Thrify Gifty Santas Challenge 2013,

Anglea

FRI/SAT
wrap present, sort collage envelopes - card - make if weather bad
MON/TUE
Buy/make wedding card - send plus I's card
Email solicitor.

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Special Occasions
present for Ly, get cards/paper in sales, write letter or postcard to Australia, Poland, USA, Carol

Post Xmas
2012 info in diary, . write dates in 2013 diaries x 2, 2013 timeline

House
clean up and down, carpet stains, arrange boiler clean

Finances
financial filing, updates, forms to fill in, PP, book research

mum2one

Anglea wrote: »

Hi all

mum2one, thanks for letting us see the pics, the cake looked wonderful and Lapland looked very cold, you all look really nice as a family. That was a coincidence about the knitting pattern.

I felt so smug as I spent all evening sorting out loose change, decluttering stuff then made all the collage envelopes for the birthday I needed and also made a couple for Easter and Summer this year. I felt so glad it was over for another year UNTIL I suddenly realised that I had overlooked the reason I had to make them today was because I forgot last year. So, that means I still have to make them for this Xmas and birthday in January next year lol.

Thank you, Lapland was amazing, weird how we adjusted to the cold there, yet back in UK an inch of snow and the country goes into meltdown, thank you as well re family, the cake was lush, Miss hoodie did so well, as when she made the cakes I just did the weighing and she did all the hard work, Mum said this morning so glad it was not this weekend,

Those college envelopes sound amazing, have you got enough left for the extras you have got to redo. xx

mum2one

Hope everyone ok and not beig snowed in, we've got about 2ins at the mo, and still coming down, reckon it will stick. At least have some snow boots.... I brought a pr for Lapland (detagged them) then they supplied us with boots!.

Rufus - I love the sound of the dress, your have it made in no time, got to be cheeky, have you followed any type of plan to loose all the weight, your amazing with your total.

Clare - Just a thought - re pattern - I used normal double knitting wool as the main part of the shrug is done on 4mm needles - rather than paying for the expensive wool, but with little'un being 3, youve got plenty of sizes to choose from.

Lina - A big hi, your really well organised, and doing fab at swagbacks, its one not done yet,

Angela - I hope your having fun with the crafting, at least your in the right place xx

If I have missed anyone a big hi.

We have some good news, changing my car, - buying my friends daughters boyfriends car, I said Miss hoodie could name it, my car I called babbakins, so she wants to call it Mr Kipling.

We're doing a swop in the house, as apparenlty my car is better nick than dads (think thats saying something!!) and mum can manage my car better to get in and out of, so he's having my car, and his is going to the great scrap yard in the sky.

So could be a fun week, sorting out insurance, tax, and scrap yard! xx

rufusdog52

Mum2one, I have just been calorie counting, started off using a site called foodfocus.co.uk, then the other week I went over to using myfitnesspal instead. They are both food diaries, I liked the first one but the second one is better, there are lots more things in the database and practically everything I eat has been on there. The allowance it suggested I have a day on the first one was 1600 odd a day which I was keeping under but on the new one its just under 1500 a day and I am still staying just under so might be a good thing. Not been getting hungry during the day, I have three main meals and a snack in the afternoon like a hot chocolate and sometimes some biscuits like go ahead or something depending on how I am doing for calories that day.

Anglea

Hi everyone

MumtoOne, good luck with getting the cars sorted out.

Whenever I see pics in magazines that might be suitable for the collages I cut them out and stick them into one of those adhesive photo albums and I also have a stash of magazines eg frozen meal catalogues - those home delivery ones and I get pamphlets for activities, pubs etc. But I do need to have a sorting/purging as the ones left in the album aren't that good.

What I find it that I cut out loads but when it comes to putting them on the envelopes some of the pics don't look good or else they get stuck to the adhesive and rip to pieces when I try getting them out. I tried to get round that by sticking the pics to long strips of paper but they can still be problematic.

I usually make about 10-12 envelopes for each occasion and don't always have the same themes, so for Xmas I had one for 'gifts' but I couldn't get the right pics for the January birthday at such short notice so I had an extra 'eating out' one instead. For 'gifts' I wanted pics to represent buying a variety of things for yourself (not food related) eg DVD's, books but every pic I used was either much too big or tore.

Rufus, well done again for all your hard work with weight. you are inspirational. I was slim the last time I was on this thread regularly but gained last year and never got rid of it so far but since I started here again feel I can do it, especially after reading about your amazing progress.

