Mince Pies, Mulled Wine, frugal festive frolics. Yuletide budgeting banter & Merry Saving Shenanigans for all 🎁🎄🦌🎅🤶☃️

[MaryGreenhill]

Welcome to the Christmas Frugal thread . We are a super friendly group here & everyone is welcome 🤗 .
☃️🤶🎅🦌🎄🎁

God that sounds a nightmare @RumBananaSundae
I am so sorry lovely.
I hope things improve for you very soon 🙏

Would love to hear what works and what doesn't work for you ladies at Christmas.

Ah @RumBananaSundae that does sound tough.

You are right @MaryGreenhill, the lady that plans the veg boxes does seem to understand cooking.

All your cooking for Christmas is making me feel that I need to do something!

Greek food sounds good @lifelongfrugaleer

£6 Amazon on cleaning products.
£26.20p to Children in Need - Sarah Cox’s marathon challenge, the amount seemed appropriate. Going back to the discussion re charity giving, this is how we contribute these days - when something seems to resonate. I love running, she’s finishing in relatively close to us, not a million miles from where we live anyway (Pudsey), it’s for kids that really need it etc and she’s doing something which is really tough, even for seasoned runners!

Should be a NSD - DH is getting his haircut by his DS, I’ll potter and make soup while that process happens.

Re charity givings I cancelled all my dds as was sick of. Hounding & money being spent on marketing

I pick & chose local charities and give to them. And to hidden need such as the school nearly new in need shop.
im lucky my work have 3 charities a year so do lots for that.

sarah is not far from me today on her run. My pal
is off to wave her on

We do postcode lottery and my husband runs a massive scout group donating hours and hours of his time every week, for now I think we are doing our bit. Oh and the BHF weekly lottery!

I have got back onto Ocado star reviewers, they send free specific items for a review. This time it was toothpaste and showergel, it’s never lost!

Well done to your DH and you for your charity endeavours
@FurForksSake and @lifelongfrugaleer . I think we all do as much as we can here and as a nation the UK are known to be very generous even given the hard times everyone is up against.
Re knowing what worked and works for me at Christmas. I have to get everything done in plenty of time because l have to do a lot of things for my Mum ..all her presents , her Christmas cards and visits to her elderly friends and relatives because she can't do it anymore. I have always done it for her and Dad before that as well . Nay l have done it all my life. l have found because it's a lot l do start very early and l like the cards gone, both hand and postal delivery by the beginning of December.
I also pack stuff early for the same reason . I buy the food for Christmas when it's on offer and store it in the garage.
We don't seem to eat it when it's in the garage but if it was in the house that would be a different matter 🤣
NSD for me thank God for that!
Have a lovely day everyone 😊

Not too much spending today. I think about £8 on junk in Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury. I have eaten the cookies already.

Thank you @MaryGreenhill and @needastrongoneagain . I spoke to the contractor again and he seemed more positive than me so maybe all is not lost. I started exploring the joys of carpet and have given myself a scare. Baby steps.

Contacted a different contractor about something else I should get done. I’m hoping they get back to me. He’s done something for me before and was very nice (and competent).

Supper was a strange mix of cupboard/freezer broccoli, chillis, hummus, feta and falafel. It was rather tasty and I have some left for tomorrow. I opened the pomegranate molasses and rapidly closed it. I’m not a fan.

Have a day off tomorrow. I have very grand plans of picking up an order from Marks and Spencer.

That's brilliant re the contractor @RumBananaSundae l am so pleased for you sweetheart 🤗

Thank you @MaryGreenhill. Not rejoicing just yet. I’m hoping he’ll remember our discussion and offer. Though as it’s work and I guess not too labour intensive maybe he’ll see it as easy money. Have heard back from the other contractor and he’s checking a few things.

Had a reply from my solicitor and it was so rude I laughed. I remember a friend saying that there was a circle in hell just for solicitors. I now wholeheartedly agree.

I have everything crossed for you @RumBananaSundae so sorry your solicitor is not working well for you 💐

My Christmas lists including 'thoughts for next year' are now on their 8th year so lots in there! I've popped a couple of photos below from last year as easier than listing them! When I started this in 2017 money was exceptionally tight - I was part time and DH on low pay, DC were in primary school. So it's actually a frugal exercise to keep me wasting money and time. And looking at my rough menu for Christmas week a reminder that I don't have to reinvent or try too hard. I also list presents and cards so I remember to send to the correct people! Would love to have them written and posted on the 1 Dec but never quite managed that!

Today is food shop day - £41 in Morrisons and £71 in Lidl. Got another advent calendar and two tins of the Morrisons £4.50 Roses and Quality Street. Left in boot until I can hide them.

Off to see if I can spend my points on the Boots app.

Oh well done on the written plan @Mochi1fudge great job 👍

Hmm well £8 of stocking fillers with points. Not with points - £24.50 on a star buy of Ted Baker toiletries for DS as he's going to the gym every day at the moment. Not quite my intention to spend more but it was half price.

