Frugaleer Festive Fun

[Unescorted]

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

old thread here

Bring the sparkle on....

Morning everyone 😀
Tight that's a blooming pita re the heating 💐
Hope you feel better today Em
Life that is wonderful re the house am made up for you 👏😀
Unescorted thank you for your kindness and compassion volunteering in the food bank you are a good un ❤️ 💐

Mmm curry.

I just realised we have only 1 full month left on the credit card, then a small payment and it’s clear. So that’ll free up some cash.

Should be tree day today, don’t think we will be going out and spending, it’s horrible weather today!

Life everything crossed for smooth sailing from now on! 🏡❤️

Dh has sent me back to bed for the morning. I’m still feeling all stuffy and fuzzy. That’s the best way I’ve got to describe it.

I’m under instruction not to come down before lunchtime. And then we are doing family stuff this afternoon. I have a bucket load of water and coffee (decaf) and catface for company.

I’m reviewing my spends and have the following spend/savings goals for next year.

• check what I/we have before buying new
• use up what i have before buying new - this applies for me in the beauty product category I have so so much stuff. It just needs to be loved and used. No doubt more will come my way for Christmas.
• no sales twitching unless necessary.
• increase savings by £10 across the board every month. Not much. But it should help.

Get well soon em. This time of year can really take it out of you. Christmas is a lot of fun but it also involves a lot of planning and organizing. And you already have a lot on your plate with two small children and working almost full time (am I right in thinking you work four days a week?).

Cleaning downstairs today and then I'm heading into the big town to get cat litter and a gift card for my nephew and a few bits and pieces.

Dinner will be Irish stew.

Might write my Christmas cards this evening. I have labels done up in work with the names and addresses on them, so that will save me a lot of time. I'm getting chocolates for all of my staff but some of them finished up already so they won't get them until the new year . I wasn't expecting them to finish so early. Well, they're not actually finished for Christmas but they'll be working from home this week and then using up leave the following week.

DH did my grey roots today with box dye and genuinely did just as good a job as my hairdresser. £9 for the dye in comparison to £60 in the salon! I’m definitely hiring him!

That’s great gen :)

Aw tayto it’s a shame they’ll be late but sometimes it’s nice to have a little surprise in new year so it might cheer them up!

I had another spend last night, think it was £16ish on a hamper present for DSDs and a 2021 calendar for DD1 (hoping to get them taking a bit more responsibility for their schedules... we did try this term but needless to say not much was written on it 😅)

Yes tayto 4 days a week.

Just been out for a walk.

Oook so we now have over 700 cases here. This means we’re worse than the U.K. per 100k.

Oops.

Oh no @ememem84, hope it calms down soon!
I am from Northern Ireland and they had a similar surge after initially being really good with low numbers. There didn’t seem to be much explanation for it. I live and work in a tier 2 area in England, lots of students here so term was quite bad for numbers.

Tomorrow I need to get a new home card for my best friend who has bought his first house and also get a frame for a picture to hang in our stairs. I also want to do a spin class (I have a bike at home and an app so I can do live classes) as I’ve put on weight since the move with stopping exercise classes plus eating crap.

We’ve been warned for more deaths over Christmas if we don’t behave ourselves. Which is cheery.

Dh and I are keeping our little bubble small nice spoken to dparents (ddad is in the hugh risk category due to age) as they look after the dc for us one day a week. But they are both insistent that we carry on as normal. Theyve said they’d rather take their chances with the virus than not see the dc. Their choice. So if they’re happy I’m happy. But just to be safe dh and I are limiting other interactions with people. The dc are at nursery which in itself is a germ fest. But so far no cases there.

Self care Sunday here. Am in bed. Cup of tea and have slathered on some night cream. And hand cream. In the hopes it helps.

Fairly frugal weekend overall. It has rained all day so we stayed in and did xmassy crafts with the dcs. Made cards to send to the gps and I'm v happy with how they turned out. Also some decorations which actually used up various random sequins and things that we already had.

Biught dh some expensive chocolate for Christmas but that's ok as I know he will appreciate it and only gets it at Christmas so I don't mind spending the extra so long as he shares

Self isolating. DS has been coughing his little heart out all day. Trying to get a test for him!

Oh no, Sing! Hope you get a result quickly and hope ds is ok.

sing can you guys just call up and get a test?

We have to call anc if our helpline deems you worthy of having a test they will get you an appointment at the test centre. Not sure how it works in the U.K.

