Mortgage Free ASAP

[Deleted User]

aw pammy they are lush!!
glad I am not the only one starting to think of xmas this early! ....
I had a look through the craft threads too some great ideas..

QB I can understand totally why you need to be careful with your financing and planning, especially if a family is on the cards ... not having a monthly income at all for the last few months I have really noticed how much I took for granted that I could always make it a couple of weeks until next payday- this is something totally different.. thats the thing I like about this board so many people in so many different situations, and different motivations for being MF

and on that note I am off to update my diary I think!

greent

Frugal/ MSE/ MFW habits:

• Using coupons/ vouchers etc whereever possible for shopping (not as good as it used to be )
• Picking up Tesco receipts which haven't used their clubcard and taking them to customer services for the points:p - DH thinks I'm terrible for doing so, but I picked up one for 74 points t'other day - and you wouldn't ignore 74p in coins sat on the floor....
• Using tea bags a second time (I use 2 used ones to make a cuppa, so every 3rd cuppa is a 'freebie')
• Sending off for lots of freebies/ free samples (got 2 free bars of choc the other day - ate one , but the other is going in someone's Xmas parcel)
• Re-gifting
• Making presents- this year is going to include chutney, jam, gold/frankincense/ myrrh soap (with gold leaf on), Baileys fudge and maybe some choc truffles
• Selling stuff that I would previously have given away
• Buying some things at NCT nearly new sales
• Buying some things in charity shops
• Buying a lot less in the sales than I used to - a bargain is only a bargain if you really wanted/ needed it anyway and would have paid full price
• Cooking more from scratch - eg pizzas. Actually voted as yummier than Dominos
• Buying a select few items down-branded. Sains basics much nicer than Tesco value, imo. Tinned pineapple for pizzas, mozzarella for pizzas, tinned peaches for flans...
• Very Rarely throwing food away - leftovers = yummy lunches
• Taking advantage of any free food offered - I've had 2 carriers of plums, 3 of apples, 1 of runner beans, lots of eggs and a tub of blackberries - I would previously have turned down some of this - but take it all nowadays
• quidco/ top cashback
• surveys (although I'm not good at this - I get bored very easily)

LilacPixie

lys fudge is to die for. I do little sweetie hampers for the grown ups. cost wise it works out at under £10 for 5 adult gifts. Bailys fudge, white choc and cranberry fudge, cherry and almond fudge, tablet, choc truffle xmas puds. Snowman soup as well.

Sock monkeys in a mug/beaker with some foam bananas also worth a go. For my sis its usually a cosmetic hamper, I hang about the freebies no spend and low spend board and send away for the freebies or buy the magazine. For example Nails Inc nail polish, usually around £11 a bottle but in the summer you were getting a free full size bottle with 2 x 500ml bottles of diet coke. I got all 4 colour options and some/all will be gifted out this christmas with some toes seperators, emery boards, etc. I also managed to find a site doing samples of cuiticle cream so its manicures for all. I also find department stores are great, walk thru the cosmetic/perfume bit in a smart office type outfit that screams excess cash and like to look after yourself and ask for freebies, I just say I have sensitive skin and before I pay £60+ for a new perfume i like I want to try it for 7-10 days to check for a reaction. You get some very pretty sample bottles, just miniture full size ones. Clinique also do alot of freebies

Grabbit boards, great for kids pressies and glitches, IE rose petal cottage £8.49, its usually £60+ Its in the loft waiting for santa to bring it.

I got my cellophane from the florist, I bought a roll of it, it's clear but with little silver stars. Wicker baskets I pick up when i see them cheap and keep them, pretty glasses and mugs also good. Bizzarly homebase seems to sell of their dining room interior decorations like glasses and plates for mega cheapness several times a year.

Your doing so well QB. Just stay focused and positive.

Queen-Bee_2

Morning all!

Pammy @ the hampers are lovely, all I could think of when I saw all those lovely Nivea products was my, what a treat!

