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

[needastrongone]

New thread.

My house is also a tip - I'm feeling the effects of no cleaner combined with DD's increased clinginess and poor sleep. I will spend all day cleaning tomorrow I expect, but will be glad to get on top of it.

Well that was a frightening 30 minutes. Managed to get off the drive & the roads sheet ice. My car couldn't grip & I thought I was going to have to abandon it & walk home.

It's meant to be my last day today but I'll have to go in Monday when it's all thawed out.

It's worse today than Monday. I came off the road once in snow & went into a hedge so I get anxious. A nice farmer had to tow me out.

I have no milk so I can't even have a coffee 😭

Top cashback have paid out. Maybe I should have complained last week instead.

The black ice is wicked today. Stay safe frugaleers.

I'm off Monday to wrap and clean. I don't make special efforts as mil is my cleaner so sees the mess each week. Tbh I've learned not to give a knack.

Nsd today

What part of the country do you live in Fluffy? I don't really know what it's like out as I've been in looking after ds after his tooth operation since Tuesday. He's much better now.

East Midlands. The roads still frozen. I've just watched a car nearly crash into next doors car. The driver was just a passenger for a few seconds.

Still frozen here too. Went for our first walk in over a week this morning. It was a bit scary in parts!

Our house is also a tip. Also because of clingy crying babies and also general Christmas chaos like glitter.

Fluffy Yes I know just what you mean. When I was a teenager I once had to abandon a car at 45 degrees to the pavement in a very steep road in the dark of the evening. It was hilarious. It didn't really matter as no one else was going to be getting up that road any time soon and I was able to retrieve it the next day. Definitely an experience though.

No frost here today.

Have finished my Christmas shopping and returned all the stuff I bought for the Christmas do apart from one of the things I bought.

Had kfc for lunch and got a free Millie's cookie from o2 priority

OOOoh my kind of lunch wreck

Poor DP went off to work looking very stressed this morning. Slightly concerned he’s going to stop for Christmas and be ill all of Christmas again like last year

Last day of school here. One very excited DD1 who is also about to be taken to a Christmas party. DD2 looks like she is about to go to sleep, which could be problematic

£72 in Tesco (including £10 off)
£10 M&S
£2.50 in Tesco for the bits I forgot

Realised we have not posted DPs grandad his card yet (will get told off by PIL). Or bought him a gift yet . Ahhh!

We have a tree. Hoorah! Catface is interested in the tree. And terrified of it. And has tried to eat it.

It won’t be standing tomorrow morning....

I think dh spent around £45 on the tree. We spent £55 last year on a teeny tree in a pot. We have a much bigger tree this year.

Hope you are okay fluffy, we had the black ice on Wednesday/Thursday. My 4x4 even had a wobble at 6am going to the farm. DH couldn't go to work.

Hope the GP visit for your DD comes to success Seacow, let us know how it goes.

Manic here as I am sure that it is for all of us at present, getting sorted for Christmas.

Really chuffed for DS, he submitted his UCAS form about 10 days ago or so and has already had 2 offers, one from his Uni of choice (Lancaster). Quite low grade boundaries, well, that's all relative for Maths as they are by definition pretty high, but not as high as the published entry criteria. The other is higher, but our home town and gives him options. We've not heard from the other 3.

Spends. (Lots - I'm not going near shops again.... too manic for me!)
£8 M&S
£124 Sainsbury's
£72 fuel
£23 nails
£12 pound shop
£48 Boots.
£50 feed shop.

Big spend day but it's towards the end of the month and a lot is Christmas stuff, either presents for the day/period itself.

ps - I'm chuffed because DS doubts his own ability in general. He knocks about with incredibly gifted peers, which make his predicted grades of A*AA look paltry. However hard I tell him that he is an extremely intelligent and talented individual (and bloody lovely with it!) who happens to be comparing himself to an extremely skewed reality of ability, it doesn't sink in. Having offers quickly from excellent Uni's, for a tough subject has really bolstered his confidence.

Without boasting. He's a quiet kid who doubts himself. 'Tis all. Good to see him feel worthy.

Obviously got his mothers intelligence then does he want to live away?.

Finally got out at 3pm to buy milk & scurried back in after nearly falling over several times. I had to give the Waitrose driver a bag of salt because I could see he was about to go over too. Cars are still getting stuck in our road

What does the baby make of it all Em?

We had black ice here Monday, thankfully it was very short lived and I didn't need to use the car.

