The DFW "Celebrate Christmas for free in 2008" Challenge

tattycath

Thanks Sweetpea. I wonder if you can help me... I know this is Christmas 2008 for free... However, I am in the monthly grocery challenge and I buy savings stamps (morrisons) out of my monthly budget-with some of the surplus money within my budget (if that makes sense) I am buying them for christmas 2008 spends. Can I still count that as part of my christmas 2008 free challenge or is that cheating??? I hope this makes sense ,as now I have read it back, I'm not even sure I understand!!!:rotfl:

sweetpea03

I'm not quite sure tattycath as its mentioned in chocaholics first post but don't know if its ok just to buy them? Hopefully chocaholic will be along soon to help clarify things!

(quote from 1st post) Save using supermarket savings card. These usually add bonus £££s sometime in November. I quite often get Accor luncheon voucher's from a survey site. I am going to find out if Asda accept them from shopping and every time I use them I will put the same amount on a savings card. That way I'm saving them up without having to hand over a lot of voucher booklets at the end of the year.

chocaholic110

I think you can include it. I think the main point of the thread is so that we are prepared for Christmas next year - the free bit is just a bonus! Get as much as you can for free but don' t stop including your savings stamps as well. You could always count as your stamp money, mney that you woud otherwise have spent - multisaves, money off coupons etc etc if that helps, for example on my Asda shopping that's coming today i've saved £16 in multisaves - I could buy stamps with that money (but I haven't!!) as it's money that would have been spent if not on special offer - does that make sense?

tattycath

Hi Choc. Thanks for that. Yes I think I understand. Last night I went to Morrisons and spent £ 15.45 on food but the savings made were over £10.00. I then bought £5.00 of savings stamps, but reall seeing as though I had saved over £10 I saw the savings stamps as a bonus-sort of offset against what I had saved. I got savings stamps for this christmas and a free £5.00 voucher as a petrol purchase bonus so it gave me an extra budget for christmas of £105.
Thank you Sweetpea, I really ought to read the earlier threads!!! when I've got time-now that is as laugh. I've been at work for about 2 hours and been on here for...nearly 2 hours!!!:rotfl:

sweetpea03

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: mse is sooo addictive isn't it! I could happily spend all day on here if I had the chance! (must go now though & do some work too!)

FrankieM

Hi everyone..
you guys are all doing so well.
I've added the challenge to my sig and will add vouchers to the total when I receive them.
I'm using cash earned for my £20k challenge....have been clicking like mad and trying to do as my surveys as poss...

pheeni22

Just posting my totals for the moment:

£25 HMV Giftcard
£10 Next Giftcard
£2.44 Archerfish
£6.60 OnePoll
£1.05 Pigsback
£3.00 Greenmetropolis.com
£47.25 YouGov

Not sure how much I need to save for next Xmas as I'll have to wait to complete this year's Xmas shopping (2 people are allowing me to buy their presents in Jan sales this year) so I'll prob base it on that.

Does anyone know when the Jan sales start for Boots/Next? I might use the Next voucher for Xmas cards, giftwrap and some sets.

Keep motivated everybody!

chocaholic110

Next is generally the day after Boxing day. I usually get up early and go get the kids clothes for the next year and a selection of gift sets. then I wander round the rest of the sales and see what I can get. I like that bit more than Christmas shopping!

sweetpeas_2

tattycath, i think ur doing great. you need to remember that alot of the points some people have, have prob been doing the surveys etc for a few months. so dont be disheartened.

ive had to use some bits of my stash to compelted pressies for this year, so ill update my sig now and take these bits off!

xx nog xx

ps: im using my saver stamps towards my £150 wanted for food budget for next christmas week. when im aiming for a free christmas next year, what im thinking of is not only "free" money as in the extra stuff from surveys and mystery shops etc, but im also thinking of free as in, come next december, ill have saved up enough not to have to use any extra, so it will be "free" in that way aswell... does that make ANY sense at all?!

frosty

what a great idea,I will be starting on the 1st January 2008.