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

Real_Toothfairy

Thanks for the advice Elysia ......My nephew is taking me and DH said he might come along!!! lol I have sorted out quite a bit of stuff and kind of know what I want for it. I am not going to price things up as I like the bartering at boot sales (when I go to them as a buyer).
Re- The tests!!! I have to have regular colonoscopies as my DM died from bowel cancer......I had one 2 months ago but they couldnt complete it as it was too painful....they seem to think that my c-section (20 years ago!) scarring has stuck to my bowel and thats what causes the pain sooooo they have to do the procedure under GA!! The wimp that I am lol But to be honest it felt like I was having a baby....thats how painful it was!!!!
I am sure that I am falling apart......what with my dodgy knees.....sore pelvis.......Vitamin D & Iron deficiency........allergies.....Oh I could go on!!!!! At least I can make fun of the situation!!! lol

findingmyfeet

evening everyone,

sorry not posted much for the last week or so but iam desparately trying to catch up on the jobs on the santa list!!!
This week so far i have cleaned 3/4 of my kitchen cupboards and sorted the tins etc , so one more evening and they will be spick and span. Then hoping to clean the freezer and oven before the weekend.phewwwwwwwwwwww

Also managed to soak the first of my 2 christmas cakes last night so thats now cooking as i speak........smells gorgeous so hope it works well then i will soak the fruit for the second one tonight to bake tomorrow. Bought a bag of lemons needing 2 for the cakes so iam hoping to turn the others in to 2 jars of lemon curd and bake my lemon tarts and stick them in the freezer.

Managed to buy another 2 gifts in my lunch hour in town too and have booked next Thursday off work to go shopping with my friend and finish off the rest of the gift buying on my list (hoping hubby will be generous as im almost up to my budget for this month and he said he would contribute too).

so theres my compact list of the stuff i have been up to this week,

hugs and best wishes to all with illness's etc hope you are all well again shortly.
off for a bath before the cake comes out and then hopefully catch up on the last few pages too.:T

findingmyfeet

forgot to ASK -DOES ANYONE KNOW IF CO*TA c*FFEE DO GIFT CARDS/VOUCHERS ?
My dd and her boyfriend go in when they can afford it so thought i could do a christmas eve hamper for them with bits for them to share for the day and thought a card would please them as they never have much money. Might do ds and his girlfriend something similar but with a cinema gift card in. What do you think ? I have also got them pjs , slippers and a family dvd too ready for santas visit later (even though they are 17 and 20!!)

junior_j

findingmyfeet wrote: »

forgot to ASK -DOES ANYONE KNOW IF CO*TA c*FFEE DO GIFT CARDS/VOUCHERS ?
My dd and her boyfriend go in when they can afford it so thought i could do a christmas eve hamper for them with bits for them to share for the day and thought a card would please them as they never have much money. Might do ds and his girlfriend something similar but with a cinema gift card in. What do you think ? I have also got them pjs , slippers and a family dvd too ready for santas visit later (even though they are 17 and 20!!)

Hiya! I am not sure on vouchers but they do sell little samples of own stuff how about a nice little hamper of it? Or a little jokey note with a fiver/tenner attached saying go and have a costa coffee on me or some thing..??

I brought my friends little boy a shirt from primark reduced from £6.00 to just £2.00 going to buy him some jeans then a small toy/book (he has server autism doesn't speak and has minimal concentration/patience.)

I had to pay a unexpected bill today so my money for next tues is very limited.. x

junior_j

Just thought id add..

I have no friends on Doo yoo despite being on there for 11 months.. so if anyone wants to be in my circle of friends my name is junior_j xx

La-Cara

La-Cara wrote: »

got the last of my family Christmas cards today, managed to get most of them from Card Factory so they weren't too dear. Waiting on my order from direct cosmetics to turn up later this week since it's got a load of birthday presents as well as ones from Christmas. Managed to get a few bits and pieces the last few days, some cute snowman mugs for snowman soup on 2 for £1 in B&M; dora the explorer colouring book £2 (ryman) and colour your own soft toy dog thingy £1.50 (home bargains) for my friends daughter, and cosy PJs for my mum for £4.80 from Peacocks, they were only £6 to begin with but got 20% student discount! Still need to put in some orders online for DVDs etc and get a hot water bottle to go with the cover I got off halfcost, hot chocolate sachets for snowman soup (think they're on offer in Tesco though) and some gold sweets for pots of gold. Oh and I still need to finish off my flannel reindeer as they're currently faceless and anterless!

