Festive frugaleers saving through to the new year!

[SnugglySnerd]

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

Em at octopus nursery food! Well done your ds for giving it a go.
I'm working next week apart from 25th & 26th, but then off most of the following week. The week after that is the last week of my course, with the Wednesday being submission date and my exam...eek!!
Think we're ready for Christmas here. It's always fairly quiet, my dp and an aunty come during the day & another aunty & possibly a friend and her son (ds' friend) in the evening. Christmas I'm a Scrooge when it comes to crackers I'm afraid. We don't have them at all. It seems a pointless waste of money to me, but a £4 box sounds like a good plan. I think you're right, it's pointless spending more as the gifts, although better, still don't really get used.

Studying this morning, work this afternoon. Going well so far.

Gift them to someone you don't like autumn . A strutting man? 😂

Sorry, maybe a bit harsh. Charity shop if they don't eBay?

Phew all accounts reconciled and cheque is now cleared.. hooray ! i'm NOT lettingthathappen again ..

Em Ds used to eat stuff like that from a very young age.. loved crab , squid and prawns .. but didn't -and still doesnt- like potato or cooked veg.. (strange child).. tTea incident is cute really even if messy.. I love it when they want to being helpful ..

Have you thought of getting him a tea set? (nice ones in ELC - werecentl bought one for smallest DGD) ..

DS loved his and so we got one for DGS also when he was about your DS age and he who just adored it especially to play in the bath and paddling pool in , and still 'makes us pretend cups of tea' at aged 6

Crackers are like wedding favours, seems like a good idea but really it’s over priced Tat.

We dont do crackers any more . I also try and not buy too much snacky stuff. esp nuts (just sticj to 2 or 3 bags of crisps we really like and a bag of dry roasted .. , Ive found if i buy all the christmas tubs they either just sit around after (and i end up eating them ) or end up throwing them away.. Don't buy sweets or biscuits anymore either, we always seem to get gifted some somewhere along the line .

I have all food in now except veg and have meat ordered to pick up Christmas eve.. DH ( and his wallet) is in charge of wine ..

LOL! Love

I'm off out in the garden to get my photons.

I'm same as Laska don't buy any of that stuff anymore for ourselves from gifts now I've got a tin of cadbury biscuits, box of butlers chocolates, terrys choc orange, two selection boxes, two bags of choc baubles from lidl, 5 bottles of wine and a bottle of brandy for Christmas, and probably more to come crackers I won't bother with though.

Moved £20 to my main account to pay my phone bill and the Jurassic World app took £10 for the premium membership. I was letting it lapse! Reckon the bank can refund it? Or cancel it?

Wow so much to catch up with on this thread, i've only read quickly yesterday was a super rubbish day at work and £47 boosters for 1 dog at vets. Today could be a nsd as ought to do supermarket shopping but can't face it! ( ops forgot hairdressers in an hour!).Sneaky I wonder if you can get the money back through Jurassic world provider. I know we managed to get money back on antiviral software once through the company, but I'm not an expert!

sneaky I’d cancel it.

So. Dh is either getting promoted today or is quitting. Fun times. It’s a long backstory. So I won’t bore you with the details.

I’m in full support of him quitting. It’s bad timing. But he’s on 3 months notice and will be snapped up for a new job (and could probably name his price) if he does quit.

If the bank can't help I'll complain on the game's Facebook I think.

Christmas - I do little table presents, which are still unnecessary but I like buying them anyway. I've got the seed balls for a number of our guests (thanks to North), and things pertinent to the others, my limit is £5 absolute max for each guest, but it's often less than that with offers etc.

£30 Sainsbury's.

I have finished work for 2018. And five minutes before I left, a customer paid a HUGE outstanding bill that was outstanding from July. Long term client, otherwise I'd have taken further steps, but they've had specific issues and have kept us in the loop at all times - I'm still relieved though tbh, we are having a record year, but this would have wiped that out and that would have been tough.

Fingers crossed for your DH em, a pay rise would help ease the two DC burden.

Cancel sneaky, if you can.

That it would just and would potentially solve the “paying for two nursery fees would wipe us out” problem. Won’t solve the “two kids x 3 days a week at nursery = £2000” problem. Or the “if I can work 4 days a week will dparents take both of them on the other day” problem (they currently do Mondays and Fridays). But it’ll help.

He’s ridiculously employable. 5 years post qualification. Fund accountant at a senior level. He could go for associate director or director level. Worked for a decent firm for the past 8 years.

My work would snap him up. Except it’s silly for us to both work in the same place (especially such a small office). However my boss has said he knows someone looking. Their accountant (family office place) has just resigned and he was on £85k. Which is more than dh would get in the “market”. If he doesn’t get he promotion I’ll be suggesting it. Office is right near our house too. Literally a 10 minute walk.

Sneaky I’d try the app/facebook first. I write cancellation dates on my phone or I forget.

£16 Tesco. Used £20 Tesco vouchers too.

Green Tesco was rammed. I’m going early Sunday for our turkey. Which will still be busy.

Em Nice relaxing day for you then.

Oh absolutely fluffy but this is why I enjoy my job so much. If I was home my mind would be wandering and twitching and what-if-ing. So it’s a good distraction.

