The Thrifty Gifty Girls 2009 (Organised & Money Neutral for All Occasions) #3

sylphraven

Wow, that was long!!! both to work out & post.

The weather keeps changing here from sunny to rainy, which is a pain as I'm a fair weather gardener & want to plant my grapevine.

Rusty - shame about the beach, ignore the moody so & so & enjoy the garden or something with the kids, turn it into a positive day.

Looking good Rufus! Well done on your bingoport wins this morning, I went to do a job leaving it on auto, came back and found I'd won on 2 lines & Rufus had just won not only on 1 line but also shared a full house on the same game!!! Hope you get a rest when you come back from town.

Ironing, whats that? I'm with you guys & hate it! I always try to dry my clothes & hang them up so they wont need ironing.

Hayley, your digi scrap pages are fab!! you do look ready to try it on paper.

Can I be a Gooseberry Manson? wouldnt mind a few metal concerts myself, lol

Hi Jasper, welcome to the thread, please dont just follow us, jump in & join in We all think a lot of Jammy as well, she's a fab gal who keeps us going.

Cant wait for the next challenges & am going to try & make May my month of ebay, or at least to start ebaying.

Hope everyone has a fabby, christmassy, rudolphy fun day, lol

furrypig

mel's rudolph challenge for march
Hi all
after a reminder from the lovely Sylphraven here is how I did!

1. I have loads of Christmas cards all bought over a year ago in sales and i will make a few for special people (ie my parents etc!)

2. I have a sealed jar though not so much money ahs gone into it recently!

3. Been doing well with the pressies and trying not to overstock the present cupboard as that has been a problem in the past!

4. I normally do meal plans anyway as this helps me keep organised but hubby is in charge at the moment as he has more time on his hands not sure if he will be as cheap a shopper as me!

5. I have done no decluttering of a room though have sorted through my craft stuff and decluttered and reorganised that!

Will try and work out the pitiful amount of money nI have for Jammy's challenge but I haven't really tried!

I will also look at my pressie list and tell you how it's going!!

pinkladymel

The kids are in bed, the sleighbells are ringing in my head.. This must mean one thing..

OH MY GOODNESS it is RUDOLPH DAY! And a very special one to celebrate too.. today is our third of the way toward Christmas :eek: One more of those and we will be ready to start a countdown to Christmas!

BRING IT ON!

Last month I set various challenges and I think with the reminder of how close the countdown is getting, we should try harder towards them this month:

1)Make your own cards or organise store bought
2)Get your Christmas savings tin going and complete Jammys challenges to fill it up.. No peeking!
3)Stock up on last minute Ebay bargains and prepare for the sales (They begin again in June)
4) Use meal plans and stick to them, cutting out wasted food and money spent on supermarket deals set to lure you in. Saved money = more money for the Christmas tin :T
5)Choose a room of your house and focus on decluttering. Just 5 minutes every day, one little space.. will make such a big difference. Be ruthless and sell things, bin things, give stuff to charity. Clutter makes people unhappy and you want to feel as free as possible this christmas x:xmastree:

In a big effort to gear myself towards Christmas I have been looking through some exciting threads this month.

The first is the finished hamper thread which contains so many amazing ideas that allow you to give really special gifts for amazingly low prices. Trawling through this thread has given me lots of ideas for the advent swap.

I would like to highlight the following hampers that I thought were fantastic ideas:

Our very own Rusty Flange:

With supermarket deals and cleverly wrapped boxes you can make a very cheap gift perfect for difficult males to buy for, how fantastic and exciting do these boxes look!!

