£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Verbatim wrote: »

Gosh I'm so impressed with your determination and energy. I wish I'd grown up in your house! It sounds like a lot of fun and joy. I think you're doing splendidly getting the Christmas you want at a better price! Love all the creative ideas coming up on your thread.
Excuse my short replies/comments; I'm always on my phone and a slow one finger typist.

I was sat next to a friend the other day and she was getting irritated with me typing on my phone so quickly while she did one finger typing :rotfl: . I love Christmas, so it's all worth it to me.

Cumbria_lass wrote: »

Loving all the ideas on your page TOPM , but to me I think we all stress ourselves out about Christmas far to much!

Oh I don't stress out, I love it! December is like one long holiday for me (my birthday is in December too).

XSpender wrote: »

When we still used to do adult presents I did themed hampers that look more expenive than they are so for BIL (who was recently single) I did an italian hamper with a cheap colander, pasta, pasta sauces and a couple of bottles of peroni one year, a similar indian themed one and for my step dad I have done a coffee one and a ginger themed one. I have also done bath ones and afternoon tea ones.

They were presented in a cut down box wrapped in christmas paper and covered in cellophane. Good presentatgion makes them look special.

I have also done the pots of gold with scratch cards and lottery tickets. I did Christmas cakes for a while but these work out expensive even with value ingredients.

I never spent more than £10-15 on each adult gift.

One of our favourite Christmas treats was a cardboard santa that my nana had got one year filled with small gifts. We loved it so much that she had to fill it every year and we got to dip into it before Christmas tea. It had little gifts like tights for my mum, pencils with my name on, a comb for my dad.

All this talk about christmas gifts has me thinking about the best present I had as a child and, apart from my record player, the only one I remember. It was a fabric doll my mum made by hand from a pattern in womans own with lots of individual outfits from a brownie outifit and a party dress to a nightgown and slippers. It must have taken her weeks to do when I was in bed. At 47, I still have it.

Love the themed hampers - I always end up going to town and spending too much when I do things like that. The doll sounds AMAZING. I made DC3 a doll a couple of years back but it was a waldorf one, which is rather simpler. And its hair has turned into dreadlocks . I have so many amazing gift memories that are tied up with the experiences I had with them - new sleeping bags (and being allowed to sleep in them under the tree all week), new knitting needles and wool (and learning to knit), craft sets, chocolate gift sets, favourite soft toys, Keypers (anyone remember those?!), lego sets... I could go on, but the key thing that sticks for me is it's the things that had value beyond the day itself that I remember, which is one of the prime drivers behind most of the things I buy for the DCs.

stoozie1

Sorry to hark back to a prior topic, i read regularly, but just caught up.

Re: the costings of making your own butter, I worked it all out recently for our family, and basically it depends which brand level of butter you buy and whether you would use the buttermilk. We make all our own butter, and then convert it to spreadable butter.

If you use Value/Smartprice butter and have no use for the buttermilk and dont buy the cream wholesale at Costco/yellow stickered, then bought butter is 5p/250g cheaper.

Otherwise HM wins, by varying amounts depending on the factors I just listed. Hope that's useful.

Cherryfudge

Now I want a sleeping bag under the tree for myself!

If you do the peg dolls, buy actual pegs ('dolly pegs') and make sure there's a hacksaw and some glue somewhere in the house so you can trim the bottoms of the pegs. I think if you do them at 45 degrees you should be able to make feet but you might need to go for flat bases and a cardboard stand underneath.

Treadingonplaymobil

Who was the hyacinth genius? Thank you. That's what everyone is getting for Christmas this year. Have just ordered 40 bulbs to be delivered (some for decorating around our house - much cheaper than pricey glass baubles or fancy table centrepieces), and after browsing Pinterest for inspiration I am planning on doing a charity shop trawl next week and planting them in various china, vintage pots etc. It will look very sweet and lovely and come in well inside the £120 I have budgeted in total for homemade gifts.

Also ordered Christmas eve PJs for the DC and new leggings for me/tshirt for DH - came to only £60 (HALF of last year's spend), and there was a good topcashback offer for new online shoppers, so made DH sign up and pay for it. Fingers crossed it comes through.

Have worked hard today, loads ticked off my endless lists, and feeling very pleased with making a start on the Christmas shopping. My only slight worry is that I'll forget what I've spent and overspend later because it's all spread out so much, but I am keeping a tight record so fingers crossed I won't be able to go into denial.

To do today
1. catch up with the ironing. Made a start, still have an ironing mountain.
2. email the other relative re visiting when we're in London. Done.
3. create chores list as discussed with DH last night. Done.
4. prep sourdough (second time this week, then I can have a week or more off from baking it!). Done.
5. finish planning advent calendar. Done.
6. plan homemade gifts - hyacinth bowls! Done!
7. start to plan stockings. Not done

To do this week
1. social media for website launch. Done.
2. redo SOA based on DH's current salary (he is still being promised pay rise next month). Done.
3. October YNAB prep. Done.
4. start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending. Ongoing
5. plan working time for October. Done.
6. check total spend for last month. This is all weird on YNAB because I moved the partnership card from a budget to a tracked account and it's sent my spending sums all screwy, so I'm not certain. Under £3,750, probably not under £3,500 is my best guess.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish. This is going well so far.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts.

emmie26

:eek: I've not been around for a few weeks and I've stepped back in to Christmas :eek:

You are so organised I'm jealous, I can't say I haven't been thinking about Christmas, but all I have done is write a list of things I want, I think it's because I haven't been able to buy things willy nilly. They are all small things but on my list I have, a new laundry basket, some mascara, some sundae glasses and gin glasses and a spray mop :rotfl: Santa is going to bring me all the things I can't afford for myself!

