NST December: Frugal festivities

Shortie

Evening all. A busy and productive day for me but spends occurred and are being added for dog training classes :undecided

Today ended up being such a late evening that a fast food take out also happened

Things to be greatful for today:
- Reconcilliation
- Progress on the house
- Downtime vegging with the kids in front of the computer

Take care all xx

WelshKitty85

Hi everyone!

SFD here. Mainly because I was in work and the weather was too horrendous to leave the office!

Budgets are currently:
Groceries - £83.65/£200
Fuel - £49.73/£80
Entertainment - £15/£75

littleskintdragon

justforme im in south Wales too, managed to put my airer outside, (hung one side over the door handle so that it didnt fall or fly away) anyway the clothes were almost dry last night
the magic reindeer was on a channel yesterday, looked lovely. Dh and ds watched it i saw a few mins. I might get it if i go near a £land, it'd be nice for them for xmas. Im doing a mini (cheap) xmas eve box this year for the 1st time.

calling the cashback didnt take that long tbh, compared to some!!

bob thanks! Im petrified! :-/

Spendy day yest, dd went to town with her friends, i was in town too, its so small you can see one side from the other. I promised to give her some money to buy her own xmas presents for me, dh and ds. So she got ds a plastic tool set, a lynx for dh, and told me that dh has my present sorted so she spent the rest on a dvd for her boyfriend!! Lol (she's 10!!) it was only £2.99 bless her.

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
Sorry I didn't check in yesterday - things got on top of me mood and tired wise. And my coping strategy is to have an early night and stay out of everyone's way. I slept well but have woken up with a sore throat, which probably means I'll be grumpy again today.
Should be a NSD apart from petrol which I am desperate for.
Things I am grateful for today
Not being too badly affected by storm Desmond
A good night's sleep
Being out of debt this close to Christmas

dolly84

Hope everyone has stayed safe in the storm.

DD's sleepover went off well and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I paid some cash into the bank yesterday and paid £50 into my car expenses account, £100 into the EF and £70 off the debt. I'm feeling very organised and on top of things, I have a few tiny bits left to get for Christmas presents and two cards then I'm done, I'm going to post my cards over the next few days and then I only have the wrapping to do.

Yesterday I bought the kids two sealed money tins for £1 each, they are for Christmas and I am going to suggest they put money in from January 1st until 31st then we will open them.

DH did a bit of decorating yesterday, it was just refreshing some paint in the hallway but it looks better now. DS's football has been cancelled again, poor kid he is totally fed up about it. I'm not sure what we are doing, if you aren't spending then the options are a bit limited in this weather which I am sure is why so many of us in this country are in debt, if we could get outside more to do other things we wouldn't be spending someone elses money in the shopping centres.

Yesterday I put the Christmas decorations up, we have two big trees, one in the lounge bay window and one in the french doors at the back of the house. In hindsight I should have done it today as the kids were super tired from Friday night and I had to do it pretty much on my own.

short_bird

Yesterday, grateful for:
The roof staying on and no further water marks on my ceiling. Substantial roof work needed in rented flat.
Friends.
Posh toasted sandwiches

Today may be more of the same

Bobarella

Hi All

Dolly - Glad the sleep over went well. You do sound very organised with all the pots.

LSD - that's nice that your 10 year old can go shopping on her own around the town. It is great for independence and understanding a budget. She sounds like she did very well.

CCL - hope you are feeling better today?

Shortie - it's nice to have a bit of a chill out isn't it.

WK - well done on your NSD

Short Bird - I'm intrigued about posh cheese sandwiches. Do tell more

Super windy night here..woke up to find 1 man's shoe in our front garden. Suspect it was blown there. Hopefully not off of the man's foot at the time
Have brought the Christmas tree in from the garden and will let son decorate it later. It's just a little one but it's managed to survive a year so far so 2 Christmases for just £10 as that's what it cost. The nice thing is it has grown a little bit too so very value for money

I'm making the Christmas Cake finally this afternoon, which is a nice thing to get in the mood a bit.

Having a chill out afternoon other than making the cake. Then doing a roast pork dinner for tonight. Reserving some of the pork so we can have a rice and beans meal with it on Monday. Yum.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Bob

apple_muncher

I've not posted much (yet!) this month - have a dodgy internet connection on the device I tend to use.

I was mulling over what I want to achieve next year, with a few ideas (okay, just two, but hey! that's a plural number) bouncing around. Then I read both of the the following and have decided that next year I want to be more grateful and thankful.

"Gratitude, however, goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy." — Henry J.M. Nouwen

Fmess

chocolatelover - yay to getting your deposit back


lsd - well done on all the cashback


calling - your day of resting after the decorating sounds lovely


ccl - hope you are feeling better?


apple - nice quotes


Yesterday was a spendy day as did the food shopping and went out for a Christmas meal. It was a spendy evening but not too bad as my friend kindly gave me a lift and then gave me some money for a taxi, even though she only went a short distance in the taxi.


Today has been SFD number 4. I have come down with a sore throat and hoping its not tonsillitis. I stayed in bed until lunchtime and have spent the afternoon on the sofa, except for putting up the Christmas tree quite slowly. Hoping to have plenty of SFDs this week as I have all my food in and petrol in the car.


Today I am grateful for:
1.) good friends
2.) having food in the house so I don't need to go out
3.) having the company of my animals

black_cat

Glad to see that people seem to have survived Desmond's visit. It's certainly calmer here.
Three things to be grateful for:

• Homemade blackberry and apple crumble
• Friends
• Warm suede fur-lined boots (bought last year in the sale)

Here's to a good week ahead :beer: