Countdown to a Frugal Christmas, The Friendly Frugaleers still knitting,nattering and money saving!

[QuiteFabULousDahling]

New Fred

Curvy The ordinary have a London shop but I buy mail order. If you are against animal testing the major brands are all testing for the Chinese market.

Notable exceptions are the ordinary, parent company Deciem, the body shop. I think cover girl has just been awarded buav approval.

I didn't know that Fluffy

Well they’re not advertising it. When lobby groups like buav ask them they say it’s only because they have to but if you sell by mail order in China you don’t have to.

But they want a “presence” in the malls I suppose so they test. If they’d all stuck together, and there’s only a few make up/toiletries companies because Ester Lauder own a lot of them and Unilever own toiletries brands they could have lobbied the Chinese government but its a huge, lucrative market so they didn’t.

I stay away from the Korean skincare companies too because of testing.

Morning all. Working up to getting out of bed although I have been sort of awake for a while. Haircut today so £40 and need to post a parcel too.

I will also buy a loaf, wine and possibly some crisps or snacks.

I can’t decide whether to take ds to the cinema or not. I was to take him to see fantastic beasts but he is going to the cinema to see something else with h tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a lovely frugal Saturday (I am hoping for a peaceful argument free one) and Sea, Born and others who are poorly or in pain start to feel better today.

My bedroom floor is finally clear, one bag ready for charity shop

That's dreadful Fluffy. They could certainly all get together and lobby about that. I feel a strongly worded email coming on...

So nice having a toaster that works properly again. It’s the small things in life.

Mammy I saw your post re ds the other day. I’m not going to offer advice as I don’t seem to be managing that aspect particularly well myself but I do understand so feel free to pm if you want to talk. It’s very draining so make sure you look after yourself as best you can

Morning all.
I had a bit of a lie in today, it was needed as I was running on empty.
Have showered and will go out a bit later.
Fluffy, yes I know lots of the big companies still test on animals, thats why I tend to stick to superdrug, lush and boots own brand, we boycotted the body shop when it was owned by (I think) loreal, but it has been sold to a buav approved one now so pop in occasionally.
There is lots of cruelty free makeup about, it seems harder to get the skin care.

Thank you everyone, you have all been a great help, I have got a list and am going to out with my game face on.
Also need new bras, so will be a spendy day.

Good luck curvy let us know what you bought (and what samples you got!)

Dh has gone in to work to sort a few bits out. He’s off next week so needs to just get stuff done today.

I’ve changed the bedding and am seriously hoping ds stays napping for a bit longer so I can get on with a few more jobs.

It's a beautiful day here, perfect for studying, not. Need to get my head down & get on though.
Have had a good but very spendy couple of days. It was my birthday on Thursday. Spent the day with dmum which was lovely & the evening with dh & dc playing posh crazy golf & 10 pin bowling at a new local "entertainment venue". It was great fun so worth the money.
Last night dh and I went out, had a few drinks & got home late. It was good. Dh is going to the rugby with some friends today so mre spending.
Will get back to frugal ways today & do some meal planning and list making in between studying. Also need to plan next year's summer holiday while Brittany Ferries have their 20% discount running. Think we are going to go back to Spain, but ds only wants to be away for 1 weekend because of cricket so he may have to either fly out to join us or fly back before we leave, not sure yet.
Some good news this week is that dh is going to get a decent pay rise backdated to April. It had all been batted around between the government and unions, but has now been resolved.

Placemarking

Unfortunately Snuggly the big companies felt a mega yacht with busty lovelies & a new upper east side penthouse coming on & thought fuck it.

If people start reducing palm oil use as well that’s Clinique take the day off balm in trouble. It’s mostly palm oil.

Our trip to visit our conductor went well.

He and ds sat for an hour+ putting together a tune on the computer. The man said to ds "now you think of a tune and play it on the piano" and I sat holding my breath and thinking OMG how does anybody do that.

And then ds played a new tune on the piano, and said "actually I would also like to add lyrics". Phew!

So I just sat in the background and they seemed to get each other, so that was fine.

