Festive frugaleers saving through to the new year!

[SnugglySnerd]

New thread! Tried to post on the old one and it was full. Newcomers welcome!

Tayto all our drinks were paid by the company last night rounds I only do with max 3 other people usually

Orchestra went well and they played ds's music. Very exciting.

That's good to hear Autumn

Autumn that’s lovely for him. Well done to your ds

Oh quite prawn sandwiches. I could murder a prawn sandwich right now.

I’m in bed but couldn’t half go for a brown bread prawn and Marie rose sandwich. With a twist of lemon.

I said to dh earlier I need to eat more things high in protein. So have made a salad for lunch tomorrow. Nice leafy leaves, humous, roasted chickpeas, halloumi, cucumber tomatoes red peppers. Mmmm.

I bought two contiguous travel mugs the other day. Dh has already lost his he thinks. But mine is excellent. Doesn’t spill. And is amazing. I figured that they’d be useful once new baby comes along. I remember not being able to drink tea with ds around. So a travel mug is much safer.

Dh is in bed in the other room. He doesn’t feel well. He’s exhausted to the point he felt incapable of driving. I haven’t yet said that I’m growing a person so that trumps all tiredness. But may do if he carries on elevenerifing.

Hmm is he pregnant Em? There was an interesting thread on mn the other week about a husband who “stole” his wife’s pregnancy symptoms

I could totally understand if you're both exhausted Em. You've both got such a lot on.

I'm off to bed in a min as well, so tired!

Have started the Christmas cards though, have been quite ruthless about who gets one this year! Anyone who has even marginally pissed me off isn't getting one 😂 that'll save a few quid on stamps.

Tomorrow I have a much needed day off, plan is to meet a friend for coffee and do a bit of Christmas shopping, post parcels and cards and nip to go outdoors for something I can't seem to get anywhere else.

I'm thinking I might get dd an iPhone for her 13th birthday 😮 any ideas of the best place to buy one? Will be a combined gift from me and her grandparents.

Girlie I have always bought my ds second hand iPhones from Amazon and they have been immaculate. I couldn’t cope with the stress of paying for a new phone that might get lost or broken as teenagers can be careless/clumsy. In fact ds1 got a phone with birthday money in March of this year and it had a 12 month warranty. It developed a battery fault after about six months and Amazon refunded me with no problems.

Enough for tonight! Will have to do post bags in the morning.

I know I'm going on a lot about knitting, but heres my weekends work. Last pic I promise...

They’re brilliant Lonely! Love the camels. What are those little guys at the front (I can’t really see them as they’re in their own shadow)? I can’t believe how productive you are.

Need to sleep so will try to read back and comment tomorrow. Was an NSD here until I bought a MS office license for my new computer. It has taken me a long and sweary 90 mins to get my email synching on the bloody thing though .

Waffle and toppings bar went down a storm as visiting child entertainment today though, hurrah!

They're brilliant Lonely.

Can I ask what it is that Aldi and Iceland do well? (Meat/veg/cleaning products, or what?)

Dh has this week on holiday so can have a conversation with me without ds for about the first time since ds was born. We are thinking about trying to do something about our food bill, and maybe visit these two shops to see if they might help.

Although right now I would actually just like to hibernate. How is it that ds can be so perky at 6am every morning?

Iceland frozen pre chopped veg is great. Onions, peppers peas, etc. I don't get the carrots, brocolli, cauliflower.
Chicken strip and nuggets are lovely too.
Most other branded stuff is cheaper.
The takeaway food stuff is nice and the meals in a bag are ok for a quick tea.
Pizzas are ok.

Aldi, fruit veg and meat can be a bit hit miss so look closely. The slim will meals are nice. Don't really get Aldi frozen stuff.
The tins, cereal, baking stuff, everything else never had an issue with and buy regular.

Lonely you are so talented. One photo is definitely not enough

Love the knitting Lonely.

Fab lonely.

Aldi meat is good, you probably need to go and do a shop there autumn and see if you can tell the difference. The only issue is they don't deliver, Iceland do though.

lonely love them!

I need to get out of bed....

born will have a look on amazon and eBay...

lonely they’re amazing!!!

Day off today. Just had the most awful sleep. So am taking the day to rest and relax and hopefully reenergise. Worked out that the meds I’m on can cause insomnia/sleep problems when the dosage has been lowered (as mine has...) so that coupled with preggo tiredness is a killer.