Dh thinks I might have it. Albeit mildly. But whilst I have some symptoms I don’t have the major ones they’ll do a test for. No cough. No headache like a migraine. And no shortness of breath.

Up at 230 with dd. She coughed so much she was sick. Just mucous though. I slept on the floor in her room after that. Dh actually got up with her but I heard it and went to see what was going on. Poor baby. She seems fine ish now. Wrecking the joint with ds so can’t be too much wrong with her.

In other news I wooped Dh at words with friends last night. Almost 200 points difference. He’s not happy.

Oh no poor DD em :(

We have to go on the govt website and fill in a form, then it tells you if there are tests available (either testing centre or a home test - we need the latter as no car). It feels like trying to get concert tickets tbh, refreshing the screen 😂 but my friend found they release the new tests at 8am and 8pm? So I’ve set alarms to keep trying.

TBH it’s for DD1’s sake more than anything I hope we can get a negative result ASAP as she’s gutted about missing a fun final week at school. DS feels like crap anyway bless him :( so he’d be staying home anyway. Hopefully it’s just a cold as he does get a bit chesty sometimes anyway, he’s had no fever but was a bit warm. Logically though if we did all have it back in March, this could be it again but we all have a milder case 🤔 aaagh who knows.

I was sad to have to cancel my piano lessons and yoga. Very glad we’ve got most of the Christmas shopping done already - trying to see the positives like we have more time for a bit of baking and decorating etc :)

Yay, got a test. I could have added more of us but although DH and DD1 have coughed a bit it’s definitely not continuous. Obv if it’s positive then I’ll assume they’ve also got it (and DD2 as well who threw up some mucusy stuff a week ago so this is the tail end of it 😩). I’ve been fine throughout.

Fingers crossed sing

Told you about snogging em

i've just had to set an alarm so i can put my online order in tomorrow to be delivered on wednesday. our coop only does next day delivery, and with so many covid cases here and so many people isolating, they've become rather busy. apparently the slots for tomorrows deliveries went by 9am this morning....the website lets you add things to your basket though so have done the shop just need to check out at around 7am tomorrow morning.

em they are splashing them about here. Everyone lies if they want to check..... cough (check), temperature (check) loss of smell (check) and hey presto one arrives in the post or you can drive down and have someone watch you while you stab yourself up the snotter and wipe it all over your tonsils. DD was sent home with extra lateral flow tests because she wants to see her beloved grandpa who is poorly.

Keep safe my Southern Lovelies. Can I recommend getting to the wine aisle before everyone else. Toilet paper arrived on the shelf long before the wine deliveries stabilised.

Hi everyone, I haven’t posted here much but I want to get back on track. It’s been a spendy weekend as it was MIL’s bday so had to get her some presents and DH finished Xmas shopping for the in-laws. I’m hoping this week can be frugal!.

tightwad I hope you get your boiler fixed soon!

Brilliant news on an offer life

I’m very jealous of that takeaway em, I haven’t had an Indian in ages. I’m sorry DD is so poorly. I hope she’s well soon.

Sorry about the isolating sing

Cases aren’t too bad by me, but I’m still being cautious. We’re not doing Christmas bubbles, will probably say hello to family in the front garden but not in the house.

We are still umming and errring about Christmas. DDad is really poorly & this could well be his last Christmas so it is a bit of a conflict. See them because it could be the last one or don't because we could bring COVID in that will finish him off. I am tempted to ask my family to isolate for 10 days from when DS finishes school and we can have a late Christmas on 28th. But that means our Bubble will end up not having Christmas at all and I am not sure he has enough resilience left - he has been wfh / Lockdown / T3 since April and we are his only social contact.

That’s such a tough decision unescorted :(

Spends £6.99 unlocking an app (DS wanted to learn Italian). Nothing else today but need to edit the tesco shop for tomorrow or our isolation will be fuelled by Malibu and/or Schnapps, depending which I reserved the slot with this time 😂

Sing I hope it was schnapps.

We're going to move to T3 on Wednesday, which means the tickets I bought for husband's birthday present (Artemisia at the National, on Wednesday) can't be used. I can go for a refund, or defer. Suspect there will be a further spike and continuation of T3 restrictions after the Christmas relaxation, so might as well get my money back. Dunno. Tomorrow's decision.

New boiler being fitted on January 4th, unless we can get a cancellation. 3 weeks relying on the other, equally old boiler, eek!

DS just pointed out that the sole has begun to come off his favourite trainers. How come I can equip myself with perfectly good Adidas/Nike trainers for £30 - £40, but his always cost upwards of £140?