Rusty also created this gorgeous hamper perfect for your mother or any other special female and it would give them a much appreciated treat:

Who doesn't want their own cute teapot? :T

Speaking of difficult men, check out this hamper by CT19720:

You could make this very personalised but also.. very cheap :snow_grin:xmassign:

What makes a perfect looking hamper? Well, I paticularly love the way Popkins has completely co-ordinated the items in this next picture:

That looks really classy and I am sure a friend or sister would be over the moon! :xmastree::xmassmile

There are so many more ideas on the hamper thread and I haven't had time to trawl them all yet but I can't wait to begin collecting all the cheap items in the shops to stash away. I made my first hampers in 2007 when I discovered them here and went totally OTT hamper crazy so last year I was sick of them and steered clear. This year I am all fired up again!! Prepare yourself :santa2:
This months challenge: Whilst shopping, train yourself to find bargains. What they want us to buy is on eye level.. can you find the time to look below and scope out some brilliant finds? Let us know.

If you have previously made hampers, please share the ideas with us here as I would love to see the creations of my friends

OK, the second amazing thread I have been to this month is in regards to a cleaner, happier house:
OS OBVIOUS tips to make your life easier

This thread is absolutely full of ideas that will help and inspire you to create a more organised and uncluttered home.

My favourite idea was to store your fresh linen in the pillowcase they co-ordinate with so that when you come to change the bed, Everything is clean, ready and very neatly stored inside a pillow case. Brilliant.

What tips can you find and do you have any to share?

The holidays can't come fast enough for me this year.. and I already find myself singing christmas songs and then practising some self restraint as I promptly scorn my silly forgetfulness

:rudolf::xmassmileHappy Rudolph day everyone!!:xmassmile:rudolf:

brownjasperdog

WOW! Thank you all so much for the fabulous welcome!:beer:

As for the ironing - I think I was typing it into the search box hoping it would do itself! I didn't actually get as far as doing any. Will I do some tonight? Maybe...

I had a quick trawl of the charity shops today as I managed to escape from the kids for an hour and came back with some nice little bits and bobs. Also I am going to make a mini flannel wedding cake for my hairdresser who is getting married next week. I got 5 white flannels from Wilkos for £1 (only need one or two), a half price mini Dove set (£2.49) to wrap inside and a spray of flowers for £1 that I will cut up to make a cake topper out of! I just need to offset the cash costs with a bit of Ebaying now!

I am so back into being a thrifty gifty girl already!:rotfl:

pinkladymel

BrownJasperDog, A HUGE welcome to you and I hope my monsterous Rudolph post did not put you off I am loving your present idea and think you definitely need to post a pic here when it is finished!!

I am excited for Christmas in July on QVC every year because it allows me to hear that music and see those lights.. It just makes me feel all gooey inside.. But I have just found out that QVC has an Earlybird Christmas Crafting event on 25th May (2-5pm). YAY!!!!!

rainmac

Happy Rudolph Day everyone!!!

:rudolf:I haven't participated in Rudolph Day before but would like to so...

1. I have bought nearly all the cards we send and have most materials to make the rest (decided last year to only spend my time making them for people who appreciate them, everyone else will get a cheapie sale card ).

2. We have a sealed jar and do continue to add money to it (not much mind ).

3. I bought a few Xmas presents in the January sales and have added a few bits to my Xmas pressie box since but plan to buy most with what I make during the year (actually hope to make most of what we as a family give if that's possible).

4. I always used to meal plan but then got sidetracked when DS2 came along but am trying hard to get back into it as I am sure it saves us money. I do take advantage of online grocery vouchers and shop online but doing this less as there are less vouchers around and I think popping into the supermarket a couple of times a week to buy what I need rather than buying what I think we need once a week is another way to cut wastage and save money.

5. I have done some decluttering of the boys rooms this month and my wardrobe. Got rid of 4 sackfuls of clothes/bric a brac for charity.

