We will get this debt down & the savings up

Makingabobor2

And also on the strawberry topic. I have been advised that if leaving out over winter then you can cover in bubble wrap if it gets too cold. Not sure what "too cold" is though. Think @foxgloves, might be the person to ask. 

Blackcats

Glad you've got your glasses sorted.  New glasses are very expensive but being able to see properly is worth every penny.
surveys are slow at the moment presumably it's holiday time.  I've rolled over my August earnings to September and will wait until I reach £50 to cash out.  That will go into my Christmas savings pot.  I bought the Yankee candle advent calendar today - it's an annual tradition and I really look forward to the cosy evenings with each day's candle.  Anyway that's a long winded way of saying that I've started Christmas spending already so survey miney will come in very handy.

Makingabobor2

Ooh don't even want to think about Christmas. I hate it with a passion. Far too commercialised and a complete waste of time & money IMHO. But I'm sure others love it. The GKs certainly do, they are really the only people we buy for. 

LittleMissDetermined

Christmas is commercialised, I agree. But the thing I like best about it is the feeling of community and getting to spend time with family. 

Makingabobor2

LittleMissDetermined said:

Christmas is commercialised, I agree. But the thing I like best about it is the feeling of community and getting to spend time with family. 

Think that's why I don't like it as I've got older. DS & his partner always want to go to her parents and say they don't have time, or its too far to see us; In-laws won't come to us as they don't like to go out, and going to them is a nightmare...they are constant complainers, won't have a proper dinner and just sit & watch TV all day;  DD & DSIL & the 4 kids live very local, but we haven't spent a Christmas with them for a few years as DSIL prefers to spend it just them alone with the kids.. If we go to my sis & dad, it involves a 155 mile drive each way and have to stay in a hotel and its not my idea of a fun Christmas.  I miss the years of going to DD and seeing the GKs open the presents. Keep hoping for an invite each year, but it doesn't seem to happen. If I say "are we getting together over Christmas"? Her reply is usually, yes I'm sure we'll see you at some point. Then its usually the day after Boxing day or something when the magic has worn off....lol.
Gosh I do sound like a moaner don't I?  Maybe we will just go on holiday.....lol

LittleMissDetermined

Makingabobor2 said:

LittleMissDetermined said:

Christmas is commercialised, I agree. But the thing I like best about it is the feeling of community and getting to spend time with family. 

Think that's why I don't like it as I've got older. DS & his partner always want to go to her parents and say they don't have time, or its too far to see us; In-laws won't come to us as they don't like to go out, and going to them is a nightmare...they are constant complainers, won't have a proper dinner and just sit & watch TV all day;  DD & DSIL & the 4 kids live very local, but we haven't spent a Christmas with them for a few years as DSIL prefers to spend it just them alone with the kids.. If we go to my sis & dad, it involves a 155 mile drive each way and have to stay in a hotel and its not my idea of a fun Christmas.  I miss the years of going to DD and seeing the GKs open the presents. Keep hoping for an invite each year, but it doesn't seem to happen. If I say "are we getting together over Christmas"? Her reply is usually, yes I'm sure we'll see you at some point. Then its usually the day after Boxing day or something when the magic has worn off....lol.
Gosh I do sound like a moaner don't I?  Maybe we will just go on holiday.....lol

That does sound a bit like hard work. Can you invite DD for maybe a Christmas breakfast or even a Christmas eve supper and the kids can open gifts early?  I am lucky that we have it easy with our families and there's no pressures.  We hosted last year so will probably go to MIL this year.

Going away for Christmas is a popular option too, at the end of the day it's what you make of it!

Makingabobor2

Yes indeed.  Its strange as we have great family gatherings at other times of the year, but Christmas is just a wash out....lol.  Last year, we stopped home alone, had a lovely breakfast while we opened presents, I cooked a great dinner for just the 2 of us. We went for a walk, watched a good film and played a board game that DD had given us. TBH, it was great, but I wish the GKs had been there. Although it would have been chaos.....lol

foxgloves

Christmas has become horribly over-commercialised. I still love it as much as I did when I was a child, however. It's a case of making it what you want it to be. I think there is too much guilt tied up around who one should be visiting, what one should be doing. We still celebrate it even when we are just by ourselves with no visitors. Mind you, I'm a bit of an old pagan, so a feast, a frosty walk somewhere lovely, toasting the stars with a blackberry gin & wassailing our old pear tree would do me! I also enjoy the baking & prep including making, buying & wrapping gifts, but we don't have children or grandchildren, so not too many people for whom to buy. 
F

Makingabobor2

Yes FG, the old Christmas's are the best. Before commercialisation took over. 

EssexHebridean

I think part of the issue with Christmas sometimes is that there is so much pressure for it to be "magical" - and the expectations around what that "should" look like simply don't suit everyone's circumstances, do they. We have mostly spent Christmas day with my parents (now just Mum of course) as with me being an only child they would have been on their own otherwise. MrEH is one of 4 so his folks usually see one or more of his brothers (all of whom are also more local to them than we are) on the day/boxing day. We did opt to go away for a few years while my Dad was still about - so had an "alternative christmas" with Mum & Dad the weekend before the 25th. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to find myself in a position where the first time we had christmas on our own it was because I'd lost both parents though - as that would be quite difficult to cope with I think.