*Stop The Cavalry* It's The 2014 Christmas Chatter Thread

his_missus

I've convinced Mum to get rid of the V!rg!n package my dad had (£100 a month it cost!!!!) as she has no intention of EVER using the internet (she can always pop to ours if there's something specific she needs it for e.g. booking a holiday) and she's quite happy with just freeview tv. Also got her to ditch the landline and just use her mobile phone. She only really rings us and we all have some free minutes on our contracts so can call her back.

For her birthday next week, I'm buying her an "old biddy phone" with big buttons and emergency red button (stores 5 emergency numbers so that covers all 4 of us) to put her payg sim into. This phone will be her "house phone". Then she's going to use dad's payg mobile (still got £17 credit on) as her "mobile phone" for when she goes out. She'll not spend £10 a month on top-ups

The owl mirror I bought before Xmas and put away for her birthday can wait til Mother's Day now, gosh I feel organised!

Just wanted to share with you all as it's made me feel quite positive

mrs-moneypenny

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Today's quote

oh that made me laugh

his missus, what a lovely organised and positive post. well done you, brilliant that you are saving your mum money like that.

my mil has a mobile, she leaves it on the mantle till it goes flat then charges it up and puts it back. they only time its been used since fil passed 2 1/2 years ago is when i made her bring it to the hospital with us to ring a taxi when she had an eye test. once every 5 months Dh rings me off it while were round there just so the sim stays active. weve all shown he how to use it but i think she chooses not to know rather than cant.;)

his_missus

mrs moneypenny - mum will use her mobile phone but only for calls, not for texting. If we text her, we have to make it short as she keeps forgetting which button to press to scroll down and usually ends up deleting the text instead (it's an almost antique mobile, my cast off from about 7 yrs ago!)

She'll only take her mobile out with her if she's expecting a call :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mrs-moneypenny

weve told mil to carry hers as shes got dodgy knees and isnt good on her feet i said if she fell and someone came to help she could ask them to ring us from it rather than trying to remember phone numbers. she paniced DD3 the other month as she left a 5min voice mail that was just muffled background noise, DD3 rang me in a right panic thinking mil had fallen, no shed put it on charge but wont have it that she rang anyone she says DD3 must have rang her as she doesnt know her moby number. they are all in the phone. ive even put me in as an ice number and told and shown her how to use it. it really is a waste of time her charging it.
glad your mum isnt a technophobe

3forholidays

to BloomingTasty & Nicki

Re: Mobile phones

My mum doesn't have one and doesn't seem to want one! She says that anyone looking for her can get her on the landline.

My dad got a smartphone for Christmas from friends and hasn't started using it yet. He has an older mobile (one with a keypad) and I think he is a bit wary of the touchscreen. He has big fingers and finds using a smartphone quite fiddly.

freespirit66

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Today's quote

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

his_missus wrote: »

I've convinced Mum to get rid of the V!rg!n package my dad had (£100 a month it cost!!!!) as she has no intention of EVER using the internet (she can always pop to ours if there's something specific she needs it for e.g. booking a holiday) and she's quite happy with just freeview tv. Also got her to ditch the landline and just use her mobile phone. She only really rings us and we all have some free minutes on our contracts so can call her back.
For her birthday next week, I'm buying her an "old biddy phone" with big buttons and emergency red button (stores 5 emergency numbers so that covers all 4 of us) to put her payg sim into. This phone will be her "house phone". Then she's going to use dad's payg mobile (still got £17 credit on) as her "mobile phone" for when she goes out. She'll not spend £10 a month on top-ups

The owl mirror I bought before Xmas and put away for her birthday can wait til Mother's Day now, gosh I feel organised!
Just wanted to share with you all as it's made me feel quite positive

HISMISSUS wow that is a lot of money to save a month, im so glad you are having a good day, we are still all here for you, i expect your mum will find her birthday very hard next week, sending you all hugs x

Todays challenges, i havent finished my photo purging yet but will crack on tomorrow

CONNECT with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Do you and your workmates share a common interest? Do you know your neighbour? Keep in touch, make that call, write that letter, send that text, feel a valued sense of belonging. Building connections will support and enrich you everyday.

1. Complete the daily sudoku challenge
2. Complete your Brain Age test
3. Watch Shes The Man
4. Sort/Purge through your old photos

springdreams

BBTHREE wrote: »

Spring dreams/plodding along - just noticed your sigs - I am defo playing catchup re the decluttering. Any tips?

Hello BBTHREE

Well for me I looked at what I could get rid of quickly.

For example, my SIL's brother moved out of his parents house into his own flat and was in need of quite a lot of stuff, so I took the opportunity to go through my kitchen cupboards and passed him (known as cat flapping on the decluttering thread ) all the pots, pans, cutlery, plastic ware, etc. that I had not used in a long while, and was unlikely to be using any time soon.

