What small moneysaving things will you do this week? W/C 18 December

foxgloves

Morning all,
Oh dear, Purplefairy, what a night! Take care of yourself today. Stress can produce all sorts of peculiar & worrying symptoms.
Today won't see me achieve too much on the home economies front as I have people coming round this afternoon for some IT training.
*Not going out so an NSD.
*Bake tin of festive biscuits.
*Vacuum downstairs & have a good tidy.
*Jacket potato night - mr f is using various l/os from freezer to make an Epic Man Stew & I'm defrosting a black bean chilli to go on mine. Always worth freezing those extra portions.
*Update grocery shopping list as not much festive stuff to buy now.
*Decide on next knitting project.....it will involve using up my yarn stash, though, so no spend.
*A little bit of free exercise trotting down to the post box.
*Enjoy more of the nice Christmassy pile of magazines gifted to me by my Mum & sister.
*Aim to do a couple of surveys as am very close to cash-out on Ipsos.
I need to update budgets too & swap some funds around, but with the training session scheduled later, I will have to make budget stuff a priority job for tomorrow.
Take care all,
F x

La_escocesa

Hi everyone,

1LL - So sorry to hear your sad news - thinking of you and your family. :grouphug:
Purps - SLOW DOWN!!! That sounds like a scary night for you... :grouphug:
DNMS - thanks for the kick off yesterday! Hope your DD has a good birthday. Same day as my friend from school :rotfl:

I've just got a day and a half left of work for the year!! V busy tonight as out 7-8 but still need to pack for holiday. Then tomorrow I'm out with the parents who are down visiting and then it's holiday time on Thursday afternoon! :T

Small things wise:
- Found a frozen croissant in the freezer for brekkie
- HM noodle pot for lunch with leftover chicken :cool:
- not thought about dinner but will be passing sainsburys at 8pm so all is not lost... OH may well ask for a take away though and I will struggle to resist :rotfl:
- Totalled up everything we have pre-booked for holiday so I know roughly where we are so far :think:
- Will transfer some £££ to free-to-use-abroad card :cool:
- Try to find the time to finish niece's hat...Just the fiddly bits left... :think:

Hope you all have a lovely time over Christmas!! This year has been pretty c rap for us so I am looking forward to seeing the back of it! :T Catch up with you soon!

determined_new_ms

Hi guys - just popped on quick before heading off to madam's nativity :heartpuls

Purps take care lovely

I had 1 client cancel on me so I sloped off to WFH

nipped into Mr T and got some peppers & toms ys and also picked up a pair of skinny trousers and a shirt in the sale for £8 & £4 :money: That's my little outfit for Friday sorted

dinner is a Mexican feast as per dd's request so made refried beans - Foxgloves how did you get on with your recipe? I found a cracker that's only 2 ingredients! Will forward if you fancy? - & wraps last night. We will have lo brownies & cream from Sunday. DD says she's ok without a cake, we'll see....

did a bit of a mammoth tidy up of ds as it was shocking.

madam to have a early bath and bed tonight. She is absolutely exhausted and needs a break. Last night and today she has been crying and wanting to cancel any activities left for the next week, saying "I'm too tired" :A

usual washing blah blah blah...

Hopefully vikings & knitting after a lovely long soak in the bath!

DawnW

Afternoon all
PF, hope you are ok, take care
ILL, So sorry to hear of your loss

Phew, DD1 and her two little girls have just gone home (arrived yesterday afternoon), plus DD2 came for lunch with baby. The two girls were very sweet with the baby, and loved being allowed to hold him
Pancakes for kids breakfast (urgent request :rotfl:)
Park with kids after breakfast. The schools round here haven't broken up yet (they live in a different county, and broke up last Friday), so they had the zip wire thingy to themselves
I have since been to the post office, and to get some more painkillers for OH, and now I have collapsed in a heap, with a glass of champagne no less Well, it is nearly Christmas and I am absolutely whacked out after the hospital thing and then two really full on kids (and to be honest, DD1 is pretty full on as well :rotfl:)
Cleaned up the dining room a bit after a messy few meals :rotfl:
Popped into Iceland and got a few bits, using money on my bonus card (saved change throughout the year, I had £21, even though I don't go in there that often). There wasn't much in there on my list, so I spent less than half of it.
Must finalise my shopping list ready for Thursday, when I hope to have time to go. It isn't a long list.
Last (I think) of pre- Christmas visitors coming tomorrow :cool:
Claimed a £10 Amazon voucher from a survey site
Dinner tonight will be some leftover cold chicken and oven chips!
Will cook up the chicken carcase with some veg for stock, as that isn't very onerous, and will get it out of the way!
Early night needed, as I want to whizz around with the hoover before friend arrives tomorrow morning!

