NST NIFTY NOVEMBER

f0xh0les

Today I am excited !  Tomorrow I might get my expenses paid.  I was hoping to get them last Tuesday, but they never materialised so now I have another, will they/wont they excitement day - I'd rather be excited than annoyed. Luckily I am not relying on them, but it will mean clawing back £100 from shunted savings if they do not appear this week (boo!).

The plan for the day is frantic speed cleaning in prep for Swi$$ Auntie who is visiting this weekend for the first time in 6 years. She is in for a shock as all the kids are much taller than her now.   -  followed by book scanning and boxing up and sending, and  a spot of baking before work at 3pm.

BadBookkeeper

Didn’t check in yesterday bit of a busy one still getting organised for new bedroom carpet due tomorrow.

School newsletter had all the December activities, dates & costs so I’ve update my lists & budgets, except the pantomime but I think we’ll be away when that’s on. 

I’ve just done a rough plan for 2023.  I save £80 a month currently to cover Christmas & DS December birthday.  I wanted to calculate how much I should be saving for a birthday pot.  It worked out at another £60 a month.  I’d be left with nothing if I did that but what a chunk of money to give away!!!! 

Had homemade soup for lunch.  Think I had too much as feel uncomfortable and a bit sickly now. 

DH did a tip run yesterday and outside looks much better.  

Going Christmas shopping later today so won’t be an NSD.  Already bought some happy quote cards for the elf to leave in ds pocket.  Our elf is very sensible and doesn’t get up to mischief!  

Big frog swallowed today.  A small pension I’ve been trying to transfer from a previous employer scheme to my current one finally looks like it is being processed.  I first applied in April 2020.

Grateful for: this challenge, wfh, being quite organised. My pension being sorted.

grandmanerd

Monday 14th November 2022
9 Christmas Traditions From Around the World
Latvia - Mummers The mummers dress in costumes like cranes, fortune-tellers, wolves, goats, bears or horses. The mummers usually play music and sing traditional songs.
Sweden - The Yule Goat The Yule goat evolved into a Santa-like figure who gives out presents on Christmas Eve. In the town of Gavle the Gavlebocken (the 'a's should have umlauts) is erected.
Ukraine - Spider Webs Ukrainian people often decorate their trees with artificial spiders and webs because seeing a spider on Christmas Day is thought to be lucky. 
Norway - Witches After Christmas Eve dinner, families open their presents and then hide all their brooms, mops or brushes from witches who might steal them for riding.
Catalonia/ Spain - Caganer/ Cagon - Originally a  Catalan tradition, this male figure turns up in belenes (nativity displays) and is depicted with his pants down and living up to his name, which translates as 'the defecator'.
Iceland - The 13 Yule Lads Children put a shoe in their window for the 13 nights leading up to Christmas. If they've been good a Yule lad will leave sweets or small gifts.
Greece - Kallikantzari Mischievous goblins known as kallikantzari come to wreck havoc in people's homes. They are said to disappear when priests bless the devotee's houses on the day of the Epiphany, January 6th.
Germany/ Austria - Krampus Krampus is a half-goat demon who carries a wicker basket on his back, similar to Santa's sack. The twist is that, rather than delivering gifts, he uses his basket to take naughty children to the underworld.
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Croatia - Bathtub Carp Many families buy a carp and keep it in the bathtub until it's time to cook it. In recent years, some families release the fish into a river instead of eating it.

thriftylass

Hello,

went slightly off track on the weekend but back on track from today. Indulged a little bit over the weekend. As I ordered sth for Christmas by accident twice (and basically had already spend the money) I invested the refund of one of them in a cheap desk and stool for me in our bedroom. DH has his office, kids have their own desks now and I sooo missed having my own space. £60 that weren't planned but make such a difference. 

Got some more painting done (regret now getting the cheap white paint, as it takes so many layers and the corners are a pain to cover with a brush), some clothes decluttering and other bits and bobs.

Hoping for 5 NSDs in a row now.

TL

thriftylass

grandmanerd said:

Monday 14th November 2022

Germany/ Austria - Krampus Krampus is a half-goat demon who carries a wicker basket on his back, similar to Santa's sack. The twist is that, rather than delivering gifts, he uses his basket to take naughty children to the underworld.
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Croatia - Bathtub Carp Many families buy a carp and keep it in the bathtub until it's time to cook it. In recent years, some families release the fish into a river instead of eating it.

Krampus wasn't a thing where I grew up, i think it's more south like Bavaria. We just had Santa who literally came to your house (usually a neighbour dressed up) bearing a sack full of gift and a broom stick. If you weren't  nice you got threatened with it. 