My son wanted the new XBox One which was launched in November. It was definitely not in my budget, so we looked through his bedroom and car booted a large number of toys he had been hoarding but had outgrown. We went to around 10 car boots and managed to get about £700 for our efforts, which was enough to pay for a launch day Xbox One and a few games. :money:

He was so happy with the money he had made at the car boot, that he sorted through his games consoles, old mobile phones and games, which we took to CEX and got store credit for. He got around £400, and is thinking of buying an iPhone with the money.

We have also both sorted through our wardrobes, and sold a few bin bags full of clothing to Cash for Clothes - we got around £60, which we spend on new clothing

I work full time, and don't have much spare time, so don't sell things on fleabay. And since they now charge selling fees based on selling price and postage and packaging, I don't think it is worthwhile selling on fleabay anymore. Although the hours are ridiculous (4am wake up on a Sunday morning to load the car and get to the car boot by 5.30am to set up), with a car boot it is half a day of your time, people take the goods as they see them (so no risk of negative feedback), and they take the goods there and then (so no postage and packaging, and finding time to get to a post office). The other downside with a car boot is that people want to pay pennies for things. However, if we had donated the items to a charity shop, we wouldn't even have those pennies.

We will be car booting again this year, and have already started sorting through our wardrobes to see how much more we can take to the Cash for Clothes place.

My plan is to spend 6 weeks decluttering each room.

The difficulty is finding somewhere to stash the bits for the car boot, since we will only start going to them in April/May, as we have no indoor ones locally.

I am a lurker on this lovely thread about decluttering:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4858843

and there is this one too:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4507949

I found one of my biggest downfalls was buying bits in the sales to put away for Christmas and birthdays. I'd buy the bits, but still buy more things closer to Christmas or forget about or misplace the thing I intended giving for a birthday gift, so had to buy another. I now have 3 years worth of 75% off Boots goodies to still dish out!! :eek: So this year, I have put all the birthday bits in the bottom of my wardrobe, and have stayed away from all of the sales - which I found quite hard :T

Good luck - I hope you do well with your decluttering efforts.

springdreams

Happy Birthday BloomingTasty and Nicki

Nanamia

Dashing in very very quickly before Cinderella o'clock to wish Blooming Tasty and Nicki a very very happy birthday. Hope you've both had a great day xxx

Nanamia

Fluffysox I'm so sorry I missed you on yesterday's post! Och I'm getting dreadful! We are super lucky and have fab neighbours who are dear friends, three couple in particular, the boys (loosely 40/54yrs) all fish. As you know my DH isn't in good health but they are brilliant with him. It's done him so much good specially in the last 16 months since DS went to Oz. They usually go local to us at locally fisheries, roughly April/Sept but have been looking at sea fishing to try this year! Think I'd feel better if DH tried it first with DS but I know that our friends will look after him I know it sounds a bit mean but I love a few hours peace (only a few otherwise I'd worry) we are together 24/7 usually The ladies have trips planned ready for the start of the new season too, it'd be rude not too xxx
Chrissy there's no such thing as cheap varifocals is there! The trouble with the online sites is I've found cos you have to wear them all the time you need to try them on. Catch 22 I'm afraid. Ooh lucky DD ha an early Easter present, bet she's done some giggling tho xxx
Mrs M bless you! what a lovely thing to say Fingers crossed for a very big win for you soon then. I love that your DH wants to keep hold of the beautiful stocking, I'd be praise indeed in my house Were the censoring the word lovely haha. Why? xxx
Pigpen I often buy a set of books and split them. Have done well in Costco in the past for sets of popular currents children's authors. I would be put out too. How blooming rude!
BBTHREE oho another serious case of man flu! There are some pretty horrible germs around at the moment, flooring people who are usually fit and strong. I am a very fussy eater but have managed to roughly stick to SW, 48.5yrs of never eating fruit or veg I've managed to turn around so there is hope xxx
Ruth it is very possible that you have read "Meet me under the mistletoe" because I'd already downloaded it- probably from your recommendation haha. 8" smaller corset oh my goodness that's unbelievable wow. Go girl Hope it's back quickly and that you love it xxx
Linky have ordered! oh you are clever thank you. Who would have thought that you'd got into an argument those blooming yanks would make a saint swear!!! Have fun tomorrow with your diy xxx
his missus wow you've had a most productive day. Well done you. xxx
Freespirit now you've explained it it doesn't sound half as bad I'm such a bore you know I can't think of anything like that that I'd like to do. I must be really boring and not very adventurous oh no now I'm making myself feel miserable haha.
Weirdly DH first phone arrived yesterday (with all this phone chatter) I'm not counting the emergency pay as you go in the glove compartment. He now has a very basic smart phone, teaching him to use it would try the patience of a saint. Slowly today we've mastered ringing and texting so not too bad. Will he remember in the morning? Only time will tell xxx