What small dfw things are you doing this week? w/c 14/11

carrielovesfanta

LuckyPenny wrote: »

CLF make sure that he calls in an equally decent favour in return. How about they pay his fuel?

Oh he would definitely expect the fuel to be paid for. I'm not really happy because it's an 8 hour round trip. It's not safe if you ask me


I still can't get over the audacity of them asking!

1LuckyLady

Clf, That's cheeky! My oh would probably agree to it too!

YorkshireLass, I've always found talking about Christmas with Real Life friends difficult as we have very differing ideas of what we should spend on pretty much everything! One friend a couple of years ago told me that she'd bought everything that her 7yr old dd had put on her xmas lift (we are seriously talking 3 sides of a4 paper!) She'd spend more then £1000 each child on gifts and I thought I was letting my kids down. She'd put pictures on Facebook of their living room, piled high with presents that you couldn't even see the kids in the picture. We visited them the day after boxing day and I asked the dd about her gifts and she didn't tell me a single thing that she had been given, only talked about Santa not bringing this that or the other! :eek: My friend asked my kids what they'd got and they told her, then she asked what the best thing had been about Christmas and the answer made me smile, the eldest said the best thing had been that we'd had all the family staying over, we'd played games and that Daddy was off with them for another week

carrielovesfanta

1LuckyLady wrote: »

Clf, That's cheeky! My oh would probably agree to it too!

YorkshireLass, I've always found talking about Christmas with Real Life friends difficult as we have very differing ideas of what we should spend on pretty much everything! One friend a couple of years ago told me that she'd bought everything that her 7yr old dd had put on her xmas lift (we are seriously talking 3 sides of a4 paper!) She'd spend more then £1000 each child on gifts and I thought I was letting my kids down. She'd put pictures on Facebook of their living room, piled high with presents that you couldn't even see the kids in the picture. We visited them the day after boxing day and I asked the dd about her gifts and she didn't tell me a single thing that she had been given, only talked about Santa not bringing this that or the other! :eek: My friend asked my kids what they'd got and they told her, then she asked what the best thing had been about Christmas and the answer made me smile, the eldest said the best thing had been that we'd had all the family staying over, we'd played games and that Daddy was off with them for another week

I had to witness a similar gratuitous display last year. My OH's family have always been "wrapping paper rippers" IYSWIM which is not my family's tradition, but last year, I had to watch our niece tearing the paper of each item, then WITHOUT LOOKING dump then item into a bag WHILST reaching for the next thing.


She didn't even go back through the bag at the end! I asked if she liked her present from us and the answer was "which one was it?"


Fume...

Bobarella

Yorkshire thank you for the kind comment As Dave Ramsey says though regarding your friend 'dont try to keep up with the Joneses, their broke!' I know easier said than done. I think half these people don't start with the premise of 'What can I afford?' but 'What does x y or z want?' I'm sure your children, similar to Lucky Lady have entirely different values. And at 18 and late teens I'm sure your sons appreciate far more the kind acts you do every day like giving them lifts and making sure they can get to see their friends.

I'm with you Determined I like the Mins mantra ' The best things in life aren't things'


Carrie How rubbish! And I agree an 8 hour round trip isn't safe. I did it myself once or twice to see family (who can't be bothered to see me) and I found it utterly draining. 4 hours of motorway driving each way is gruelling. Can you work on him to realise if just isn't very safe? At the very least having two drivers who can share the load is better.

determined_new_ms

I have said to lo she can ask for 3 things for Xmas (one from me, oh and mum) every time a new want comes around I ask her to decide what she wants to take off the list....

1LuckyLady

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

I had to witness a similar gratuitous display last year. My OH's family have always been "wrapping paper rippers" IYSWIM which is not my family's tradition, but last year, I had to watch our niece tearing the paper of each item, then WITHOUT LOOKING dump then item into a bag WHILST reaching for the next thing.


She didn't even go back through the bag at the end! I asked if she liked her present from us and the answer was "which one was it?"


Fume...

