Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

natnat13

Hi all
Had a good few days, went to carols at our local pub last night, it was lovely and christmassy and they gave out free mulled wine and mince pies, yum!
Been to see my friends new house today and had lunch with her and another friend. I made a quiche to take. It was lovely to catch up.
Also made mince pies, jam tarts and cakes yesterday while the oven was on.
I am spending this week making sure I'm organised for christmas, tidying and planning for 2012!
Going out on new years eve, just to our local but we all have to dress up as super heros! I have just bought a wonder woman costume of ebay for £6 and have red tights and going to make a cape with some red material I have, am a bit scared it's going to be a bit tight, I have a size 12/14 with wibbly bits!!! But thought that worst case I'll bung it straight back on ebay!!!

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j
Welcome to all new joiners:j
All's well here at GBT except spent £52:eek: on the weekly shop- I had one of those if you spend £50 we'll give you 200 points vouchers and normally I don't anywhere near qualify:D Lots of items though bought for the stockpile and a few extra bits for Christmas. Ah well should be grateful found a penny on the way out:rotfl::rotfl:

A frugalish alternative festive pud:
Black Forest Trifle
1 choc swiss roll sliced [or leftover Yule log]- lay slices in bottom of dish, scatter berries over [I use the frozen Sainsbugs basics mixed fruit but could be frozen blackberries, tinned cherries etc], make up a blackcurrant jelly [for my veggie friend I substituted a berry based juice or could use a berry squash I guess to soak the cake], leave to set. Once firm make up custard in the normal way and add grated dark choc to it [in my case it was the basics choc] and stir to mix. Pour choc custard over the trifle base and top with whipped cream and more grated choc. Chill.

Only other frugal tip to add is that whilst dismantling a jiffy bag that had been reused beyond original purpose with the intention of recycling the paper I realised that actually once split each side could be used again for cushioning delicate items with in another parcel.

Arilx

Cherryjack

Ive made soup.. i never make soup!! very pleased with myself bag of reduced carrots 25p and chillis 10p
First i put some oil in the pot, put some garlic and onion in to fry and the chopped chillies..
Cut up the peeled carrots and put them in to fry.. added seasoning i had in the cuboard..
left to fry and infuse and made up veggie stock.. and added... its all simmering away now and smells lovely. Will give the carrots a little blend later on once its cooled.

Blairweech

:santa2: Hello everyone

Watched the superscrimpers programme and got some good ideas - didn't think the recipes used for the turkey were much cop though! We are having a 3 bird roast this year. Bought one from Aldi a couple of years ago and it was _pale_ so this year Mum is making one from a turkey crown, chicken and duck breasts. Hope its nom

Just got a couple more presents to buy now, mostly for people I wasn't going to buy for but they have bought me something so now I feel obliged to 'return the favour'. HATE that :mad:. Will have to do some serious frugalling next year though, have spent a fair amount of money this weekend.

From my vouchers, I have now got a free stir fry shot, free philadelphia and free orange juice. Not had any problems so far so I could become a voucher regular :T

Welcome to all newcomers, looking forward to sharing the 2012 frugalities with you!

purpleorchid

morning all

thought a song may cheer us all up n get us in the xmas spirit :rotfl:

frugal bells frugal bells frugal all the way
oh what fun it is to spend no money in a day, hey

frugal bells frugal bells frugal all the way
oh what fun it is to spend no money in a day.

dashing through tescos with a trolley not a sleigh
walking round the aisles, checking all the way
coupons in my hand, are ready to be used
i hope the trout on checkout 2 will allow these to go through,hey

frugal bells frugal bells frugal all the way
oh what fun it is to spend no money in a day

merry xmas
luv P
x:p

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I am REALLY pleased with myself as i HAVENT given in to the kids pressurising me into buying more stuff for the..:beer:

problem is our boys are 17 and nearly 16, they had hteir main christmas presents about 2 months ago, so i have just bought them stocking fillers ( even they have worked out exepnsive..lol..) anyway the youngest have asked for more things ...a new 4 x 12 cab ( he plays guitar) a recording 'thingy' and other things, normally in the past i have told them they are not having much, and then caved in last minute and have delved into my savings and bought loads..

This year IS going to be different.. i AM going to stick by my word.

Flip this is hard......lol....

rubytuesday

:rotfl: Great song PurpleOrchid.

Well done Cooltrikerchic!

I'm off to the Doctors later and then must get to grips with sorting out the mess!:eek:

Time is running out!

I wrapped a few presents so at least they're done.

mooomin

Yesterday I was very organised and went to B&Q to take advantage of their 75% off Christmas sale. We now have a tree for next year (this years one is sitting as a jaunty angle as my cats keep climbing it - they're about 6kg each too, so not wee kittens!!) at the bargain price of £15 for a 6ft prelit tree. I also bought enough wrapping paper for next year, Christmas and birthdays at 37p per roll.

I bought my Christmas dinner yesterday using a gift voucher, so that's free :money:

I then went to Sainsbury's and found some lovely Christmas mugs and biscuit barrels. I bought two of each for less than £2 per pop and will fill them for friends with sweets/small gifts next year. They're really festive and look a lot more expensive than they were.

seriouslyfrugal

Hope everyone is ok

http://www.lidl-pageflip.com/uk.html?kid=OyCwVb

above is the latest li** offers leaflet popped in there today thier veg seamed good value ie 1kg carrotts 39p


just about there for xmas :j:j:j well apart from the veg, salad and fruit needed but thats good

slowlyfading

:hello: afternoon everyone!

We're nearly there with Christmas presents too now, I just need to start the wrapping process! I don't mind wrapping, I'm just not very good at it, so put it off til the last minute

I've been out for lunch today with my dad and he paid, so that was lovely I got a greek salad which was very yummy, and snaffled 3 spoonfuls of the apple crumble and custard dad got for pud I'm now sat in front of a warm fire, watching another episode of 24 and supping tea. Life is not too bad, I'm just not thinking about work until after Christmas now.

Cherryjack - hope the soup was good!
Blairwech - how did you get the vouchers? I'd be intersted to hear about that
FF - sounds good! We're using some wrapping paper up that's from last year, but still had to buy another roll for this year's presents. Might pop there after Christmas and get some more for next year!
seriouslyfrugal - thanks for the link