Decedantly damcing towards December - frugaleering Christmas ahoy!

[ememem84]

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Those were pretty much my exact words to the lady behind the till fluffy 😂

life I have a heated throw but it's expensive! My living room/kitchen/dining area are all one room so it doesn't get warm and I have ancient sash windows..

Currently in a shirt, jumper, dressing gown (and NHS blanket from when I went to A+E ) and have a large hot chocolate

Tuck your curtains up onto the windowsill, it’ll stop the draughts a bit.i used to stuff tissue in window gaps when we lived rurally.

Have you got any candles sneaky? I find having candles going makes rooms feel slightly warmer, hot water bottle and a hat?

Have stuffed windows and lit candles

Have you got that sticky glazing stuff?

I've got a jar of marmalade in the fridge?

Today was spendy -
Joint acc spends
but returns will be made Argos €25.49 on schoolbag(too small for folders) lamp & bulbs recommended for said lamp (don't fit)

€10.49 Dunnes Stores other than cat food this might be my grocery shopping spends for the week including a caramel chunks scone le yum

€20.40 on biggest bottles of children's genetic ibuprofen & calpol. Ds is running a high temp

€10 into birthday card
€5 back in cashback rewards
Personal spends
€10 back cash rewards
€2 milka choc & personalised Christmas bauble for dniece, she's definitely done now
€0.88 printing photos
Last night €14.34 local shop on wine to take with me to dinner next sat night, cream & newspaper
€24 on 50cl Smirnoff vodka(no one drank it,would return but it's a good staple for house parties) and 6pk of corona

Sorry that post was all me me me
I'll be back properly tomo when my brain isn't foggy from lack of sleep

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

Sneaky read these.

Thankyou

em yes sort of - MBNA changed my terms so I’m paying over the minimum payment anyway, and Barclaycard let me changed my DD to a set amount, so I made it higher than the minimum payment. I don’t have a direct debit set up for my last card so I literally plough every spare penny off it, am always over min payment but recently have found myself partway through the month and having to put a food shop on it so we can eat. That’s what made me realise I’m just living in a permanent credit cycle. So now I’m budgeting and will NOT be spending on them anymore.

Sneaky I used to to batch cooking on Monday and heat the oven just once to cook maybe 8 or ten meals and then freeze most of them to be reheated on other days. I might do three runs of that on the Monday. I then found that the kitchen would stay warm at least until Wednesday and as long as I just sat in the kitchen then I was warm enough. I'm not sure it works if you're open plan, but just in case it might I thought I'd mention.

Kit

Do ppi claims with all the companies you’ve had credit with. Dh has never had ppi knowingly but he got £2k back in the summer.

I went through each lenders website and did it all in about 3 hrs one afternoon.

I'm sure Aldi had some thermal base layers in the Central Aisle of Doom the other day. Worth a look? Would be cheaper than trying to heat the house as much.

I'm not sure covering yourself in marmalade is a tested keep warm method.

Those were the threads I was trying to find fluffy

I keep them on my watched list. We lived in a gorgeous country house but it was fucking freezing.

I soon realised this is why old farmhouses have agas, if your not heating these houses 24/7 its perishingly cold. Our neighbour had converted to lpg and spent £500 a month on gas sept-may.

Delurker here!
Sneaky try wearing leg warmers or over the knee socks under jeans, I also wear thin, long sleeved tee shirts (£3 in Primark) under shirt/thicker tee shirts and put a fleece blanket under the bottom sheet - that makes a big difference.
There are loads of frugal soup recipes out there and they fill you up as well as being warming.

My dm grew up in a house like that with 8 bedrooms and only one fire in the kitchen. I don't know how she did it. In east Scotland too.

Sneaky thermals are definitely the way forward-I got two men's vests in primark in spring(reduced) & then picked up thermal socks(kids size) last month in Lidl & they're amazing, for about €10 I'm super toasty! sportsdirect have them cheaply too. Primark now have chenille socks which are very warm too but sweaty I find.
Moving more helps too, so being active around your home rather than sitting in one spot.

I portioned out my leftovers - had taco fries for today's late lunch & au pair had beet wellington. Thanks to the vegans for advice here, it went down a treat! Even with the meat eaters
Three portions chicken curry & 8 portions of lasagne.

My friends all came with gifts so I've a lovely 3 wick candle, perfect for Christmas, flowers, box butler chocs, bottle vino, share pack Doritos, 2 selection boxes. All except flowers put away for Christmas.

Circle K treat for December is 78g box of Malteasers will pick up & add to Christmas stash

@Taytocrisps
@not2obvious
If you don't have a loyalty card for topaz/circle k get one there's a free treat each month

I am ridiculously tired. I was up at 5.30 but it's only 8.30 and I'm done in! Dd1 has been very hard work today. She's already over-excited about Xmas and also tired from school and general weekend activities.

fluffy did exactly that last week
sneaky I have tried to read back but only got so far before I was lost in a sea of posts, are you trying to keep heating costs down? Thermals are a good idea, and hats, woolly socks etc if you have them. I discovered fleece lined leggings a couple of weeks ago and they are a game changer. Primark have some in for about £5.

Sneaky there’s nothing funny about how tight things are for you but I did guffaw about the marmalade

Thanks for the recipes Sneaky and North. I didn’t fancy chocolate today as I made a chocolate pudding last week but will file both recipes, thanks. In the end I made one from the bbc website which looked a lot like yours North but with plain flour and baking powder (I thought I had SR flour but used lots of it yesterday for pancakes). It was a little too big for the dish I used so I made a fair mess 😬 BUT it worked brilliantly. Why did I not know about microwave steamed puddings before??!!! So thanks all for teaching me something new, and quite frugal. I didn’t eat it (still trying to lose weight) but the others tucked in enthusiastically. Dd said ‘mmmmm pudding, nice! More pudding!’

Someone rang our doorbell during dinner but there was no one there. I’ve heard there’s a lot of late afternoon burglaries going on round here at the mo and they ring to see if the house is occupied so I’m going to make sure I leave the alarm on and a light when we’re out. Cheeky fuckers.

Some good news (sort of). As the regulars know my lovely DGM passed away in May. I knew she’d left me and my sisters some money in her will but DM (who is the executor) told us today approx how much. It’s more than I expected so should enable us to do the essential work to the house (ie finally do something drastic to fix the leaky mouldy conservatory) and hopefully get the new kitchen we desperately need too. I’ll have to get a builder in first to tell us what work is needed. It’s a relief because we do need to do something drastic and as things stand, with the persistent leak and damp problem, I think we’d struggle to sell this house. And it’s always been on my mind that we might need to sell at some stage if we need to move for a special school for DS. Not looking forward to the disruption , but it’s going to take a good while to get to that stage anyway. Onwards!

Right, now the kids are in bed I can get the rest of the decorations up 🎄