Santa’s challenge 2020 ...

chanie

@Happy_Kitties well done on your 7 shoe boxes!  i bet it must be a relief to have found your present book.  i always keep mine in my chest of drawers so i never loose it.

Still haven’t thought of a present for the difficult sibling, but i’m going to ask all participants to send OH a few suggestions, so that way, it won’t give the surprise away (even though they all probably know who they have).

i planned to start wrapping presents early, but haven’t managed to do any yet.  Thr best time for me to wrap presents, in when the children are at school, but work has been busy, so i haven’t been taking much of a lunch break, so i think i’ll try, this week.    

Happy_Kitties

I have actually bought some presents for DD for next Christmas. Saw a great offer with a cash back site I’m with where they were offering £25 back plus the extra cashback tracked, so an  item in the order for DDs BF has essentially been free and the items I bought DD had at least £2 off their normal price. 

Also bought a Sh@rk vacuum in the Black Friday sales as I need something to do the stairs with that is easy to use. Saw it originally mentioned on this site,, did some research and went for it. I’m glad I waited now.

Also on Martin’s email was about social tariffs with water companies. I rang up mine to check. I was told that I was already on a special tariff bec of my health needs. Asked if they could just check for me as it would only take 5 minutes, turns out I save another £120 a year, but if I hadn’t of chased for the information I would still be in the dark.it has been a couple of days of money saving activities.

First parcel ready to send this weekend. Going by independent carrier,will be much easier because of the strikes and hoping to drop some things off with Duncle this weekend.

Still have the three odd bits to get but I’m in no rush, everything else wrapped. Do need to pack away the bits I have left over for the link to hope boxes ready for next year.

Katiehound

Ha, you are having a money saving week...

Mine is the £170 week!!

£169 for trip to vet- in clinic hours- something minor but 2 injections+10 days antibiotics
£171 for car service
£175 Black Friday leisure centre 6 month membership

Ouch

9 doggy duvets sold last week- will be 10 as also one ordered

just been given a shopping bag full of sheets etc which SA can't use. was scheduled for recycling: better for my duvets as certainly all useful & have x 6 medium (1/4 double) to cover for next week.

Oh, £10 to replace lost bus pass

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Happy_Kitties

Katiehound said:

Ha, you are having a money saving week...

Mine is the £170 week!!

£169 for trip to vet- in clinic hours- something minor but 2 injections+10 days antibiotics
£171 for car service
£175 Black Friday leisure centre 6 month membership

Ouch

9 doggy duvets sold last week- will be 10 as also one ordered

just been given a shopping bag full of sheets etc which SA can't use. was scheduled for recycling: better for my duvets as certainly all useful & have x 6 medium (1/4 double) to cover for next week.

Oh, £10 to replace lost bus pass

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ouch that is a bad week Katiehound…..very expensive.

Hoping to set up a window display tonight, it’s not so much setting things out as they are already out…..more cleaning the window ledge and window and sorting out some lights. I’m feeling lazy now as I’ve got quite abit done today including lots of paperwork but determined to get the window done.

Also ordered more presents for DD for next Christmas at a great Black Friday price. They were mentioned on this site, went investigating and they are a great price. What is the betting I’ve lost them by next Christmas, I’m still trying to find a present put away somewhere safe (my excuse) for this Christmas🙈

Happy_Kitties

…….and I’m off!!

5 Christmas presents and birthday present parcel dropped off this morning at the local Sp@r, and was over a £1 cheaper to do it this way so will do that with the next parcel. Would of sent that off aswell but have decided to pop in a birthday present with it. Just need to get a card. I seem to be on a real money saving journey at the minute with just a small amount of research.
Two Christmas cards going into the post tomorrow, hopefully they will arrive before New Year!! I’m only sending 3 this year, DUncle is going to hand out the majority to the family for me which I will drop off when I drop some things off to him including the Sunday😉set present 

still haven’t done the window display🙈 I will do it tonight!!

chanie

Great progress @Happy_Kitties.

it was OHs birthday recently  and as it was a big one, xmas prep had taken a backseat for a while. Just have a final push to get the remaining presents sorted.

on a more positive note, I got my first shoe  box for my 2023 Link boxes, as OH recently got a new pair of shoes.  So that’s 1 down, 3 more to go.

Happy_Kitties

Chanie I’ve managed to find someone who is able to get shoeboxes for me, I’m so happy. I’ve said I’m happy to take all year as what I don’t use I can take to the hub. It’s surprising how the littlest of things make us happy!
I hope hubbie had a good birthday, esp being a big one

I sent another parcel by carrier, it will take 7 days to arrive, they have popped a message up about the amount of parcels they are dealing with. The first parcel I sent has arrived-happy with this as it has a birthday present in it,trying to double up where I can
Sent my remaining parcel this morning but it had to go by Royal Mail as it has whisky in it. I use a post office in a garage and they were totally backed up with parcels. I’ve just got one card to send which needs a letter and I have to be in a letter writing mood. Currently battling with getting the tree up so I think the letter will be next week.

Otherwise everything bought now and just a couple of bits left to wrap, mainly for two December birthdays. I have never been so organised even if I have one present missing…..somewhere in the house. Also glad that I’m just about sorted as real life as decided to throw lots of real life stuff at me, dreading next week, in for a very busy week.  

chanie

We put up our tree today, as DD insisted.  we normally don’t put it up this early, but most of my family already have theirs up, so it feels like we are late, even though we aren’t.

Me and OH have decided not to get presents for each other this year.  We’ve had a lot to pay out for with our extension, OH is still recovering from his injury, plus Christmas expenses, so we decided just to get everyone else sorted and go for a meal out in the new year.   

as i’m hosting this year, i’ve started getting the food shopping in.  i bought lots of soft drinks today, and had to put them out of the way of the children, so they don’t drink them until Christmas. 

chanie

i found an empty shoebox today, resting on top of a bin, outside a well known Sports shop. It was in perfect condition, so i grabbed it for my Link Boxes  😂.  So i now have 2 of my four boxes.

Happy_Kitties

chanie said:

i found an empty shoebox today, resting on top of a bin, outside a well known Sports shop. It was in perfect condition, so i grabbed it for my Link Boxes  😂.  So i now have 2 of my four boxes.

When an ideal opportunity comes along……u have to take advantage of it…..I think we would have all done the same🙂…..I know Katiehound def would of done!!😆
Im out with friends tonight, one who is collecting the shoeboxes for me, they have more for me tonight, I’m more looking forward to seeing how many shoeboxes more than the night out!

Nothing more done, letter to friend not written yet.
I have booked a tip run and I’m dropping a lot of stuff off at Duncles this weekend including some presents. 

I also dropped items off at the CS yesterday, really trying to do some decluttering as I go along.

chanie u said about u and OH not buying each other presents this year bec of the outlay u have had. My cousin and his wife until they had children didn’t buy each other presents but had a set amount to spend after Christmas in the sales to get more for their money. Now it’s a case of they still don’t buy each other anything but hit the sales instead for children clothes for the year. My cousin prefers to just sit in the cafe with a cost@ while his wife goes bargain hunting.