My mum tried that carp thing once and just hated it so she went back to a nice (dead) goose instead,

BadBookkeeper

Thought I was being clever budgeting £20 for Christmas school activities. The requests have started to come in!  Donation to raffle - DS class theme is ‘something gold’ so bought a big box of Ferraro rocher on offer for £6.  There’s a school trip to for £11 with another £5 for souvenir and a panto for £10.  So already over budget on that!  🥴

thriftylass

BadBookkeeper said:

Thought I was being clever budgeting £20 for Christmas school activities. The requests have started to come in!  Donation to raffle - DS class theme is ‘something gold’ so bought a big box of Ferraro rocher on offer for £6.  There’s a school trip to for £11 with another £5 for souvenir and a panto for £10.  So already over budget on that!  🥴

The benefit of going to a school in a deprived area is that our headmaster organises almost nothing that costs money, although that also means no book day, dress up etc or anything that could make people spend money they don't have. The kids make their own panto for parents to come and see.

The only thing we had this year year was a poppy sale for 10p and one school trip to the art cinema for a fiver.

The P7s do a final year trip (used to be a week, now 3 days cost the same!!!) but luckily they arranged a payment plan of 6x £50).

We'll get a shock when he goes to the fancier secondary next year.

ldee2111

Staying on NSD 6 as I spent a small amount on a top-up shop and a larger amount on MIL and FIL's sprouts day gift... more than planned but it happens. I'll need to find the extra cash to cover it though because it wasn't budgeted for. 

WfH today and had a lot to get on with which made the day pass quickly. I lost track of time so didn't have lunch until 3pm... and by then I'd had far too much screen time. I decided to walk instead of drive to the local shops to pick up an order of frames for DS's school photos. (Wasn't paying the prices offered by the photographer to frame!) Pictures are now ready for dispatch to the grandparents! Managed a 10 minute YWA too. 

Grateful today for dry weather, for getting a walk, for gorgeous Autumn colours still clinging to branches, for frames being the right size, and for MIL's delicious homemade chilli jam which I had with oatcakes and cheese for lunch today.

lcc86

Evening turtles

Non working day here today but OH's alarm went off so I was up at the usual time. Watched a bit of The Crown then drove to my friend's house to walk her dog. Later on I cycled to my friend's work and had a natter with her on her lunch break. Came home, watched more TV and generally pottered. Did some yoga and have been for another quick walk. Am trying not to do too many chores on my non working day as I want it to be a day for me 

Time to make some dinner and get myself ready for work tomorrow. 

grandmanerd

Definitely not well again but I had parcels coming so I've been tottering about. Had a shower and washed my hair and did an extra grooming bit (well made it a bit better). Sent DS3 a message asking for drinks and a large yoghurt but he obviously didn't get it so asked him to carry a bin bag down and then got myself and 2 heavy bags down (books to read, laptop and notebooks and diaries) then said I would sit on his feet (perched at the end of the big couch). 

He referenced Good Omens and I said I hadn't seen it, so he put it on and we've watched the whole series (with lots of interruptions where he asked me if I knew particular actors and what he might have seen them in). Food for Beloved came, then my small food order (using discount vouchers) and finally the small items order (some could have been delivered yesterday but I opted for the one box, one delivery option (still came in 4 packages). 

I'd already asked DS3 if the large salad box could go back on top of the chinchilla cage instead of on the back of my couch and he'd done that. I said I had a job for him but that it had lots of parts to it (he will only do one job a day for me although he's getting better at carrying heavy bags for me). part one was unrolling the bolt of cloth on top of the cube shelves and cutting a length into cleaning cloths - he did the unrolling and cutting a length off and then brought it across to me, I snipped and he ripped to get cloths.

Part 2 was him taking down the current worn out net and the wire, spraying the window and wiping it with a cloth. He asked should he do the window bottom as well, I said yes but he said I could reach to wipe that part. He carried on wiping and I threaded 4 net panels onto the tension rod (needed 3 panels for the width, they came in 2 pairs so used the extra panel which meant there was enough fabric to overlap and I didn't need to sew the 2 centre panels together to stop them gaping). Finally he put up the rod and adjusted it. Far quicker and easier than I've ever done it before.

I put food away a bit at a time, brought salad bits back to nibble (broccoli with blueberry yoghurt is yum). Had a ready meal later. The remainder of my parcels was 3 books to put in my Christmas pile (2 are the latest in series of books I'm reading one is a new to me author but often recommended by readers of other books I love - in a what else can I read until the next in our favourite series comes out way? I've been keeping hydrated and not doing much. I'm very wobbly when standing so only did small back and forth trips. DS3 helped me back upstairs. I have a list of 50 supposedly 5 minute decluttering tasks so I'll try to do some of those later or carry on with them tomorrow, especially if I'm not up to going out.


Grateful for getting to watch Good Omens, DS3 realising I was ill and looking after me (he even let me stretch my leg across him when I got cramp in my calf), parcels that arrive together (and the small boxes will be useful as drawer dividers).