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The Thrifty Gifty Girls 'n' Guys 2009 (Organised & Money Neutral for All Occasions)

jamtart6
jamtart6 Posts: 8,302 Forumite
in Special occasions & other celebrations
:AWelcome! :A

Following the success of the last few years eBay neutral for Christmas challenge in 2007 and Money Neutral Gift challenge 2008 coupled with the wonderful and friendly community that can be found in the Organised Christmas thread, we have decided to launch a joint thread for 2009 as most people want to have a thrifty and organised time for christmas and all other occasions throughout the year, and the same people joined each thread this year, so it made sense to have one joint thread for everything. :D

Name of thread can be changed upon request...Pinkladymel and I were not feeling very inspired tonight :D

Ok... so what is it all about??? Well, there is 2 parts to the thread that overlap in many places, but I will explain each for any newcomers who would like to join us this year. There is no membership number etc. EVERYONE and ANYONE is welcome to join (except spammers!!)

PinkladyMel has helped to clear up the confusion here.....Just to clear up any confusion...

"Me and JamTart have both been running our own seperate threads for a few years now.

Jamtart - Money Neutral
PinkLadyMel - Organised for Christmas

This year we met and realised a lot of the people we know were hopping from thread to thread. We decided to join both threads so everyone can have one place to stay and we can all share our knowledge and lives beyond Christmas.

You can be organised for special occasions, You can be money neutral for occasions, You can be both. YOUR CHOICE. Everyone is welcome"

:A FAQ's - Money Neutral for Christmas & Special Occasions :A
  • What is this 'money neutral' of which you speak?
    Have a read of this thread, to see how I managed it this year to give you an example. Basically you do surveys to earn vouchers/points, save up loyalty points, shop through cashback websites to reduced the total amount of hard cash you spend...most of us do this anyway. We're always left with a little bit left over that we have to spend, so the idea is to get 'free' money from cashback sites, survey sites and one of the best sources for this....eBay.     [strike]Throw out [/strike] List your old items and make some money for new ones...then use this money to spend on your gifts throughout the year...therefore the items you have bought are technically free and you are therefore, 'money neutral'. (I saw this term in a recent magazine...I'm sure the writer of the article coined it from these very threads ;)).
Example - I want to buy a gift for my son... it costs £100....firstly (a) do I have a voucher code or gift voucher from a survey site that I can reduce this cost by? (b) Can I purchase it from a cashback website? (c) Yep..used my vouchers...the cost is still £80 of my cold hard cash...how can I get this back?? Answer: eBay or survey sites to the value of £80. If you manage that...you are 'money neutral'.
  • Why a group?
We found in previous years that have other people to motivate you is really really helpful to keep the momentum going, and more people spot more good deals too :) And everyone is SOOOOOOOOOO nice!
  • Why so early? It isn't 2009 yet you crazy woman!
Well, most people have usually got all their vouchers organised by this time, spent all their cashback on presents and are usually quite organised for 2008 and want to start on 2009. I'm posting this now because SALES are one of the best times to get organised for next year!!
  • So is this just for Christmas or all special occasions?
That is entirely up to you! I managed to cover 90% of the costs of Christmas and Birthdays for 2008, but if you just want to join us for Christmas then feel free!!
  • Look lady...enough of the chat:p...just tell me what I've gotta to do be in it!? Where do I start???
1. Make a list of everyone you need presents for in a "Gift Notebook"

2. Keep your eye out in the sales for anything that might suit that person for their birthday or Christmas - try and buy it with loyalty points/vouchers

3. Make a note of how much you spend in the book and mark if you spend vouchers, points or cash

4. Try and earn the hard cash back via eBay (I'm not encouraging you to earn it back via Quidco, but if you do have any spare quidco funds then use it to offset what you have spent.

5. Keep us posted on how you are doing with earning your points, buying your gifts, selling on eBay etc. I will probably keep my update in my signature (in very small font!)

:AWell we'd love you to join us - so feel free to post as much as you want, if you already know you will have spare points/vouchers etc for next years gift buying then keep us posted now!

We love oldies, newbies, we'll take anything to be honest...we're not the fussy type!! Come on in and let us know how you are doing :D

Best of luck and hopefully this time next year, we will have all had a money neutral gift buying year!!! :A

Also - if you don't want to play in the neutral challenge, just get organised with us instead. As little or as much as you want to - all welcome!!

  • What about the Organised Christmas thread that we already have? will we keep it for the rest of 2008?. we like it there..we don't want to leave our Scrapbooking Leader.........don't make us leaveeeee herrrrr!!
[strike]Yes we are keeping it for 2008! As if we could evict PinkLadyMel! The Organised Christmas Crew can migrate over as and when they wish and here is Pinkladymel in Post #2 to tell you all about it ...........over to you PLM!! :T [/strike] ... erm edit: apprarently not! You are all being migrated here!! :) Are the lists staying? You betcha!!!:A


:rudolf::xmastree::snow_laug:xmassign: 2008 Naughty and Nice Organised Thrifty Gifty Gals and Guys list! (We LOVE lists and Christmas!) :rudolf::xmassign::snow_laug:xmastree:

Daily Pledges
#1
We’re making a list...I’ll be checking it twice...the posters are going to find out who’s naughty and nice...’cos Santa Claus is coming toooo MSE!!!!!! (kind of!)

nicelist.jpg


naughtylist.jpg


:ABeing Thrifty Gifty again this year:A
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Comments

  • pinkladymel
    pinkladymel Posts: 1,707 Forumite
    Hello Everyone!

