem. Now I have my software back. What a relief!

Result sunny

Thanks Mammy. You can't possibly imagine how relieved I am. Thought I was up a gum tree there.

Em I agree neither are funny just annoying and cringey!

Ds was awake 1-3 last night his temperature is still high this morning. Just waiting for the medicine to kick in. He's still happy in himself and eating breakfast.

Mammy what did he do?

Seacow just keep an eye on her tummy/chest when she breathes. If it's going in too much you'll need to take her back (I can't think of the word but there's videos on YouTube to show it). Also you can always phone the hospital for reassurance.

Going to my friends today for lunch but if ds doesn't perk up he will have to stay home with dh.