Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

My Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 10 - The 'Between Christmas & New Year Supermarket Madness'
Ok, before I get started on this - something which has been an issue in our household in the past - I'd like to say that we are mostly (not entirely) talking about the lovely Mr F here! Both Mr F & I identify as 'foodies'. We like nice food - eating it, cooking it, shopping for it, etc. Traditionally, by the time we need a quick supermarket run for something between Christmas & New Year, it has been Mr F who pops out for it as I am often busy dismantling the turkey & doing other things. So I'll give you an example of the spendy behaviour I mean.........I once needed some celery so he happily went off to buy some. He came back with (how do I remember? Because this shop is imprinted on my brain!)
*Celery
*More cream ("it was yellow stickered")
*Stilton with apricots ("couldn't leave it there at that price"
*Stilton with cranberries (ditto)
*A whole camembert for baking ("She was just putting the yellow stickers on as I got there, how lucky was that?)
*A large box of chocolates ("They'd reduced them to half price")
*A jar of marrons glaces ("I know they're your favourite, Babe, & they were reduced!")
*Various little packs of party-type canapes/nibbles
& a other bits & pieces. Honestly, I didn't want to take the wind out of his sails, he really thought he'd got some fabulous bargains. And he had.......if we'd needed any of those things. What we actually needed was the bloody celery!! We had already brought cream, stilton, plenty of other cheeses & festive nibbles & the fridge was still full of food, as was the larder. The chocolates & marrons glaces were the biggest impulse buy because he'd actually bought me EXACTLY THE SAME ones & wrapped them for Christmas. I think that because he'd bought them previously at full price, he was extremely tempted by the big price reductions & that triggered the old impulse spending ("Ooooh, look at me getting a bargain!).
This wasn't the only occasion so I got round it in subsequent years by either both of us going or actually suggesting a few useful reduced items he could look out for. He likes a mission & this has been quite successful. For example, he got 3 boxes of fresh cranberries at 20p per box, which I froze & made cranberry & apple jelly later in the year, which went into my hampers & onto our Christmas table the following December. I also suggested he could see if there were any reductions on meat for the freezer & he came home pleased as punch with a huge pork roasting joint for £5. He is less impulsive now, but I will continue suggesting 'finds' which would be really useful bargains rather than a further trolley load of festive indulgences just because they were reduced. Another thing which works is reminding him that it's fine to look for post-Christmas food bargains, but that they will of course, come out of January's food budget, so they had better be stuff we actually need or something else might have to drop off the list.........like coffee or beer.
Well, it is a dark wet old night out there again, so I am going to sign off, close all the curtains & go & pop some jacket potatoes in the oven.
Stay cosy,
F x

QueenJess

I love this past speedy sin - it made me chuckle 😂. I never seem to be anywhere at the right time for yellow stickers, but I can see the temptation would be high.

Blackcats

Loving the spendy stories.  I've also spent a fortune on Christmas/new year food - both full price (actually over priced)  ready made party nibbles etc and yellow sticker bargains that I didn't really need and sometimes they ended up moving straight from the point of purchase into the bin a few days later because they weren't needed or I didn't even really like them.  

savingmore

morning everyone.   haven’t posted for a wee while, but just wondering if you alright as it’s u usual for you to miss several days.  hope all is well.  am really enjoying the spendy advent diary, it just goes to show how trapped we can become in a spendy narrative that gets justified by societal norm and indeed encouraged - what continues to stand out is how content and happy you sound in more frugal world.   i am trying not to feel guilty for sticking to budget for christmas when visiting sister who has delivered a gorgeous bag of pressies and i have one, well meaning and bought pressie, but within my budget.   hope you post soon. 

Humdinger1

@foxgloves yes hope you're OK. Looking forward to the nex installment. I think you've written about this, but the spendy Christmas frocks that didn't suit, cost a fortune and were worn once anyone?! I seem to remember when peplums were in fashion.  Even when skinny they were hideously unbecoming.  Add to that colours that didn't flatter anyone (maroon) and I am profoundly grateful that I spend a fraction of the money on things I wear over and over again.  I don't have to have something new for Christmas day, because having control of my spending is the true fairy dust....

foxgloves

@Blackcats - I think it is probably easy to be lured into spending on ready-made nibbles/canape-type things. They are often on '3 for £10' type deals, so masquerade under a cloak of bargainaceousness. However, when one is unpacking one's 6 vageuly prawny nibbles from all the plastic, it becomes clear that they are not going to add up into much of a plateful. I have bought them in the past now & again, Mr F could be tempted by these at times, but I would generally make my own little snacky bits & pieces in advance, freeze them, then take out a selection as needed. I've never compared the cost, but I bet I could get a lot of canapes from £10. 

@savingmore - Thanks for your kind enquiries as to my whereabouts. I am fine (apart from an annoying sinussy sort of headache yesterday which eventually needed the codiene, grrrr)), I've just been busy. We've done quite a few festive things this weekend - Christmas Tree festival, night-time Christmas market, met up with friends for a walk & exchanging presents, etc, plus getting on with festive prep ourselves - festive groceries, I've put the tree up, all the usual things. 

