Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

CL21 said:

@Whatlifeis @Sun_Addict hope everyone recovers quickly and with no lasting effects 

Wishing @Whatlifeis @Sun_Addict and families a speedy and full recovery.

foxgloves

Reading all your comments, it just shows how much Covid is circulating atm, doesn't it? My sister's positive LFT turned into a bit of a saga (she does have a tendency to attract sagas). She did a 2nd LFT yesterday morning just to double check it was defo a positive, & it was, so she postponed meeting us & instead took herself off for a PCR test. So this morning, she texted me to say she had woken up with a sore throat & didn't feel brilliant (she was symptomless yesterday) so was sure the PCR would come back confirming she'd got Covid. Well, it didn't, it said she's negative (despite 2 positive LFTs earlier that same morning). She logged the result as 'Negative' & got on with planning her week's teaching, then she got another ping to say she's positive. Very confusing, but she did actually manage to speak to a person who said the 'Negative' text was for the LFT but that the text had arrived a bit late. Apparently the text didn't say to which test it referred. Just the words 'LFT' would have saved her a phone call. Honestly, I don't know how people with low literacy or cognisance skills manage to navigate this system if teachers are confused by it. I was glad to hear she's negative, but what a shame we cancelled our meet-up for nothing! 
I can barely watch the News at the moment (difficult as am a news junkie) as I am so enraged about the Christmas Party that clearly happened at Downing Street last year when many people were not able to go into hospitals to sit with dying loved ones. It isn't possible to have 'Had a party' & simultaneously to have 'Followed all the rules', because the rules said that parties couldn't go ahead. I am sick of being ill-governed by liars. 
Grrrrr.....defo time to  move onto more festive content. I have baked the Christmas Cake this morning - the fruit had been soaking for 24 hrs in white rum & smelled so festive when I tipped it into the cake mixture. I've also had a sleety walk down to the post box to post our Christmas cards, made a fish pie base for tonight's dinner, knitted a bit more birthday present sock (I MUST crack on with this later),done this week's laundry & my Monday morning budget updates.
Enjoyed watching the garden wildlife this morning - 6 long-tailed tits flitting about the peanut feeders & a squirrel fight.
Have a good week all,
F x

foxgloves

My Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No 8: Waste
I'm not talking here about leftover food, which will get its own post (you know how evangelical I am about that holy of holies, The Leftover!), I'm referring here to often very lovely single-use stuff which we buy each Christmas, which usually goes straight off to the bin. We used to laugh at my Nana when we were children, all of us sitting around the tree unwrapping out presents after lunch, as she would be carefully piggling open her presents so as to save the paper, smoothing it down, folding it neatly & taking it home with her to use the following year. Her standard answer to all my leery comments about her thrifty behaviour was "Well, if you'd lived through the times I've lived through...." Of course Nan wasn't just being thrifty, she was being 'green'. It is absolute nonsense to buy things which are used once & binned. There is a lot more that can be saved than wrapping paper. I collect all the paper (apart from really obvious rubbish) into bin liners, then after Christmas when I have time, I sort through it all in a big salvage operation. I have come really to enjoy this. I save good-sized pieces of wrapping paper, tissue paper, bubble wrap, ribbons, anything which could be recycled into gift tags, gift bags, bottle bags.....I've sometimes found lovely decorations which the giver has used to adorn a present just chucked in with the rubbish, beautiful pristine bows & even on one occasion a festive cloth bag. This is just the most stupid waste when this stuff will be bought again next year, rinse & repeat. I can't say I never buy wrapping paper. I had to buy a few rolls this year, but with Covid, I didn't have such a big salvage opportunity last year. One year, my Mum bought crackers with very classy little cardboard baubles & reindeer on them & they made pretty decorations with the addition of some red salvaged ribbon. I also save all our Christmas cards for sifting into those which can be re-used for gift tags. The backs are used for shopping lists if suitable & everything else goes into the recycling bin. Tbf, we did always make recycled tags at home as children, using pinking shears in the time-honoured way. Now, I choose a motif on the card & draw around it using my festive biscuit cutters - usually hearts, stars, trees & bells, hole punch them & !!!!!! a ribbon from my box of salvaged pretties.
I think I have posted this before, but will add it again, as it feels relevant. My Grandad's family was kind of complicated & most of them lived in Canada, with just Grandad & his brother left in England. My Mum was 3 when war broke out & 9 when it ended. They didn't have much money when she was gr owing up & her Christmas present from her parents had to do for her December birthday too. She remembered how these awesome presents would arrive from Canada & how she would love opening them. The few presents she could remember actually seems very mundane - clothes, mostly, but she said that the wrapping paper was so beautiful, she would piggle it open really carefully & kept every single piece. She said it was wartime, so there wasn't a lot of pretty things because waste was discouraged & people were tight for money in the 30s too. She used to iron that paper & use it for crafts, covering books, etc. Now when I'm going through my post-Christmas salvage bags, I like to think I am carrying on the tradition of appreciating nice things instead of wasting them & it has become a regular task which I enjoy carrying out each year.
The best salvaged paper was back when the nephews were small. They would usually have at least something which came in a big box, so that would usually mean me being able to grab huge sheets of paper as it came flying off! 
I bet there are loads of us on here who re-use things like gift bags & good quality paper, bubble wrap, etc, without any detriment to the appearance of the gift, so let's hear it for a good old bit of festive salvage!
Yours,
F x

