Frugal the flip to make the festivities fun

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Wasn’t going to be flip but decided to be polite
46 days or so

don’t panic frugaleers

Alfie l think it's what we all have to put up with now l am afraid 😳
Time glad you are feeling better 💐 your poor Dd hope she is better very soon 🤗
Happier oh bless you l am sorry you are losing out on money to look after your Dc . It's just not fair hope your DC are feeling much better now 💐
Been to Waitrose to pick up some medications and browsed. Bought some fig and pear mince pies in cheese pastry . 2 packs for £4
Very nice tbf total spends £14 Waitrose 🤗

Thank you for the good wishes!
it’s been a bit of a disastrous day financially today. Exhaust fell off the car, £225. Only good thing about that was that DD could drive me to the garage when I went to collect it.
then, the toilet was blocked and the bath not draining. DP is good at stuff like that and he’s fixed the toilet, but can’t fix the bath. I LOVE baths, they are my relaxation and I’m really gutted I can’t have one! Frustratingly, we have home emergency cover but I can’t get through - just get a message telling me they’re very busy and cutting me off. It’s meant to be an emergency helpline!! It’s making me feel lots of people must be struggling with emergencies in this weather though. At least it’s not our heating broken.

I’m also just about to fork out for all the Christmas food, so all in all it’s feeling expensive. We do have the means to pay for which I’m very grateful, but that’s money I have been trying to set aside for a family holiday.

Oh bad luck Martha .

£100 on food yesterday. Tried the new lidl and was impressed

Better frugal news. DP managed to fix the bath and toilet! Apparently the pipe that drains them outside was blocked with ice. I’m so pleased it’s sorted and he’s saved us money. He’s really good with stuff like that.
on the other hand I’m just off to IKEA with DD and DS1 to buy the rest of DS2’s Xmas present (which is budgeted for). Then a big food shop tomorrow. May also squeeze Costco in if possible.
In a further contribution to frugality DP has got a 10% employee card for Tesco (he is doing some extras hours there alongside his PT job). Apparently we can use this additionally with Tesco Clubcard plus which would give us 20% off twice a month. So fingers crossed we can make that work tomorrow for the big shop.

Excellent work, well done Martha's DH 👏👏😊
Spends today 78 Aldi
14 Tesco 😊👏
Hope everyone is feeling better 💐

Pleased the bath is fixed and hopefully lots more thaw to come

£20 Christmas night out, £40 to dd for hers

Well done to your DD Martha and your DH with the bath!

Really busy few days here. Plumber called Thursday, he stopped the leak in the kitchen ceiling but can't do the other work until Jan as this isn't urgent. He'll likely add that into his bill Jan but he is very reasonable. So £0 this month.

Just sorted out the spends from the last few days. Not too bad. Yesterday I was out with spendy friend but didn't do too bad.
£12 at winter wonderland. Friend pre paid for the tickets and ice skating so I paid for the kids to go on a few rides, plus £5.50 for snacks.
£34 food. Local pizzeria, really good value for what we got.

We are out again on the 22nd as that's DHs day off but other than that I'd hope for a LS week.

It's 13° here tomorrow. Practically tropical! Just checking my smart meter monitor, seem to have done okay this last week during 'the freeze'. We do have a log burner though, so only have to worry about the DC bedroom. not sure I'd have managed otherwise.

i need nail polish remover so will need to brace the shops today. And sweets for dc from dbro

We are off home to NI today, can’t wait to see the family. Will just be a chilled few days before we come back to England for Christmas with MIL which will
be grim.

Have fun at home gen and you know where we are to vent at mils

Morning all
spends yesterday £20 as the pub ds works at had a pub quiz so we joined in while waiting to pick ds up didn’t do very well but at least we didn’t come last
was meant to be taking dd to town so she could get a birthday present and dh was meant to be doing his Christmas shopping but dm has had a leak she had been staying at dsis for a few days as she said her house was so cold think she had messed with the settings on the handheld control I stupidly gave her the other day got her home and it’s leaked from her loft through the airing cupboard down into the kitchen so it’s an insurance job so took her back to dsis but to late to go to town so found a present and gift back for dd to give so kind of a frugal win after all

going to the local outlet village today so I can get dh watch for Christmas ds is coming as he wants one for his birthday in January so is going to be a Spendy day but budgeted for if they ever get up that is I was hoping to go early as it will be busy but they are still in bed at the moment

Well, things are racing out of control here, really. £189 at the butcher, £54 at Waitrose (whose scones, incidentally, are crap), £54 on (admittedly rather fabulous) Christmas greenery for the house at the florist, plus £12 for chicken wire to hold the display in place in various big vases and urns. £15 on candle holders for the table. Still have to buy batteries, do the Aldi shop, do the cheese shop run and the Sainsbury's run. Have to wrap presents (mostly they just go into repurposed boxes left over from the days when I actually had some disposable income and bought clothes from Matches), clean the house, gather ivy, put the decorations up and finish painting the dining room and putting it back together. THEN I can start on the cooking, which this year includes duck confit, boeuf bourgignon for the freezer, a ham for Christmas day and roast belly pork for the big dinner on Christmas Eve.

