Three choices in life; Give up, Give in or Give all you've got!!

Verbatim

wot everyone else said!

please-let-me-be-lucky

Eeek Patanne, how very forceful of you!! I am well and truly disciplined :cool:.

You hit the nail on the head though about feeling guilty if I felt my Sister hadn't got what she wanted for the wedding due to money. She deserves the best and I'm happy I could help. If I was in a better financial position I would have gifted her some money towards the wedding, so paying back what I owe is the next best thing.

Did some more Christmas shopping this afternoon. Doubled up £15 of clubc@rd vouchers to get a 'free' £30 lego set from Mr T :j. Then bought some things (that were already reduced) in arg0s and because I spent just over £50 I got a £5 gift card free :T. MiL wants to buy those items off me to give to the boys, so effectively the £5 is for nothing! The biggie though is that I got the games console DS1 wants in a bundle with 3 games which was already a great deal (cheaper than the console on it's own :huh::huh:) but then with my double discount at work I got almost :beer:an extra £60 off too.

mummytogirls

Yay to the barginous presents PLMBL!!! xx

beanielou

Bargainous pressies indeed :j :j

AspiringButAnxious

The best Xmas present I ever got was a hamster probably also one of the cheapest! I have no idea what else I got that year — or for most of my childhood. My memories of Xmas are of my family playing board games together, good food and the general excitement of Santa having been. My sack/stocking was always my favourite part of the present getting, because I've always loved lots of little surprises.

I hope this assures you (and any other parents reading) that a happy Christmas is not directly proportional to the amount of money you spend. Cheap presents are often the most fun; the best foods are homemade cake, pudding and mince pies; being with family and taking time out from the stresses of everyday life is the most important and enjoyable part of Xmas. This was true throughout my teenage years as well (and teens are old enough to appreciate that presents cost money and parents have budgets — a lesson which should be taught ASAP, IMHO).

There are plenty of cheap (or free) things you can do to make Xmas magical: leave out a mince pie (and sherry) for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, watch Xmas films on TV (or borrow DVDs from friends/family), make gingerbread and cut out using homemade stencils, play pin the beard on Santa, hide sweets around the house and send kids on a treasure hunt... You deserve a happy Xmas, but don't buy into the consumerist propaganda that tells you spending lots of cash is the way to create one.

poohbear59

Well done on the bargains. I am very impressed

Sun_Addict

Some fab bargains there Lucky, very impressive.

brizzledfw

Good work Lucky..well done.

Nice post too Aspiring..

please-let-me-be-lucky

Thanks all :A.

Patanne I did buy some cold sore cream the other day and between taking that and ibuprofen to reduce the swelling on my tongue I'm coping.

Aspiring, I completely agree. Christmas to us is about the magic and making memories (for the boys and I at least ) more than the presents, but I still like to make sure the boys get some things too. I always get the best deals and ask relatives to buy from their lists too, so they get things they actually want. We have always told the boys that as there are so many children in the world now, parents have to make a contribution to Santa for whatever they can afford and then the presents are delivered accordingly. That explains why some children get lots and others don't get much. They know that we are not well off but they also know there are children who are in much worse situations and we try to help those less fortunate through things like the Christmas Shoe boxes etc.
Christmas to me is the decorating the tree, school nativity play, festive movies with hot chocolate, Santa's plate, sprinkling reindeer dust, spending time with loved ones and chilling out. Love it .

please-let-me-be-lucky

Evening! Quick update before bed.

Today has been a NSD :j. Snowed heavily through the night (I know this for sure as DS2 woke me at 1.30am ). It had all melted by this morning though, but it was in the minus temperatures so no one particularly wanted to go out. I did go to work tonight, but everyone else has been in all day.

DH was in an awful mood yesterday and constantly 'starving', he was very jerky in his sleep too so I'm amazed we made it through without a seizure.

Grandma is back in hospital .