today I got:

• hot choc sachets, 7 for £1.50 in morrisons
• chocolate coins for Pots of Gold and chocolate snowmen for Snowman Soup, both 69p in Aldi
• horoscope book for 99p in the Works
• direct cosmetics order arrived so have managed to put some people's presents in individual bags ready to be wrapped
• got new shiny wheel trims for £8 in Aldi, mine were a bit bashed to say the least that's what happens when you drive on Land Rover tracks in a Micra!

esmer

findingmyfeet wrote: »

forgot to ASK -DOES ANYONE KNOW IF CO*TA c*FFEE DO GIFT CARDS/VOUCHERS ?
My dd and her boyfriend go in when they can afford it so thought i could do a christmas eve hamper for them with bits for them to share for the day and thought a card would please them as they never have much money. Might do ds and his girlfriend something similar but with a cinema gift card in. What do you think ? I have also got them pjs , slippers and a family dvd too ready for santas visit later (even though they are 17 and 20!!)

Costa used to do a prepaid card but stopped it and replaced with a points card. I'm sure Starbucks still do their prepaid card.

Hth

mum2one

jamtart6 wrote: »

"ello ello ello whats going on ere then"

oh how I've missed you. I've never been so disorganised as this year......I bought my first present today. Eek!! This is what marriage has done to me!

Hope all the old faithfuls are doing well, I dont get chance to come on MSE as much any more and miss it a lot!

hope ur ok, we miss you to, hows married life!! xx

mum2one

elysia2003 wrote: »

Good luck from me too, for the pre-op stuff TOOTHFAIRY. I hope you'll be ok for the tests and your car boot.

Ditto from me to, crutches do come on useful at xmas... supoermarkets they usually open more tills and you get taken across, then of course the sale racks after xmas, I can't help it if someone accidently walks into the crutches!!
Re the carboot - take someone with you so you can go off for a mooch or the toilet. I did one once on my own. I expected all the stuff to be gone when I got back, it was OK but I was hanging on until I was absolutley desperate. It's a wonder I made it in time.
Def back up everything Elysia said - its like vulchers sometimes - I even told a bloke once that if he was that desperate for a look in the boxes, did he want to come and unload the car me!!
Toilet and tea visits!! - quick tip - of your sharing with a friend, instead of parking the car traditionally - ie boot up, park it sideways - you can then get away with 2 tables - still inline with the car.

Take plenty of change too, and don't lower your prices too much.
Def agree with that one, I usually take £10 as £2 x £5 and then do £10 float of change, 5 x £1 then a mix of 50ps down to 10ps,I always try to label the prices, if I wanted £1,50, I'll put a £2 price tag, there barter, and then I'll say on go then £1,50 they think they've got a bargain.
People will even barter for 10p items.....
I always take some carrier bags - bigger item and u can offer a bag they might buy more.
Sometimes things are charged at 50p and that's still a bargain and
you'll get someone saying can you do it for 10p. If your happy with that, fine, but don't lower your prices too much until you have an hour to go, and then just get what you can, it saves taking it the tip or storing it again. I hope you don't mind me saying this, only I've done a few now, and I wish someone would have told me when I started. :A

Sorry had to laugh re the toilet, you just reminded me of an incident when I was expecting Miss Hoodie, gone to Tunisia, only about 16 weeks gone, and I'd been to the local medina with my mate and we were going to get a taxi back to hotel, but we ended going on this noddy train.... it was were going in 5 mins, were going in 5 mins, we were Sat there for 30 mins, thinking he'll go soon... then he does - he goes completelty opposiate way to our hotel, doing a 30 min round trip back to where we started, it was we 're going in 5 minutes, by this time we were dying for the loo, but too stuborn to get off and pay for a taxi (a taxi would of been £2), no typical british, we've paid were having our moneys worth..... then eventually left and we got to the hotel, althogether we'd been on the train thingy for 2 1/2hrs....... got into the hotel flung the shopping to the bloke on reception, who looked at us gobsmacked...... we shot into the ladies - never thought we were going to leave the loo!!
We both have this thing about toilets..... we're both well built, so a hole in the ground loos, would be a nightmare!!

Thats brillaint about the other thread, looking forward to all the challenges, xx

mum2one

Mega Deal
Sainsburys have reduced the price of Nintendo, (not sure when the offer ends) vaild online and instore.

DSi - now £93.74 (think just black and white models online)
DSi XL now £108.74 - available in wine and brown

Wii - Black £119.99

White Wii sold out.......

xx