Friendly Frugaleers Festive Preparations and Financial Accountability

[Wolfcub]

New Fred

I'm doing fairly well with xmas shopping. Dcs mostly done although I'm still scouring Ebay for a good Lego set for dd. Need to buy for dh and parents but I pretty much know what to get them.
Turkey ordered and food/shopping list written.
Have bought a few little Christmas craft kits today in Hobbycraft to occupy the dcs over the coming weeks.

Unescorted lots of yawning and pretend falling asleep plus asking them to help wash up should work

Christmas cards written, I have under bought having forgotten that my team is about five times the size of last years, but found some leftover from last year in a drawer - hopefully the neighbours don't notice that theirs are the same as 2018.

Christmas presents except ds's for h wrapped - last years wrapping paper. Dns birthday presents wrapped in odds and ends of birthday paper and posted.

Lunch was very spendy even with a 20% discount but meh it made me happy. New blanket for ds in primarni, a stocking filler from hotel chocolat and £7 parking 😮

Just spent £7 in coop on wine bread and oven chips, ds had dinner out so that's my dinner sorted 🤣

Sea have you looked at the early learning little people? Ds absolutely loved those we had loads of them

Em eeek on the end of pay. Definitely make that pension payment

Hi all.
Thanks for the thread wolf, also sorry to hear about your gran, and pleased to hear she is now on the mend.

Girlie, happy birthday for yesterday.
Wreck happy anniversary for yesterday.
Sea well done on the project.

Spends today
Ocado £48

Will try to keep up with the thread this time!

seacow our shopkins often get lined up. And chatted to. We have lots from the cooking series, so they get eaten and cooked a lot. I also spend time tidying them up off the floor!

Both our Dc had Dots for Christmas last year. I got them for £25 each & they were well worth it just for the entertainment value of my drunk auntie interacting with them!
unescorted Christmas plan sounds good, what could possibly go wrong.......?!
seacow well done on the work project. £20 nursery hit sounds like not a bad outcome, £15/10 mins sounds outrageous wreck (belated anniversary wishes)
life did you apply for the job? Dh got his application submitted by the skin of his teeth with 10 minutes to spare! Don't think he'll be too worried if he doesn't get it, but at least he has made the decision now that he is looking, does want a change & can't just carry on where he is, waiting for an opportunity which may well never arise.
Dh & ds went to Devon last night for a friends 70th birthday party onight. They are driving back tomorrow morning. So I get to take dd & 10 friends to a local Italian for tea. 2 of the mums who are long standing friends of mine are staying for food too. Will have to position ourselves well away from the girls! It will be spendy but dd never wanted parties for her birthday when she was little, so this is payback. I'm so happy that she has finally has a lovely stable group of friends. She is working at the rugby club waitressing first so a busy day. While she works, I'll be making cupcakes for the girls to take home with them. Baking is fine, but for the icing I could really do with seacow to help me.
Tomorrow is her actual birthday & we're having a buffet tea for a few family & friends. Depending on how tired I am after today I'll decide whether to home cook/bake most things or call on the supermarket freezer aisle!

I'm nowhere with Christmas, but dh & I have a day off together on Monday so hope to get started then. I've plenty of ideas for dd but fewer for ds as usual.

North, this is a super easy way to decorate cupcakes. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out the icing discs and make a production line of it. You can add multiple coloured icing circles for a different look or a circle of marzipan then icing www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1276638/little-rose-and-almond-cupcakes

Those cakes are sweet. Or good old buttercream and sprinkles.

I did North. Think one of my examples is not up to the mark but I ran out of time after finally getting to speak to the recruitment managers. Seen another in a different area of the department too.
I'm ready for a change.
Good luck to DH.

Spendy day. Christmas shopping and going to the range. My oven is not well so I might have to bite the bullet and get a new one. About £700 as it's a Biggie

wolf it’s a scary thing pay stopping. It’ll be fine though as I’ve saved half my smp every week so have back up cash. Feels weird not having anything coming in though.

