Only freedom will do

edinburgher

I have had to put the sulze on hold to next weekend, not enough stock pots (now there's a 1st world problem!)

In real life moneysaving news, I have withdrawn 12p from TCB and slightly skint rellies have suggested no presents for adult siblings and a £20 cap for children. Not fussed either way as we budget for these things and it's nice to give the odd gift, but should save us £100/year or thereabouts.

AlexLK

For the past few years we've made Christmas gifts for people. So far Mrs K has painted pictures of family dogs / houses and landscapes and I've made wooden toys, photo frames and restored small pieces of furniture. Best of all it's a really cheap way of doing Christmas and seems to go down really well.

ourcornercottage

AlexLK wrote: »

For the past few years we've made Christmas gifts for people. So far Mrs K has painted pictures of family dogs / houses and landscapes and I've made wooden toys, photo frames and restored small pieces of furniture. Best of all it's a really cheap way of doing Christmas and seems to go down really well.

I made all mine last year too. Hampers for everyone. In fact I'm starting on the sloe gin this week . That always goes down very well and miniocc has already foraged the sloes and they are in the freezer in preparation

AlexLK

ourcornercottage wrote: »

I made all mine last year too. Hampers for everyone.

Forgot about hampers, we've done a few of those.

ourcornercottage wrote: »

In fact I'm starting on the sloe gin this week . That always goes down very well and miniocc has already foraged the sloes and they are in the freezer in preparation

We all know whose house to call on at Christmas time, now. :beer:

ajmoney

My mum introduced some new ideas to our Christmases about 12 years ago. Instead of buying random gifts we had to get each other something that cost £1 or less and something that was either homemade or free. It brought some fun and excitement back into our Christmas celebrations and present buying and maybe an idea if you still want to enjoy the spririt of Christmas. It takes a bit of thought, especially if you don't cheat and go to £ shops but we love it.

PositiveBalance

Well done on selling the flat, Ed! :beer:

I'm in the middle of trying to buy myself...absolute nightmare! :eek:

I may need to get myself a new thread if it ever goes through. I still have some debt but will also be sorting out the house and mortgage as well. Most of my friends live over here now. Do you think I'll be able to move next door to you guys? Who makes the rules? I will have a mortgage out on my thread, after all!

That's if I don't have half the property professionals in my area strung up! :mad: :mad: :mad:

I'll let you know. :rotfl:

misscousinitt

Ah the dreaded Chinese Supermarket - difficult to resist the goodies contained therein!

Soup sounds great - hope you enjoyed it.

MCI

edinburgher

ajmoney wrote: »

It takes a bit of thought, especially if you don't cheat and go to £ shops but we love it.

That sounds like a lot of fun AJM, although I quite like the £ shop, it's a great place to pick up cheap preparedness supplies like camping kit/foil blankets/instant coffee. Oh wait, that sounds like we celebrate crazy prepper Christmas, we totally don't!

PositiveBalance wrote: »

I'll let you know. :rotfl:

Keep me posted PB, I think the stability of owning your own place will work well for you

Ps. Don't worry too much about having other debts, a lot of people have some unsecured debts on top of their mortgage and cope just fine.

misscousinitt wrote: »

Ah the dreaded Chinese Supermarket - difficult to resist the goodies contained therein!

Soup sounds great - hope you enjoyed it.

MCI

The soup was fantastic, easily one of the best couple of soups I've ever made :T

Then again, between HM beef stock, slow caramelised onions, reducing and actual cooking time, it was on the hob for c. 10 hours and probably cost £13. If you were to make this in advance for a group dinner to celebrate something this would be fine, but it definitely won't make it into my regular rotation :rotfl:

My cooking challenge was to make it in the most convoluted way possible (Michelin starred style) so that I had a frame of reference to compare it to when I sped up production time with tweaked recipes in future.

Mrs E made a lot of appreciative noises!

turtlemoose

great news on the house (I have been reading but not posting), you really don't hang around once you've decided to do something! and the soup sounds amazing. Weren't you tempted by a bag of chicken feet at the Chinese supermarket??

edinburgher

Has anyone else read the newspaper articles/threads discussing the S123 account fee increase to £5/mth? :mad: I suppose that the demise of free banking is probably close at hand (we used to be paid c. £3/mth + interest for giving them our custom).

Realistically, we are likely to reduce the notional amount of cash that we hold and move more into P2P. Not entirely happy with that as it increases the level of risk associated.

Not particularly liking the prospect of a return to current/savings account tarting, I would have been a lot happier if they had left things as they were.

R@tesetter account topped up with £30, lent out straight away at 6.1%. P2P monies are now up to c. £1,900, the plan is to get to £2,200 and then assess how things are going. I have pencilled in an average return of 6.5% before tax, split between a couple of lenders. I'm aware that there are higher yielding options out there, but this will do for now.

I have to admit that I am quite liking the dribs and drabs of money returning during the course of the month, maybe I am a closet divident investor?