I'm going to have to get writing a list for other people

armchairexpert

The hyacinth idea is amazing! I'm going to come back to this thread and jot down lots of ideas. You've already reminded me that I meant to buy Big Girl a nice dictionary and had forgotten, so thank you!

Here is my low-cost home made contribution idea, and the thing I am getting for adults who aren't as close but I feel I should get something for: coffee facial scrub. It's literally pennies to make if you have some nice jars about. Recipe here: https://www.theholisticingredient.com/blogs/wholesome-living/105823622-diy-coffee-body-scrub-recipe

Honeysucklelou2

Glad the idea has worked for you. Using vintage china is brilliant! For the adults who live further away would a magazine subscription work? Present then lasts through the year.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 35: Day 1

Confession time: I made a huge booboo on my YNAB budget balancing at the start of this month, and now various transactions have been processed, the debt total is different to how it stood at the start of the month (actually lower, but with a correspondingly larger shortfall in the joint account for this month). It was purely bad maths - the totals are still the same, but the money is not where it should be (ie paid off the partnership CC rather than in the current account).

Debt total at at 1st October
Barclaycard £13,381.21
MBNA £485.63
Partnership card (the one I used Aug/Sept when the budgets didn't balance) £1,520.83
Tesco loan £20,292.35
Parental loan £20,000
Total £55,680.02

Debt total as at 8th October
Barclaycard £13,381.21
MBNA £485.63
Partnership card (the one I used Aug/Sept when the budgets didn't balance) £1,028.97
Tesco loan £20,292.35
Parental loan £20,000
Total £55,188.16

So that £500 debt reduction also reads as a £500 shortfall in the current account for this month, so all my grand plans of not needing to use the Partnership CC have rather flown out the window. I can trace exactly why it happened, but it gives me a headache to work out, so I'm not going to attempt to re-tell it for all of you. I could cover most of it with everything we have in savings (for things like car MOT, Christmas savings etc, I think there's £350 in the savings account) but given that actually we are in real terms no worse off than we were two weeks ago, I'm inclined not to, and to try to let those savings build up, since this Christmas is showing me how 'false' it is to have a budget that sort of balances but no actual savings.

Obviously my mission is to keep that partnership spend well under that £500 difference, so I start next month with a lower CC balance than I started this month, so things like cheaper food shopping, minimal family entertainment spends etc become even more pressing.

Right, that over with, let's move on to today.

DH is going food shopping today, and I must just take a moment here to be pleased at how well the food budgeting is going. Hard to be sure because of all the YNAB shenanigans last month, but I'm fairly sure we spent around £350 on food in September, an absolutely massive reduction. We are currently a week into the month and have so far only spent £55, and although the shop DH is doing today is a big top up of household stuff and things like herbs and all those things that seem to run out all at once, it's still only coming in at about £85. I'm so pleased at the reduction, and keeping fingers crossed we can keep it up for the whole of this month (and with no YNAB maths headache so I can actually have a clearer picture at the end of the month).

I'm feeling so much less stressed since making a conscious effort to slow down and lower my work expectations of myself. I'm not sure how that's going to pan out financially in the short term, but my mental health also needs to be a priority. I'm hoping the same business growth will still come, it might just take a tiny bit longer (weeks longer, not months, so not a huge impact in the grand scheme of things). I don't have as much work booked this month as I'd like to, but enough to keep paying my salary/expenses for November. I'd just like to get a little further ahead than that again!

In other news, I was chatting to the DCs about clubs last night and DC1 has decided to give up football for at least half a term after October, regardless of whether it clashes with another club (not sure yet whether it will). It only saves us £20 over two months, but every little helps.

To do today
1. catch up with the ironing (it'll be nice when this ISN'T on my list for maybe one day).
2. make a courgette cake to use up the last of the courgettes!
3. start to plan stockings.
4. stick to working during my working hours, not getting distracted by laundry/cooking/cleaning.
5. check library ebook situation and, if it's working fine, cancel Audible subscription.

To do this week
1. social media for website launch. Done.
2. redo SOA based on DH's current salary (he is still being promised pay rise next month). Done.
3. October YNAB prep. Done.
4. start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending. Ongoing
5. plan working time for October. Done.
6. check total spend for last month. This is all weird on YNAB because I moved the partnership card from a budget to a tracked account and it's sent my spending sums all screwy, so I'm not certain. Under £3,750, probably not under £3,500 is my best guess.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500. Currently budgeted at £3,349.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish. This is going well so far.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts.

emmie26

I tried YNAB and I couldn't get on with it. I use paper and pen, at the start of the month I write down all regular outgoings and then tick them off as they come out of the account. At the start of the month I know how much (little) I have to spend. I do use excel for my savings pots because it all goes in one saving account and gets a bit confusing but even that has got jumbled and my real life total doesn't match the spreadsheet, so I don't think there is an easy way.
Well done on the food spend, what's the secret?

missymoo81

Well done on the lower food shop! Groceries are always something we can bring down! I'm another one that couldn't get on with YNAB im either note pad and pan or excel now!