Boxing Day - What small debt free things will you do today?

Bobarella

Hello Again

Lovely busy thread today

Cally - how odd of your neighbour. Some people have no sense of others around them.

12 month- well done. I feel the same. No let up in the battle of the budget.

Princess - that's how I became a womble...it's a slippery slope from that to chasing coupons round a car park good luck getting the invites done..

Rising - ouch that's a big plumbers bill. I hope you can get back to filling up your EF soon. It's so good for peace of mind isn't it.

Determined - wow impressed that you've stripped your turkey carcass already good going!

Atomic- loads of good actions there well done.

Shopholics-well done, leftovers are great anyway I find. .good to have stuff to create meals from.

La E - have a nice time away at your in laws. We go tommorow.

Maria - you need to take it easy. Christmas has probably been a lot of work for you. Agatha tonight though! Now feet up.

FunBrum- using other people's supplies for a few days has to be the main reason to go visiting right

Mark - hope your kids got some good bargains with their money.

Ally -well if it's any consolation I'm sure your not the only one with a sore head today.

LegoMum - sounds like a good using it up lunch. Hope you enjoy your chill afternoon.

We did venture out earlier in the end as I realised we needed hand wash. Son also wanted to go and look for bargains to spend his Christmas money on.
We took some crisps from home, & a bottle of water plus some of each of our christmas sweets before we left to avoid temptation. Also as it was so windy we took the small kite with us to fly in the park on the way home.
I went to Mr S and got my £20 worth of nectar points added on. Have just under £25 now which is a nice chunk. May use that to make another PAD and defer the money from my grocery budget.
Whilst out I found a 2p brand match coupon.
Son spent £3 on a dvd but was happy to leave the rest in his wallet. The toys r us sale was lousy. Hardly any items in the sale at all and if they were discounted by £3 to £10. They obviously don't really need to shift the stock.
We had a nice walk , flew the kite then came home for more cold Buffett food. Honestly, I work with food so understand how to portion, and we still have too much. It annoys me really. I don't think anything much will be wasted, maybe the odd scrape of dip that has gone hard but no meat or veg. But it makes me realise how hard it is for the average consumer to know what to buy.

Looking forward to a relaxing evening and seeing the new Agatha Christie.

Bob

lego_mum

Clf, that sounds like my inlaws house! The heat was always ridiculous.

Just spent half an hour online looking for what Ds1 wanted to buy with his Christmas money for his gran, ordered online & used a cashback site & reward points also. It was £30 when he was looking before xmas but he's just paid £22.86 and hopefully 73p cashback, he's absolutely thrilled

Bob, we portioned up pretty well too, for us its the same family members who come every week for Sunday lunch so we stick to that pretty much with a few extras like the roast potatoes (I never make them but my sis does for us on Xmas day) and bread sauce for the DH. The extras that we buy are the nice cheeses, pate, crackers etc but they will all be gone by New Years. We have had 2 bits of waste, dh's dish of melon that had been left uncovered overnight and had dried out and a bit of avocado that had gone very brown. Anyone know how to keep avocado from browning?

Bobarella

Carrie - sorry we must have been posting at the same time..I think you made the right call on the turkey. Life's too short to risk food poisoning. It sounds hideous being heated to that degree. Is your MIL quite old?

LegoMum - I don't know how to keep avo from browning but I wouldn't throw it if it had. It still tastes good if you smash it up with oil and lemon juice it's a great toast topper with chorizo or bacon...
Well done to your son on his bargains and cash back.

carrielovesfanta

Bobarella wrote: »

Carrie - sorry we must have been posting at the same time..I think you made the right call on the turkey. Life's too short to risk food poisoning. It sounds hideous being heated to that degree. Is your MIL quite old?

No worries Bob! They aren't old, but both m-i-l and f-i-l (particularly) have quite a few health problems, and f-i-l is quite immobile at times so he gets very cold. Although, there are a distinct lack of thick jumpers in that house IMHO

Bobarella

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

No worries Bob! They aren't old, but both m-i-l and f-i-l (particularly) have quite a few health problems, and f-i-l is quite immobile at times so he gets very cold. Although, there are a distinct lack of thick jumpers in that house IMHO

Ah right that's a bit different isn't it..must cost them a fair bit though. Have to let them get on with it though I guess.

Candy0107

Hi all,

Happy Boxing Day, hope everyone is OK ? Hugs to those who need them.

Today I have/will:

• meals from stores - leftovers are going into a pie tonight
• checked online banking - no change
• checked investments and re-invested
• checked onepoll - no surveys available
• read papers online
• charged phone via the tv
• had to go to town to buy emergency underwear and jeans....our washing machine isn't working so i have run out ! i used gift vouchers for the underwear, so they didn't cost me anything
• signed up with a local restaurant to see if they are dishing out any vouchers
• looked at the sales and realised that i would much rather be debt free next December rather than having yet another gift set lying around
• low spend day - only jeans (£14.99) and pastry for the pie (£1.10), and 2x carrier bags (£0.10)
• hubby paid for the parking

Think that's about it, must finish watching this episode of extreme couponers and must go and make my first pie !

Take care all,
Candy xxx

crazy_cat_lady

Evening all
Still enjoying the Christmas that I was expecting to be rubbish but has been brilliant. DH is still home - still doing well and so he's going to come on holiday tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly he (and I) both improved with a few days break from each other.
We're off to Cumbria tomorrow - looking forward to some more quality time with the family, and I hope that I've done the majority of the spending before we go.
Today I have:
done a shop at Mr S using coupons and getting bonus points (to get stuff to take away on holiday)
almost finished my latest crochet project
had a lie in until 8am
made coronation chicken, pulled pork sandwiches and roast dinner pie from our mountains of leftovers
only sale shopped at Mr S, and online at h0bbycraft. Got some stuff for my latest bit of crafting etc.
gotten a bit obsessive with our new smart energy meters and minimising energy use.
spent quality time with my family watching tv for free.
I'm enjoying having not that much to do after the manic nature of the past week or two.
Hope everyone is well.

DawnW

Evening all
Chaos here, we always have a big family party here on Boxing Day. There were 16 of us today :eek: I have tonnes of leftover food, despite DS and both DDs taking some home with them.

I have put away all the perishables, put the dishwasher on for the first load, and collapsed with a coffee for a quick look on here. I will get up and do some 'proper' washing up in a minute as my 'posh' cutlery needs doing and I don't want OH to shove it in the dishwasher :eek:
The house looks like a disaster zone - I have collected up the wrapping paper and other recycling, but a proper clean will be needed tomorrow.

Not much done on the moneysaving front:
NSD
No heating on and no wood burner as it is ridiculously warm
Kids entertained for free at the park after opening their presents

Better get on with the rest of that washing up, as I want to watch the new Agatha Christie later too!

lego_mum

Bobarella wrote: »

LegoMum - I don't know how to keep avo from browning but I wouldn't throw it if it had. It still tastes good if you smash it up with oil and lemon juice it's a great toast topper with chorizo or bacon...
Well done to your son on his bargains and cash back.

Bob, I'd have stuck them both into a smoothie and used them up but unfortunately it was DH who binned them both. I'm liking the sound of it with bacon though!

CCL Great to hear that you are having a good Christmas, hope you have a fab holiday!

Ratison

Hello all,

I'm having an unexpected few days of no heating and no hot water after a boiler breakage on Christmas Eve. We can manage without until someone can come and fix it on Monday. So I'm saving money on hot water and heating, but will be spending it on the replacement part. We're lucky to have family close to use the shower!

I've had a lovely Christmas with lots of food and some lovely thoughtful presents from very kind and generous friends and family. I know this time of year is so materialistic, but its lovely to share gifts with people - and most importantly, spend lots of quality time with loved ones.

I'm undecided on sales shopping. There are a few new things I'd like, but I don't think I need them (new vacuum being top of the list). Will have a look and see if I can use some of the vouchers I have from surveys. If anyone has any vacuum recommendations I'd love to hear them.

Hope everyone is having a lazy Christmas weekend. Lots of love to all.