I remember we used to have a weight loss thread on the Occasions forum, what happened to it?. .

Cher-Ching

Now that the madness and excitement of the Boots sale is over I can finally take stock of where I'm at and I must say I'm chuffed

Looking at my spreadsheet for this year I have got enough Xmas cards, ribbon, wrapping paper and a single bottle bag (was 4p in Asda sale surely will come in handy!) for this year so that's all sorted and came to a grand total of £3.78 :j

Other gifts that I have bought in the sales etc are:

Nail varnish set paid £2.40 Mr S (75% off)
Nail art set paid £2.10 Mr S (75% off)
Pac man mug set paid £1.80 Mr S (75% off)
Minnie mouse pencil set paid 37p in Asda sale
2 children's tshirts in Argos sale paid £1.98
Champneys Spa set paid £12.50 in Boots (75% off)
Dove complete care x2 paid £7.50 (£3.75 ea) in Boots (75% off)

So total 'expenditure' in cash on presents so far £32.43 - retail around £100 :beer:

But after Quidco so far this year (only buying what I would have of course plus last Christmas Quidco bonus) 'income' of £28.23 the above has in effect cost me £4.30 in cash

Also spent 2,200 points in Boots 75% off sale so the following was effectively free

2x Sanctuary Spa set (£2 each)
Dove complete care (£3.75)
Ted baker set x 4 (£2 each)
Bath salts (£1.25)
Sanctuary escape x2 (£2.50 each)

So £22 paid for with 2,200 points so £0 in cash.

So everything above cost £4.30 in 'real' cash not bad start to the year! :T:T

Anglea

Hi something weird happening outside but can't see what. Earlier on was a fire engine, now a very unusual light, I thought it was a low flying helicopter but now looks like someone with a torch on a crane. Glad I didn't succumb to pressure from my mates and go out, could have got caught up in whatever that is.

I tried looking for wedding card bits and pieces in the house to attempt to make one but couldn't find anything.

Cher-Ching, you've got some brilliant bargains

mum2one

I have "Mr Kipling" - he's gorgeous, a 52 Astra - sporty model (whoops!! didn't realise that bit!), - I've parked it in the garage then sort out the ins over the weekend, - our friends came down, so the 6 of us went for an indian meal as a treat, - it was lush - poppadums, starters, mains, 4 rice, 2 chips, 3 namm breads, 6 puds, 3 drinks each - the bill came to £104.00. They treated me and Miss Hoodie as a thank you for buying the car!!

Apparently when the lad took the car into work (he works for a garage) to check it over, the lads he worked with thought that was the car he had brought not selling, he had 2 offers to buy it, one bloke offered him more money!! So me thinks I have def got a bargain.
xx

Kitchenbunny

Mum2one - love the name of your car! It sounds really cool too. (My 1st car was "male", considering most people thought cars were feminine!). My current car is a 2-seater thing in blue which I call Mappetty (short for Ma Petite Voiture = My Little Car).

So, list update. Three out of the five birthdays this month have happened and I've been ready for them. Two more to go next week and I've just got to write the cards out and deliver them by hand. No presents, as we made an arrangement to just give cards this year - everyone I know is in the same boat.

I'm still managing to avoid the sales. I'm actually a bit scared of the snow - I think it's a control thing - so haven't been taking the car out that much and when I do I link all trips together so I don't get stranded anywhere. It's helping though, as I'm having all these NSDs which will help me later in the year!

The Christmas presents for next year are wrapped - not birthday ones as I do need to buy birthday style paper. I'm waiting to see what offers I can find on that before I wrap everything. I could do with finding a tutorial on how to make those gift bags as I got quite a bit of sparkly cardboard over Christmas and I could definitely reuse it into gift bags!

Have a good day everyone. Keep warm and stay safe.

KB xx

mum2one

Kitchen bunny - what about using a cereal box as a base and shapr the glittery cardboard around that and at the top of the widest part use a hole puncher and make some holes and use the curling ribbon as handles, that way once youve done 1st from a template should (she says with abailted breath - i have the ideas but havent put them into pratice!!) be able to make bigger or smaller if needed.

Don't know if you have a local market by you but the one we go to, theyve a card stall and they sell the bday paper as seperate sheets - 12p sheet or 10 for £1. I tend to start the yr with 10 mens, 10 ladies, 10 kids, then if I need to top up next time I can get a mix according to what ive used. Saves paying 50p+ from posh high street card shops xx