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

bbicmatt

Haven't posted much before, so new years resolution is to post more often. Looking at planning spreadsheet it would appear that I am £70 over my overdraft limit without spending anything between now and the end of January for next payday....so its going to be an interesting month.Debt free stuff this week:

Eating leftovers from Christmas & Boxing Day since then, starting to run low, so will have to plan next weeks meals
Brought £5 of food essentials from Sainsburys on Wednesday with Nectar points and not done any spending since then.
Hoping M&D will buy the £15 Waterstones voucher I was given from me as the cash will be so much more useful.
Completed as many Qmee surveys as much of the shortfall as possible.
Checked out the bike to make sure its OK as will need it to cycle to work next week when term starts, will hopefully save as much petrol as possible
parkrun tomorrow

little_pink_purse

Evening
Work finished just a small shift tomorrow
A nsd so well please

Very heavy snow here

Hope you are all warm and well xxlppxxx

FatVonD

bbicmatt, if your parents don't buy your Waterstone's voucher you could try selling it on Zeek.me

PurpleFairy26

Morning all :hello: up slightly earlier than planned as the cat decided he’d like to come for a snuggle but announced it very loudly at the back door and all the way up the stairs so by the time he actually got there I was awake! So I’ve got up for a brew and some jobs before the rest of the house gets up. Jobs today:

Get Christmas decks back in loft, take indoor lights down and pack away
Some more radiator shuffling of washing
Small shop using list as entertaining tonight but only a couple of things. Will get black beans out of freezer for chilli
Move some money from some pots for a couple of clothes items and some Christmas gifts for next year I bought in the sales
Plan what I need to do between now and when we go away Tuesday and if anything needs to be ready for when we are back so I’m not on the back foot.

Think that’s about all folks, nice to think I don’t have to go to work for a whole week, including weekends that’s 9 days. Happy Purps.

PurpleFairy26

I’ve also been on amaz0n this morning. Not sure if it’s any good to anyone, but if you spend £30on selected items, you get £10 off. So I bought 3 boxes of mogs favourite food for £20. Delivery is 2.99 but if you buy 4 other things it’s free. I bought 4 things I’d get normally, it actually took £15.99 off instead of as I think there was a 4 for 3 promotion on too. Basically I got a good deal for £26

Happy_Kitties

Just wrote a post and lost it all:mad:

Got up early to listen to my favourite radio show and also had a cat snuggle problem like purps. I have a handrail on my bed to help me turn and help me up. Eldest cat likes to wedge herself between me and the handrail so its either get up or struggle to breathe:eek:........decided to get up:D
Was in the middle of doing my December budget number crunching yesterday when a neighbour called so have yet to finish. I'm interested to see if Christmas has made much of a difference esp with not buying so many snacky bits, cakes etc. Also like to stick to my budget groups since my IVA to keep me on the straight and narrow:A
I don't do much batch cooking as I haven't got the freezer space but I am hoping to do more with the slow cooker and use things up from the freezer aswell
I do do the one cook two meal thing. The meal I had done Thurs there was enough for last night but DD didnt't fancy it but did fancy a stirfry. So I just chopped the meal up instead and threw it all in the wok with some rice. I even chopped up the last bits of stuffing and threw that in last minute. DD said it was nicer than the original meal. More importantly more leftovers used up and we are seeing space and daylight in the fridge:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
One of my aims for 2018 is to keep reducing food waste, I'm not bad but could do better:D

Didn't do the garden centre yesterday, plan to do today just to break the cabin fever

Managed to get the cat's favourite food at Tesc@s yesterday. It's 25p a pack cheaper but has been out of stock. Stocked up on that and also spotted some large Christmas packs of choc fingers reduced to 75p so bought the last 5 packs for DD to take back to uni for when she has to travel to sporting comps:T.
Right off to do some cat cleaning, have a great day everyone x

DawnW

Morning all
Very windy here this morning :eek:
Well, I totalled up all my spends for December last night, and had a real shock :eek::eek: This was partly because I took my eyes off the ball with OH being ill, my daughter having a baby and various other things, but a lot of it was overbuying on food and Christmas tat I must really redouble efforts in January!

On the plus side, I haven't gone into debt (but would soon do so if I carried on like that :eek:) and I have plenty of food to start off the year.

