Cleggie's frugaltastic journey to financial freedom!!

Suffolk_lass

You certainly sound back on form - well done. Keep going with that dissertation - not long now.
All the best
SL

cleggie

Thanks SL.
Having the day off from dissertation writing today as its mothers day, so i am going to relax!

Called my mum this morning and she was happy with her M&S voucher and card for mothers day, so thats nice. I also asked what her and my younger sister want for Christmas.

She said that my younger sister is going travelling around the world in November (she wil finish uni in Sept) for a few years, so i thought i could do her a 'travel inspired' gift basket. Not 100% sure what i coud put into it. I have so far come up with:

5 year diary
Disposable camera
Scrap book (small)

Any others ideas woud be great!

And i am going to do my mum a 'bits and bobs' gift basket and in that i'll include an assortment of stuff:

Scarf
Leather gloves
Nail varnish
Mini bottle of wine
Posh chocs

I have also had some great ideas from the people over on the Thrifty Gifty Santas Challenge board.

My niece will be getting jewellery as i am the only one who buys her jewellery and she loves my style apparently!! This year just gone, i got her a charm bracelet reduced from £79.99 down to £29.99 and she loves it!

Have started picking up bits and bobs for the kids stockings in the argos clearence, but so far have no clue what to get them as main presents. I think game are having a sale on, so i'll no doubt be picking up some bargains in there to store away for their stockings too!

You must all think i am mental for thinking about Xmas already but i really think its a good idea, as i dont know what financial position i'll be in by Xmas as i finish uni in June and there is STILL no chidcare in my town, and without chidcare i cant work!

Anyway, hope you al have a great day!

Suffolk_lass

cleggie wrote: »

She said that my younger sister is going travelling around the world in November (she wil finish uni in Sept) for a few years, so i thought i could do her a 'travel inspired' gift basket. Not 100% sure what i coud put into it. I have so far come up with:

5 year diary
Disposable camera
Scrap book (small)

Any others ideas woud be great!

DH has travelled extensively - it sort of depends on whether she will rough it a bit on her travels or is a pamper princess traveller.

For me, I would get her
* a roll-on jungle formula insect and mosi repellent (more compact and less volatile than the aerosols)
* a lip-balm (lipstick style)
* high SPF lipstick style zinc stick (ski stores sell the best ones) to protect skin at altitude or in v hot zones
* a packet of moist wipes (Andrex or similar - for the occasion where you cannot bathe)
* BTS (better than silk) socks - Brasher's around £5-7 a pair but feet savers if any tramping (trecking) is envisaged
* wick-away T-shirts - the ones for walking in where the perspiration dries quickly - I bought some in an end of season ski sale and they are fantastic for keeping warm in layered clothing - they were £4 each.
I was thinking everything will need to be small and light weight to make it pay its way.
It's a lovely idea for a present
SL

cleggie

Thanks SL.
The only places that i know for sure that they are going to are Canada, USA, Hong Kong, China, Australia and NZ.

Love those ideas, will add them to my list and think i have thought of almost everything! Hoping i can some of them cheap/reduced/free hence the reason i am starting to think about it now.

PennyGrabber

Very organised Cleggie! That's definitely a positive for today! Did you have a nice day with the ch?

My Christmas present to people this year will be homemade - chutneys, jams, etc and jewellery for friends. I figure if I get a nice basket, pack a couple of chutneys, a jam, and some cheese biscuits, it would make a nice present. That means that I can save jars through the year, and look in charity shops for baskets. Also, I can make the stuff with ys foods. I bring home some apples from work sometimes, which would otherwise be thrown away, so they have already gone into some spiced apple chutney!

It always pays to be organised. Well, it's the only way to be when you're on as tight a budget as us, eh?!

Glad to see you're feeling better.

PG x

PennyGrabber

How's your week so far? PG x

cleggie

Hi PG.
Its been a mental few days as my dissertation is due in on wednesday so been spending all hours doing it.

Will do a proper catch up tomorrow morning.
Been too busy to go to the SMs though apart from this evening when i got 4 double choc chip cookies from Mr T for 19p

PennyGrabber

Good luck with finishing it off, and well done for the bargain! I'm sure they'll be good giving you the energy you'll need to stay up and finish off.

Look forward to chatting more when you've got over the stress of it all!

PG x

cleggie

Morning all!

I'm back. I'm knackered, but i'm back!
I have a load of work to do before Thursdays deadline, but thought it was about time i stopped neglecting you all.

Money is getting tighter now, i wont be able to go to counselling on Friday as i just cant afford it (£35), UNLESS i can do week 4's food shopping on £20...what do you reckon, is it possible??

I have plenty of food for meals, its just lunch and breakfast and snacks.
I reckon i could do it...i could just buy value snack stuff for the week. Thinking about it, i have £20 worth of morrisons saving stamps that i could use up too, so maybe it'll be possible?

Any hints/tips would be great!

Its coming up to the easter holidays, which means that my food bill will rise, as the kids are home and seem to eat loads!!

PennyGrabber

You can do it Cleggie! Just buy what you ABSOLUTELY need. Enough fruit to get through, what about value dried fruit too, I sometimes put that into lunchboxes. What have you got in the house that you could turn into snacks? Last week, we had cheese straws as snacks, as that was what I could find!!

Just think about how beneficial the counselling will be, and you'll be able to find a way of keeping the money til Friday. As you said on the gc, you have bread etc, value ready salted crisps are fine (esp if you take them out of the packet so no-one knows!) If you've got an egg in, you could bake a few cakes for a couple of the days, and just use it as an excuse to use up your cupboard stock - it's not that you're skint, you're freeing up the space!

Sending prayers your way,

PG x