Festive frugaleering - Merry Christmas, and a happy 2019 to you all.

[AutumnLeaves12]

Welcome to the new thread!

We thought about getting DD aged 7 a tablet, but went for an echo dot for her room for Christmas cag to avoid screen time. Mainly for the music. At her age, we had tape players 😂

Home from PIL. SIL and nephew were sick there this morning. We struggled to want breakfast. Fingers crossed we don't get it.

The laser guns were actually very well received.

The only thing we want to buy at the moment is a retractable clothes airer to fix to the wall in our spare room. Rock and roll here.

I got a duplicate gift, but DP says he will return the one he got me and let me pick something else

Ha that’s cool about the dice. Our family game was Photosynthesis BTW, we haven’t tried it yet though.

Would I need Spotify family account instead of normal premium though? As in, would they be able to both listen to different music at the same time?

Jam my yr6 dd loves books so a book voucher, notebook and pencils, board games. Body shop strawberry, Minecraft, Roblox
No yet into make up and clothes.

Oh and Harry potter

Morning all.
We are going out soon to Westfield, dd2 wants a particular toy, I have no idea what it is, but she does so wants to go and spend some of her money/vouchers.
But we are going to go the long way round to incorporate a nice walk through the Olympic park.

I just made cold cream from olive oil and beeswax that a bee-keeping relative gave me. It worked quite well. I have spread it on m' neck to try it out.

£9.99 per month Cag. Similar cost to Netflix etc.

Thanks Life. See, I’m stuck in a time warp and still think your Dd is about 4.....didn’t think to ask you.

No worries jam. Obviously I'm super shy at butting in and giving my opinion anyway

Goodness me I'm tired. Sitting in the car on the drive with DD2 who has fallen asleep. I might close my eyes for a few mins too.
Have bought next year's Xmas cards and wrapping paper very reduced in Sainsbury's today.

£71 in next on clothes for ds for 18-24 months. A few long sleeve T-shirt’s jeans jumpers. And a couple of pairs of jeans for now.
I had to snatch a pair of jeans away from a lady. I’d picked them up and she tried to grab them from me. I won. Ha!

em

Think I overtired myself yesterday as am feeling rough again..

Interesting wolf what you were saying about how you have changed as a result of these threads.

I’ve ordered an Elemis gift set for myself. I love their marine cream just not the price tag. But I found a good deal, I can afford it so....now I’m guilt tripping myself about spending that money on something as frivolous as face cream 🙄. I’m just telling myself that unlike other purchases I’ve made in years gone by, I’ve researched for the best price and made sure I’ve got the money for it, instead of seeing it, saying sod it and clicking to buy.

Nothing much else going on here today. DH is back at work. I’ve given the house a good tidy after the Christmas chaos clutter. I’m actually itching to take the tree and decorations down but we are having a few people over on New Year’s Day so ought to leave it till after that.

@curls that's what being a frugaleer is all about managing your money well so you can put more money into where your priorities lie & having the money there for a well researched treat.

I agree curls, sounds like perfect frugaleering that.

Had a rake around in the garage. Load for food bank, tip and charity shop.
Giving up on selling stuff just going to charity shop it or regift. Draw a line under buying for buying sake.
Anyone want 4 age 7-8 Halloween costume.... An example right there of excess

I just submitted one of my photos to the Getty image library to see if it might be accepted. Fingers crossed. I don't think it would make much money, but it would be nice to have it out there for people to use.

Spends
Petrol £14.86 cheap,so topped up.
L'Occitane £35 but gift voucher so £0
John Lewis £30.80 grey ribbed polo neck and wool tights.
Sainsburys £23 -2 hand towels and baking tins in the sale , Carrots 9p leeks 9p sprouts 9p.
Fatface £18 - warm PJ bottoms with robins on .
This was my only impulse purchase .
DH hates them 😂
Have a Bravissimo voucher but saving until new Spring stuff comes in -it was all wild colours or flesh tone 😐
Brexit -have a small stock of paracetamol,anti diarrhoea caps and Milton tablets (unbranded)
We purchase in bulk/on offer anyway so have 3 months of most things.

I have been to ikea...by myself

Been pondering what, if anything I should stockpile for Brexit. Are we talking just for March/April, or from the exit date onwards? Are the shops really going to be empty (bar panic buying stockpilers) or will it just be outside uk produced things in short supply for a while?

Dp's meds are mostly strictly qty controlled, so no way we can order extra.

Ordinary food wise, I try to buy British anyway...can't believe uk produced veg and dairy will run out, how? I am just guessing the food prices will go up, but they have been for years anyway. Yes, it makes everything a bit tighter, but it will affect every single person in the uk, so if every person stockpiles then we will all be in trouble.

Still pondering.

Spends: ikea £130, planned kallax and draws, about £20 off list.
Big asda £34 pressies for mil (seeing her this week), milk, reduced biccies etc.
£6 macdonalds (I was hungry)
£20 fuel, or I wouldn't have got home.

Went to the tip en route, and will drop more in when I take dd3 round to my mums in a bit.
A lovely evening of hallway clutter awaits me (it used to be the pantry but we took the wall down).

Perhaps we should all share our top frugal tip or cheapest place to purchase an every day essential (and what said essential is).

And perhaps the first new year thread could have all the old frugal links on?

Just a thought but I’m willing to get my frugal Thinking cap on if we all think it would be a good idea

lonely my understanding is that people are thinking to have a six week stash of essentials, only if it looks as though we are heading for hard brexit. They're meant to tell us in January.

Six weeks isn't that bad actually, once I sat down and thought about it.

For example, I can run very well on 200g rice a day as carbs, which multiplies up to 5 x 5kg bags of rice for a family of 3 for 42 days. That takes very little space to store and keeps nicely.

I'm looking at only tinned and dried stuff in case the freezer packs up, so am basically planning for a really long scout camp. corned beef

Milton 2 is a wizard idea from Quite, for sterilising water and equipment. I sincerely hope that we don't need to sterilise water.

I think it's pretty clear that I need to go camping more often. I'm enjoying this way too much.

Good idea Wolf

I’m in. Sounds like a great idea. I’m going to try and post account balances more regularly too. That helped me last time.

This weekend I’m reviewing the situation with our subscribe and save, and am going to start eBaying again. 3 pairs of irregular choice shoes and a pair of Adidas trainers never worn. I’m just storing for storings sake.

I picked up our gecko viv today from my friend. And had an awesome time holding lots of her creatures including a praying mantis, cockroaches and a very rare velvet worm (not an actual worm it’s got loads of legs). Also she gave me a bag of clothes for Cagletini that her youngest has outgrown.

Thanks jam that does sound amazing value if it includes more, I’ll look into that as if it’s compatible with Alexa/my speaker it could be the best bet :)

Surely drinking water can be boiled ?
We have an open fire,2 camping stoves and a barbie .
Plenty of wood and gas canisters so can easily boil water .
This is stuff we already have -I dont want to scare anyone .
Moving on.

My top frugal tip is bar soap instead of shower gel.
You can make a bar of soap last forever and it cuts down on plastic massively.

Not sure what the cheapest is but often see 4 for £1

Wolf
I love the idea of cutting £50 off the food shop.
I drew my shopping money out in cash and took £50 out and put it away.
its in my knitting bag if I expire
Will see how we manage

I'm sure it's fine Quite. I've just been listening to the debates about hard brexit and it's hilarious listening. I really can't imagine that they'll allow it to happen.