Frugaleer Festive Fun

[Unescorted]

I went to post and realised we had nearly run out of room.

old thread here

Bring the sparkle on....

She is on her way home.

I am making a gingerbread cake - dough resting in the fridge, template made. I thought it was going to be really expensive, but had a hunt about the cupboard and used all the half packs of sugar and will use the colours and decorations I already have. I have only had to buy Trex and candy canes.....

I had my flu jab earlier. Does anyone know if I will feel ropey or do most people shrug it off?

Thanks for the new thread unescorted dh and I were both fine with our jabs this year. Well done on using up for the cake.
mrs the deal with the RHS membership is that there are only 5 RHS gardens, but it gets 2 people in unlimited times. There are "partner" gardens which you also get free admission to and a monthly magazine. Worth checking what gardens are within reach for your mum's friend.
Had a lovely walk in our beautiful parks earlier & spent £11 on fruit & veg at the market.

Tha is for the new thread Unescorted, bet you can't wait to see dd.

Got our tree and other decorations up now, dcs helped. They are now totally worn out from all the excitement so we are watching Stick Man.

My cuz treated me to lunch
Had turkey & ham was yummy

Proud of myself was in Dunnes stores ptsb doing 5 back on 50 spend and had 10 off 50 so needed to spend €60 to get both off.
Bill came to €76, went through my receipt and an item I thought was 9.83 was 24.58, promptly returned it, will look online. It was a cube with three plugs and three usb points.

Thanks Unescorted. I will be back I promise just super crazy busy and knackered

I do Iove you all though

She is home.

@Unescorted

She is home.

YAY! So pleased for you all

Thank you for the new thread Unescorted
Wolf hope you are ok love
North thank you re explaining the RHS subscription, it looks really lovely , l am so tempted for ME!!

Hope you are ok Wolf.

Unescorted I hope you had a lovely evening with dd, enjoy the rest of the weekend.

We all need a quiet day I think so it's Christmas crafts and TV today.

@Unescorted

She is home.

And that’s unescorted for the forseeable. Following Dd around, looking at her etc 😂

Seriously though I hope you enjoy having her home and also let her go back

The dc are still asleep

Whop whoop unescorted.
I felt shit offer flu jab but seem to be In the minority
Thanks for the new thread

Need a chat wolf?

Great frugality happier

I argued over £3 in sports direct, the 20% off everything didn't come off. Cheeky
£3.50 DD for after stables

Am I that transparent em .

Unescorted and em

Your DC were still asleep at 8am em Woohoo! 👍 you deserve a break

We wrapped the DCs present last night. Just got DPs brother and family to buy for and then I think we’re done once all the stuff we’ve ordered yesterday arrives this week

Two weeks of school to go!

We’re going to get our next covid survey test later. We think DH will continue to test positive? Was three weeks ago he first got a positive. We get £75 between us in vouchers for doing it.

We just did a deep dive into the joint account and I am literally ashamed of how much we spend on groceries! it just the two of us and a cat. No idea how it is so expensive!
We have decided enough is enough and going to try and eat down a lot of the stuff in freezer and cupboards before doing another shop. We will be at my mum’s for Christmas so that’s 5 days where we won’t be buying groceries but will end up spending to contribute to hers plus we have to pay for a cattery for Dcat!

3 little trees up and some presents wrapped for feeling a bit more festive.
£30 on paint, chapatti pan and vacuum bags. May as well put my winter work clothes away

Nsd. Hooray!

Ds woke up at 845. Dd at 815. No idea why?? But I don’t care the quiet was amazing.

£22 Iceland on strudel wine ice cream for dinner. Roasted two huge chickens as mum and dad had dinner with us. Late lunch early dinner. Yum.

Made mulled wine (and am a bit squiffy now - love a mulled wine me!).

Have also decided that Christmas is for mulling. If it moves this year I’m mulling it.

Have just checked our covid stats for today. 516 cases. It was only just over 100 a couple of weeks ago. That escalated quickly. I sense lockdown proper for Christmas.

@ememem84

Ds woke up at 845. Dd at 815. No idea why?? But I don’t care the quiet was amazing.

£22 Iceland on strudel wine ice cream for dinner. Roasted two huge chickens as mum and dad had dinner with us. Late lunch early dinner. Yum.

Made mulled wine (and am a bit squiffy now - love a mulled wine me!).

Have also decided that Christmas is for mulling. If it moves this year I’m mulling it.

Ha! Me too Em! I have apple juice on my shopping list for this week so we can mull it for the dcs to try. I hope you avoid Christmas lockdown.

Evening everyone
I have been so busy today l can barely keep my eyes open
Cards cards cards more cards tree decorating , room decorating and Mumbobs and NDN , cooked a chilli and a shepherds pie and cards
Unescorted you enjoy every second
Em Strudel wine ice cream it sounds gorgeous. Love mulled wine too but not allowed any yet Very worrying for you re the increase in Covid Numbers that seems like a lot to me too
Life great job! lt's so much work on top of normal but we will get the just reward Christmas Hope you feel better now too
Gen great idea re the freezer & cupboards
Well done on the money saving Happier
Love my Dd2 is doing the survey she will make 400 pounds if she does every test
Must go to bed early tonight, have a good night sleep everyone

Thanks for the new thread Unescorted. Enjoy having your DD home. Are you making all her favorite dinners for the next few days?

em so glad you had a slow, peaceful start this morning. I just hope you don't pay for it tonight.

It is soooo cold here. It was -3 degrees when we left the house this morning. It took me about 15 minutes to defrost the car. There was no point in using a jug of tepid water because it would have just iced over again. It's been an eerie, foggy kind of day. Anyway, we had a busy if spendy day shopping. Tired now. DD has some homework to finish off and then she's heading to bed. I won't be far behind her. I did a click and collect order at one of the shops and realized (when I was on my way home) that they put a candle in that wasn't part of my order. I was tempted to keep it and say nothing but I'll drop them an e-mail tomorrow. The retail sector has suffered so badly in recent months that I'd feel bad profiting at their expense.

mrs it is a lot. But. About a week or so ago there was a huge party at local hotel to celebrate the launch of real housewives of jersey.

Then when it was announced on Wednesday evening that all licensed hospitality venues were to close until the new year so so many people went out partying on Thursday night. So that’s a big part of it.

Also there is way more testing now. So more tests equals more cases.

We’re hunkering down as much as we can. I’m taking dc to dparents tomorrow and I’ll work from home from there. The dc will be at nursery the rest of the week. Other than my parents and dsis were not seeing anyone else. But dsis is a teacher so it’s all over the place in schools currently. So we’ll see her as and when we can.

snuggly I love mulled wine, planning some for next weekend I think. Well done on the nsd
Gen you can do this. Absolutely use what you have, but planning is key. Then you can just buy what you need for the meals. I'm trying to use what's in the freezer until the weekend before Christmas.
Em judging by how busy our town centre was yesterday as we walked through, I'd say a January lockdown is inevitable here. Dmum is all signed up for the vaccine so hoping it will be v soon.
Today has been productive. I've made cottage pie (no topping yet), chilli, Bolognese, lasagne, ginger Christmas pud (thanks life) and some mincemeat cookies. Tree is bought but not going to be decorated until tomorrow night.