Thrifty Gifty - Money Making for Christmas & All Ocassions 2009

paddingtondoo

I've done quite well this month - am not sure I'll have time to update my what I have for who list as I've been squrrelling things away without writing them down (bad Padster!).

My big headache is my mum's 80th in September as she never wants anything but have the bits sat here to make her a mini scrapbook which I know she'll love and will only cost 99p for chipboard covers if you take out printer ink and rest of stuff from craft stash

furrypig

wow that sounds like a fantastic idea Padster and she will really love it! (Especially as I now have first hand experience of your beautiful crafting!)
I also am guilty of squirrelling things away but I have my little present book as recommended by Jammy all those months ago and I have managed to keep it up to date (fingers crossed!)

paddingtondoo

I'm all embarrassed now .

I have a new notebook that I bought in Asda reduced on Friday so will update it better in future and leave more space per person . Will need to go see what else I need before the weekend as I'm at my mother's for the weekend so will investigate her shops for bargains and it will get me out the house while DD is bridesmaid at her dad's wedding.

mum2one

I have been very orgainsed today, wrapped up all the birthday presents till end of yr, sorted out all the xmas prezzies, each person now has their own bag, and managed to do a bit of swopping, so have managed to reduce the number of presents we need.

Even managed to wrap mums bday presents up without her knowing what shes got, nearly, she knows shes got some summer tops of me, had to try them on, nice selection of toilettries off dd, and some clothes from dad, thou I had to buy them and tell him he owed me £40....

mum2one

What a farce with the dog rescue centre, we were all on track, got a phonecall tonight was due to go and meet the dog at the weekend, without sounding awful, we'd asked for male 2 - 4yrs, but fell in love with a lady dog aged 5, so said we'd love to meet her, everything was on plan, we found out 2ngt the dog is nearly 7, barks at other dogs when shes still on her lead, has a health prob, which we knew about + were more than happy to take on, we now find this is much worse.

We chatted about it, and said that although we would love to rehome her, the implications are too much, absolutely broke all our hearts, feel so quilty as its not the dogs fault.

Think made worse at it would of been Whiskys 14th bday today.

But on the positive side, we have our name down with a breeder in Wales, thier pups are due July, and we are going to meet some Spaniel pups on Thursday, there not ready to end July, but as we already have hols booked (which Whisky was meant to go on), the new pups wont be old enough to go out, the breeder as said she would look after him for us......

DD has a list of names ready......
Bailey (wasnt sure if it should be Mint Baileys, Caramel Baileys, Coffee Baileys or just Baileys)

Next choice -
Vodka

Strongbow

Gin

We have had a Brandy and Whisky before.....

I'm not tempting faith, were just have to keep fingers crossed.
xx

jamtart6

what?? no posts for a whole day?? this is not up to scratch thrifters!!!

Hope you are all silently preparing for tomorrow. Oh look! I snuck on early

mum2one

1st July totals

me / mum / dad / dd

Home of research - £15.00 / £14.85 / £15.10 / £7.60
Valued Opinions - £6.75 / £7.85 / £1.50 / £7.25
Quidco (cash) - £2.20 / £1.12 / £0.00 / xx
One Poll - £3.10 / £36.00 / £29.45 / £25.65
Mutual Points - 466 / 703 / 2243 / 586 :mad: No points since march for clicks
You Gov - £28.25 / xx / £42.25 / xx
Pigsback - £5.69
Ipoints - 315
Toluna - 40,000

Loyalty Cards
Nectar - 3038
Boots - £34.12
Tesco - £14.12

Vouchers
Boots £40.00
Love2Shop - £12.00
Tesco £81.50
Amazon - £92.77

On Order
Boots £30.00 vouchers
redemed 1100 points - Global Market

Cash
Grand canyon trip £24.00
Ballet £0.00 - prepaid Sept to Dec
Swimming - £5.00

84 1st class stamps
8 x large 1st class stamps

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Birthday
All wrapped
(inc mothers day / fathers day / teachers etc)
Budget - £545
Actual - £257.00
Saved - £288.00
Original cost - £765.50

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Christmas
85 people

budget - £726.00
actual - £364.70
saved - £333.30
Original cost - £1205.00

74 done, 6 half done, 5 not started (food packages + alcohol)

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All xmas cards brought!! crafted about 30
All wrapping paper brought

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Best bargain - friends Ipod worth £40.00 got it free from Qype

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Quick note re halfcost - depending on your spend, I did an order and it automatically put on a 15% discount think it said something like parcel force

tried the FF15 discount - now been reduced to 10% discount, it took off the 15% and kept the 10%, just keep an eye out.

Think thats me totalled out....... have a little rest before I start doing next years lists! xx

jamtart6

Money
Profit from Boots gifts 10.50 Quidco (Dec 08) 87.33 Onepoll 25.45 Cashbackrewards 21.39 Topcashback 17.83 eBay 8.50
TOTAL CASH - £171.00

Vouchers
CD WOW 1.00 pound
Boots points 20.15 pound
Boots Voucher 20.00 pound
Tesco Clubcard 8.00 pound in deals
Nectar 996. Waterstones 0.87 Toluna 38360 Amazon 9.50 Play.com points 30 (0.03p)
Dooyoo - 13500

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Birthday
One birthday still to buy for which is my Mum's and will be about £100

Actual - £226.59
Saved - £271.80
Original cost - £449.79

CASH LEFT TO FIND TO COVER COST: £55.59

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Christmas
10 PEOPLE!

4 people done, 6 people left to go

Need £500
Have: Just the vouchers above oops!

Going to get Wine for 3 of them with Tesco vouchers hopefully.

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All xmas cards to be made after September
All wrapping paper bought

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Best bargain - Ipod from QYPE, sold it for £20 it cost me £0 :T

hayley11

Mine hasn't really changed that much...i've been lazy this month, for a change!

Spent so far = £199.12

Cash Received = £356.81
Ebay = £161.62
Boots = £9.39
Quidco = £72.80
Winnngs = £61 (I won this on the grand national and wanted to put it towards my money neutral)
£2 savings = £12
Boots vouchers = £20
Qype IWOOT = £20 voucher

Cash/Voucher Pending:
Quidco = £17.31
TopCashBack = £2.40
Panelbase = £3.00
Ciao = £0.70
Onepoll = £4.30
Bingoport Amazon Voucher = £5.00

Points Pending:
Lightspeed = 300
Global Test Market = 75
MySurvey = 380
Bingoport = 486 (£5 voucher redeemed)
iPoints = 5512
Dooyoo = 14295

I've got £314 in tesco cc deals but I think we're going to use them to go to Dublin with in August

ETA - I have got some things on ebay but no bidders as yet.

scattymam1

THis is where I'm at:
Toluna 45,4200 points (60,000 = 10pounds)
one poll 35.20 (woohoo nearly there)
Lightspeed (approx 15.00 voucher)
IPSOS 2,020 (approx. 15.00 vouchers, going for twenty pounds)
Valued opinions 4.50 (still)
pigsback 1,290 (Approx 10 pounds too)
coke zone 448 points (going to trade for something I can sell on ebay)
paypal through pinecone research 3.00
Boots 50.04
Tesco approx 15 pounds
Panelbase 9.50 pounds
mysurvey: 210 points
yougov 6.50
Quidco 84p
topcashback 45.65 (awaiting another 43.16 on top of that to track)
SAINSBURY'S VOUCHER 30.00 (for taking out insurance)
Amazon vouchers - 35.00 (for swapping gas and elec as well as saving on monthlly bills)

bingoport - 1402 points!
Have a 20pounds hmv gift card (give to brother for christmas)

For christmas I buy big for me, husband and daughter (and a baby boy in november but that won't be much as baby will only be a month old)
and then I have 23 others to buy for, 8 are done and a few are half done.

Totals for all birthdays and christmas 2009
Spent:£477
Items should have cost:£697 so saved £220
Left to spend approx. £650 (but will reduce this as much as I can)
earnt and used out of money neutral pot =£217 so far
earnings sitting in money neutral pot to use=£338 so far
which totals £555 approx
Just need to find another approx £500ish pounds to cover stuff already got and stuff yet to buy for rest of christmas and birthdays through more surveys and selling on ebay - I can do it but want it done by end of october if possible!!!

Best present bought was the whole box set of james bond dvds normally £150 for £50.00 - keep an eye out on ukhotdeals.co.uk every day for bargains

I have all christmas cards and crackers just need to buy wrapping paper to match ribbon I already got for free and stamps for cards to post.

My aim this month is to ebay like crazy so I can get more presents bought asap so I can be done well before baby arrives in november.

Jammy - best and most worthwile challenge I've ever done...will be doing this for years to come too...thanks xxx:T