New Thrifty Gifty - Organised for Christmas and all ocassions 2010- Santas Challenges

rufusdog52

sangus217 wrote: »

Had two very productive days. I went to a retail park yesterday and went to the "nice" home bargains. I got the start of a few hampers and some small pressies in yesterday and some 3 for £10 items from morrisons today. For my nan i got a tea for 1 set for £3.50 which kinda wrecked my budget of £5 for that hamper, but it looks nice.


I ordered some cellophane from ebay for £4.50 too so that should cover my hampers and pog. I got most of the items in need for my pog. I bought some cadburys gold tree ornaments for just over £2 in morrisons and went into b&m after and saw them for £1.50 grr. I did get my ferrero's. They were a 69p for a pk of 4, bargain. They did have a box of 30 for £5 but i would have scofffed them so i stuck with the smaller pks. All i need are the containers and a few nicer sweets to put in.

I bought 3 sml wicker baskets from pound stretcher last month for my hampers and i tried them out with the things i bought yesterday and they are too small to fit anything in, grr. Hopefully i can find my receipt so i can take them bk otherwise i'm stuck with them. I feel like i've spent a lot of money on these hampers buying things to fill them and i'm still not finished, more than my budget of around £5 each.

You all make me so jealous with your trips to Home Bargains and B&M lol. Hope you find some bigger baskets. If you want a cheaper option, one year I went round the supermarket and got a load of empty boxes off the shelves that things had been stacked in and then took them home and covered them in Xmas paper. That way I could get ones the right size for what I needed. If they were a bit big I filled them out with some tissue paper or you could use straw. They looked lovely once they had the items in and the cello and ribbon over the top. Rufus xx

sangus217

rufusd!!!2 wrote: »

You all make me so jealous with your trips to Home Bargains and B&M lol. Hope you find some bigger baskets. If you want a cheaper option, one year I went round the supermarket and got a load of empty boxes off the shelves that things had been stacked in and then took them home and covered them in Xmas paper. That way I could get ones the right size for what I needed. If they were a bit big I filled them out with some tissue paper or you could use straw. They looked lovely once they had the items in and the cello and ribbon over the top. Rufus xx

not to make you too jealous but i have 3 b&m's in my city but the best one i've been to is in south sheilds, much nicer than our grotty ones.

SugarSpun

I just took my Christmas cake out of the oven

I used Nigella's recipe with some creative substituting - ground walnuts instead of almonds, cranberries instead of glace cherries, added candied peel, loads of mixed spice, and it smells gorgeous. Luckily we are a houseful of impatient and greedy monsters and so I made a tiny cake as well as the big one for almost-immediate testing.

Legendmum

Happy Birthday for tomorrow Abdonz! I feel your pain with your tooth! My antibiotics end tongiht and there is still slight pain so I will be back to dentist to get some more asap!
Never been to a B&M either Rufus but I do HAVE to visit Home Bargains when I go to the next town over which is roughly once a month! It would be lethal to have these in my local town! I would be forever skint!
Well done on the cake Sugarspun! Although I am not a fan of it myself I do love the smell of one cooking!

fedupandskint

Afternoon everyone!

All going well on here and Christmas preps going well so far - well done!

I collected a few more chocolates for the pots of gold - a pack of 4 elizabeth shaw mints for £1, 3 lindt bells for £1.20 and a couple of cadburys bits too.

Thats all I need for now and will look out for a gold decoration to go into it over the next few weeks.

Not much else christmassy apart from finding some toffee bon bons then some jars for them to go into for pots of snow - will keep an eye out for some.

Just reminded me I need some more jars for granola and winter fruit compote of 500ml at least or 1L and then some more to make the seville marmalade from the tin of oranges I bought from Lakeland

Better get back on there and have a look to see what they have!

elysia2003

Hi everyone - sorry I've been absent for a few days. Had a deliver a big Avon order and pack for this break away.

I'm only this little wireless dongle thingy on my laptop (technical term that. LOL) Not sure how much credit I've got left. Anyway I waved to everyone in S.Wales as I went up the M4 like I promised. Cold here and so, so windy. Mary, I hope your weekend went well., and that the weather was kind to you.

Anyway, best be off now. Will pop in again later in the week and will catch up properly when I get home.

