Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Very wise, OBL.
I did manage a small Shopping from Home win yesterday. I finished my Christmas wrapping (still haven't broken out any new rolls of paper bought last year, as have used my recycled wrappings stash) & had a think about what to present my home made fudge in, as that's the only gift I need now & I shall make that fresh the week before Christmas.. I often save suitable gift boxes, cover them & line with tissue paper & a piece of baking parchment but I don't have any this year, so it was looking like a possible buy. Then I found some cellophane food bags with gold stars in which I'd forgotten about - brilliant for fudge - but how to wrap. Lots of festive gift bags in my stash but only big ones or bottle bags. Experimented with altering a bottle bag by cutting it to size, folding the top in all round, punching new holes & re-threading the cord handles. It worked! I altered another 3 bags ready for fudge-giving & felt so resourceful after that, I made a few more gift tags then fortified with more caffeine, I listed 10 more items from my selling pile on.ebay! I do find these days that one frugal thing can lead to another, in the same way as buying loads of stuff used to.
I'm staying home today. Mr f has to work so I shan't have the car & my tendonitis is still too sore to go out on my bike as I think I'd struggle with the brakes. So I will be spending nothing & Mr f will only be buying cat food as A*di didn't have any yesterday & cat takes meal times very seriously. Have a good day all.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I went shopping yesterday - but just to Mr S for the weekly groceries. No Black Friday 'bargains' for me either.
Fab idea about the bags for the fudge as well - I need to get my backside in gear for Christmas as I still seem to be completely hiding from it.
By the way - do you have your other car back now?

joeyjimbles

I feel like I've let the side down. I did buy something in the Black Friday-ness. A PS4 game for DS2 but to shine my halo it was half the admittedly ridiculous RRP and still cheaper than the Sainsbury's Rewards Double Up price and should it go cheaper yet, it is still in it's packaging and could be returned. I had set myself a price threshold for it and it was £4 less than that so I think it's a win. But that was it.
And I had to go into town yesterday and noticed that it was very busy with people, but there really didn't seem to be many people with shopping bags. News reports this morning seem to suggest that retailers aren't making as much as they'd hoped this year.

Onebrokelady

Yummmmmm I love fudge DD made peppermint creams one year and gave them to friends, they were seriously yummy,we are going to make our own mince pies soo because they need to be vegan for DD,I'm looking forward to having something home baked for Christmas instead of from the supermarket

foxgloves

I love Christmas baking, OBL. Re peppermint creams. I discovered a good 'cheat' on these a couple of years ago. I had some leftover fondant icing from decorating a cake, so froze it until inspiration struck. I ended up kneading peppermint essence into it & making peppermint creams. I half dipped them in melted dark chocolate & they were nicer than they had any right to be!

foxgloves

Evening dear readers,
I revisited my Christmas food shopping list today & discussed it with Mr F. It was surprising how many items we could cross off just by talking it through. We have £40 of nectar points as well as whatever I decide to budget for December's groceries. We also have £13 of M&S vouchers which we will use for a few of the items on our list & a few £££ of Co-op points which we will use towards things like chipolatas, sausage meat, etc. So we had a good look through my list - I'd already crossed off trifle sponges & tinned raspberries as I made an extra sponge layer recently when I was baking something else & made some fruit compote with home grown berries. Mr f (the resident trifle maker!) said to cross off chocolate buttons/sprinkles too, as he is going to do a festive stencil with cocoa powder & we already have that. Decided not to do a ham this year but to get a ham hock (v cheap from butcher) to cook in the slow cooker, as that will be plenty when I've pulled the meat off. That meant I could cross off ginger beer too, as we won't be doing that recipe. Brazil nuts crossed off as found a bag in the pantry I'd forgotten about. And coffee beans. We like a bag over the festive season but we bought some last week at a good fair.
Then we crossed off turkey!! Not because we are not having one but because I've paid the deposit already & have a little wodge of eBay cash ready to pay the balance on collection day.
It's a long time since I was spendy but this has still made me feel like my halo has had a good polish!
F x

DawnW

foxgloves wrote: »

Evening dear readers,
I revisited my Christmas food shopping list today & discussed it with Mr F. It was surprising how many items we could cross off just by talking it through. We have £40 of nectar points as well as whatever I decide to budget for December's groceries. We also have £13 of M&S vouchers which we will use for a few of the items on our list & a few £££ of Co-op points which we will use towards things like chipolatas, sausage meat, etc. So we had a good look through my list - I'd already crossed off trifle sponges & tinned raspberries as I made an extra sponge layer recently when I was baking something else & made some fruit compote with home grown berries. Mr f (the resident trifle maker!) said to cross off chocolate buttons/sprinkles too, as he is going to do a festive stencil with cocoa powder & we already have that. Decided not to do a ham this year but to get a ham hock (v cheap from butcher) to cook in the slow cooker, as that will be plenty when I've pulled the meat off. That meant I could cross off ginger beer too, as we won't be doing that recipe. Brazil nuts crossed off as found a bag in the pantry I'd forgotten about. And coffee beans. We like a bag over the festive season but we bought some last week at a good fair.
Then we crossed off turkey!! Not because we are not having one but because I've paid the deposit already & have a little wodge of eBay cash ready to pay the balance on collection day.
It's a long time since I was spendy but this has still made me feel like my halo has had a good polish!
F x

I haven't made a list yet, but am thinking along the same lines. I have between £30 and £40 of Nectar points, and some shopping vouchers from RM surveys, which I usually use in Iceland. I think that will be plenty for extra treats, especially as OH has ordered some meat from farmer friends for Dec / Jan, so I will need to find the money to pay for that. I have made mincemeat and a Christmas pudding, and we have a stuffed, bacon covered turkey crown prepped by the local butcher in the freezer. I will have to think about what else we will need (and not need!)

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

I love Christmas baking, OBL. Re peppermint creams. I discovered a good 'cheat' on these a couple of years ago. I had some leftover fondant icing from decorating a cake, so froze it until inspiration struck. I ended up kneading peppermint essence into it & making peppermint creams. I half dipped them in melted dark chocolate & they were nicer than they had any right to be!

Now I like that idea a lot,they sound yummy

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Evening dear readers,
I revisited my Christmas food shopping list today & discussed it with Mr F. It was surprising how many items we could cross off just by talking it through. We have £40 of nectar points as well as whatever I decide to budget for December's groceries. We also have £13 of M&S vouchers which we will use for a few of the items on our list & a few £££ of Co-op points which we will use towards things like chipolatas, sausage meat, etc. So we had a good look through my list - I'd already crossed off trifle sponges & tinned raspberries as I made an extra sponge layer recently when I was baking something else & made some fruit compote with home grown berries. Mr f (the resident trifle maker!) said to cross off chocolate buttons/sprinkles too, as he is going to do a festive stencil with cocoa powder & we already have that. Decided not to do a ham this year but to get a ham hock (v cheap from butcher) to cook in the slow cooker, as that will be plenty when I've pulled the meat off. That meant I could cross off ginger beer too, as we won't be doing that recipe. Brazil nuts crossed off as found a bag in the pantry I'd forgotten about. And coffee beans. We like a bag over the festive season but we bought some last week at a good fair.
Then we crossed off turkey!! Not because we are not having one but because I've paid the deposit already & have a little wodge of eBay cash ready to pay the balance on collection day.
It's a long time since I was spendy but this has still made me feel like my halo has had a good polish!
F x

Well done on your MSE food shopping list:beer:
I need to make a food list,we don't need a lot but we are not sure exactly what we are doing yet,I need to speak to DD1 to find out where they are going to be.
I've been buying treats and nibbles over the last few weeks and there are only a couple more bits I need to add to that and I found a Christmas nut roast in Mr S the other day so that's been bought and frozen so all I need is the trimming for the meal and dessert plus something to drink,we are braving our big Mr T as DD needs some vegan goodies and they are the best place to get what she wants,I think this years food shopping is going to be a lot less stressful than last years, I basically went round the shop in a panic and bought loads without thinking and it cost a fortune so out came my plastic friend again, this year has been well thought out so far and I intend to do the same with the food

foxgloves

Dawn & OBL - You both sound organised too. Between Christmas & New Year used to be bad for us back in the Spendy Years Mr f would pop out for a few essentials like milk & bread, and he's come back with 2 bags of 'bargains'.....only they weren't really, because he'd buy reduced price boxes of chocs, more festive flavoured cheeses, more alcohol, etc, all of it reduced but not a bargain because we didn't need any of it. It was like how I used to be with the Monsoon (or any) sale rail! When you're trying to get all your festive supplies eaten up ready for a healthier year, you don't need more Christmassy supplies arriving just because they were reduced in price. Anyway, I'm pleased to say he hasn't done this for several years. Last year, he did come home with a post-Christmas bargain, but it was a really useful one as he found a stack of huge pork roasting joints in A*di for £5 so we out that in the freezer for January, when it did several meals.
Anyway, must crack on - long list of things I want to get done today, including listing ALL my remaining pile of stuff on eBay.. Might just need to empty the washer & mix up some bread dough first. And maybe an extra coffee......
Have a good day all.
F x