Christmas is coming! 2007 - merged thread

sonee2405

chillow pillow -from what she said it's a pillow which is always cold so sleeping is more comfy as you don't have to turn it over for the cold side-im sure theres a thing inside which is removed from the case and put in the fridge to cool it then replaced .
I prefer hot water bottles and slipper sox myself!

rosieben

lil_me wrote: »

rosieben when I was on benefits I remember an officer coming out when £2000 was paid into my bank account, it was from the sale of a motorbike which was sold to clear finance (paid straight back out) they said because it was over £1000 it was 'flagged' but wasn't a problem if it was a sale of something we owned. I did offer for them to pay the finance then I'd give them it, finance was £500 on top, he declined what a suprise.

Thanks for this lil_me; I've had so much trouble with benefits people that I'm very wary of doing anything to upset them! I've a medical on thursday and cant think much beyond that at the moment, but I wiil check with my local office; been giving lots of stuff away that I could maybe have got a few pounds back for :mad:

lil_me

Hope the medical goes ok, my last one I had with them was pretty straight forward, I was in there 2.5 minutes, went through medical conditions, there are several, which was on the form I filled in and they said they wanted more info, said 'Why have they sent you? I can't test you for half of these illnesses physically through a medical and just one of them qualifies you' I said 'Aren't you supposed to tell me that?' he laughed and said 'You can go now', what a waste of my time and their money.

Oh my reason for posting (not to go off topic you see) is I've found Transformers stuff that I can get cashback for! Forbidden planet via quidco. Might be mean and send the Argos bought ones back 4% is 4%. Woolworths & Toysrus do them & cash back but you can't select specific ones it's just a choice of 6 etc and you get what is delivered, not much use.

Yet to tackle my main headache this year, parents seperated last year but are living in same home as haven't been able to sell it, used to buy them things for the house but can't now. I honestly don't know what either of them are doing for Christmas either, oh aren't families great.

Sallys_Savings

Doing really well with my pressies so far have 75% of them
The remainder gifts I know what I need to buy/make so I'm on a roll

I'm in the process of making up an album of old photos (copied from other family members) and want an old fashioned album. I am looking for the ones that you just stick paper corners into with the photos and not the sticky sort with plastic covering...has anyone any ideas where the cheapest are to be found? Thanks

knithappens

Sallys_Savings wrote: »

Doing really well with my pressies so far have 75% of them
The remainder gifts I know what I need to buy/make so I'm on a roll

I'm in the process of making up an album of old photos (copied from other family members) and want an old fashioned album. I am looking for the ones that you just stick paper corners into with the photos and not the sticky sort with plastic covering...has anyone any ideas where the cheapest are to be found? Thanks

I saw lots of those in TK Maxx yesterday and they were in the clearance section, there was some lovely designs too.

System

went to lakeside [doncaster] yesterday got beautiful sparkly pony book £3 for neice for next year also ordered rockabillie unicorn from just jellycat site to go with it ,thursday im going to tesco to get christmas meat with vouchers. im usually organised but seem to be super organised this year !

nicki_2

Its not fair - my local Asda (literally the bottom of my road!) is having another storey added so there's now no George, and hardly anything else! :mad: There I was thinking I could go down and start getting some bits for people from the garden clearance and I can't :mad: Typical!

istarimoneta

I've been lurking around the forums for weeks now and thought it about time I actually posted.

Having recently taken the plunge and finally moved out of home and bought my own place, for the first time I'm now finding out about budgeting and being a very savvy shopper!! Before I was always able to go out and buy what I wanted, when I wanted it but now I am on a strict monthly budget and getting loads of ideas and inspiration from everyone on here.

Having been really dreading Christmas this year, not knowing how i was going to afford it, I am now totally enthusiastic and full of ideas after reading all the great posts from everyone. The basket idea is great and I'm going to try and make one for as many people as possible.

So far I've decided on an art themed one for my best friend who is a very arty/crafty person, she's always making something and this year has decided to go back to try her hand at painting so I've got her:-

A set of assorted paintbrushes (£1 from local store)
Artist sketch pad (50p from local store)
Set of assorted oil paints (£4 reduced from £8 Au Naturale)
And have sent for a free canvas that was mentioned on the freebies board.

My mum is the hardest to buy for, she is disabled and doesn't get out much and has no hobbies so i've decided to do a night at the movies basket for her as she loves watching tv, especially CSI and Sharpe so i'm on the look out for bargain DVD's!

My friend at work i'm doing a pamper basket and got body custard (75p Savers), Elizabeth Arden anti-wrinkle cream (reduced to £1.49 from £3.99 savers) and I have a load of Mary Kaye cosmetics that I gor free from my friend in the US who is a Mary Kaye agent.

I'm also off to visit her in Arizona in November so i'm hoping to pick up a load of bargains in their Thanksgiving sales while i'm there.

Now all i have to work out is what to do about the male members of my family!!

Thank you to all MSE's, keep up the good work!

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

Well...having been inspired by the beautiful baskets/hampers produced by some of you talented folks, I will be putting together baskets for OH's parents and brother and sister (haven't decided what to do for my parents yet, there was talk of buying my mum RHS membership for Christmas...we'll see...) Bought four lovely (reduced) seagrass baskets in Tesco on Saturday, plus a rather nice lily style tealight holder for m-i-l's basket, and an incense/candle set for sis-i-l's basket. Bought two 6x4 glass photo frames in Boots last week reduced to £3, will stick family photos in these and put one in m-i-l's basket, one in f-i-l's.

Still formulating a plan of action for these baskets but have a rough idea of what I am doing:

Provisional (i.e. subject to change, taking into account bargains that may be spotted and snapped up for baskets ):

M-I-L: Photo in frame, tealight holder, bottle of port, some goodies from the local farm shop (e.g rosemary breadsticks, raspberry balsamic vinegar, coconut ice with fudge), seeds (as in for garden plants ), gardening gloves, moisturising cream and lip gloss

F-I-L: Photo in frame, book, wine, magnetic sudoku game...this is as far as I have got with this one...hope OH will help out here!

B-I-L: Shot glasses (picked up some funky smoky glass ones in Tesco in the sale back in January), vodka, magnetic maze game, some sort of savoury nibbly type stuff...again, might need input from OH...

Sis-I-L: Martini glasses, bottle of Martini, incense/candle set, lip gloss, nail polish, couple of bits of costume jewellery (e.g. Claires Accessories/Dorothy Perkins etc)

B-i-l and sis-i-l's baskets will be slightly smaller as I will be putting together a retro sweets box for both of them too.

Nectar and clubcard vouchers/points stacking up nicely too - plan on using these to pay for Christmas booze and Doctor Who Series 3 boxset. OH and I have booked our favourite little cottage in Devon for Christmas, so I will only have to cater for the two of us. Will see both sets of parents sometime before or after Christmas - no one minds not all being together on Christmas Day - spreads the fun out a bit!

I am determined that this will be the first Christmas since I started earning, that I do not spend January counting the cost of Christmas (particularly on the credit card and overdraft)

knithappens

lil_me wrote: »

I've sent a PM to ask for the recipe, just wondered how yours came out?

Actually might be a bad idea making one in mine, it's a big 6.5 litre one, did you have to put it inside something to cook it in there?

I picked up a cheap pudding dish from Wilkinson's. And followed how to rap them from the recipe from Kethry. for the small 1 pt/ litre pudding dishes i say steam for around 8 hours for the larger 10 -12.

It came out beautiful, pinched a little to taste it was gorgeous, definitley recommend making this.