FatVonD

I'm exhausted just reading all that, Dawn!

I've been over to my mum's today, we went for our usual fish and chip lunch and then to do her shopping. I tidied all her tins so she can see what she's got, it looks all very Sleeping with the Enemy :rotfl:

I'm now going to make a giant Yorkshire pudding filled with mashed potato and the half price peppered beef I bought from work (sliced really thinly, yummy!) with gravy. I have everything for making that so no spends required.

Back to work tomorrow for four days, I need to check what time I start, fingers crossed its a late one and I don't catch the school traffic.

datlex

For me this is probably one of the most expensive weeks of the year. Though it is not a financial worry as was all saved for and I actually have not spent all the funds I had saved nor my weekly spends fund. In a short while, I'll be making the first contribution to next year's fund. Nevertheless, I still try to do some small things. Today for example I used my free hot latte at Greggs rather than paying for a drink.

Lottebear

Hello All,

Fully stocked here, for the next couple of weeks and I'm not planning on shopping until Christmas is over and done with!

Gifts are all wrapped and some given out.

Taking my Mum to the hospital for her op tomorrow hopefully home by lunch time, my aunt isn't well either so I have offered to drive her to the Drs if needed, I am the only driver in the family for a few weeks.

Read the meters to keep bills accurate

My broadband deal ended although it seems cheaper than the other tariffs on offer but it might be worth a call and see if they can improve the offer.

Get DD through the last day of term tomorrow.

PurpleFairy26

1LL I hope you managed some sleep. Thanks for all your good wishes. I feel better but still not 100% I’m off today and meeting a friend for lunch so that will help although I’ve not had the best nights sleep, but hoping that means I’ll sleep well tonight.

Other things for today:
Check banking, update sheet
Wrap Dundee cake I made yesterday
Post letter to tax office, will pay extra to guarantee delivery. Annoying but they are telling me I’ll be fined if it’s not there by Boxing Day. Obviously no one will be in after Friday (I assume) so don’t want to be caught out.
3 things from supermarket I couldn’t get yesterday
Collect order for little biz and deliver to two customers.
Phone School and complain - they sent a text at 4pm last night saying that the children wouldn’t be back from their school trip today until 4pm. Handily I’ve a days holiday booked but normally small is in after school club which wouldn’t collect her at 4 and I’d be stuck. They just assume no one works :mad: I feel I just need to make a point out of principle
Wrap last couple of presents
More tidying

Right off to try and done some useful jobs before the smalls wake up. Enjoy your day folks. Have a great holiday La E

determined_new_ms

Morning yippee to it being Wednesday & my day off :j

1LL wow 2 hours sleep :eek: blimey woman how have you survived???!

FVD fingers crossed as requested

Lotte Bear totally hear you re getting little one through last days. Madam is on her last legs!

Right I feel now I can relax after all the pre-Christmas build up. I am wfh tomorrow and will finish a bit earlier so I can pick up madam I now don't need to do anything unless I want to until Christmas day :beer:

Today:

* read martin's email
* checked banking
* Might go into town. Battling desire to get a top with not wanting to spend any cash! If I do think I'll catch the bus
* might go to the allotment but might not as well! Just checked the forecast and it looks good so think I'll go later and dig over nd plant onions and garlic :-)
* need to portion up and freeze refried beans mmmmm
* oh having lo fajita for lunch
* want to go for a run. Might do it after dropping madam off at the school disco at 5 and get oh to pick her up at 6

Ahhhhhh relaxing

FatVonD

All the finger crossing worked, I don't start until midday, my favourite kind of day

I need to log onto my bank account and move some money over, I am disbursing on a daily basis on Amazon at the moment to pay for daily food spends (which was my plan, my part time wages pay all the DDs but I need to make enough on top for food.) Today I just need to buy cat food and some cleaning products.

I will load the dishwasher before work, DS has concocted a pasta dish while I've been asleep!

Uniform is clean and ready to go and I will pick up a couple of presents I ordered from Arg0s after work, a little bit of wrapping and then I am DONE!

I've not done much in the way of shopping for Christmas, it's only a roast after all, isn't it? I will throw in a starter and a nice pudding but everyone is too stuffed to eat much in the evening, I will just buy some nice hand carved ham and bread and make sandwiches, maybe some snacky bits but I can leave all that until the last minute. Watch this space for the panic when everything sells out :rotfl: