Santa’s challenge 2020 ...

Happy_Kitties

Anglea great to see u posting and giving us an update. I really hope things went well with DS2 birthday, u all had a good time despite the challenging circumstances and u managed to have a hot dessert

Katiehound have u got round all of the working of ur new table top computer yet? I’m useless with technology but I hope everything is okay and it is working well for u.

Chanie I popped into H.Barg this morning for cat food, thought I would get some flannels for my shoeboxes and they have bundles of 4 for 99p so grabbed a bundle. I’ve found the choc bars in Tesc@ are within the dates allowed for the shoeboxes aswell. Haven’t done anything else on them.

Not done much else apart from the flannels but as mentioned on the other Christmas thread I did two orders from the WHSmith website in their sale. I also had a discount code and did the orders thru a cash back site so really worth doing. One box was sent straight to the charity organiser for the auctions and the other to me. Got a great jigsaw present for Duncle for his birthday in March. He will hate me for it but secretly he does enjoy doing a puzzle, it’s only bec he gets addicted and then cannot leave it alone, he has to keep going on it until completed.
If DM had a jigsaw puzzle on the go and he came to visit he just couldn’t walk past the jigsaw!!!

chanie

@Angelahappy belated birthday to your DS.

@Happy_Kitties  thanks for the heads up about the flannels.  

Whilst we are on the subject of HomeBargsins, I popped into a store a few days ago and I bought DD a present, which I put away, as I wanted to give it to her at a specific time. She saw the receipt and was questioning me about the item, so I had to make something up.  I can’t believe a 9 year old is so observant.  

chanie

I picked up  these tool sets in Home Bargains for £1.99 for my Link Boxes.

Happy_Kitties

Chanie those sets are amazing. I’m going to keep a look out for them when I next go in. Saw a fb post today and the hub has already started to pack boxes which has got me itching to do one. Chocolate isn’t a problem, the bars in Tesc@ are now within date and I’ve picked up a couple but if I can grab at least one tool set then i am good to go for one box at least. 

I was in town the other day and went past the Works and then stopped as there was a 10p tub. Had a dive in and picked up a load of fluffy pens which do all different colours and quirky pens shaped like a bamboo with a little panda attached. I need to take a photo really as my descriptions are not the greatest!

ive picked up a few more birthday/Christmas presents but bec I have so much for the charity auction aswell, none of which I’ve put away, there is just a big pile of stuff in the spare room so I’ve come to a halt plus there is nothing that has really jumped out at me. I’m pleased at how well I have done with my bargains, been keeping a log of savings, really should pop them on my signature below

Katiehound

Those tool sets look really good. I usually buy a  screw driver with multi heads from £land.
Today I bought hand cream  tubes x 6 from Aldi. think they were 65 pence.

Last week I saw Gu puddings- 2 for £1. In the interest of shoeboxes I had to buy a couple of packs for the glass ramekins! They make great candle holders, never mind that I might actually eat a salted caramel pudding!! (oh dear, rather yummy!)

Yesterday I had a long trip out to collect a load of material & wool etc. My friend died suddenly 14 months ago and her husband is trying to clear everything without binning. One box of sewing & knitting patterns to a charity shop today with GiftAid. There are 2 boxes of material so I am about to make some doggy duvet covers. 3 made duvets delivered today & more needed for the village PO as only 2 remaining. I hope to get a good few to them on Thursday. It will be a change to see some new fabric designs!!
 ONE day I will see the floors in this house........manana

chanie

@Katiehound handcream is a good idea for the boxes, never thought of that.  

Earlier in the week. I bought some tealights, toy cars and stationery for my Link boxes. I was going to buy some tea light holders from IKEA, but I saw some in a charity shop, so I’m going to try and get them from there.

I did order Crystal growing kits for the childrens stockings - they had one this year and enjoyed it, so thought I’d get them another one.  I also popped into B&M, but there wasn’t anything worth getting (the store I went to is pretty small).

I’m stumped with stocking fillers for the children, as I’ve bought them most things over the years so it’s becoming more difficult to think of original stuff.

Katiehound

The other thing I used to buy was lip salve when they were 'cheap as chips', last year the price had shot up. The charity says you can put in a lipstick as long as it is new and I got rid of some which I bought and then disliked the shade!

I try to get intensive or repair hand cream for the OAP boxes rather than just a nice smell.

By chance I have 2 shoe boxes as I bought much needed trainers recently (came with a box) and then thought I'd better get a second pair whilst they were a good price / right size. Lucky I went back when I did: just one pair in my size left- never mind the colour! Not sure about lime green lining.

Nine doggy duvets delivered this morning. I was sewing the 9th last night at nearly midnight when I snapped the umpteenth needle. 

Happy_Kitties

I started my first shoebox last night, was itching to do one and it was so satisfying. That is the Wales hub inspiring me as they have started and Link to Hope have pictures up from last Christmas.
Still need a couple of bits for it but I must say my packing skills of what I can get in have greatly improved. I’ve also popped hand cream in. Fell lucky with this. One of the CS had a glut of M+S smellies before Christmas. They priced them too high so they were not selling. Included in this was a big wicker basket full of hand cream. They reduced these down to 50p so I grabbed 6. 

I’ve also packaged up a parcel ready to send for the charity auction, not particularly items for Christmas but hopefully can be used throughout the year. The spare room doesn’t look any different, still a pile of stuff but birthdays are starting so some presents will go out aswell and hopefully it will at least look half organised

Chanie how old are the children? I’m finding as my cousin’s kids are getting older, they are becoming a lot more difficult to buy for as they have everything. Younger  ones are easy and I always get a lot for my money. I always stick to a strict budget and try to aim for two presents each within the budget. You are going to be flying with the shoeboxes with the amount of things u have been picking up.

Katiehound I’m sure one day u will see ur floor but while not seeing ur floor at the minute u are doing great things for charity so all worth it. I noticed with the shoebox hub everyone has been donating the GU pudding ramekins so u are not the only one and I think I will need to treat myself to two more soon……just for the ramekin obviously😉even though the puds are amazing!

Anglea

Hi everyone, I've caught up on the messages and wonder Chanie if you've had a chance to use the fabric bags yet or is this only for Christmas?

 I'm about to go out now so will update about son's birthday in January and tomorrow is Valentine's so I'm out for the day. I have to wrap up the presents later. One is shop bought and the other I made and still need to do a few things with it possibly this evening. With this one I bought one of those acrylic hearts that open out and cut out red hearts and wrote things on it relevant to my friend and added tiny crystals. My original idea didn't work out as the paper slid out of position as I had arranged them so they covered the surface and the words were visible then filled it with fabric rose petals also with crystals but as soon as it was assembled all the papers went on top of each other. And as for the crystals - never again. My nails are too long to try and deal with them. So now I am hoping to put the petals inside the card so it falls out on opening.

Now I've just got a limited amount of paper hearts with words in the acrylic one as too many meant again they were moving around too much and covered each other.

Anglea

I also got another gift which I must remember to wrap as it's hidden away I can't seem to edit my other post to add this part to it.