@Humdinger1 - Oh my days, yes, maroon!! Is there anyone who looks great in that? I know I don't! A lot of my worst clothes buys back in the Spendy Era were things from the sales rails. I had heaps of clothes, but only wore a small amount of them as so much of what I was buying turned out to be not what I really wanted. These days, I spend more per garment, but get much more wear out of everything. I buy fewer clothes overall, but wear them pretty much until they drop! I'd rather spend £100 on a dress which I still love wearing 3 years later rather than constant spending of £25 to £50 a time on lots & lots of different things which turn out to be false economy. 

F x

QueenJess

I went into M&S this morning to spend my £35 voucher on food goodies. There were a few yellow stickers around and I thought of this diary because I had a voice in my head saying to get loads because it was a bit off. Thankfully the sensible person took over and the only ys item I got was mince for the freezer. I didn’t really need any of the other things and probably wouldn’t use them anyway!

 One reduction made me chuckle.. 70p reduced to 69p 😂

foxgloves

Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 11 - Food waste!!!!!!
I have to say that this is one area where I have only ever been silly in terms of overbuying festive stuff in the decades before I became a meal planning convert. In terms of making good use of leftovers, I am pleased to say that I have pretty much always been good on this. I've mentioned before how my Nana had lived through difficult times & how this was reflected in her everyday thrifty housekeeping. Our grandparents usually came to stay with us at Christmas & Nana would always make wonderful turkey soup on the day after Boxing Day, which fed us all amply. I know that there are people who find 'bone broth' type of soup lacking in body & a bit oily, but Nana's soup was never like that. I still use her methodology now, although I don't always add herby dumplings. Whether Mr F & I are hosting Christmas or just celebrating by ourselves, we always have a turkey. On the 27th (Nana's official turkey soup day!), I dismantle what is left, divide up the meat according to what I'm intending to make, remove any useful looking dripping to a ramekin &ask the resident gibbon to reach down my big stock pot & get the carcass simmering. I throw in the usual stock making trimmings, leek tops, bits & bobs of veg, bay leaves, peppercorns & leave it for a good 3 hrs or so. Turkey stock imho is the best stock of the year.....I think it's because of the little remnants of chestnut stuffing clinging to the insides. Like all stock, it takes care of itself, so I would get a cafetiere going at that point, have a mince pie, etc, it's still Christmas time until Jan 6th, after all. The finished stock is strained into a big bowl ready for a big batch-cooking session. I always make turkey soup & chilli. These are great to have ready made in the freezer to eat throughout January & February when all of our finances could do with a little bit of extra care. I also make a curry - often turkey bhuna, which we meal plan in for between Christmas & New Year or freeze for later in the month, & usually some turkey supreme, which is nice with rice or on a jacket potato. I also like to freeze some slices of leftover breast meat with gravy, as that provides a 'free' roast dinner. There is always some turkey stock left, so this is portioned & frozen. Because our finances are in a much better state these days, I do insist on a free range turkey & it is true that these are around double the cost of a barn-reared one, but every single scrap is used. The giblets make stock for gravy & if we still had our lovely old fur friend, he'd be getting them chopped up for his tea! The best thing is that as we move into the New Year, & all of us are full of good intentions as well as turkey & sausage rolls by then, our freezer is full of ready meals to include in January & February's meal plans.
No leftover gets to leave our kitchen unless it is not fit for eating from a safety point of view. Ham leftovers are cubed & used in pasta bakes, ditto cheese oddments, leftover mincemeat goes into a belgian cake (no chance of one of those this year, as my sister did a particularly sad 'home made mincemeat needing face' & I promised her my last jar), stale bread/french stick crumbed up & frozen, etc.
I know there are a lot of reformed characters on here, so I expect there is a lot of similar activity in your own homes. What are your favourite things to make with leftovers? Do you see Christmas leftovers as a blessing, as I do, or a curse, because you have to deal with them? Or are you like my B-in-L who once told me that they never have a turkey because "the trouble with it is you're eating the bloody thing for days". Personally, I see that as a positive, but I concur that you have to enjoy cooking to spend a whole day turning out January & February's home made 'ready meals'. You know that's what I'll be doing though!
So my Nana was angelic on festive leftovers. My Mum was not. After the LBM, when we spent Christmas at my parents' house, she would always take off sufficient meat for sandwiches, then foil the turkey carcass & insist I take it home for soup. This was a double win......she didn't have to feel guilty about throwing it in the bin (which she would definitely have done) & I got the means to make some free meals! 
This is not one of my own Spendy Sins, but I've included it because who wouldn't want to go into a New Year with a freezer full of 'leftovers meals' to get off to a good start with 2022's budget/savings goals?
Just one more Spendy Sin to go now........what will it be?
Take care, m'dears,
F xx

foxgloves

@QueenJess - lol, so they'd managed to knock off a whole penny. Big wow!
Yellow-stickered mince is always worth putting in the freezer though.
F

Humdinger1

@foxgloves hands up over here for the joy of home made stock!! I do this with chicken all year round.  Take off the skin, put skeleton into stock pot with leek tops (specially saved), carrots/onions that are too small to peel and celery if I have it.  Slow cook for 6 hrs then pot up in fridge.  There shouldn't be any fat if the skin's stripped off.  Use it for soup, risotto and gravy.  They say that onion, carrot and celery are the holy trinity of stock making.  I always make celeriac soup over Christmas; the slight bitterness is somehow cleansing.  As for tales of past spendiness, whatever you think will shock/delight us most, as we recall similar pre-LBM days from our own histories.  Did anyone else dash between cashpoints, hoping to take out money before the system updated?! Love Humdinger xx