Have sent email re pension payment this morning because I forgot yesterday.

Christmas is going ok so far. I’ve done dhs family in nz. Just need to wrap everything and post it.

Dsis and I are going halves on a present for dparents. She’s organised it. I need to send her money.

We’re going halves on hampers for uncle in uk and our godmother. I’m in charge of this so must do it...!!!

I’ve done dsis’ presents.

Need to get something for dparents from the kiddos. And need to sort dhs gifts. Every time he mentions something he’d like I buy it.

(And buy some things for myself too from dh as I know that he’ll forget and it’ll be a last minute rush - one year he bought me a onesie which looked like a lemur....)

Thanks for those ideas wolf I'll let dd decide whether butter cream or fondant. I had a go at piping buttercream the other day but it didn't end well so spreading it & then topping with sprinkles would be the way to go.
life well done on getting it done & good luck. dh was happier with his examples than last time (18 months ago) but there was one which I didn't think was great & no time to change it. Dh's problem is he lacks confidence . I encourage him to work on the examples so that he's ready to apply when the right job comes up, but he tends to bury his head in the sand, decides to apply for a job at the last minute without enough time to do himself justice.

Also emailed door people to check on our order.

Bought hampers for duncle and dgodmother and voucher for Dsis.

Thank goodness for online shopping.

North the secret to butter cream is the consistency. If it is not sticking to the cake add a tiny touch more milk, if it doesn't hold definition then more icing sugar or pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Do practice runs on your bench / board & then scrape them back in to the piping bag to have another go. You Tube has billions of piping videos. I blame them for my current Russian piping ball tip obsession. It is costing me a fortune in butter and gel colours.

Em do you get to choose when you return.

I need ideas for Christmas presents... I hate shopping so always leave it to the last minute or in the new year. With being in the country this year I will have to get them on time for the first time in years.

Morning all,

We're all up earlier than usual on a Saturday, dd has the period from hell so had to help sort her out bless her.

Plan today is tidying up this morning and got a friend coming over this afternoon. Might be going out for dinner tonight with friends but one has just cancelled as she's ill so waiting to hear if other friend still up for it or not.

Sorry to hear about your gran, wolf

My DM and little half bro are staying this weekend so we are heading to London as he wants to go to the aquarium and Hamleys... he is 11 so probably the last year or so before he just wants IPads and doesn’t care about toys!
£18 train to London.
£4 coffee and water. I foresee a spendy day.

Sounds like a lovely, Christmassy, day out plan!

Girlie, it's at this time of year I make loads of plans and then secretly hope on the night it gets cancelled so I can get into pjs and watch Strictly instead 😂. Hope dd is feeling ok.

For the first time this month I've been logging all grocery and top-up shops. We've spent around £330 so far and should have enough to get by next week without a big shop. However what I'm most shocked at is our pattern of shopping. I honestly thought we didn't do much topping up except a bit of bread and milk in the week but actually these smaller shops make up the bulk of our spending. I'm going to try doing more frequent home-deliveries next month, so a £40 shop 2x a week (we have Tesco delivery saver) - does anyone else shop more like this?

unescorted yes and no. I get 26 weeks as standard. 18 of which are paid by our social security dept (£260 something a week). I also got 2 weeks at full pay, 12 weeks at 90% pay from work. If I’d taken longer from work it’d be all unpaid.

They’ve just changed the law here so that as standard parents can take 50 weeks off with 6 weeks at full pay. The “usual” 18 weeks paid by social and the rest unpaid. Unless employers choose to offer additional pay.

I’m not sure how it works in the U.K. but our set up is differently.

