Thrify Gifty Santas Challenge 2012

mum2one

A big thank to you everyone for all the hard work we put into making the thread a success.

Heres to friends old and new.

As usual be a new challenge on 24th each month, and if Miss Hoodie has her way your need your rubber gloves!!

heres to money making, thrifty gifty challenges, regifting, and most of all Mary and her gravy tubs. xx

mum2one

Links to Challenges

Dec (re-cap) post 3 page 1
Jan post 191 page 10
feb post 273 page 14
mar post 371 page 19
apr post 484 page 25
may post 602 page 31
June post 690 page 35

mum2one

Just copied across Decembers challenge from the last thread.

List
If you can get a list together for birthdays and Christmas presents, with a budget, (just to give you an idea of what yor going to need, or make money with the help of the sister thread.)

Christmas Day
the list - whos brought what, ready for thank you letters, emails etc, also very useful, if a present is not suitable, and needs recycling your not giving it back to the same person!

Batteries
Hopefully this won't be needed, but have some spare, a general rule of thumb, most cameras AA batteries, MP3 players tripple A batteries, most games C cell batteries.

Rubbish
Obviuosly recyle what we can for ourselves, cards they can be cut for gift tags, or if there a really nice design can be used on blank cards.

Boxes - I know it may sound daft, but if you've had a new TV, XBox360 etc, if you can dispose of it yourself, or fold up small, with stuff on top.

Check your collection dates as Xmas and New Year can affect the collections.

Wrapping paper - can be used for shredding in baskets or lining in hamper.

Father Christmas
Don't forget Father Christmas, with all the houses he has to visit, I'm sure he would like a whisky, and a mince pie...

Make sure Santa doesn't go off with the glass.... as 2 yrs ago Santa mislaid the glass, and when Miss Hoodie saw him, she asked him to make sure he returned the glass that Christmas!!

Sales
Whether its £1 or £100 that your hitting the sales with, have a rough idea of what you need, whether its cards, paper, any presents, or treats for yourself. Lists to the ready.

Childrens emergency pack
Less painful than it sounds!! if your doing the rounds of visiting, get a small colouring book, or a game that the children can play in car.

Also at home - have an emergency box, whether its craft items, or the old faithful colouring book

Cleaning Challenge
In all honesty ladies, with putting xmas prezzies away, sorting the tree, being Nigella in the kitchen, suppernanny to the children! we're usually the ones putting everything away, so we'll class that as the challenge.

One for everyone-
What makes Christmas for you, do you have a familiy tradation, share it with us all.

When Putting Xmas Decs up
Check all that you have got, if theres any that need binning nows the time, store the others safely, you can use egg containers for smaller baubles

List
if your putting anything into the lift, check it works, do you want it next year, and cards etc, list what you have to save panicing and doubling up.

Anglea

Hello again mum2one and everyone.

My Christmas Day seems to have been in a time slip, everything went a lot faster than normal, so I've already cleared up and had a nap. Only blip is DS1 going through a very low period - he disappeared yesterday and I was very worried, today wasn't that much better.

Tips for myself for next year - don't buy the cheap foil - whole roll was ruined luckily I had forgotten I'd bought some ages before so avoided a panic.

This year I kept everything really simple - avoided posh cutlery, china, tableclothes and too much food to be cooked. And first year ever, didn't have decs or a tree. The only person that noticed was mum and that was because the night before at her house, ex and I opened a present from DS2 - home made decorations - and I put them up on mum's tree, she had been wondering why I did that..

Some weeks ago when I write here about Christmas traditions I mentioned we celebrate a Polish Christmas the day before as well as the usual English one today.

I completely forgot about another one. We go to ex's family home and keep up a tradition his dad had when he was still alive, we listen to very old - literally (78's) Christmas records - Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, big band music.

How are you all getting on - no disasters I hope..

mum2one

I just wonder where the time went, we just did Miss hoodies stocking before dinner, we let her have a lie in, then afternoon was present time, Bailey (the dog) he had to be the best, we brought him a doggie soft top, and he wouldn't let it out of his site, he even went walkies twice with it!

The VW camper parcel backfired, once Miss Hoodie opened the 1st things salt _ pepper pots, I don't want any more VW campers, all i wanted was the suitcases from Argos and no-one got them... not knowing we were keeoing them safe to boxing day!!

Seemed so weird bar one thing, I ended up choosing my own xmas prezzies and just billing mum and dad, but there was nothing majorly needed, so had a lot of odds and sods and m soap + glory set.

We pulled a lovely stunt on mum, we agreed we'd all cut back, so my budget for mum and dad was £50 each, (last yr was £100 each), dad had a personal dab radio and trainers, and mum got 3 pairs gold creole earings reduced to £30 in Argos, know there expensive didn't look much, so when was in town got the tackiest bag (reduced to £3 in Claires) and put the earrings inside, her face was a picture, you could see her looking for words!! It was naughty but nice.

