New, New Thirfty Gifty for Christmas and All Ocassions 2011..Santas Challenge...

rufusdog52

Evening all

Took my £2 coin stash out with me today as going to a fabric shop. Bought some nice blue checked fleece to make Grandson's hoody out of plus some navy blue lining fabric to line it with. Bought myself some nice brown jersey fabric with a gold metallic pattern printed on it to make a top out of. It all came to just under £18. Wont be able to make a start on any of it until next week as going to Dad's tomorrow to do some decorating for a few days. See you all later in the week, Rufus xx

mum2one

jamtart6 wrote: »

hello strangers, how is it going? i have been a busy bee and done well for this years xmas and birthdays after last year's "year off + poor at christmas"

So now I just need to get busy eBaying to claim some of the pennies back!

hope you are all doing well xxx

Don't you leave it so long between visits, me and Miss Hoodie miss you. xx

stepmum

mum2one wrote: »

EASY
I have done my lists but had forgotten all about Easter!! Added that now but going to talk to my sisters/inlaws about stopping next year as just so many to buy for. 15 children including mine :eek:

Medium
I am lucky on this bit as gutted the childrens room a couple of weeks ago to do the ebay challenge on sis thread so that is done already.
As for time for me I just did a fund raiser and in the auction a lady bid and won a voucher for a masssage for 2 and has given it to myself and another of the organisers so we are going for that next week :j


HARD BIT
Will do the freezer this week although won't have anything odd to make as gutted it just before Christmas to fit it all in then.



FUN
I am going to try knitting. I did try last year and started to make a teddy that went horribly wrong. So although I have done this once I have never finished it so this will be my challenge. To start and finish a knitting project.

Thanks for the challenges, good luck everyone.

Anglea

Hi all :j

I haven't been around since Christmas although I've skimmed through the posts as things still haven't got back to normal and I've still got the decorations to be sorted properly before they go in the loft.

This week I will be giving out ds2's birthday envelopes (as long as I don't mix them up as I did the Chrismas ones LOL) as he'll be home although it was his birthday last week when I went to his 21st party in a pub/nightclub - my goodness the music was loud :mad:

So from Feb onwards I'll need to start on the next batch of envelopes, that will get me back in the organising mood.

I had to go to a funeral last week so it was a last moment scramble for a card, as I didn't have anything suitable even though I thought I had. So I bought a spare just in case.

My upcoming to do list -
1. get/make thank you cards for this week
2. Feb anniversary
3. start making more envelopes
4. March name day
5. make sure I have cards for EVERY occasion for the year

Muffin86

Hi all! I go on honeymoon tommorow so will be quiet for a week but wanted to update the challenge before I go! So...

EASY

As Dec's challenge was on early and involved a start on being organised for this yr, I've just pulled a few pointers incase we have missed any.

Have the lists ready for Birthday, xmas, and other ocassions such as Valentines Day, Mothers Day (2nd April), Fathers Day (usually June time), Easter - we're finishing the christmas sweets and cakes and the supermarkets are selling the eggs already! and have budgets set for them.

Lists Done


Hopefully as well as sale items we have been able to creatively recylce some items!

Find a safe hiding place for any presents brought, and make sure you have a spare list of where everything is, and who's been brought what.

Done


Sales - Most of been and whats left what necessary be the best, but keep an eye out something may jump out, the other reason I mention Sales is Argos have changed the catalogue at the weekend, and this usually means any sale items are reduced further and new items added. (Generally theres an option to check what store you want - clearance section - generally I have found it to be 90% reliable).

VistaPrint - don't forget that Quidco give £2.50 back, if you have freebies or £5 for full price, not sure if its a once a month like topcashback, and like tcb you can have more than one quidco account per household.
(a little tip if you want to order christmas cards throughout the year - at the mo there chargeable, but tonight I went through history, as I wanted same design, put it in basket and it came up as zero!!)

Medium
Not quite the feet up moment, but still trying to be gentle.

Ladies we deserve a treat, we've pulled off Christmas, we've hit the sales, we've been bashed, battered, pushed and shoved...so treat time. Whether thats half an hour in the bath with a book, or take the remote off the kids for the night and you watch what you want on TV. Or even a takeaway.... would say a lovely meal out, but we are mse girls so a takeaway is pushing the boat out.

Going on Honeymoon tommorow so thats my treat :rotfl:

For those with children, we have half term coming up, the perfect opportunity for them to help tidy and gut their rooms. If you have anything summery kept incase it fits, I find Feb time generally good for summer stuff, whether its 99p for a tshirt - but people start planning hols around them so if they can pick up a bargain - win win all the way round

For those without children, time to gut your bedroom or a room of your choice.

Will be starting Baby's Nursery so spare room will be gutted soon!

I'm thinking car boot season will be starting generally from March, so there may be hidden items that you put up for when you need them... (hence when I tidyed the kitchen cupboards, I found 3 fondue sets!!) so if we can get a head start, with items, - one step ahead of the competation.