Tescodealqueen

Yes I am the one going round retrieving cast off wrapping paper and gift bags. Even envelopes. So much so that family now say “I haven’t written on or sealed your birthday card as I know you will want to reuse the envelope” that’s a result in my eyes. My son now rings me if he needs a gift bag for any occasion to see if I have anything suitable. My years of nagging have paid off in some ways.

Humdinger1

@foxgloves at the risk of being less than festive, can I say that I agree with your views on parties that aren't? But we know, don't we, that rules, like tax, are just for the little people.   Well, I'm proud to be little on these issues!  On the subject of wrapping paper, you can't beat brown paper and string in my view! Love Humdinger x 

CRANKY40

My son has given me my birthday and mother's day presents in the same gift bag and wrapped in the same pink tissue paper for 4 years now. We also don't write on envelopes and never write on any gift bag tags that we gift so that recipients can (hopefully) reuse. 

My gran used to work in a bakery so when we were small our presents were all tied with the gold curling ribbon used to secure cake boxes. Gran would have the paper back off us and away in the cupboard before we'd even had a chance to look at the present. 

QueenJess

Just this afternoon I was wrapping DS’s presents reusing wrapping paper. I didn’t bother with tags as I put them in a reused gift bag instead. I can’t actually remember the last time I actually bought wrapping paper!

ladyholly

I was talking to my dd the other day and she was saying she is using up her stock of Christmas paper and affter that gifts will come in brown paper. I buy very few gifts as the kids and grandkids get money (they are all adults) and the couple of friends I buy for get re used  gift bags. The only other relative either DH or I have is my BiL and we dont exchange gifts anyway. My Christmas ia quite inexpensive . 

When we were little my parents never wrapped our presents just popped them into paper bags and any gift wrap was saved for the following year for adult gifts.

marionmgcars

This year I’m using brown paper to wrap gifts.  I use ribbons to make the gift colourful.  Also use cuttings from Christmas cards to stick on gifts and give the gift a more colourful look.  

foxgloves

Ha! Great to hear there are so many of us festive salvagers out there.....whether it be longstanding wrappings-grabbers or reformed characters! Thanks for all your comments about that, & I do agree that brown parcel paper & string is a good simple look & can be very festive if it's red string or fastened with ribbons from our recycled stash!
Hello m'dears,
Starting to feel a tinsy bit festive now. I've baked the Christmas cake, posted our cards, baked 2 dozen mince pies (this morning) & can report that the mincemeat I made has matured into an extremely acceptable melee of booziness & yum! I have checked with my family that they are defo visiting us at New Year & can now plan my baking accordingly. We are going to a Christmas Tree Festival on Friday, & I think I will get on with putting our own tree up when we get home from that. I also have gift bags ready for giving to our best friends whom we are meeting for a (hopefully non-rainy) walk, coffee, etc, at the weekend.
So all seems to be in hand & I shall pop up my next Past Spendy Sins post.
Back in a minute,
F x