Festive frugaleers saving through to the new year!

[SnugglySnerd]

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

lonely btw I reckon getting out in the sunshine helps a load with this stuff. I've been making sure to get out for an hour+ every day this week and it's really helped. I'm sure this is why all my dog-walking friends are so cheerful all the time.

lonely they look fab.
Wolf I have a similarly exciting day. Must remember inhalers....must must must!
Sea yay to working ovens. I stopped doing Christmas cards years ago on "environmental" grounds. Nothing to do with paying off a mountain of debt. No siree.....
Autumn thanks for the link. Off for a read to see what will shoot up in price.

It looks as if it is the technical notes issued over the summer with "if there is no deal Brexit" tagged on the end of each title and a preamble of gobbledygook put in to keep elected members happy. I am sure at the time we were all told that this was scaremongering by "experts" / biased civil service / remoaners. Sorry this is very off message and my own personal views. Nothing new in terms of what individuals can expect or should do to prepare..... Off to the Dr to get inhalers.

Unescorted yes I gather the civilian stuff comes in January. I can't believe that they would do hard Brexit. I keep wondering if all this is just Sir Humphry Appleby trying to ready the Daily Mail readership for the idea of binning brexit entirely.

I'm really enjoying having dh on holiday for this pre-Christmas week. It's normally such a frazzle, but this time round I have two willing helpers, which is very nice indeed. The big Christmas shop just got put away in record time, and I am still nice and relaxed and am being packed off for a warm bath.

Autumn it’s peeing of rain here - no one is going to be cheerful going out in that 😜

Lonely I think it’s partially an age thing as I know I get really overwhelmed now about things that in the past would have been a breeze and a lot of my friends of similar age are the same.

The CS was sent a letter to say that if we made any comments pro or against Brexit it would be considered gross misconduct. It is a sackable offence to have a view even in private. Having said that they are not sacking people yet, although I think if I got up on a public forum that would be looked at dimly. All the the things being published need Ministerial sign off - even non Brexit things. Us Humphreys have not seen anything like it.

Just finished two hours of ironing. Urgh. Having a cuppa with Mary Berry before I start washing the fridge out

Yes sorry Autumn but we get blame for enough stuff that isn’t true or isn’t our fault and it’s veey wearing. Unescorted is spot on Humphrey is not to blame.

It's all such a mess & the CS/public sector isn't a great place to be at the minute. Dh was on a conference call yesterday with senior managers where there was much talk of work needing to be "delicious" . That was just one of the cringey terms used. There are a lot of things his work is at the moment, but delicious isn't one of them! It does seem to be motivating him to look again for something else, which is a plus.

Free cauliflower in Tesco. Green jinn are offering 30p cashback on a 29p cauliflower.

Born and unescorted, I'm sorry to hear that. I was really hoping that Sir Humphrey Appleby secretly had the government under control the way he used to in Yes Minister. I'm glad I asked though, as I know now to watch out what the daft government are up to.

Born your view is beautiful. Just like where I grew up. Sheep included.

I'm begin very well behaved and not running myself ragged here. Nice bath has been had.

Oooh thanks fluffy, bought a 29p cauliflower but hadn't noticed it on green Jin

£77 in Tesco 😫

I have done laundry, shopped and been to the rubbish dump. It appears the rubbish dump is nice and quiet just before Christmas.

I really need to read up on Brexit. I tend to just skip those news stories and figure I'd catch up when something concrete happens

I don't know much either love. I stopped reading the BBC news website because all the scare-mongering articles gave me the heebie jeebies, but it means I'm a bit uninformed now. I get all my news from the financial times, but it's quite low key about stuff. Although tbh, I do like that.

That disappeared in the Blair years. CS was put on a very short leash with the number 10 matrix. We can only release pre approved information at the very moment they tell us. So there are no leaks unless they want them we get told of new policy when we hear it on the Today programme. It means that very little of it is actually implementable and crashes against existing policy & legislation and is riddled with unintended consequences.

The dept for exiting the EU is so under staffed and has a huge turnover. Programme Managers like me are being offered silly terms to work there on secondment. It may get to the point where they don't give us a choice.

Gosh. I'm glad I asked then. The government seems a little bit like a bolted horse at the moment. I wonder what will happen?

Keir Starmer was giving it great guns in parliament yesterday. I was watching on the Parliament channel. The Conservative side of the house was almost empty.

Autumn I have no idea what will happen so I am planning for the worst and hoping I am wrong. I have been filling up cupboards slowly over the last few months and made sure we are well stocked with household non perishable food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, clothes, and got the kids their other passports. My parents are visiting my brother in Oz so they may stay there until we are in a more stable situation. It scares me how quickly society breaks when put under pressure....just look at the black Friday sales.

I met KS a few times in my old life. He never inspired me then, but seems to know more now. I guess he never had much to say when introduced to me 'And here is love, she makes the tea and sorts out random stuff'. He also seemed very managed by those around him and had no opinion and rather flummoxed!

I’m dreading brexit. It’ll be a nightmare for us. It’ll affect us here but we had no say in it at all.

They’re already scare mongerinf here that food will be in short supply and we’ll all have to make do and mend like during the occupation by the nazis. Ffs.

The reality is no one knows what will happen. And that’s scary.

Unescorted I've been thinking about that but it would be really hard with all the food intolerance stuff here. I basically live on roast meat, potatoes and cabbage and crisps. mmmcrisps I can't drink chlorinated water, so drink bottled.

Most of those things don't really keep so I can't stockpile. The best I can do is put my garden over to farming asap. What hope is there of bottled water in a hard brexit situation? I take prescription PPIs but I only get a month at a time so stockpiling those would be very hard too.

ds relies on readybrek and coco pops/rice krispies so I could fill a cupboard with those. I've just been told to take him off those too and put him on a coeliac diet, but it's daft to do that, if we're about to run out of food.

It sounds as though I'm about to become a potato farmer doesn't it?

Somebody was joking on twitter the other day that since the UK is now clearly incapable of self-governance, it was time to impose direct rule from Dublin. LOL! I like that.

Brexit will be what Brexit will be. We own a small business. We are busy most of the time running a small business. There's not enough resources to spend time worrying and planning. For 15 years we've only existed due to being flexible. This will just continue to be the case. Our two major suppliers are in the EU - we will just buy via America if needed. We trade all over the world and manage to figure the trade legislation in each one, and some are complicated in the extreme, doesn't stop us trading. If we face delays, then everyone else will do too.

I'm not trying to minimise stuff or underestimate matters - but we are used to change, we are used to the economy crashing, we are used to seeing the business move direction, used to legislation changing continually. It is what it is, and we can't change it and so I'm not worrying about it.

Every other business on our trading estate is doing exactly the same. DH is possibly more chill than I am.

What I do feel sorry for is folk like you unescorted and wolf, north - getting all that shit because of it. And I fully agree, the guidance is generic and woolly, I've read the VAT stuff already and it didn't give me anything I couldn't have guessed already.

In danger of being another NSD on my side but DH will need to get Dmil a present - it's her birthday today and we are seeing her in two hours - he's on it though😂

Nsd. £5 in nectar vouchers.

Not bragging but we got our Christmas row over with at 6am yesterday morning 🌲

Oh - £20. JustGiving donation. A friends son, who has very significant autism issues has made me four coasters and a poster, he's raising money for charity. He's raised £300 so far. He's an incredibly neat felt tipper-inner! Love my coasters.