DH has bought DS a bottle of aftershave, and is collecting my parents on Christmas Eve. He sent a message to my brother to that effect, without asking me first. I felt like adding a message, 'So I will peel all the veg then and sort the table and the dog?' Oh, and he bought two cases of wine. I am slightly irritated by this, but am holding it in.

I'm sure I'm inefficient, and perfectionist, and make a lot of work for myself. And I do have an idealised view of how I want the house and the table to look and feel. But I also feel that next year, I would quite like us to go away somewhere, have sausage and mash and just take it all down a notch or two.

Evening. Dropped off the thread a bit this week. Sorry! It's that time of year.

That's a lot of work skies, remember that Christmas is about family first and foremost, if the house doesn't get cleaned and the table decorations don't get sorted and you end up ordering a takeout, then you will all be together and none of it will matter. Your mental health does.

Still in budget here but probably a little over by mid week, 24 hours before payday.

Today was £5.90 for two TGTG bags from Greggs. 5 sandwiches (including two huge baguettes), vegan stuff for DD, 5 sausage rolls, a steak bake, two yum yums, 4 donuts!

Loose meal plan is
Root veg casserole tonight.
Risotto.
Black bean burgers
Halloumi Wraps.
Veggie sausage and mash.

That all sounds amazing Bigskies. I do remember that feeling of the huge list but I'm sure it will all come together.

That TGTG bag sounds fab Need remind me of you are one of the NE frugaleers? I can only ever see Toby Carvery on my app...

Spends -

£4.40 WHSmith Total TV guide so I can get cracking with a highlighter pen - my favourite Christmas activity and generally marks that I'm "done" . Slightly cheaper than the Radio Times.

£32 Argos, another scientific calculator as Amazon delivery delayed and DS needs it for college tomorrow. Will send other one back when it arrives. On that note, just cancelled Amazon Prime as its a joke.

£7.95 new Korean food place. Little treat for me while DD was at my sisters.

£10 three photo frames from Wilko for my gallery wall in kitchen.

No food shop planned yet. We are having steak and chips on Christmas day. We are going to see if we can get a fresh turkey crown to make on Boxing Day and pad out over the Christmas week. We visit family but eat here.

order a takeout for Christmas??? when I've been to the fucking butcher, placed the fucking order, then got up early on a fucking Saturday to avoid the fucking queues, and then carried the fucking meat back to the fucking car half a mile away??? I don't fucking think so. Not unless there's a fucking power cut. I'm afraid my competence at catering and table-setting is my ticket for entry into acceptance so far as my family is concerned. That's fine. I'm not interesting outside my massive and impressive levels of practical competence, and I'm cool with that. Kindly don't minimise my enormous efforts by saying 'that's all lovely, dear, but remember none of it really matters, compared with all the other stuff that someone else might do.' This is what I bring.

Sorry. Drink has been taken.

I hope you have a lovely trip gen, I feel you on the Christmas with Mil. I am dreading Christmas Day with Dmum. She is not nice.

DD is still unwell, and I still don’t feel great either. Managed a bit of housework today, so at least we can relax in a bit more cleanliness.

Big I am a bit like you, I really like to make loads of effort. Need is absolutely right that the world wouldn’t fall in if I didn’t put myself under that pressure but it’s kind of what I’m about and while it can be stressful, I wouldn’t truly enjoy a simple Christmas! The only thing that reins me in a bit some years is that my family (as opposed to DH’s) is not especially foodie, nor massive eaters apart from me . So when it’s just my side, like this year, I really do have to try not to go mad with catering and then not go mad with crafting deadlines instead. Somehow my Christmas food order is still pretty massive though. I have to finalise it by Wednesday so just need to meal plan the rest of the week.

Went to London yesterday with DD(5) to see Mary Poppins at the theatre. It was a really good production but quite long, almost 3 hours, so DD was quite annoying wriggly by the end. We were with friends so afterwards we all went to Wagamama. This was a big triumph as we always end up eating pizza as a family as DS doesn’t eat many different foods at all (and then DH barely eats as he doesn’t eat cheese, sigh). DD is also very fussy and getting harder to feed but I grabbed the chance, being without Ds, not to go to bloody Pizza Express again and she actually ate some new foods! Tubes were awful though and the pavements are still covered in treacherous ice here so it was quite a trying journey, all in, and I was knackered! dinner was £40, tickets bought ages ago, £5 programme, £6 M&S for theatre snacks.

stayed in today as DSis came round to see the Dc and watch a movie. £5 to buy Elf on Prime. I’ve never seen it and in fact still haven’t, as I fell asleep on the sofa.