GP was helpful thanks Need - weighed DD and increased her dose. She's had horrible symptoms recently and I think it partly the difficulty of getting the meds down her (she spits them out or gets hysterical and vomits the lot up). GP said I may need to shelve my purist principles about no juices etc just to get the meds into her more reliably. I'm not keen to have a baby drinking juice etc but I suppose it would only be a little bit once daily. I'm mulling it over. I've tried putting it in milk and she wasn't having any of it!

Em do I remember right that you said your DS is 15lb now? DD got weighed today (at almost 6 months) and she is only a little over 14lb. That's between the 9th and 25th centile, whereas she was born on 75th centile. I guess that's reflux for you Anyway, GP said apart from the feeding and stomach issues DD looks great (good skin, alert etc). I said she couldn't possibly be any nosier . She's also quite long and skinny, in defiance of her genes

Snuggly I feel for you - two grumpy babies and /or glitter would just about finish me off!

For once my dithering has paid off - I need to buy a maxi micro scooter for DS for Christmas and JL has 10% off. I just can't choose between the blue colour (which would go well with the blue helmet with rockets on that I think DS would like) or the funky petrol colour, which is more beautiful Imho. This is a real First World problem

I am very glad it's Friday, DS is being a right pain. I am happy DH can share the joy tomorrow. I've said to him that although I know he's not getting lavish amounts of sleep at the mo he's going to have to do some of the night waking in the week. I can honestly count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've had 4 hours sleep in a row since DD was born (and I don't often exceed that in a night). It's really taking its toll now. Thankfully DH is off work most of the time between Christmas and new year so I'm hoping to recharge my batteries a bit.

Cross-posted - that's so great for your DS Need. Good for him.

Cross-posted - that's so great for your DS Need. Good for him.

fluffy ds played it cool. Looked at the tree and yawned.

christmas yes ds was 15lb at 11 weeks #chunk

We’re watching Olympia on the red button. I’m excited. Love the show jumping. Next year I’m going to be there for the World Cup. Going to book tickets ASAP in 2018.

Christmas Do you mind my mentioning again that my ds was exactly like your dd and it didn't resolve until I changed his diet when he was fully 3 years old? I was on my knees by that time and I feel bad hearing you talk about all this trouble she's having, and not hearing you think about possible diet changes. Doctors are not good at raising these possibilities. I'm not sure why not as it's well documented stuff.

That's great re your ds need you should be very proud of him

I think at this point christmas I would be putting the meds in a bottle of coke if it helped do what ever you need to do.

Dd has been struggling tonight, her group of friends keep organising things and not inviting her why are girls so horrible?

Nsd.

seacow a bit of juice won't hurt dd. Especially if she keeps her meds down and sleeps. Sleep every second you can over christmas. Is taking a day out to sleep at your in laws an option?

fluffy glad you stayed in. Black ice is no joke. Not too bad here, but did see a car fully impaled in a wall tonight (was empty with police aware tape on).

girlie girls are horrid. We have to somehow teach them to rise above/not be arsed about it. I have one not arsed, one very safe in her friendship group (dreading that going wrong), and one who is beside herself if her bff talks to anyone else (future trouble brewing).

em next year your tree is doomed. Toddlers with sticky hands spells distruction. Pack away your delicate ornaments until ds leaves home they never break the ones you bought to fill gaps with.

need good on your boy. Confidence is a funny thing. He does sound super, well done you.

I have wrapped the dc's presents. Yay. Got my last bit of work until the new year, so next week I'm full on house readying before the dc break up.

Spent shit loads today. Two supermarket shops. Panic buying things like cocoa powder and ground almonds.

Girlie

Sunny my apologies, you posted info about a diet book a week or two back when I was not keeping up with the thread too well. I would be interested to have a look - would you mind posting the details again? And may I ask - did your DS have reflux or just poor sleep with no diagnosed reason? After the recent break in her meds there's no doubt in my mind that DD has acid reflux, it's just how it can best be managed. Our gp said that she should outgrow it at around a year old, so perhaps we are halfway through?! Phew!

As predicted DP has just had a telling off phone call for not sending his grandads card yet. Sigh.

lonely This year our tree is adorned with neon glitter robots and dinosaur baubles. Glitter stars and some shiny metal reindeer.

The naice decorations I bought in sortento a couple of years ago haven’t seen a tree yet. We were saving them for our first tree in our new home.

love my mum gets those calls. I always miss posting dates for cards, and my Gran complains loudly to my mum. She's almost 95. I never know what to get her. Her house is rammed and she sits in a chair all day. Must write the seven or so cards I need to post tomorrow. I bet I don't!

2018 goal is to pay down my credit cards. And not to spend on them unnecessarily. I'm going to use my cash back card instead of my debit card, but will pay off groceries etc weekly. And be much more organised, so what little bit of money I do have goes further.