The Friendly Frugaleers - Furtively planning Christmas, as August arrives

[StoogingOn]

Welcome one and all!

Welcome bluegreen.

It was Collie who did the seasonal bucket lists.

Welcome blue I try to do a cheap Christmas every year we like animals here and lots have babies, in fact if you stick around you'll probably find lots of girls baby clothes on their way to you!

My cat loves everyone, hates other cats though. He's a posh old man with a bit of middle age spread.

Thanks lonely that's all really helpful. If the bike was stolen I hope it has gone to a child who otherwise wouldn't have a bike and that they're happy.

Laska I love your beachwear policy.

When I was a child in Paris it was very much the done thing for ladies to go topless in the swimming pool. My dm and I used to really struggle not to stare, and occasionally we were in kinks at the sight of a breastfed baby who was off in hot pursuit of a plausible looking lady.

laksa yeah. He was such a hunk total minger

I noticed that about European holiday places. It’s very bikini body in the sense that a bikini fits all bodies. If you have a body and a bikini then ta da!!! Bikini body! I’m of that mindset now. Too old to care. I only care what I think. And what dh thinks (to a certain extent) about how I look.

Lunches made. Fridge empty except for tomorrow’s dinner. Homemade prawn fried rice.

Thanks wreck, my poor cat isn’t aggressive or anything, just painfully shy and quite traumatised by the toddler, so she tries to only venture out of hiding at night. It’s a real shame as he adores her and is always prowling round the upstairs saying “where our cat mama? Want pat our cat!”

Yep, have a body take it to the beach and its a 'beach body'. My lovely DH , actually really helped me in that when i hit menopause ( and still!) , by still telling me I am lovely/ look lovely even though I am now a gran! (and a bit wrinkly) ..

Most of us on the beach are just ordinary, but I always find beaches (esp our local one ) to be such a lovely friendly relaxedplaces where you can swim and chat to other people without any odd looks..(but of course its as much about my own mindset. I love being down there charging around with the DGCs on the sand and in the water and they dont care what I look like, and hey, I am having fun with my family.. who cares? )

sunny that would have been my DS I reckon. He was obsessed by 'boobies' until about age 4/5 when he realised that perhaps it wasn't quite the done thing to stare so.. ( and now at age 27?.. Well obviously I dont ask.. )

😂 Rowan has been known to feel up various friends when they're holding her.

Welcome blue this is a lovely group. I have Rowan (Cagletini) who is 9 months, plus an 11yo DD and almost 9yo DS, both autistic and home educated.

Argh I totally forgot to get DD to take her tablet.

Beach selfie.

Hi blue were superbly friendly here. Welcome!!

I have ds (10 months) have been back at work now for 3 months and we’re trying to move house. Still.

yes hi blue welcome

lovely pics of DCs
cag Rowan looks so laid back) and em look at those Teefs!..

Thanks for the welcome ladies 🙂

em, your DS is gorgeous. Fun & cute age. Mine didn’t even have one tooth at that point, yours has loads!

That he does blue he’s so proud of them. So useful for biting everyone.....

Thank you Sunny.

Blue Welcome. Are you paying the credit card by direct debit? if you cancel the direct debit and set up a standing order for this months payment plus a few quid you'll repay it really quickly. Those direct debits take a smaller amount each month so it spins the debt out.

Moneysaving expert have a calculator to work out how long it will take making direct debit payments.

Hi blue, em how cute is your little man?

Going back to the last thread, I save for Christmas all year round. £10 a week towards presents and £5 a week towards food, lol. I’ve got £65 of Morrison’s vouchers too.

Thanks fluffy, I’m not paying by DD, I’m making my own payments each month with as much as I can throw at it. It’s about £1,650 now, down from £2,100 a couple of months ago, but we realistically can’t afford to pay much more than £100 most months. I’m hoping to chuck birthday money at it this month too as my dad & Papa usually give me cash. To be honest it’s worse than that as my mum paid off my other CC for me (£1,650ish as well) though I will need to repay her in time, no rush at all from her though. So cross with myself as we don’t normally ever carry a balance but a few things got on top of us. I’m making sure to set money aside every month for Christmas, annual bills & emergencies so that’s another reason I can’t pay more as otherwise I’ll just end up needing to use the card again if we don’t have any savings.

I did move the card to a 0% deal so at least not paying interest on it!

I do a frugal Christmas every year! Last year was very tight as had a new house and car which completely cleaned me out. Only got the one 12 yo dd though, no clues what to get her this year.

I'm feeling a bit meh tonight, am fed up on dds behalf by her 'friend' being useless plus the house is a tip and I just cba to do any cleaning!

Sigh.

blue little and often savings do add up, o.but its always best to pay off debt first if you can..
Standing order is the way to go , look for Talkinpeace ( she may be spelling it differently) threads on the money board on paying off debt.. she is really good on the best and quickest ways.

I save £40 month for Christmas food/ drink in our joint house account and £40 a month in my personal account for presents . I also do the '£1 a day' savings trick which gives me an easy (and not noticeably painful ) extra£365 a year. (slightly more in fact as I have a standing order to transfer £31a month to my savings account rather than change it every month ).

laska thanks for the tip & I will look for those posts 🙂

I’m just a bit sensitive about not putting money aside as that’s how the majority of the debt was accrued - no savings for Christmas which we spent lots on and then car failed MOT and we had a big leak. There was general overspending too but that was most of it. So I want to make sure I have the money aside for Christmas etc this time. But I’m not doing large amounts of savings til the debt is cleared as I do agree with you.

Welcome Blue.

Terrible night. The dts woke up at 9pm and wouldn't settle for about 3 hours. Then they both woke up at 4.45 and resisted all attemts to get them back to sleep. I've left dh with them and come back to bed as I'll have to deal with the fall out all day!

Did Tesco online shop last night. It was £72! The last 2 weeks it was only 50-something so I'm not too happy about it!

Ds was awake at 0045. Crying and crying. Poor babboo. I’m guessing he was frightened by something. He was shaking when I picked him up. Proper sobbing.

He did thankfully go back to sleep fairly quickly. sorry snuggly

But man it was hot here last night. It’s meant to be 29 degrees today. Thank god for air conditioning at work.

Blue have you looked at need a Budget (YNAB)?

..yes you have to pay for it , but its really revolutionised the way I plan, spend and save and has paid for itself many times over.

I started with it before I paid off my debt and what it did then was help me plan for all the bills as they come in.. Also to see what i was spending and what on and allowed me to channel the maximum into paying off debt .
That must have been 4/5ears ago now and before that I always had credit card debt.. now i have savings! (but still budget as it helps me also still buy the things I like - like clothes! ) .

Em you mentioned Rouge Noir a while back .. One of my winter favourites. DH bought me some ( probably 2 years ago for christmas) A good thing to put on your list !

em what a twat. Never understood the need for those kinds of comments.
fluffy sounds like a really nice meal plan, .
I have most of dd1 advent gifts ready, bought mainly when we have visited places from different museum shops. Dd2 has her birthday in November so want to wait till after with her stuff. But now roughly what they are getting so have the stuff added to a price matching site that'll tell me when the price goes down.

going to be another warm one hear also.. I have never got so much wear out of my 'going on holiday' summer clothes.. But i was also noticing all the summer clothes I haven't worn this year.. things like cut off jeans, denim skirts and some cotton shirts and jumpers which would normally be worn in a British summer .. ( but that's because they would have been too hot!) . Well they will do me for another year and perhaps save money next year

Lousy night here too although it does appear to have rained a bit in the night. I need to go and switch my laptop on and work and I do not want to.

Welcome Blue.

Lovely baby pictures