Jammy's £75 Challenge...
Quidco - £79.16
ebay - £47.13
Pinecone - £3
Valued Opinions - £10 voucher claimed this month and £9.50 unclaimed
House Insurance cashback - £30
Mystery shopping - £23
Mobile phone recycling - £77 (also got one more phone to do for £39)
TOTAL TO DATE £278.79 :snow_laug

Ongoing...
Tesco Clubcard balance - £64.19 (will turn this into days out vouchers so will be £256.76 to spend on taking the boys out and about).
Quidco - £99.48 (£79.16 of this is part of Jammy's challenge as made the money this month ).
Boots points - £10.97 (have spent another £5 of points this month on a very cute baby boy romper suit for melissa75) :santa2:

This has surprised me, I am more organised than I thought I need to start writing in my notebook to get me focused on who we buy for and ideas of what we can buy/make :xmassmile

Big thanks to Mel and Jammy for helping me get sorted, god I am soooo looking forward to Xmas :snow_grin

:xmastree::xmassign::xmastree:

manson666

Happy Rudolf Day everyone :xmassmile

Rufusdog, your post is an inspiration - I am going to spend some time tomorrow working how my lists and going through my stash to allocate things I have already bought.

Sylphraven, come along, the more the merrier. The first festival is Download at Donington Park in June, the two 'extras' that we are hoping to do are in August. We treat festivals as our holiday. Five days camping with lots of like minded people and good music - the atmosphere is fantastic.

Congratulations to everybody with Jammy's challenge - you all have done brilliantly.

:hello: to everyone

mum2one

Still playing catch up with posts........

Not a good day today,

Started off very weird, took some flowers up to the crematorium, (my sisters 40th anniversary end of March, and would of been nans bday on 23rd April, St Georges day), but dd was being slow with breakfast so dad and me went, so weird, as though someone was watching over us. We went into the chapel and the book of rememberance was open, and it was the page of my sister on it. Its the 1st time I have ever seen the entry, it was lovely.

Got home, and dad was going to take mum, unfortunately........ mum was took ill, she went dizzy, and started to fall, she was at the top of the stairs, so I grabbed her down to sitting, then, I realised she was haveing symptons like the stroke advert on tv, she was in a right state, she wanted to walk down stairs, I honestly expected someone to pop round with a cheque saying hers £500 - from U've been framed, I had to sit behind mum with my legs round her to support her, dad was at her foot end, trying to keep her feet on one stair at a time, got her downstairs, and into a chair, rang an ambulance, expecting them to say ur making a fuss, but they confirmed what I thought she had a mini stroke. We got to her in time, she was admitted to hospital as apparently the 1st 24hrs are crucial, if she has no mini stokes or major stroke in that time she should be ok, but will need tests.
I just feel so damm useless, and guilty, but on the other hand had it not of been for the TV advert things could of been worse.
Got to ring hospital 2mor and c where we go from there. xx

RustyFlange

Mum2one hope you mum is better soon, please don't feel guilty, if anything you are a star for being there and actually recognising the symptons. xxx

Just a quick one from me tonight. I have had a fabulous day, went to a lake with OH and the kids ... we played footy, frisbee, had a picnic, walked part way round the lake found an ice cream man (well it would be rude not to have an ice cream ) walked further round the lake and played with DS's remote control boat in the lake, then the rest of the way round the lake, both kids were knackered tonight and went to sleep nicely for daddy after waving me off to work. I have however had a horrible night at work, I was working with BIL again and I could have honestly punched him tonight! I nearly walked out, luckily MIL was there having a few drinks and she sorted it out and sent him out from behind the bar! horrible man he is!!!

I promise to update my rudolph post properly tomorrow but a quick run down of my £75 challenge

Ebay - £357.61
Nappy cakes - £97.00
Amazon vouchers (surveys) - £20
Surveys (One poll) - £2.20

Total £554.31 (and still going strong not sure I will reach next target but promise to try in this last week! )

Hope everyone has a lovely day tomorrow, good night xx

Marg

Mum2one - Sorry to hear about your Mum, strokes can be alarming, so lucky that you were there & acted quickly, my Dad had a bad one in the 1980's and I'll always regret we didn't insist on him going to the hospital rather than get the GP in. I hope your Mum makes a good recovery.