Thrifty Gifty Santas Challenge 2014

mum2one

back to business....Santas Challengeapologies for the delay...

Here we are coming into September, where has the year gone, wont be long and the supermarkets will be having Easter eggs out!

Christmas Cake (s)
This may seem early to mention the Christmas Cake, but thinking from a money saving point of view, as come the end of September, everyone thinks of preparing their xmas cakes and as such if you want value or store brand packet fruit there the ones that disappear first.... so its worth choosing the recipie that ur doing and how many cakes you need.

Address Book
grab a coffee or a glass of wine and tackle the address book have you got the correct addresses, - do check if you have more than one address [/COLOR]

Christmas Cards
Dont worry, not writing xmas cards yet, - getting your lists ready, whether you go by family, street, relatives, post - I use an old icecream container and a roll of cheap sandwich bags that way i can keep the 2nd and 3rd cards all together. with the list suggestion, may be trial and error but your find what works best for you

Christmas Presents
Hopefully we've all managed to put a dent in the "i want / must get" presents - go through the list, check that everything is allocated and see where the gaps are. Once you have the gaps identified, - set yourself a task to get one at time / 25% less spend etc.

Christmas Gift Guides
it wont be long before the shops have their Xmas guides instore, generally i find Argos comes out mid October time, and the others tend to follow through,

Christmas Food
it always seems to be the list starts off with just a couple of to buy items, but in the real world, we get tempted (usually because the shops are stocking all the goodies)...
The food list, use september for the planning stage - some suggestions include
fridge,
freezer,
store cupboard
christmas treats
drinks

(again you may find your own list works better)

sweets
Its started the large tin of sweets, the general sale price seems to be £5. There are usally heros, celebrationd, quality street, roses and sweet-shop sweets - one point that Miss Hoodie commented on was the roses tin, looks the same size from the lid view,but the sides of the tin actually taper in.

There may be offers around, so def shop around and let us all know where the best offers are

Money Making
Now what would do if we all had some extra money - so hit those survey sites . reviews / clicks / cashback every penny saved all helps in the long run and still chance to cash out for 2014...


Miss Hoodies corner.=The corner we love to hate!
This month Miss Hoodie has decided that "its freezer time" -
As this way the summer food is being eat this is the perfect time for a sort out, tidy up and plan for xmas.

apologies - it looks like i hit send before i finished typing xx

mrs-moneypenny

thanks for the challenges
hugs to the poorlies

just made these for the local school libraries




another use for old books

Anglea

Hi all

Mrs M. I clicked on the individual photos to get a better look and I'm amazed by what you've done, they look brilliant. Are you making any as pressies for anyone at Christmas?

Mum2one, thanks a lot for our latest challenge. I've never considered doing a food list in the way you've suggested and I think it's a really good idea.

mrs-moneypenny

yes a couple of book lovers i know may get them.
glad you like them

mum2one

just a quickie, now have grandad hoodie home, collected him from the hospital this afternoon, start with the district nurse tomorrow, sure be the 1st of the health officals xxx

susan42

Fantastic news mum2one I'm so pleased, welcome home grandad hoodie :-)

This is just a quick drop in. Will catch up on posts.

Stupid me listed something gsm on fleabay and just had 2 orders for 125 cards in total for Xmas and everyone wants them yesterday.

I have done around 200 at the moment for my charities. But don't want to give them any less than 250 each as they are local ones. They sell them cheaply but the home usually gets enough to have a bit of a party at Christmas that they all look forward to. And the cubs have the other ones. towards funds.

I only listed 5 cards on fleabay. Didn't expect such a large order though. Shouldn't complain. At least it's more money for the church fund.
Ps I'm not religious , I just like putting g something back in the community or as my OH says I'm a soft touch lol

Anyhow enough rambling.

Love the books Moneypenny. I bet they were hard to do

Angela - I'm not the best on smartphones but I picked up an ebook on Amazon for mine and it's ok. Or if you want to be more mse you can type idiots guide to smartphones and theres some good easy to use guides on there. Not videos but written info.

Anglea

Hi all

Dad was taking to hospital early this morning, paramedics think it's a chemical imbalance.

DS2's weekend visit starts today so I can't go and see mum until he arrives, although she told me not to but I will check up on her or try and get her on the phone at least - she was going straight out at 8 am when she called, it's her usual routine - shopping so early and wanted to keep to it. Mum was ill the past 2 nights with her diverticulitis so not only she was in a horrendous state but so was dad. I looked after him yesterday when she had a rest and he was ok at that period only a minor glitch , but he's aware that there are times he acts very weird. The doctor also called round to see him yesterday and didn't know what was wrong as it was peculiar and was going to send him for tests but he became even worse in the night so mum called 999 and when they answered she said she didn't know if the fire brigade was needed or ambulance as dad was on the floor all night in the bathroom refusing the move and saying strange things.

Susan, now I know why you need so many hand crafted cards, I had previously thought you were going to send them out for your own family or friends.

Thanks for the advice about getting a book. I didn't realise they were so complicated because I'd used other people's phones but they were already set up.

springdreams

Anglea wrote: »

Springdreams - how long since you lived in SA?

Hi Anglea,

Sorry to hear that your dad is still poorly.

I've been living in England since 24 January 2000

I last went to SA in September 2004

My DS has family there from his dad's side of the family, and my half sister is still there, so my DS would like us to go on a holiday there within the next year or two - not that he remembers any of them

Good news about Grandad Hoodie Mum2one.

springdreams

Anglea wrote: »

Thanks Mrs M - how are things with you?

Does anyone know where I can get step by step lessons for a smart phone? I haven't a clue what to do and all the tutorials on you tube miss the basic steps.

I can't even make a call. And I attempted to put my name in as a contact with my home phone number and made a mistake and it won't edit.

I've used other people's Iphones and other types no trouble maybe because they were already set up, but I don't know what to do with mine as the only instructions are how to put in the battery and sim.

My brother gave me his iphone when he recently got an upgrade. I couldn't get the phone to read my sim so popped into the O2 shop, where they gave me a half hour lesson on how to use the iphone

They also transferred all my contacts and photos over from my old phone to the iphone :j

It might therefore be worth visiting a store for your mobile phone provider and ask them for help.

mum2one

Angela - do hope your dad goes on ok xx