We will get this debt down & the savings up

Blackcats

Having succumbed to the advent candles I probably sound contradictory when I say that I don't like the constant commercialised barrage of adverts depicting families at perfectly decorated tables, in matching jumpers drinking champagne and eating a perfectly prepared feast.  It's unrealistic and sets expectations too high.  

We have lots of grandchildren between us and that makes it an expensive time.  I now save up all year and am guided by their parents on what to buy.  They have such a lot of presents though that we feel conflicted - on the one hand we are pleased that our grandchildren have plenty and on the other hand it seems that they have too much and it's overwhelming.  

I do enjoy advent - a tea light a day and a Christmas themed film or tv show each evening on dvd or catch up so no adverts. Pull the curtains and shut the world out.

Makingabobor2

Yes @Blackcats, I love the Christmas films. But they have to be the proper traditional ones, can't be doing with new style Hallmark ones, which are basically a love story that happens to be set at Christmas.....lol

ladyholly

For us Christmas is just  normal day with better food. Our dd and sil always have his mum for Boxing day (they both work Christmas day) as she is a widow and would be on her own. We would be welcome to join them but dh doesnt get on with her so he refuses to go anywhere she is. The only other relative we have is my bil but he prefers to be on his own.

Sun_Addict

We don’t do anything on the actual day itself. DS and the GKs usually come to us Christmas Eve although last year it was cancelled due to illness. We don’t have a traditional Christmas dinner as no one likes it. We have been known to have curry. 

Basically I just lounge around drinking wine and wearing a Christmas jumper 😆

LittleMissDetermined

Sun_Addict said:

Basically I just lounge around drinking wine and wearing a Christmas jumper 😆

Sounds like my kinda day

joedenise

And mine 🤣

Makingabobor2

Sounds a great idea @Sun_Addict.  I'm definitely fed up with cooking Christmas dinner. Not that I don't want to cook, just that I'd like something different for a change. Basically I have had turkey every year for over 60 years!...lol.  Trying to persuade DH to have salmon, but he's not keen. 

Makingabobor2

Well, just a quick update. I really feel I have been bad with the mortgage OPs and the debt busting. Just so many things seemed to read their ugly head that needed paying for with what little funds I did have, and surveys and making money have been very slow. 
Anyway, I feel a lot better now mentally & seem to have got my eye much more on the ball. I am going to re-join the PADding challenge & see if that helps.   I need to go through my budgets again, as quite clearly my grocery budget needs tweaking, as I really don't seem to be able to quite manage on the amount I have been putting. So better to have too much and then move the excess into a mortgage OP or F&F pot, or savings pot, rather than not have enough, as happened last 4 week period. I have 1 week left of this 4 week period & might just make it....if I'm lucky. This is only the 2nd month of the full pension, so should be starting to get more organised now really. Having to save for the deposit for my new glasses didn't help either, and next month I have to pay for the other pair.   
  I'm undecided whether to have a separate budget for toiletries type stuff. I normally get it all from normal shopping, but DH has told me he needs some more of his Nivea face cream for men....waited till the pot was just about empty before telling me!...lol.  So do I use money from this weeks grocery budget & miss out something else, or make him wait till next period?  Personally I think he should pay for it out of his own spends, but he says no as it was me that told him he should use it!!  Honestly if it was left up to him, he would not use anything except toothpaste, shower gel & shaving soap!

So what great MSE wins have I had.
*Well I used some paint that was left over from when we painted a shed years ago, to paint my wooden planters & bird table, so that was a saving. Also got some lovely plants half price in garden centre sale and after trimming the dead bits off, they look great.
* A friend has given me 3 jigsaw puzzle to do & a couple of books for DH, so that's saved me trawling the charity shops for a while......I do love a good jigsaw.  We have started swapping puzzles & books, and also swapping books with DD & DSis. Can't stand having to take them to charity if they've only been read by me....although they mostly come from there anyway. Can't remember the last time I bought a new book, apart from the ones I download to Kindle for 99p or so. Love a trawl in the library as well. 
* DH has got the gifted laptop up & running, for the princely sum of £15 for spare part. So I am extremely grateful to FIL for not wanting that anymore. Bigger screen, better resolution & holds its charge, so saving on energy as well. 
* Best win of the week was when DH messaged me from work to tell me he was getting a pay rise!  Quick calculation and I think it should be about £16 a week after stoppages, so all good there. I will quickly allocate that to various places...lol. Also its being back dated for a couple of weeks. 
* This morning we went for an early morning walk, armed with a cool bag, a plastic tub & some cutters to cut back the brambles and we got our first haul of blackberries for the year, 1300 grms!  So washing & freezing has taken place and I will give some to DD as DGS4 loves them in his porridge & yoghurt. 
* Got some good yellow stickered bread when I popped into Mr M on Thursday as well, excellent savings there, from well over £1, down to 38p. Will probably make a habit of looking in there every time I go past TBH. I stopped shopping there a couple of years ago as I thought their prices has shot up, but they do reduce their bread well. Unlike the C*-*p who might as well not bother, apart from on a Sunday if they happen to have a load left.  

I am still deciding which F&F deal to accept first, got to work out the money side of things, but so far we have been made 3 good offers. So debt busting starts here....lol

So that's my little update. Now I need to go and make my meal plan list for the week & a shopping list. Hoping the surveys pick up a bit soon as well. 

Hope you're all having a good weekend and have survived the heat. We finally have rain, although not as much as I was expecting. Think the garden may still need some water. 

EssexHebridean

We got a few big spots of rain yesterday late afternoon but it stopped again quite fast - I think we are due more tomorrow though by the sound of it. Even that little shower yesterday was enough to start dropping the temperature though thankfully. 

Excellent blackberrying and YS'ing there - the co-ops in the Hebrides used to be wonderful for reductions on bread but these days really not so much. If I'm only going to be saving 10p on it I'll just buy fresh, thanks!  Mind you we often say the same in T's too - standard response to their YS area these days seems to be "nope - they need to try harder!" 

Makingabobor2

I agree @EssexHebridean, a lot of the supermarket reduced offers are rubbish these days.  Mr M does seem to be the best for bread products, which is quite handy if freezer space allows. Our local C**p is sometimes good just after lunch time on a Sunday, all depends how much they have left, but on weekdays it is rubbish.   I did actually find some 50% off bread rolls in A!d* yesterday, so that was 2 packets for the freezer.