Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

StressedSteph

lurvlyloz wrote: »

cant you call back?

Noooo thats just as scary...Will leave it, might feel braver tomorrow.

StressedSteph

zepsgal wrote: »

Happy new year Steph!

Great news on the boiler, how fantastic!

Here's to 2013, a real and proper money saving debt busting year :j

Thanks Zepsgal, Happy New Year to you too. :beer:

StressedSteph

mrbrightside842 wrote: »

Can I ask about this too, please? It's something I could cut down on!

Well done on the warranty, nice when things like that work out!
Edit oh no, just saw your last post. I hope it's ok!

PM'd you xx

StressedSteph

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

Hi Steph,
Just stumbled across your diary and spent the last hour or so reading through.
I'm going to subscribe because I love your motivation and think it'll really help me.
Good luck, hope all is ok with the plumber.

Thanks for taking the time to read through, Heaven only knows how manic I sound when you read it all in one go :o.

Thanks for subscribing. I can be abit of a neurotic mess at the best of times so can't promise to keep totally motivated. gonna try VERY hard though

StressedSteph

Hi Diary,

I have abit of a dilemma and I wondered if you could help me decide what to do.

We moved to a wonderful village 2 years ago, and have made lots of friends.

All the women buy each other Birthday presents and usually get together at the persons house whose birthday it is and all hand over their gifts and the birthday girls opens up all the presents in front of them.

Last year I managed to keep up with the 11 womens birthday, admittedly most of it went onto OD or credit cards.

I think the minimum spend I could get away with would be £10-£15 each. They are all quite posh, so anything too crappy would be worse than buying nothing .

So I have happily done my Excel spreadsheet and budgeted nicely till September. BUT...I had forgotten to add in these 11 birthdays :mad:.

I don't know what to do now.
I don't know whether to txt them all and somehow bow out of the present buying, but then can I show my face at the birthday do's without something in my hand?? I doubt it.

I know all these women will never be my closest, dearest friends, but its nice to meet up with them occasionally and be included in the social circle.

My birthday is in July, and of course they all bought for me too. but I can't re-gift any of these presents as they all watch when the birthdy girls opens them up, so someone might notice that I had re-gifted their present. Too embarrassing to risk.

Does anyone have any ideas?. Maybe somewhere I can get hold of cheap but decent looking jewellery or something respectable that I can gift to them?.

Aaaargh

wannabee_in_credit

Could you not do homemade gifts? Cakes or biscuits? Or alcohol or other things I can't think of.
I did a home made Christmas this year and bought some lovely hand made soaps as gifts (rather than make my own as I am busy busy and couldn't find the time for that).
I have to say, I think it's a lot of pressure to find that amount of extra money for gifts for people that are friends rather than closest friends or family. Is it that your friends are particularly affluent? I have a niggle that there may be others in the group thinking exactly the same thing and there may be some relief if you suggest something different. How about instead of gift giving you all take some food/drink for get together so there are no gifts but food for a get together. Or, you could suggest a birthday rota, where you buy for just one person in the group. So for example, first birthday in the year buys for second, second buys for third etc etc.
No harm in suggesting alternatives in these times - every penny counts.

StressedSteph

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

Could you not do homemade gifts? Cakes or biscuits? Or alcohol or other things I can't think of.
I did a home made Christmas this year and bought some lovely hand made soaps as gifts (rather than make my own as I am busy busy and couldn't find the time for that).
I have to say, I think it's a lot of pressure to find that amount of extra money for gifts for people that are friends rather than closest friends or family. Is it that your friends are particularly affluent? I have a niggle that there may be others in the group thinking exactly the same thing and there may be some relief if you suggest something different. How about instead of gift giving you all take some food/drink for get together so there are no gifts but food for a get together. Or, you could suggest a birthday rota, where you buy for just one person in the group. So for example, first birthday in the year buys for second, second buys for third etc etc.
No harm in suggesting alternatives in these times - every penny counts.

Thanks for the ideas wannabee.

The problem is they are quite an established group of old friends and I am the newbie to the village. They are all (or make me feel like) pretty wealthy so any frugal ideas would probably be laughed off.

I did used to make soaps, in fact I still have some ingredients in my cupboard. Probably not enough of everything to make a batch. I also need to address how they look, because the ones I used to make were jsut for us, so were'nt scented or coloured.

Soaps take quite a few weeks to cure, so would'nt be a short term solution, but definately an idea for birthday later in the Spring.

Will keep thinking of some sort of craft that might be nice enough not to get me laughed out of the room

Thanks hun

Puzzcat

Hi,

Another little lurker here who is following your journey from the sidelines..

I can't remember if your doing surveys or not? I find onepoll, slow but pays out £40 if your persistant! My Survey and Ipsos also quite good. I also do shop and scan which pays out in vouchers as does the Royal Mail if you can get accepted on it. I save them and use to buy gifts/christmas presents. Just a thought...

Good luck with your debt busting.

x

mrbrightside842

Soaps would be nice, especially if you can personalise them for the birthday girl, I don't know how hard that would be. Have you factored in presents for other people? Could you regift the presents off these ladies to other people, and then use the money you'd have spent on them? Or do you have someone who you could swap unwanted presents with? Or could you stock up on some bottles of good wine when they're on offer?

wannabee_in_credit

It may be a personal opinion but I think a lot more of handmade gifts, for a couple of reasons.
1. They show skill that I don't really have.
2. They indicate that someone has spent time and effort thinking of you rather than just chuck something expensive in your direction.
Start some soap - if you've done it before then brilliant. There'll be loads of stuff online about adding scents and colours. Home made bath bombs are quite straightforward as well (I'm a chemistry teacher and I've done them with bottom set year 8 classes before) and I think that your friends would appreciate something that has been made with time, effort and thought. If they don't then shame on them...
I'm also a sucker for home made fudge (I didn't get to be a size 18 without trying hard) - is that an option? You could make it all luxurious with Baileys, cookies and cream etc.
x