I am looking forward to going back if I’m honest. I’ll be doing 4 days a week most weeks (have said ill cover holidays and sickness if needed and if I can grab childcare for the kiddos). I need the routine

I know what you mean em I was ready to go back when the time came.
Thanks for those tips unescorted I thought as much, but had a bit of a practice nightmare the other night which knocked my confidence. Hopefully will have plenty of practice time this afternoon.
madden I felt relieved when dd said she didn't want anyone to come back after the restaurant tonight. We'll be back by 9 and can get PJs on & watch tv curled up on the sofa. Bliss.
I will report back on the cupcakes.....

Poor dd Girlie, she is lucky to have a mum like you.
north, sounds like a great way to celebrate your dd's birthday and I'm sure your cupcakes will be epic.
plan sounds like a great day out, my youngest is 9 so I think this may be the last year she believes .

Me and dd2 are out waiting to get hair cuts, then we are doing a bit of shopping and I'm going to see if I can get a gentle cleanser for her.
Have a great Saturday everyone.

Em know that feeling - I am not naturally maternal so found it really hard to subordinate Me to the kids. That sounds horrible now I have written it down. I have nothing but admiration for people who opt to stay at home to look after the kids. Fortunately for ours Dh took that role. Left to me and SS would have had to intervene.

North report with pictures!

We are having a lazy day - I am binging The Crown, DD is putting together additional work for her interview and DD's friend ( fast becoming DD2) is belatedly writing her personal statement. Ds & Dh have gone to Belgium, as you do.... they had better bring back chocolate & beer.

This evening is Strictly, bowls of pasta & garlic bread on the sofa - we are simple souls.

I am trying out a chocolate cake recipe - I only realised that it was dairy free when I double checked the recipe for eggs. I won't tell the girls that it is accidentally vegan. I will report back.

Em, North, Unescorted snap. I would have gone batshit without work

That sounds like a great evening Unescorted.

I am watching a lovely John Favreau film called Chef which is pure food porn. I can't decide between white chilli or chicken nachos for tea. We will also be chilling in front of strictly.

Have made two more house valuation appointments but my plan to try and see a solicitor next week has been hampered by the fact ds is off school at the end of the week

We definitely need cupcake pictures North and yay to dd not wanting to bring people home after

Buttercream is tricky because its consistency is so temperature dependent. I steer pretty clear in the summer as my kitchen gets too hot and it gives me the rage! Spreading with a. Knife and sprinkling looks absolutely fine.

Question: would you tip workmen who did a job in your house? The bathroom guys (the 2 workers, not the company owner) did a brilliant job. They worked really hard for 6 days, maybe 10 hours with minimal breaks , and were really clean and efficient and not a bother to have around. I feel I’d like to tip them but don’t know what is ‘normal’. Also conscious they may end up doing my other bathroom and working on my kitchen next year so I don’t want to raise unrealistic expectations!

Ballet with DD this morning. We seem to be going backwards atm, she clings to me a lot and won’t do a lot of the stuff other kids do. She even had me carrying her when she would usually be dancing about. No idea how get her past this

Oooh, food porn. Is that Netflix Wolf?

Oh and I made oatmeal raisin cookies today from an American Recipe and they came out really well. I’ll post the link if I can find it again. Made absolutely loads though.

Sea have you seen King Arthur Flour website - their recipes are amazing. You just have to remember that their large eggs are our mediums and their butter is less liquid/ fatty, so you have to compensate. The recipes are all in metric so none of the cup business.

Wolf sounds like my kind of film.

Sea it's on Prime.

Madden yep same here we try and do two shops at just over the minimum spend. Often we mess up but that’s the idea anyway!

Girlie poor DD :( as I said here before DD1’s were awful and she had that one lasting 24 days! But since going on iron they are fine so I’m really glad we had her tested. I’m no longer worried about her coping with them at school as they aren’t so heavy although she will need reminding of changing them etc.

I’m absolutely loving my cup still, I’ve had three cycles now using absolutely no disposable products. In fact this last time I didn’t even use any of the cloth pads just the cup with the period pants as back up (I have cheekywipes ones but want to try some others). Yay!