Half Way There

brizzledfw

Hi WIC

Great to have you back:)

Know what you mean about things unravelling when you're off the forums..I am the same!

What do your kids like and let's try and think of summat!

X

Igamogam

Hello WIC

Sorry having re read this is a long post I did wonder whether I should delete it.......... may well come over preachy and finger waggy – its not meant to! Anyway here goes.........

Glad to hear work going OK.....half term soon? Another week to go here!
Car repair bills..........yep know all about them - just cost me over £400 to get mine through service after spending £900 on it a few months ago ( that bill had to go on CC unfortunately:()

Christmas: I love Christmas and am no bah humbug when it comes to it but I have said it before.......its a load of commercial clap trap ( as is Halloween IMHO) I have posted about this before elsewhere many times when I read about other people’s tales of woe about 'how can they afford Christmas............' Well if you are thinking that then you (you as in generic posters) can’t afford it..........well not in any hyped-up-must-have way. We decided may years ago when our children were quite young (not dissimilar to your own) that we would only buy presents for them - not each other not any other relatives and not for children of friends. We were open about this and it was for 2 reasons:
1) my family is small and distributed to the far flung corners of the earth and my OH family is huge and all concentrated within the M25 .This had a bearing on travelling to see family at Christmas too - we stopped it:eek: Open invite to anyone to come and stay with us - MiL did a few times which was nice and no problem ( now no longer with us) but nigh on impossible for any of my family and OH siblings just said it was too far....strange its the same distance for us but we turned up every year for about 5 years when children small!

and 2) we where skint!

So the knock on effect was that some members of OH family never spoke to us again and if they where that shallow then it has been no loss IMO and others were very understanding All our friends stayed with us and some even followed our lead!

As far as the children were concerned, we explained that we did not fall for the commercial hype and we had very little spare money. They would have 1 big present from us and a stocking - this came from FC when they were little and anything else was a bonus. We also buy a 'family ' present which is something everybody benefits from. Our children have had all the toys and gadgets that they have wanted and understand that the money we have has to stretch further each year. Their needs/likes/wants have changed over the years as they have got older but their expectations have not - they will get a main present which is needed and useful and they have a stocking full of bits and bobs which both agree is the best part – at now 16 and 22 they still think this is the best part. The stocking started as ‘presents from FC’ and where always wrapped in one type of paper with FC all over just to emphasise it – last year 22 year old was most upset I had wrapped the goodies in ‘grown up ‘ paper! I guess this is now our family tradition and it will be passed on Stocking goodies BTW I buy all year round – little things from places we have visited or free gifts/samples, plenty of Christmas chocolate and daft things I find along the way – then I have remember where I have stashed it all! I do surveys all year to get vouchers from Ama*on etc to help with the costs and also Tesc* double up vouchers have bought us lap tops, phones and cameras in the past. We have never done 'advanced presents' ie this is for Christmas /birthday months in advance because when the big day comes its the adult trying to explain "yes but you had XYZ 3 months ago" and then the guilt creeps in. Certainly our DDs have tried the "I know its August but can I have XYZ now and call it a Christmas present......."

Now when I said me and OH don’t buy presents, I lied – he gets a chocolate orange and my challenge is to wrap it up in an ingenious way and his challenge is get me the most unusual ball of string ( a long standing joke from when we were penniless students paying a mortgage :eek:) – last year was some rather nice deep lavender coloured garden twine!)

Now the finger wagging bit.............on your previous diary you did say that your OH and DS had had their main present ( season ticket) and so had DD ( Nintendo) so really, if you are serious, you need to follow through and stick to your guns...............they only all need something small and inexpensive. Its tough I know!!!!!!!!!

Look, I mean all this in the nicest possible way. Similar to you we are in the ‘squeezed middle’ – good salaries but also, for whatever reason, sizable debts too. We have a good Christmas, celebrating it in a non religious way, we eat well and have a real tree but we don’t get sucked in and never try and keep up with the Joneses - cos they are probably skint too but have yet to realise.

brizzledfw

Hope all good WIC..hope you're OK

Good thoughts Igamogam..(as ever )

wannabee_in_credit

Totally with you igamogam, and the kids have had their main presents. It's the finding the extra £50 or so to buy the little Santa bits. I'm normally quite good at squirrelling them away over the year but just haven't bothered as yet.
The budget is gone pretty much - but there are only the little bits to buy.
And how shallow that people would stop speaking to you because you didn't do present buying. I find that very sad.
I have discussed with the kids that there will only be little presents and reminded them they've had the big stuff - just a bit overwhelmed that I've not even bought any of the little stuff yet.

I need to start making time to get back on here at least a couple of times a week - it really helps me to stay on the straight and narrow, and I need that more than ever.

Thanks all

OrangeFairy

Hi Wannabee...how are things going with you at the moment?

I see you haven't been on for a while

OF x