Am currently in bed eating pop tarts and an apple and some grapes. And have a tea in my travel mug.

Dh told me off for whinging I was tired all weekend. it wasn’t all weekend so he’s not my fave right now.

Should be a fairly low spend day. I may do a boots order. For collection between Christmas and new year. But no planned spends.

Anyone know if I can get boots points put on my card if they haven’t validated the receipt? I used my card on Saturday and for some reason it didn’t register. Receipt isn’t validated as I used card. If I contact customer services they might be able to sort it?

Morning! It is so lovely here today..... So can someone explain to me why I am still in bed and not out in the hills?

Lonely they are amazing. More pics please.
Autumn we get most things from Aldi. The cold cuts are really good, especially the posher stuff. My current fave is boar and chesnut pate. Fresh meat a bit hit and miss, although I get chicken and lamb there. Sausages, beef, pork from Morrison's around the corner. Fish avoid from Aldi... I make the effort to go to the fish market in town. Vege...go seasonal in Aldi and it is fine. Out of season stuff is not always worth bringing home. Their bread is good. Cheese range is limited but what they have is good. I don't bother buying fresh filled pasta, baking this be, washing powder, dishwasher tabs, washing up liquid or cleaning bits from anywhere else. For these Aldi is the best and cheapest. You need to keep your eyes open for when some things are in - yeast, strong flour, golden syrup,specialty flours all come and go. Unexpected bargain Vege oil = rapeseed oil.

Green welcome.

I’m also going to go outside. It’s a glorious sunny cold day here. So may venture into the garden.

NSD yesterday.

Oh I love the camels Lonely - they're so cute! A lady who lives locally does knitted cribs (she usually raffles them off for charity) but she doesn't have camels.

Is anyone watching 'Escape to the Chateau'? MIL recommended it so I watched it for the first time last night and really enjoyed it. Probably not the most frugal of enterprises - buying and renovating a run-down chateau .

I picked up the Christmas edition of the RTE Guide so I must sit down and mark off all the movies and programmes I want to watch. I record everything in advance and then I can watch them in the period between Christmas and New Year. The movies usually last me until March or April.

I wanted to order 'A Christmas Carol' on DVD for my Dad. I bought it for him a few years ago but he lent it to someone and it came back all scratched. We usually watch it in the run up to Christmas, but Amazon are saying they can't deliver it to Ireland . It will probably be on TV at some point but he's having problems with his SKY and can't record. Now that Golden Discs and HMV are gone, I don't think there's anywhere you can physically buy DVDs. Tesco have a few but they're mainly geared towards kids - 'Elf' and 'Paddington' etc.

It's grey and overcast here. But on a positive note, it's not raining. It's been raining forever constantly for the past month or two. It's been mild though and there hasn't been much frost.

My ladies group has finished up for Christmas so I'm enjoying a quiet Monday morning lying on the sofa and watching the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree. Might have another cuppa and then I'll get showered and get some laundry done.

em sounds like this pregnancy is hitting you hard. Hope you feel better after a rest. Ignore DH. The correct response to a tired, pregnant wife is sympathy and support. Not engaging in competitive tiredness or telling your wife off because she's tired. Does he think you're making it up?

I've been out to get my summer sunshine again and it was nice. I need to stop thinking that summer is in August here. It's clearly in winter, and the thing that happens in August is some kind of apocalyptic heatwave.

Also bought my first pair of reading glasses. no longer in my late 20s

The animals are fab Lonely
Em the tirednes is going to be worse this time because you have ds to run round after, so perfectly understandable. Have yourself a restfull day & recharge.
Blue skies & sun here too at the moment.
Party went really well yesterday, felt a bit stressed in the morning, but it was very much worth it in the end. Lots of people came & there was lots of chat, festive music & Delia's mulled wine came up trumps. We also did a mulled apple drink for the children/drivers which was good. Mincemeat samosas were delish, but on reflection, took far too long to prepare. Friends helped with washing up & tidying as we went along so nothing much to do today.
Back to study today, in between doing jobs. Need to meal plan for this week and start a list for the supermarket at the weekend. Shouldn't be too bad as we did a big big shop on Friday. Dh is sorting the turkey and veg.
Will try to post later with meal plan and some frugal goals for 2019.