Younger children, try and have some activities ready whether its a dressing up box, through to a box of crayons and a notepad.

HARD BIT
Those who are luckly enough to have a frost free freezer - you get a break....
We're hitting the kitchen / utility / freezer with a vengance, hopefully theres space from all the extras we used at Christmas, so nows the time to get it cleaned and organised.

The same goes for the fridge, and anywhere food is stored, your not gutting every cupboard, (I'm not that cruel - thou it was on Miss Hoodies list along with freezers, fridge, cupboard, bedrooms, bathroom - you get the picture!!) just concentrating on the food.
For a bit of fun, make this element into a mini challenge, the person who makes the oddest meal out of items in the house, will win a prize, Miss Hoodie will choose the meal...

FUN
Challenge yourself to do something that you may have done before andmaybe never finished, or do something new - my challenge is trying to make a make-up bag, and a beach bag out of an old dress - it's not going to be perfect.... but it be fun... just got to get mum to do the sewing machine...
Again there be a prize from Miss Hoodie for the best.

Think thats everything for me for now hope everyone well xxxx

mary-op

Hello all :j

mum2one - you sound very organised-love what you're doing with the old dress...........waste not want not :T

Angela -good to see you back:T

Muffin - enjoy the honeymoon..........what a treat:T

Well since cleaner came and tidied up comp. room I can;'t find my scrapbook papers that came some weeks back :eek: Not her fault.........I know I put them in one of the comp. desk drawers..........I'm sure of it but are they there ?? No way..............think it might be a case of the more I look the less I see................so, try again tomorrow I think.
All I've done today is make couple of simple cards..........had great plans to do a fabric one for grandson but the lad we look after spend most of the night being sick and it kept us awake so been like a zombie this morning.
Oh I did manage to make a funny little notelet for a friend who's having a bad time at minute...........written to her and its ready to post.
So, not a wasted morning.:)

esmer

Not really for anyone but ME.

I moved my bedroom around today, and fixed one of the drawers. Cleaned all the skirting and the floor. I got paint, really nice plum colour. Cusions, throw, lightshade, and some really nice curtains. All in Plum.............

Im painting one wall the plum, the other three are a nice cotton white, which don't need re-done. Just need to get a nice plum rug for the floor. I cant wait to see it all finished. I took the Tv off the wall, so need to fill in those holes and get a sample pot of paint and touch it up.

Hope you are all well.

NickyBo_2

Muffin - have a lovely honeymoon

I've managed to get a few bargains today. I checked out the last of the BHS online sale as they have a further 20% off. I bought 2 wine gift sets, they have a small bottle of white wine, a wine glass and chocolate in a nice box. Original price was £12 (I wouldn't pay that!) but it was down to £3, then a further 20% off so was only £2.40. I think that's a much better price for it. I'll try to add a picture of it in case anyone's interested:



I also got a big box of Thorntons dessert chocolates for £3.60 reduced from £9. They will be one of Dh's gifts for Valentines as he loves Thorntons.
Postage was £3.95 for orders under £10, or free for over £10. I hadn't quite spent £10 so I treated myself to a gorgeous bra, £4 reduced from £20! I only ever buy cheap underwear so I can't wait to try this .


Then, this afternoon I nipped into Boots to see if there was anythign left in the sale. It was nearly all gone, as I expected, but I did find some magnetic photo frames, the type you can stick to the fridge. They were 63p for a pack of 2, which I thought was great so i bought 4 packs. I'll keep one or two packs for us, then maybe use the others as gifts from DS to grandparents. He could maybe do a drawing to put in them.

I also did another Vista order and got DH a lovely free notebook, a free canvas bag for myself and a free pen. I'm hoping they'll send me another email now with links to more freebies!

mum2one

stepmum wrote: »

Thanks for the challenges, good luck everyone.

Thank you, forgot about adding Easter - thought of Miss Hoodie shes got some Boots toilettries (thank u sale), but still has a couple of eggs.

Got to be cheeky and "borrow the chat off you", the year before last Miss Hoodie ended up with eggs everywhere, so last yr, we brought those that she had missed from b4, and shes gets 2. Not that I want them, but I'd rather people say yes or no were going to do this.

Chopped the xmas list down, so get round to the chat, birthdays aren't to bad!.xx

mum2one

stepmum wrote: »

Thanks for the challenges, good luck everyone.

Def agree with the idea of the chat, were starting with the easter saga... think we ended up buying 15 eggs last yr, just a waste, so this yr, Miss Hoodie, my uncle (he's adopted grandad), he's choc mad, and my best mate, shes classed as Miss Hoodies Aunty, we got some bits from Boots for her.

she's quite plzed as we're at home for Easter, dreading thinking of packing easter eggs xx

Hope u have a good massage xx