Hi lovely frugaleers.
Hope you're all keeping well. I've been posting more on the Christmas threads but I'm not forgetting about you.
Difficult to be frugal at this time of year when there are so many presents to be bought and Christmas lunches and days out etc. Anyway, I'm more or less finished my Christmas shopping. I may need one or two more stocking fillers for DD. I saw some cute gingerbread tongs in Penneys a few weeks back. They were only €2 or something. Wonder if they still have them? We took down the decorations yesterday so when she's with her Dad tomorrow, I'll see how full her stocking is and if I need to get one or two more things to fill it. In previous years I've made the mistake of buying stocking fillers that were too big for her stocking and only discovering this on Christmas Eve. With the result that she ended up with lots of main presents and a very skinny stocking. Need to avoid that this year.
Frugal wins - I got some reductions in the Black Friday sales. Also signed up to a Pandora newsletter and got money off some earrings for DD.
Frugal fails - I got a letter from the tax office to say that I've underpaid tax by €66 in 2019. I'm PAYE so I'm not sure how that happened. A piece fell off my washing machine drum recently so I think I'll have to replace it in the New Year. The machine is still working but there's a rough bit now exposed which is catching on clothes. My alarm is also playing up so I think I need to get the alarm company out to replace one of the sensors. I pay a maintenance fee with my monitoring fee but somehow I always have to pay something. Oh and I passed a speed check camera yesterday and I was hovering around the speed limit at the time. So I may have been slightly over or slightly under the speed limit. Fingers crossed......
I've read back a few pages.
Weight sorry to hear about your shin issues. Your poor Mum! It's shocking how badly ill and/or elderly patients are treated. Things are equally bad here (probably worse) but we have to pay for treatment which makes it even worse. Or at least, free medical treatment is means tested so they do a calculation based on things like income/no. of kids etc. If you don't work or earn a low income, you'll probably qualify for a medical card. Everyone else has to pay. Either directly at source or by taking out a health insurance policy which entails making monthly payments and then hoping your policy covers the treatment you need. The Santa grotto visit sounds lovely. How old are your DC? It's very stressful trying to combine work and sick kids. Thankfully DD is past that stage now but I remember it well. I used to dread getting that call from the creche.
Curls glad you're finished working on the rental house.
Gen good luck with your promotion hopes.
em hope your DS is feeling better. 3 weeks to your trip! Won't be long coming around now.
Big your weekend sounds lovely (last weekend). Glad things have eased for you a bit financially. Good news about the therapy too - that you think you can manage without it which in turn will free up some money.
Mrs fingers crossed for your Mum that she doesn't catch Covid.
Decaff hope you make a good recovery from your surgery. Take it easy (not easy with kids I know) and mind yourself.
Socathe have a nice time with your parents.
Time that's very sad about your Dad. Fingers crossed he doesn't catch Covid.
NSD so far. We're going to Dublin to see the musical 'Beauty and the Beast'. DDs ticket was a Christmas present in 2020 iirc (present from my sister) and I paid for my ticket at the time, so it won't cost us anything. They've postponed the show several times.