Take care everyone. xxx

susan42

long thread alert, hope i dont miss anyone out ...

princess85 - i`ve pm`ed you

fedupandskint - wow you been busy, chutney sounds ace:j

cookiedough - i bet your DDs will be thrilled with kitchen, mine had one and played forever with it:T

mum2one - tips please on making vodka....beg beg:o

juliejim - dont know anything about candles but read somewhere they used a marker permanent for the numbers and attached imbellishments around the bottom

rufusdog - your bracelets are beautiful, any photos of the place mats?

mrsow i couldnt put my tree up now, i hate cleaning around it and would have to dismantle it to clean

cdsmiler - earrings and icing fab :T

findingmyfeet - i bought a cake last year and its still in the packaging, OH said its not the same

cookiecrumbs - i would love the recipe for lemoncurd if you`ve the time please;)

abdonz - happy birthday for tomorrow, and not sure if links will get deleted, but if you go on www hot uk deals , teles on there

sangus - wd on your buys :T

Elysia - i feel for you down there because its so open and cold, i`m off to Whitby and they forecast snow:eek: and it is called a dongle so your specking like a geek :rotfl::rotfl: so cut it out

I`m off shopping tomorrow, taking the disabled peeps so I`ll wangle a trip to hobbycraft in somehow. And DS wants new shoes so have to get some of those

mum2one

fedupandskint wrote: »

*WOW* at those pots of gold RTF - well done!

Makes a note of whats in them to *borrow* the idea and pass it off as mine!

Ditto on both counts from me xx

Ps - got me thanks button fixed xx

mum2one

cdsmiler wrote: »

Bit annoyed - wrote a big reply last night but forum had a funny turn. Couldn't post a thing! Hopefully everything is back to normal today....
It must off been a glitch on the thread, wasn't accepting my thanks.
RTF - Love the sock monkey!
ditto
Well annoyed for you mum2one - if no apology letter appears, take it further! Glad they've already phoned
Def think they've met their match, waiting to c what arrives in the post!

Rufus - would love to see your bracelets!!

juliejim - the only candle related thing I ever made was a candle centre piece YEARS ago ina church youth club - we used that oasis stuff in an upturned coffee jar lid (the deep ones), put the candle in the centre and used a mixture of christmassy greenary and tinsel,bows, etc all stuck in the bottom. Not what you're asking for necessarily but might give some ideas....

Everyone's doing so so well. I'm still behind with pressies....however, what with my dad telling me what he wanted last week, hubby is sorting Christmas shopping this week!! It's rubbing off!
your doing brilliantly with the presents
The Sweet Onion Chutney I made last weekend is a bit odd - took AGES to reduce, so we'll see what it's like after settling a bit in the jars.

Anyone got any suggestions for my blog questions: "Ok ladies (and gent?), IF (big if!) I was to set up a blog for cake making/decorating and jewellery bits, firstly 1) Which blog site would you recommend, and 2) what name could I have that incorporates both?! Currently thinking something like "Earrings & Icings"...or something... lol!

Clare x

def love the sound of earrings and icings, leads to both ideas in the title, go for it xx

pinkflop

Hi Everyone!

Have been busy all weekend and not had a chance to catch up on here. On a good note though, I have finished the dreaded PTA accounts, handed them over and resigned!!! Woop!!! I shall now have more time to dedicate to my NVQ for work, and most importantly, the hundreds of sock monkey orders I have!

And of course, to Christmas!!

I have not done much the last few days. I have picked up some posh chocolate bars for my aunt and uncles food hamper (orange and spice chocolate - sounds v. christmassy!!) and butterscotch chocolate. Yum! I also got my DS a lindt reindeer from poundland, so his stocking is finally done.

I did get in the christmas mood and made some Nigella Christmas morning muffins on saturday! I was baking at 6.30am! House smelled of satsuma, cinnamon and nutmeg - how yummy!

Mum2one - sorry to hear about how horrid they were in tesco - I keep hearing about how awful the staff can be (esp on the 1p thread!). I am pleased they rung and acknowledged that and hope you get an apology in the post (and some vouchers to say sorry would be nice!!! )

Off to the Isle of Wight on friday for half term... have a sore throat, earache and a headache! Hope I' not coming down with anything hideous for my holiday!