Thrify Gifty Santas Challenge 2013,

mum2one

A message from Miss Hoodie - as its going to be time soon to be taking the tree and all the decs down, nows the time to get sorted, - if its broken let it go, its still going to be broke next yr.

Have a lot at the sales - Christmas cards, paper, new decs....

Don't forget use the cards from this yr ready for xmas tags for next Christmas or even for crafting for cards for next xmas.

(hope no-ones on the turkey and brussel sprouts diet! ) xx

rufusdog52

Hi Everyone,


Thanks to Mum2one for sorting out the new thread and for amalgamating the sister thread too. I am ready for a new year of money making and thrifty shopping and super organising.

Our tree and decs are still up as we were having company for New Year, we are out all day today so will be packing things away tomorrow, then Friday we have the Grandchildren round so OH is going to get one of the boys to help him get it all up in the loft and sorted. I just have one thing to repair, thats the feet on the new Nutcracker which need gluing on, they were off when I bought it and forgot to stick them back in place so better do it before it gets packed away.

tigerstriper_2

Christmas 2012 was the most organised Christmas I've ever had (started shopping in October and was mostly wrapped beginning Dec) and I loved the feeling of being relaxed about it.

This year I'm determined to do all my Christmas and birthday shopping in advance so I'd love to join in. I'd like to do some homemade things too.

I can't take advantage of the January sales unfortunately as our mortgage payment is higher than we expected this month (were hoping it was going down this month but turns out we're a month too early! :doh:)

Savvybunny2009

Ooh shiny new thread, good to see you again mum2one and rufus :wave:

I think there was a few things I learnt this year compared to the last few being here. The homemade hampers went down a storm, family loved them, they were a faff but cheap, the downside being never leave getting cellophane until the last week, everyone wants it and it is like gold dust when it's too late to order online.Buying in advance for somethings have been a blessing but having a cupboard full of presents and bits and bobs laying around has meant plenty of missing gifts that had to be replaced and plenty of unnecessary cupboard space taken up.

This year I will be doing the money making side of things full throttle, and buying the gifts in November/December and wrapping them as they arrive. Christmas crafts will be done a few months ahead to allow for mistakes and things having to be redone or tweaked.

Tree hasn't come down yet, still finding space for toys and having a declutter. Most of the decorations are new bought on Christmas eve from the garden centre (lovely handmade ones half price) and homebase (reduced by 90% roughly).

Sale shopping has happened, I have bought some lush gift sets as they are very well recieved gifts and only get reduced during December, they keep very well and two are kept aside for me anyway for Christmas as I was lucky enough to get a few boxes this year from people. I also did M&S when they had the £10 off codes and 50% off, I managed to get a wreath, some repeater multi coloured indoor/outdoor lights, two sets of indoor reindeer lights, some posh crackers and 10 ramekins for batch freezing meals for dd for £30.

Plan for today, sort through present cupboard, list anything that will not be gifted on ebay and get cupboard space back. Use cupboard space to store Christmas tree lol.

weeclick

well thanks to last years thread Ive started this year on the right foot! Got a christmas / birthday spreadsheet up and running and already filled some parts in with a few bargains picked up in the sales. So far have a gift for sister / Auntie & Uncle / Grandma as well as cards, wrap and gift bags

tree is coming down on Saturday (next day off work) already have old baubles (which we only found in cupboard last week) up for sale as they were only used 1 year and should get a few pound for them which will cover the cost of new ones from this year. Cards will be reused for gift tags and got my christmas box all filled up and ready to go for 2013

Footpather

Hopefully I will be able to join in here. I am not the most organised person but I do try to be. I have had a spreadsheet for a few years that I try to jot ideas down on as well. For instance I gleaned, over several conversations, that my brother's girlfriend likes Yankee candles and Soap and Glory products. So if I see these reduced I will get them (come on Boots 75% sale).

I knew my older brother liked port and chocs but only just discovered he loves rum and is partial to a nice brandy. These ideas might have slipped out of my mind before October so if they are on my spreadsheet it will help me remember.

As I said on the old thread I got 10m of Christmas wrapping paper in Waitrose for £1.75 so that's a start towards Christmas 2013. Old Christmas cards will be made into tags and put away with the wrapping paper

Savvybunny2009

haquegiftshop wrote: »

It will be our daughter's first Christmas this year and I'm trying to figure out how many gifts to give/how much to spend, so I'm curious how many gifts do you give per child? How much do you spend? I know this year she won't really know any better but I figure this year will set the tone for future Christmas'. My instinct is definetely to buy as much as possible. My mother always gave us so many gifts as children and so did most of my friend's parents.:T

We spent about £100 for dds first Christmas, it was a small selection of toys bought at full price before our money saving days and to be honest, it was a bit pointless, she would have been happy with one good toy and a the rest put in savings especially as they get so much from everyone. I think we wanted nice pictures to look back on but it was very much wasted money. Her second year we spent around the same but very mse so she had a bigger pile and she spent alot of time spinning around in circles looking at everything feeling very overwhelmed and upset.

Cher-Ching

Footpather wrote: »

Hopefully I will be able to join in here. I am not the most organised person but I do try to be. I have had a spreadsheet for a few years that I try to jot ideas down on as well. For instance I gleaned, over several conversations, that my brother's girlfriend likes Yankee candles and Soap and Glory products. So if I see these reduced I will get them (come on Boots 75% sale).

I knew my older brother liked port and chocs but only just discovered he loves rum and is partial to a nice brandy. These ideas might have slipped out of my mind before October so if they are on my spreadsheet it will help me remember.

As I said on the old thread I got 10m of Christmas wrapping paper in Waitrose for £1.75 so that's a start towards Christmas 2013. Old Christmas cards will be made into tags and put away with the wrapping paper

Just seen on the grabbit board big Yankee candles at Littlewoods/very are reduced to £8

http://www.littlewoods.com/e/q/yankee.end?cm!!!!!o&_requestid=10313

redbooties

I'd like to join in with this years thread, I borrowed ideas of last years one and it was very helpful. I'm the kind of person who spends 12 months planning for christmas and is quite organised but I still have a melt down a week before christmas and stress out.

Ive already sorted out my christmas gift budget and jotted down some ideas for presents. Ive started on my birthday present shopping and I'm organised up until September.

My Christmas tree is coming down next week once the children are back in school, and I'm going to start popping into charity shops to see if there are any goodies that can be added to my hampers. Also I've joined the sealed pot challenge and whatever money I save in there is to pay for christmas and I will not spend a penny more.

Cher-Ching

Something else to say about Quidco. Remember you can download the app for your phone and get paid (usually between 5p and 25p) for 'checking in' to shops. You don't have to buy anything, in fact you don't have to go in - most of my check ins have taken place as I've walked past! The good thing also is that check ins do not count towards your £5 a year fee so all of your check ins will be yours. I got around £17 last year through check ins alone