Two more days of school, three more days of work. Where has December gone? I still have a lot to do - not so much the cooking but wrapping, tidying and cleaning (house is actually quite dirty - i wont be able to relax till it’s a bit more under control). Am going to go and find the special stocking wrapping paper, hidden away and only used for that, and crack on while watching a bit of telly.

13C here tomorrow, phew!

I'm really desperately sorry that I caused offence. It was meant with good intent. When you've seen your world fall apart this year by your DH having a stroke so significant that he's cognitively massively impaired, physically pretty much immobile and in hospital 7 months later still, and me now slipping into almost constant panic attacks, exhaustion, and despair, it makes you feel differently about Christmas. I just wanted to reassure you that it's okay if the odd thing doesn't get done. I'd rather not open one present or send one card if I could turn back time to my life 7 months ago.

Again, I was insensitive, apologies.

Woah big I think that was totally uncalled for! need was just trying to be nice. We are all different, it doesn’t mean we are judging each other.

Have arrived in NI - didn’t sleep on the boat so completely wrecked. Hopefully a chilled few days to come.

As I said, drink had been taken, and it was meant to be an exaggerated reaction for comic effect, while also saying, 'look, this is what I bring, when I do The Big Meal, I really want to do it large.' It is what I give and I know it will be appreciated by all involved, and with my parents so very old and my son increasingly making his own arrangements, such opportunities are likely to be few in the future. So I'm happy to do the work, even while I know I'm a bit ridiculous for it. Frankly, I wouldn't be finding a cure for cancer or a solution to global conflict were I not arranging eucalyptus and planning puddings, and maybe I should have a think about what I could do more usefully with my time next year.

But I am not offended, and I don't feel judged, and I certainly don't want to be insensitive to other people's situations. I know what it's like to have a very sick husband - my first DH died in January 2004 when DS was two, and Christmas 2003 - 04 was very bleak indeed, alone with an angry, suffering man and a tiny child. I very much hope things get better for you, need.

Ah the written word not translating the intent

76$ Sainsbury’s but spent $25 nectar points
need veg and fresh stuff fri and I’m done

Starting to feel very despondent.
Going away for the week with family, it's our treat (was meant to happen in 2020 but lockdowns happened). But oh my God the spends.
£180 yesterday mostly on alcohol, was able to use £115 nectar points, so that helped.
Have booked a food delivery for the 23rd, that's currently standing at £100 - and we're not even buying the meat!
Beginning to wish we'd stayed at home.

Need I think of you often; we’ve been thread friends for years and it’s shocking how quickly life can change. You get on with things so capably because you are a coper and you have to, but I’m not surprised it’s taking its toll. It’s a huge pressure and loss for all of you and I can’t imagine that anyone could sail through unchanged by it.

I am sure Christmas will bring a lot of mixed feelings for you but I hope you and your family have joyful times amongst the reflection. It may trigger some grieving for the life you had and I hope you have space and support for that. I went through a period of grieving when DS was diagnosed - for the life I had expected for him and for us - and tbh, I don’t think I’ve stopped yet and it’s things like Christmas that make me feel it anew. Possibly always will.

I’m not sure you’re a hugger but have one anyway x

Need I don't think you're the one who needs to be apologising. Your post was very kind and clearly well intended.

Had a lovely Christmassy weekend with my parents and the best part is no spends for us. Picked up the car from garage this morning and it was £225 rather than the £275 they'd quoted so happy with that. I'm most pleased because for the first time ever we have an actual pot of money, for this exact purpose, which fully covers it, so for once we're not feeling short elsewhere! My budgeting system is finally working 😂

Keeping spends low this week until we have a couple of outings on Friday and Saturday. Just the food shop to collect tomorrow from Aldi which is £130 but includes a couple of last minute Christmas presents and party food for a family buffet we're having. So not too bad. I'm loving the Christmas period so far this year, it's the first year DS really gets it which makes it so much more exciting!

I hope that this doesn't scare away people from the thread as disagreements have in the past.

Saturday spends €70 cut and colour €30 makeup & lashes €6.80 in Lidl
Sunday steak sandwiches for two €50.40

Just bought myself 3 replacement heads for my toothbrush using a discount code brought them from €29 to €20.30