Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge...

jcr16

dee how are u ? not seen you on here in ages. hope all is well.

donnajt

Hello everybody, its been ages since I posted, DD has had some problems (anxiety and separation), school (although slow to respond) have been really good and fingers crossed dd's problems are behind her.

Just back from 2 gorgeous weeks in Turkey, popped into Tesco this evening and I cannot believe how expensive my weekly shop has risen in 14 days, treated myself to a cream scone (only cost 14p) so I shall be revising my shopping list and looking for more economical recipes to try and beat the credit crunch.

jrc - your son is beautiful, congratulations you clever thing

donna x

purpleivy

I was inspired by D & DD to 'shop from home' this Christmas. I started to think about Christmas cards, gift wrap etc etc. Instead of just going out and lobbing stuff in the trolley as I normally do, I went and checked what there was. I counted up how many cards that I needed (approx 100) and then went and found all the half packets kicking around in various places and also dug out some of the half made ones that had been abandoned. I was only short of about a dozen, so really felt able to do that.

I didn't shop from home for stamps though! I forgot to take the list of what I needed, so just guessed, as 2nd class stamps will ultimately go up in price!

Started to wrap up the stuff that I have got, used all the scraps for ds's stocking small gifts, ends of rolls for other larger items, some gift bags and boxes that I had forgotten that I have stashed away. I know there is a massive roll of paper in the attic, so I'm sure I won't have to buy any at all.

Then I went and looked in the attic again. I remembered getting a cheapie bathrobe for ds for his stocking, thought I'd better check what was there to go with the things I got last week. FOund some reduced price novelties from Lakeland sale last year (musical glitter christmas tree toy, etc) various stationery items, loads of bits and pieces I had simply forgotten that I had bought! Really hardly anything to get for the stocking now! More money not spent in December.

The house has been chaos for some time, not just since we packed everything away to have the extension done last year. I've really tried hard to get 'like with like' so that all gift wrap stuff is together, instead of some in this drawer, some in that box etc etc. This has helped to save money, as I didn't just go and buy as it was easier.

We're away for Christmas, but planning December and January's menus from what I have in as far as possible. Baking/menus etc I will try and do with stuff that I already have in, rather than choosing dishes that I don't have the ingredients for. THis will save some more money.

Hoping that all this will help the situation. I know we all get too much from time to time when it seems a good offer, but at least you sometimes have stuff to 'dip' into.

Yategirl

PI - interesting to read what you have been up to.. keep us updated with how you get on!

Dm and I decided that we would go a different route with christmas present wrapping this year - we are using newspapers for the wrapping and then DM got some red elastic cord to tie round the parcels, I got silver 'ribbon' and silver gift tags from tesco on a buy 2 get one free offer to tie round mine. I have started wrapping them and I have to say.. they look quite good!! My papers have come from other people who read newspapers every day (as we don't) so I have only had to buy the tags/ribbon which cost me about £3!

nice to be different sometimes plus the newspaper can be recycled once ripped off (our recycling collection won't take wrappingpaper)..

purpleivy

Newspaper is a great idea for larger presents in particular. I still have quite a lot of ribbon. Thanks for the idea. It's daft isn't it? Our recycling says no wrapping paper because of the sellotape issue, but I bet they wouldn't cast a second glance at newspapers scrunched up!

bellaquidsin

Oooo, I do love this thinking outside the box. Might get DD to save me some of the children's old comics for wrapping up their pressies in days to come, might be interesting, would certainly save a few pennies and cut down waste. I HATE waste.

For this time round like PI, I have pulled together all the scraps from previous years, but the paper that says 'Twinkle twinkle little star' is a bit twee for DGS 10. Suppose I could save it for DS 36 when his birthday comes round, wonder if he'd be amused?

Bella.

Yategirl

Bella - I did hunt around for some old comics but no success.. they are on my "keep" list for next year! As for the scraps - will they really notice the paper when all they want is inside it??

bellaquidsin

No Yategirl, they don't notice at all and even the most expensive wrapping paper get ripped off with gay abandon.

Not that I have EVER used expensive wrapping paper, you understand.

Bella.

D&DD

ooh where did this 'beast' appear from :rotfl:
Purple what a great idea :T I think we are all sorted in the stamps dept too though courtesy of the RM
About 5 years ago Woolies had this really nice gold,double width wrap with chubby father xmas' all over it.It was reduced to a penny a roll so we grabbed a few...5 years later we just found another 2 rolls still unopened in the loft :eek: I'm sick of the sight of the damned stuff :rotfl:
Gotta run DS3 is having a bit of an evening so have been trying to keep a fragile peace here *and not doing very well!!*
Back later to add some more thoughts..

Yategirl

lol Bella!!

Dee - i had a hoard of paper that lasted 2-3-4 years once.. it was awful!! Hope all calms down for you soon xx

have to admit that in all the excitement of newspaper wrappings.. i forgot that FC himself doesn't use the same paper as mummy.... arghhh! it seems I may have to buy some paper after all.... LOL!!!!