Home now. Feet up.

north happy birthday, glad you had a lovely day.

Right I have been researching skincare, make up, good and bad brands ( it's a shame clarins test on animals as that looked good) and I think I have sebaceous filaments on my nose, I found a tea tree nose strip and used that and it helped a tiny bit, but is there something that will work or am I just going to have to live with them?
Plus I have noticed that the lines on my forehead are more noticeable than they were a year ago, sigh...

Oh god I sound like a useless case, I think I will just sit in a corner for a while

Does anyone want a Boden £10 code before I offer it on the Christmas thread? @wrecktangled?

Happy birthday North

You sound like me curvy. Not a useless case at all

Sorry, also is it normal for you to get spots when you start a skin care routine properly.
I can go a few weeks without a proper routine and just use wipes and when I think right let's do this properly I get a few spots.
So I guess what I'm asking is, if I stick with it, will it work?

I'm so sorry, you must all be sick of me by now!

North Your birthday sounds lovely.

Quite Paula’s choice bha is meant to work. Not cheap though. I don’t think new products ought to break you out, but that’s a personal opinion.

Thanks life, it is just so confusing with all the brands and acids, serums, etc. But I know I want to do something about it, so my first port of call is to do find out what my skin needs and then maybe makeup later down the line.

Fluffy, Paula's choice is a bit out of my price range for now, but it does look good.

I try not to buy products containing palm oil Fluffy but it isn't easy! Especially in cosmetics as they call it all sorts of different names.
I've been using Lush a lot more lately to reduce plastic as well as not being tested on animals.
I don't think animal testing has such a high profile as it did in the 90s. We were very aware of it as teenagers but I don't think today's teens are. I might do a quick straw poll at work next week actually.

Thanks wolf

Curvy a well fitting bra makes a huge difference, I can recommend m&s fitting service.

North happy Birthday, sounds like you'd a good time

€65 replacement part boiler, still not working but he will message me how to get it running

Dunnes Stores total €155.85 used vouchers off spends to reduce this by €25. Clothing for dd was €30 so grocery spend €100.85.
Best bargain was turkey burgers reg price 4 for €5 but the pack had 50% extra free & was reduced to €1.25 as it had yesterday's date, I bought 2 packs that were left so got 12 for €2.50 and ate two and froze remaining ones individually with greaseproof paper separating them
Was great to get grocery shopping done before heading away for weekend plus did all laundry & swept all floors too this morning, dc were at their dads last night until this morning at 9.40(10)

Think trick with Dunnes Stores is to be flexible with brands as there seems to be a different multipack of protein bars/yogurts on offer each week etc

I'm going to go a Lidl to avail of 4 cans of kong for €1 offer too, red bull substitute for my Christmas party

€42 on fuel card
€3.60 on newspaper and cheese roll for dd, obviously the newspaper is for me

Ds spent €6.30 on a dinosaur magazine, dd decided to wait for something better tomo #pocketmoneyisworking

Curvy I don't wear make up very often, at work it doesn't go unnoticed if I wear perfume but last November I got to browse in Superdrug without dc & those couple of things have made all the difference.

I just get my makeup done for important events as I'm a lost cause.

Happy birthday north
I am losing the will to live with the washing. Although the yoga was good. And I am going for my run.....must crack on.

Thanks mammy, I need new bras because of weight loss and yes completely agree a good bra is worth the money.

Fluffy and Snuggly, talking of palm oil, iceland (shop) got their advent about palm oil banned because it is to 'political', if you visit their website you can see it though.

Right will be heading out shortly to Westfield and will report back later.

Riding£30.

Now settling in to tidy up and watch rugby. And maybe do some painting with ds.

I’d love the voucher if it’s going spare Life, but I know Wreck likes a bit of Boden so happy for her to claim it if she is lurking

I’ve sent DH to the charity shop with 3 massive black bags of stuff, including my maternity clothes. I’ve stopped pretending to myself that I’ll ever sell them. Spare room already looks better.

I need new bras due to weight loss too but will have to go to Bravissimo for specialist hammocks. I’m working up to it.