Pleased today went well, say 9 1/2 / 10, whereas yesterday was a -10 day, mini - rephase major stress, court end of Jan, the middle jan, got qst appointment with mental health team and school, then solicitors, just hate everything out of my hands.

Did well with presents we only have 4 to "regift" mainly bubble-bath sets, we've got walk in shower, and got a few things left, going to get them alloacted before Fri, off into town, debating whether to goto Boots sale, got £50 vouchers, about £45 on card, - don't know if there going to do 75% off, but there seemed to be less re-fills before xmas, one lady we were talking to in a card shop said theyd sent less in this yr, (xmas bags, + novelties) as they were selling too many at sale prices). Thinking that as all Id spend in Boots free money, shoud get wack of bdays doine.

Going to cut bday + xmas lidt back again, and reduce the amount we buy, its always the token ones that add up. Need it to be money neutral, as Miss Hoodie and I are away in December, she needs to come 1st.

Off to sleep, think too stuffed to sleep xx

rufusdog52

Morning Everyone

Lovely new thread for the coming year. We had a lovely day yesterday, opened a few presents in the morning when we got up then went to see OH's Mum and Dad for a couple of hours and came back and put the dinner on. There wasn't much to do as we had got most of it pre-cooked so only needed to do the roast potatoes and parsnips and then hot everything up.

After dinner we opened a few more presents then in the evening OH gave me another late present, it was a lovely new laptop which I had wanted so much. He then gave YD a present, when she opened it, it was a bag, it looked like it was a school bag kind of thing, but he said to her "Oh looks like I got you a laptop bag by mistake", her face dropped a bit but then he told her that our old laptop was hers to keep and he had bought himself a new laptop as well. So now we all have our own ones. Then before I went to bed he gave me another present and it was a Kindle! I have been thoroughly spoiled. I set it all up last night after we went to bed and this morning I bought myself three books I wanted with some vouchers I had.

YD loves her new phone, it does everything she wanted it to do and now she has the laptop too she is over the moon. She still has her little netbook as well if she wants to take one out with her.

We are off out to see my family today, there will be lots of us there so should be another lovely day.

skintscotslass

Hello :wave:

Well, I've made a start! I've made my birthdays list for 2012. I've got lots of 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays next year. I want to be very organised and get cards at a good price, rather than rushing out and buying them the day before!

Looking forward to chatting to you all

SSL xx

fedupandskint

All my presents went down very well. Looks like the winter walking kit for mum went down well, the skincare hamper for mum and brother and the bath salts for brother too alongside the car care kit I bought last Jan in the sales

Have a couple of ideas for mum's birthday
Hand soap and hand cream to match gardeners one for Christmas
All expenses day out
Plant or flowers including herb garden potted up or leave for Mother's Day
I just need a couple of other ideas too

rufusdog52

Evening everyone

All our gifts seemed to have went down well too, they all liked their quilts I made. We got a couple of gifts to recycle for either birthdays or next Christmas, one was a bath set for me and like Mum2one I can only use the shower. The other one was a Ted Baker set that OH got, he said he has enough smellies out there to last ages anyway. He was also given a Magners cider set and he drinks lager so we are going to give that to ED's BF when they come round. We had bought him a smelly set plus a box of mini aftershaves but OH is going to keep the aftershave for himself instead and give him the cider.

We had a lovely day with all the family but I was glad to get home, I was getting a bit of a headache. Think the heat didnt help, what with it being so mild and the heating being on and the house full to the brim with people.

I have some money put by to get some wrapping paper and personal cards one day in the week. I might leave it until Thursday when OH is off and he can come up with me. He is back to work tomorrow and Weds.

Hope you're all still having a nice time xx

junior_j

Hiya girls and guys , Sorry I was bad at keeping up with the thread during 2011 but I spent a lot of time in hospital and diagnosed with a brain condition which causes major problems with my eyesight , pressure headaches ect I was admitted back to hospital a few days before xmas eve!

Anyway Xmas day was a successful. We asked uncle and auntie who stayed to bring nibbles and they got pudding , cheese , crackers , pringles , nibbles and some booze which was brilliant so we saved around £30.00. We had left over pork , veg , stuffing potatoes and yorkies for dinner tonight so that saved about £7.00

Got brothers girlfriend her Xmas present in boxing day sale lip glosses reduced to 75p from £4.00 and a nail set reduced from £4.00 to £2.25
and will resuse a selection box I cant have because of my diet.

Hope everyone is well! x

elysia2003

Hiya Junior. I've been bad at keeping up this year too. I aim to be here more often this year.

I'm sorry to hear about your health problems. Can anything be done about it? I hope they can for you. I'm glad you've had a good Christmas.

SKintscotlass - I know your pain. It's DD1's 21st this year, plus my mum's 65th and sister's 40th. Between the both of the thrifty threads, we'll have you sorted.

Anglea - Hiya hun. How's things?

Mary - I hope you and OH are alright.