So, today's small things:
Cut the brown bits off an apple and had the rest of it with my breakfast
Did a competition
Walk dog x 2 Done
Aim to get to post office with ebay parcel, but this rather depends if DD turns up with the little ones... Done
If I do manage to get out, check out shop near post office for bargainous Christmas cards for next year. Also pop into Iceland for bread and bananas (I have shopping vouchers from surveys to pay for these). Done, got 3 packs of cards reduced to half price. And just bread and bananas from Iceland, walked for free exercise
Load of washing Done, mostly dried on line, now finishing off on airer
Some cleaning / tidying Swept the bathroom floor, hoovered the stairs and hall, tidied the kitchen
Take down Christmas cards and put rest of decorations away for next year - the tree has gone back outside already as it was looking unhappy indoors (it is a potted one I have had for a few years) Not done yet
Get brother to look at bathroom fan as it has stopped working Done, it was broken, so had to buy a new one Had to get the car out for this, as had to go to the next town to get one - I did get 10% off in the sale though, and my brother fitted it for free (he is an electrician) so £20.99 in total - could be worse!
Plenty of cheese etc for lunch
Go through fridge and see if anything needs freezing All ok for now
Planning on doing a sort of mixed grill thing for dinner, or that is what I will call it.... anyway, I have mushrooms and tomatoes that need using so they can go with it Done
Check for surveys None so far
Check banks Still to do

Better finish coffee, take OH some tea and get out for dog walk #1

carrielovesfanta

Morning all!

welcome to bbicmatt

Holding off with our December budget total til tomorrow. That is crunch day. To anyone who is feeling like they took their eye off the ball, I bet it would have been worse pre-mse so don't feel too bad!

I'm still getting better, although after having strained a rib on Christmas day, I hurt it again yesterday. I let out a sneeze and there was a horrible popping sensation and it's really sore. I hope I haven't cracked it :eek: it does feel better this morning compared to yesterday so I hope it's just another strain. If it's not better in a couple of days I'll get it checked, although there's not much that they can do about it.

I've been generally trying to be calm and think about intentions for the new year. OH and I had a little chat about them last night over dinner and I think another chat with some hot drinks would be good. My intentions are:

• Grow some veg that is edible (everything has died or been eaten by animals the last couple of years )
• OH and I would like to be a bit more frugal with a view to paying down his ccard. I do believe that if we are very careful we could potentially have it gone or almost gone by this time next year.
• I would like to see more of my friends. I'm very bad for not organising to see people so it just doesn't happen (well apparently my friends are just as bad but I don't have kids so I have more time and space to think about these things).
• I will continue on my fitness journey. My two goals for this year are to do a pull up (I am so close!) and to add 15kg to my squat.
• I want to grow my crochet business
• I will use my Fridays as a day to Do Something. I want to use my time more intentionally.

With those things in mind, here's today's mission:

• B/L/D from stores- done
• Small shop for essentials to tide us over until we go to my mum's on Thursday- done
• Hair cut. I'm looking like one of the Beatles today :rotfl:- done, used some loyalty points to get £5 off
• Finish the December section of half of my blanket. Tidy up crochet bits
• Do the couple of batch cooking tasks to tide us over- done
• Take Christmas cards down. Bin the backs and keep the fronts for next year's tags- done
• Possibly round up a couple of bits for the charity shop

Have a good one all


clf x

determined_new_ms

Morning we didn't have such an early morning as we were at friends until gone midnight eating, drinking, dancing and generally being merry! It was fun but my friend wanted us to stay much later and I thought it was best to go! I'm proud to say despite being tempted I did not smoke (I gave up 2 months ago when I had my tooth out)

Madam & I are going out to soft play in a bit to meet up with friends. The girls will play while we chatter. If I recall it's cold there so I'll take my poncho! I don't think I'll bother with a coffee but likely will get madam a snack...

Will be eating los again. We have got to the end of the Christmas meat now. Yesterday I froze some slices in gravy for a quick roast and made a turkey curry, half frozen for another day. Which looks like it's going to be today as oh seems to have munched today's when we got home & I went to bed!

Still cheeses to eat up. Will think how to incorporate - just did a google and lots of good (and easy ideas sprang up )

need to text bff about tomorrow's plans and what our food contribution should be.

I also need to reconcile finances and I want to set my goals for the following year - professional & personal. I suspect this will be a working progress.

other than this just taking it easy. Oh wants to watch football at 3. Maybe we'll be able to go for a walk before then.

tally ho!

determined_new_ms

clf watch that Ted talk I posted on the fb group! I did last year and it really helped me achieve my goals. I'm taking the same approach this year. Last year, after everything we had been through I was quite isolated. One of my goals was to improve my social circle and I can honestly say I have achieved this now