What small moneysaving things will you be doing this CHRISTMAS week? W/C 25/12

foxgloves

Hello Money Savers,
Fairly average sort of day but am keeping the money saving faith:
*Went out for a walk....not too much fuel as just over into neighbouring county. Just £3 car park charge for all day so v reasonable.
*Had a coffee each in the cafe but used our personal spends, so no hit to budget. Snuck in contraband biscuits from home which probably saved an additional fiver being spent on cake.
*Called in to Waitrose for 1 item we forgot to put on shopping list. Free coffees. Lots of YS items around throughout the shop, but the best deals were actually just good offers on the endbof aisles. All Ryvitas half price, some branded crisps at 80p for a multi-pack, etc. Not tempted by the plethora of YS items. They are only bargains if it is stuff I need.
*A few more leftovers incorporated into lunch today.
*Not going out tonight. We used to go out for a curry on NYE but our favourite Indian restaurant closed so we are ordering a takeaway instead..
...a rare treat these days. Expenditure will come from our Leisure/Entertainment pot, so won't affect our budget. Haven't bought in any extra booze. We have a bottle of wine & mr f had various craft beers for Christmas & there is plenty of home made blackberry liqueur in the pantry.
*Dropped the 2 Ziffit parcels off for collection. Looking forward to the £89 payment.
*Bake bread. Just on its 2nd proving.
*All free leisure for rest of the day: film lined up for tonight, enjoying my book (beautiful hardback from charity shop....looks untouched) & continue knitting the back of my jumper - a long project, this one, as it's a proper big long sloppy joe. Have started the most boring section 1st. Sleeves are ribbed as is cowl neck & front has a big twisty criss-crossy cable rope up the middle.
*Had a chat with mr f about money goals for 2018 & he is absolutely on board.
Have a lovely New Year's Eve.....even if you are planning to sit in on your own, you can have a bubble bath, watch a good film, have something inexpensive but nice to eat & put your feet up. I couldn't be bothered with NYE parties these days........don't you end up snogging some thoroughly iffy people? (Pre-mr f, I hasten to add!)
Nice night all,
F xx

Happy_Kitties

Just back from shopping,cats are very happy. Some of the bargains were amazing-whole big rainbow trout down from £9 to £2 (unfortunately I don't do fish but one man was in his glory!).

I also picked up some mild cheddar(doing a FVD) down from £2 to 20p and loads of hams for peanuts. Ready cooked chicken thighs packs for 50p which I have stripped, some for the cats and some to go in gravy.
Just as we were going to pay one staff member who knows I have cats tipped us off to tins of dreamies-10 packs in a tin down to £1.50 and then directed us to where there may be more. So we bought 2 tins for our cats and 3 tins for the local cat charity and reduced turkey dog chews as they sometimes foster dogs.Despite the extras with my voucher and a reduction because of their price match guarantee I still came in under budget.

Forgot to say that I use Body Shop face cream but different to the one foxgloves uses. After reading Foxgloves post I ordered the pomegranate creams instead of my usual. Also ordered a couple of other bits and used a different discount code I found on mr toogle as their sale code wouldn't work. I got everything for £10.40.
I have been lucky with the sales this year but now we are fully stocked with cat food and with slowly stocking up with my experimental slow cooker meals I shouldn't need to shop for a couple of weeks except for cat litter.......that's the plan anyway, really don't want to be spending more from food budget so early in the month

carrielovesfanta

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

Not sure what to do with my free day... I think I'll start the other sleeve of the toddler cardigan I was crocheting. I'm not entirely sure that it will fit the little one I'm intending it for although it could easily be extended with some ribbing at the bottom and around the edges. - doing this

Also should probably add the buttons to my cardi. I'm determined to finish up a load of WIPs before I begin learning to knit. - done! Another job sorted

I'm slightly stuck on one of the instructions. At the end of the sleeve, it asks me to put stitch markers in 2 of the end stitches and then says "continue even in pattern for 2 rows". That makes no sense to me. All the other sections just say "continue in pattern". Any thoughts folks? I tried posting on Ravelry but no replies.

Other mseness:

• Heating mostly off hopefully. It was on most of yesterday and the house is quite warm now. - back on for a bit
  
• OH gigging. Encourage him to do his invoices today. - done before I even asked
  
• Might cook a fancy loaf of bread. I once tried to make a marmalade and cinnamon swirl but it was an epic fail. Think I'll try again to use up some of my homemade marmalade. - don't think I cba
  
• B/L/D from stores - done!
• Big budget day for Jan - done!
• Free stretching video to try and get a bit of movement back into my body after 2 weeks illness. Rib still a bit sore but improving rapidly.
• General chuff round the house to make sure it's tidy - start the new year as you mean to go on eh? - done!
• And on that note... NOT going out for NYE. I like to start the new year clear headed, sober, rested and content. - done!

My bank account is mysteriously exactly £100 up on what I'm expecting. I have been back through everything and cannot fathom how this delightful circumstance has occurred. I tot it up more or less once a week and check the total then so I can't see how I could gain £100. If it suddenly becomes £100 down again, I'll chalk it up to bank gremlins.

I also decided to write a nice letter to a friend today. I thought I'd post about it on a Facebook group I'm a member of. Would you believe that someone commented saying that they would never have time to read a letter that long and it would make them anxious! How very odd that you would feel that was a helpful thing to post. Hopefully it doesn't elicit a similar response of horror from my friend!

missyfree2017

Evening everyone, so I went supermarket earlier to get bargains and that will last a good week or so.Pasta and Pesto on offer my fave.

Tomorrow will mark the first day of a long journey but one I hope will get us debt free by this time in 12 months...lol I can quite get the phrase! I think that this page is the best thing to help and If I can offer support too any way I can I will.

So here are our plans...ongoing etc..

NYD - Overtime for me and bf. Grandparents babysitting. Single pay for me but double pay for bf.
evening will be mass housework because we are a disgrace.

look for free material samples online to go with my play mat sewing up design thing. I want to make it massive so kids can play and it is sensory. I have thread and needles already so this shouldn't cost me a single penny.

I will drop back in prob a day or two.

Happy new year for now xx

carrielovesfanta

Happy New Year to all our posters and readers.

Come and join us for a shiny new thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5766427