I'm fuming with you!! CLF.
Mine don't get to open them all in one go, Its an all day kind of thing here, at least an hour between pressies, that way they've always got time to really see and play (and appreciate) with what they were given. Its always worked well for us in the past. Now they are getting older its a bit more difficult as some of there presents are things like calendars, diaries, clothes etc rather then toys/games, Even so they won't get it all in one go.

Dnms, I think your plan is great, means she can really think about what she wants the most!

1LuckyLady

Afternoon all,

The rest of the families just left us, so the kitchen looks like a bombs hit but I'm in need of 10minutes peace with a cuppa and catchup here
Other small things,
* Bones from chicken into the slowcooker to make a stock
* Apple pie I forgot to take last week for sunday lunch was taken out of the freezer & eaten up
* Made a date cake using my well OOD dates
* Fixed pan lid holder onto cupboard door to hold roll up table mats
* Put 4 spice racks that I got from groupon in the summer into the cupboards, the quality was rubbish and I should have sent them back but didn't as we were in a right mess with the kitchen refurb, so they've been put in the cupboards today but going to use them to hold the roll of bin bags/food waste bags etc instead
* Played Trivial pursuit with the kids

Right cuppa nearly drunk and I need to tackle an ongoing problem with talkttalk so I better get on! I didn't get anywhere using the online chat so I've used :money: resolver tool to complain

determined_new_ms

My small things for today:

Tidied hse
Did a load - need to hang it up
Did 1/2 of the shopping for the next 3 weeks. Will do the rest tomorrow when passing aldi. Should come in at £75 ish. Got several ys items and took shopping bags
Ate lo for lunch. Madam had 1/3 pack of noodles and hm rice pudding
Roasting a big joint of pork. Should be 3 meals and a few sandwiches
Re list some Fleabay items
Used a bath comforter
Blow drying my hair was so quick and easy now I've had 2/3s chopped off!
Make oh's and madams lunches for tomorrow
Entered all receipts for last week in spending diary. All reconciled with cc statement

Have a bit of a headache that's been lingering all day so going to have an early night when madam goes to bed. Hope you've all had a relaxing day x

JHiggins91

Evening all.

Used to be fairly active on this for a few months but sadly fell away. I'm back now (internet back) so thought I ought to post and get myself motivated on the road to debt-freeness again!

J

DawnW

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Yorkshire as you know I've been changing my attitude to Christmas and gifts for some time now (in fact for my birthday I've asked people to donate to the refugee crisis fund rather than getting me cards or gifts!). But I know I have questioned and struggled to know if it's the right thing to not spend money on things at Christmas. For me I have come to the conclusion it is. I will spend £50 each on my adult children, probably less than £30 on madam. So I think in all probability I will spend less than £200 including rood for the day. I try not to let the consumerism and guilt of not spending more out of my mind. I believe what I am doing is right x

No answers but just wanted to say we can do things differently x

Absolutely agree DNMS!
Been awol for the last day or two as I have been feeling a bit low and wanted to avoid moaning! :rotfl:
Anyway, much better today, cold nearly gone, weather still rubbish, but we all have to put up with that, don't we?

Today's list:
Not moneysaving, but I have decided to rejoin Weightwatchers online as I have put on almost a stone this year :eek:
More or less stuck to it today :T
Put winter duvet on bed, and changed bedding while I was at it
Tidied spare room ready for cleaning as GD1 will be staying next weekend (most of my sales stock lives there, and it was all over the place - and littlest GD had been playing in there as well, and tipped the huge box of lego out)
Dog walk
Put washing out, though it didn't dry much
Did another load, while it was doing my elderly washing machine started to make terminally ill noises :eek: OH retrieved a button from the filter (amid much swearing luckily it was from one of his items :rotfl:) Hope this has done the trick, but I will be a bit wary next time I use it :eek:
Scrapings from fridge for lunch as I needed shopping :eek:
Shopping now done in Lidls
Cooked pot roast pheasants for dinner (enough left for other meals). Pheasants were gifted to DD, who passed them on to us as she already has loads and her freezer is full, so apart from a few veg and a glass of wine, it was a free meal, and a very nice one too
Managed to avoid having the heating on downstairs earlier (despite it being really cold and miserable), but the wood stove is alight now

Still to do:
2 ebay parcels to pack
Washing to drape on airer

Have a nice evening everyone