Well that sounds very good to me @Mochi1fudge and the Ted Baker stuff is very nice . Your Ds will be very happy l am sure 😊

I’ve got some of the ted baker stuff from boots for my Ds, he is 12 and just discovering nice smelling things!

Oh @RumBananaSundae your solicitor sounds like a right wotsit. I'm so sorry. How long will you have to deal with them?

Def doing the what worked list. What didn't work last year was I got OH presents for Christmas (obviously) and forgot we also celebrate on boxing day with his older children and he had nothing to open from me. So I'm buying a few extra this year for boxing day too. Only small bits so won't break the budget.

About £10 today on vinted as a friend bought DD gifts for Christmas so I added her to my present list and got her a few bits on there.
And £14 on Amazon for a birthday gift for a friend.
£4 on lunch. I really need to stop buying lunch. I haven't for years. Unsure why I've started again. Need to do a packed lunch going forward again when I do DD packed lunch.

I don’t do what worked lists, but I do write down Christmas catering plans, shopping lists for food, recipes that were successful. Same for Easter. I started keeping a recipe book for DS (fond thoughts of him leafing through it and learning from his mother, snorfle) and the ‘occasion/holiday catering came out of that. I do find it useful to look back and maybe he will one day too (seems unlikely).

Best of luck on Friday @FurForksSake
@PearlTeapot last year I started a small savings pot for Christmas. I already had a gifts one but wanted one for the things that pop up. Dinners, drinks, extra groceries for home made gifts and even getting my nails done. Christmas is such an expensive time but it’s the season that does me in not the actual day.

its been an expensive couple of days as I’ve started buying Christmas presents and u bought myself some trainers to wear with dresses. I’ll send them back if they don’t work. Im hoping to have most of them done by the end of next week. Think im going to give myself a soft deadline of the 14th of December to have my Christmas prep done. I want to leave time to enjoy the season and not have loads of jobs to do.

@Mochi1fudge I aspire to be your level of grown up
My bank has gone back to looking like a student!
£5.59 Starbucks snack
£4 Morrisons gingerbread candles
£2.59 drink
£3 two sausage rolls from the best butchers.

Morning.

I love the lists re Christmas in whatever form that has worked. Noted for this year - I feel I’ve the headspace for such things now.

@MaryGreenhill strikes me that you’ve done a lot of kind things for a lot of folk over the years. I hope you do kind things for yourself too, or have folk that do.

DF had a fall in the care home yesterday, and is now in hospital with a broken hip. At 93. Just awaiting updates from my DB. A lot of care will probably fall on his shoulders as I’ll struggle given how much care DH now needs and my other DB is having daily radiotherapy at present. But will get there at the weekend.

Spends
£35 Christmas present dd. (have a pot).

Also agreed to our gutters cleaning and some repairs, scheduled to start in 3/4 weeks. We have them cleaned annually because of the amount of trees in our garden necessitates it - the repairs will be extra - total £300. Something DH used to do but not within my remit (well, not the top level stuff anyway, we are going to clean out the lower ones ourselves!).

Fish curry for supper. DH has a hospital appointment today so that’ll be most of our day covered most likely!

Morning all, I’m new to this thread. Yesterday I finally made my Christmas cake-had the fruit soaking for 2 weeks lol.
i am making some decorations this year with some ribbon I’ve already got-I always go for a more traditional Nordic vibe but wanted something new to add-the ribbon is just scraps and I’m hoping to make a ribbon chain and some cute bows.

i am really cutting back on my spending this year. It’s so expensive. It’s my birthday and my husbands in the 7 days after Christmas.

I’m still struggling regularly with wanting to buy things. My addiction is strong. I didn’t realise!! There is always something that pops into mind.

When I get discharged it’s going to be really tough as things like just popping to Starbucks are a daily expense for me. And it all has to be different.

What practical steps can you take to manage your urges when you are out and about again Pearl? I mean, it’s one thing to say ‘it’s all got to be different’ (how many of us do that?!) but if that’s not just going to be a stick to beat yourself with, it would be good to have some practical things that are real props to positive habits or barriers to unwanted ones. Otherwise you can end up relying on motivation and good intentions and we all know they have their limits!

It’s good to hear you’re heading to discharge anyway xx

And actually the urge to spend is encouraged by the world at large is it not? I have an ad-blocker on my laptop which Mumsnet does not like. So I use my phone instead: cue adverts from Rigby and Peller. I certainly don’t need a bra at £120, yet I found myself scrolling. Luckily, my desire to have a smaller collection of clothes more perfectly adapted to my life outweighs my desire to buy and keeps me editing what I have- but, god, the marketing catches you, doesn’t it?

Yes the marketing is something else. I’ve had to delete Facebook and instagram a few weeks back as they kept pulling me in.

I think when I go home the only thing that will help is not having access to money anymore. No more Apple Pay on my phone. If I need to go to a supermarket I’ll have to take a physical card (how retro) and then only use that there. It’s going to be tough. If I’m struggling here where I only have the internet for temptation how will I cope in the world where my favourite thing to do is pop out for lunch, coffee and cake, wander the shops etc?