TYO @ thank you. If you're in it yourself, you exactly understand my position. As for the family situation, we have been hoping for a baby for a while, but it is not happening. I love hearing about other people's little ones, but it does makes me feel very wistful.

Greent @ Oh my goodness, be careful about the receipts with unused points on them!! I still do this, but am very discreet about it... Four months ago, I saw one at the end of the till I'd gone through, picked it up and took it to customer services to have the points added to my card. Just as I handed it over, a security guard pounced on me and challenged my action as a form of shoplifting! I was so embarrassed! But afterwards I was furious... I have spent literally thousands of pounds in that shop over the years. If she had had any reservations about what I was doing, a quiet word should have sufficed - not calculated public humiliation. In fact, I was so cross, I even wrote to the manager to complain...:rotfl: needless to say, I didn't hear back. Writing the letter however, was a cathartic experience!
QB

greent

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Greent @ Oh my goodness, be careful about the receipts with unused points on them!! I still do this, but am very discreet about it... Four months ago, I saw one at the end of the till I'd gone through, picked it up and took it to customer services to have the points added to my card. Just as I handed it over, a security guard pounced on me and challenged my action as a form of shoplifting! I was so embarrassed! But afterwards I was furious... I have spent literally thousands of pounds in that shop over the years. If she had had any reservations about what I was doing, a quiet word should have sufficed - not calculated public humiliation. In fact, I was so cross, I even wrote to the manager to complain...:rotfl: needless to say, I didn't hear back. Writing the letter however, was a cathartic experience!
QB

Wow! I've never gone straight to CS with any receipts, so hopefully I'm ok Over zealous sec guard, imo!!

Queen-Bee_2

As I've been writing this, another message from LP...

Morning LP :wave: your fudge recipes sound absolutely delicious - can you share? And your ideas for the manicure sets are inspired. The 'hamper' idea sounds like a great way of bringing lots of little, not-too-expensive treats together to make a really nice gift. Likewise, I should also hang around the grabbit board!

Ditto you, GreenT - the home made chutney and the soaps sound really, really nice . Are your recipes on the Crafty Xmas thread too?

Yes, re the security guard, over-zealous was exactly the term I used to describe her (actually, that was the nicest way it could be described) when I wrote to the manager - it had never occurred to me there was a need for subterfuge!

I think that the cellophane makes a big difference in the quest to make a gift look really special - I'll have to see if I can get hold of some.
QB

LilacPixie

I will type them out a little later today and post them here QB.

I have never thought abut the CC points thing, I am a bit lax with points but I do have over £100 in boots points I am saving them for some me treats although I possibly will end up using them on the 342 christmas toys for the kids.

How long have you been TTC, it took us an age to get DD1, multiple tests with no cause, 1st round of IUI failed but by out follow up appointment the next month I had fallen pergnant naturally so the consultant scanned me instead, He was a very very nice man. Since then we had hit the jackpot with DD2 1st cycle of trying and then we decided our family was complete. Mother nature had other ideas and despite being on 'semi-permenant' birth control I am due in February :eek::eek:

Nature is a funny thing and seems to have its own blueprint for us all. Have you wanted to hit anyone who has said relax and it will happen yet? Believe me its very liberating to do so. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I cannot believe how much you have cleared since the start QB, you have worked your bum off to get this far and you are getting to change career to something you really want Thta is liberating in itself

Queen-Bee_2

Thanks LP - did you mean it was liberating to relax, or to hit the people who keep suggesting it? :rotfl:

I've just 'celebrated' my 43rd birthday and whilst apparently, it's still possible for me to conceive (I'm not going to put too much info on here, to spare any men who read my diary), the chances of me doing so are diminish with every month.

And you comments re liberation certainly struck a chord. Though I think that happened when I left my last employer and it dawned on me that unless I chose to do so, I'd never have to work 24/7 again!!
QB

LilacPixie

Thehitting people that say relax.

Queen-Bee_2

Yes, that'd be very therapeutic :rotfl:

BTW, congratulations on mini-pixie... and two little ones and a bump make you a fortunate woman in my eyes, not a scrounger (I'm not sure what a chav is)...
QB