He’s postponed his resignation until Friday. Apprently the lack of promotion is a cock up and they’re fixing it. He’s told them the salary he expects. And has given them until Friday to come up with the goods. He obviously hasn’t told them that.

Looking forward to picking up ds this afternoon. My little babooooo is usually so happy to see me!

Spends today £85 fatface in a hoody for dsis and some socks for dh.

Bank will try and refund it today or tomorrow, once it goes out.

Picking them up from school or nursery is so lovely isn't it Em? The twins race to get to me so they get to be picked up by mummy! Which is very sad for the other one but also quite sweet

Aww cute! I love how Cagletini gets really excited when she hears the front door :o

Finally made the decision on the main present for the big two. It’s basically the first year they aren’t getting a big playmobil set as their Santa present. And a small box won’t have the same OMG reaction but when they figure out what it is, they are going to love it. Stop motion kit with camera and green screen and software. They use the camera on DD’s crappy android all the time and they are getting so creative.

Got to drag myself out shortly as it’s the tae kwon do Christmas party. At least a friend is going and since we moved it’s only a 20 minute walk rather than two buses each way!

There is so much stuff I should have done today, but me and baby aren’t even dressed yet. This is the downside to the tablets so far - I’m not at crisis point anymore which is obviously the main thing, but I feel very flat and possibly more depressed than before. Given that I’m still having panic attacks (albeit possibly less frequent - I should probably start recording them in a diary) I’m really not sure if this is the right thing. But I’ll hopefully see a psychiatrist next year as I’ve been referred, and can discuss then.

We have also come to a big financial decision. Saving priority for 2019 is an educational psychologist assessment for DD. NHS are in no position to provide this, even for school children getting an EHCP can be incredibly hard for anyone let alone “high functioning” children like her. The paediatrician said when diagnosing her autism that she is sure she has learning disabilities too, but she isn’t the right person to diagnose them. So we have to sort this out ourselves. I’m thinking a grand or so.

Braces will have to wait but those are still attainable with payment plan and my mum’s offer to help. But I have my whole life for that, whereas for DD’s confidence and education time is of the essence. We are now in a position where it feels possible to save this much, so I am determined!

You do such a brilliant job cag. Well done and I hope that things go smoothly for you at Christmas.

I'm always glad we have this thread. There are so many people that I know who are vulnerable in one way or another over Christmas, and I wonder whether they have people with them. But I know I don't need to worry about the frugalleers as we are all in touch all the time, so people can just speak up if they need someone to listen. I think that's great.

Cag if you get in difficulties will you shout out to us? We are if needed and I'm always glad to hear from you.

I visited my forgetful friend today and we had a lovely chat about her childhood years, and it was nice. She's staying with family over Christmas so I don't need to worry about her either. Phew!

I just did a big Tesco order for my Christmas food and then realised that I did it as a new order rather than adapting the one that I'd prebooked. So I had to do it all over again. It was £25 cheaper second time around.

I'm almost certain that we will not be having 25 bottles of persil for Christmas this year, as we did in one of my early frugaleering years.

cag, I get the comment about being flat - this is exactly how DH feels after a high. I know bipolar isn't the same, but I get the comment. Slowly, he comes round and then we start the cycle over again as he rapid cycles. Hang in there. Sensible decision regarding your DD, if only the assessments were available for all on the NHS when needed.

Also forgot £45 from yesterday, hair highlighted and cut.

I have just ruthlessly edited my ocado basket. I’ve gone through every item and looked for better offers/recent reductions. I haven’t reduced the amount in my basket, in fact I’ve added to it but I’ve knocked £10 off the price. It’s still completely shameful (265) to say it’s mainly booze and cheese for two (well booze for one and cheese for two) but it does cover what I reckon is two or more weeks of food with one meal at dm’s, one at friends (shop includes serious contribution to this), drinks at friends and one meal out on New Year’s Eve.

Met a friend for lunch and she paid 'for my birthday' which was very sweet of her and it was nice to get out....it was a nice lunch also , mushroon bruschetta and a glass of wine, and nice to catch up..i've not seen her (or anyone really) since before this all happened and it was good to catch up ..

Met a friend for lunch and she paid 'for my birthday' which was very sweet of her and it was nice to get out....it was a nice lunch also , mushroon bruschetta and a glass of wine, and nice to catch up..i've not seen her (or anyone really) since before this all happened and it was good to catch up ..

one thing i have noticed about grief is that buying 'stuff' doesnt seem to matter much.. I wondered around the shops looking t clothes and christmas things but it all seemed a bit bleugh.. Did get petrol , buy some toiletries in boots and one last present..

Then came home and updated my YNAB !! I am not letting that mess happen again ..

sorry I've not come on here to whinge or garner sympathy, just having a go at doing 'normal things' again
one thing i have noticed about grief is that buying 'stuff' doesn't seem to matter much.. I wondered around the shops looking t clothes and christmas things but it all seemed a bit bleugh.. Did get petrol , buy some toiletries in boots and one last present..

Then came home and updated my YNAB !! I am not letting that mess happen again ..

sorry I've not come on here to whinge or garner sympathy, just having a go at doing 'normal things' again

oh hell .. how did that cut and paste thing happen? Sorry ,ah well you can see just how weird i am at the moment

Another £10 Tesco voucher landed. Will use for top ups and Lavazza gold beans.