    Would you like to be more organised for your special events in the year?

    :xmassmile Come Join us and be a part of the Christmas maniac club!:rudolf:

    We have decided to make the pact to have an organised christmas by following the plan here:
    www.organizedchristmas.com

    :xmassign: :xmastree: :santa2:
    Every day there are tips on the main page, and you can follow a week by week plan to an organised home by selecting at the top which plan you would like to do. Then all you need to do is print and you're away!


    :snow_grinI am SO excited!!!!!:snow_laug

    Mel x
    :xmastree:Self Certified Christmas Addict:xmastree:
  • jamtart6
    jamtart6 Posts: 8,302 Forumite
    hello! Is it just us?! We are ripping off the idea of the Rudolph Club from Organised Christmas - they dedicate the 25th of each month to doing something in preparation for Christmas, we're dedicating the whollle year to special occasions!!!!! :)

    :ABeing Thrifty Gifty again this year:A
  • chocolate.orange_2
    chocolate.orange_2 Posts: 1,934 Forumite
    LOL

    You two are nutters

    In the best possible way....

    I think i might have to get myself on this thread.
    I bought somethings in last years sale for this christmas..Listed them in a book. Then thought of other things i could buy people.So bought them too :)
    I have gifts here already for next year...... big smug grin :)
    furrypig says:my name is Choccy and I am addicted to nose free stamps as I want to save them all and give them noses!!!:rotfl:
    About me. Im Choccy or Chocolate orange depending on where i am.Yes occasionally i am a total looon who spends too long online,but no where near as much £ as her spendy elves do ..:D
  • ehallett
    ehallett Posts: 1,960 Forumite
    Hi

    I think I am going to have to join in on this because I have been struggling with buying birthday presents all year and now Christmas is here, I have no idea what I am going to do :eek: .

    I'm off to write my birthdays and other occasions in a notebook :D .

    Emily x
  • jamtart6
    jamtart6 Posts: 8,302 Forumite
    chocolate.orange wrote: »
    LOL

    You two are nutters

    In the best possible way....

    I think i might have to get myself on this thread.
    I bought somethings in last years sale for this christmas..Listed them in a book. Then thought of other things i could buy people.So bought them too :)
    I have gifts here already for next year...... big smug grin :)

    See how good! Not just organised for 2008, but 2009 as well!

    :ABeing Thrifty Gifty again this year:A
  • jamtart6
    jamtart6 Posts: 8,302 Forumite
    ehallett wrote: »
    Hi

    I think I am going to have to join in on this because I have been struggling with buying birthday presents all year and now Christmas is here, I have no idea what I am going to do :eek: .

    I'm off to write my birthdays and other occasions in a notebook :D .

    Emily x

    Welcome to the place of ultimate (dis)organisation! :D We try our best! Good start with the notebook!!

    :ABeing Thrifty Gifty again this year:A
  • sophiesmum_2
    sophiesmum_2 Posts: 4,965 Forumite
    Count me in for 2009, 2008 all sorted:j , wrapped and stored ready for the big day:D
    With December quidco £50 payment I am 100% money neutral for 08, including last minute bits (thanks jamtart:D )

    Getting short of storage space for pressie stash so have decided to do giftcards for 09 and add nice little home made gift with each one. Aiming to do the giftcards money neutral over the year, and looking for new crafty ideas to go with them.

    Sure there will be lots of inspiration on here:j :j :j
    Reduce,re-use, recycle.






  • chrisbethany
    chrisbethany Posts: 105 Forumite
    Sorry - I'm a bit thick. I intend to use freecycle a lot more next year, but does this club include making cheap/free gifts? Both my daughters have birthdays in January and I will be making a work basket each (mostly from stuff I already have) and fabric shopping bags (also fabric in the loft).

    Chris
  • phunkles
    phunkles Posts: 1,711 Forumite
    Count me in! Well and truely :)
    Have just found a note book I forgot I bought with kermit the frog on
    So am now going through my Calander doing a page on each month in the book for birthdays and anniversarys and any other gifts I have to buy as well as cards (And Easter Eggs!!!)
    So hopefully I wont be a last minute betty nipping into Asda on the way to someones birthday party again :D
    Might even colour code it
    ooo I can dig out my lovely highlighter pens that I bought at the start of uni and never used.
    Thinking of signing up for Quidco as well I think - if someone refers me do they get money? - if so feel free to send me a link or whatever and Ill sign up using that and earn you some money.

    Never year is going to be a tight one I know that already so every little helps!
    Thanks Jam and PLM :)
    Love is the answer. At least for most of the questions in my heart,
    Like why are we here? And where do we go?And how come it's so hard?
    It's not always easy,And sometimes life can be deceiving,
    I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together
  • Inkedkitten
    Inkedkitten Posts: 181 Forumite
    Oooo a new thread! Count me in too! Getting there with 2008....but will be good to start preparing in 2009 :D
    :xmastree:Christmasaholic and proud! :xmassmile
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