Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - it's the 2024 Christmas chatter thread!

mandco

princesskitty my boys love to get hampers/goodie bags but like spendless says boys generally are much harder to find thing for as they get older unless they have specific hobbies- football is always an easy one to find bits for unfortunately my youngest 2 have never been interested they are much more into gaming. I have the same issue with stockings never an issue with dd I usually end up with more than I can fit but struggle to find enough to make the boys ones look full on a budget so They tend to get a lot of toiletries/snacks to pad it out.

easter holidays start Thursday here too which like you say feels much more rushed as you  usually get the week before &  week after off  meaning you have time to do easter activities with the kids in the run up - its not quite the same afterwards. 

spendless  the bottle dd chose is really pretty - I had the same concern with the mini glass ones they look lovely but not sure how well they would hold up to the rigors of travel?
oh that reminds me somewhere I have a stash of picture 50p's I'll have to try and find it 

hoping to try and save most of my reward vouchers to go towards xmas this year
I must admit I don't rate the asda rewards scheme - not sure how they work is as dd seems to get much better offers then I do this month she got shop 3 times no min spend earn £6 I got spend £50 get 50p back. I hardly ever earn any points I usually don't end up buying any items you get star points on and most of the missions aren't relevant and i generally won't buy just for the sake of it but I did have some points saved up which came in handy this week as my toaster packed up - they are currently doing double up vouchers on adult clothing or homewares so did that and only had to pay £5 cash towards a new one..
I find nectar is the best for earning points at the moment as on top of the points per £1 you get most weeks I get bonus points on item I actually buy so they add up quickly I'm up to £50 already this year.

Not sure yet what main we're going to have for easter depends on what's still available when I go shopping later this week. The boys would like lamb as we don't have it often I can't justify the usual cost but all the 1/2 price ones were too short dated at the weekend with nothing dated past today. Planning to make a Mini egg cheesecake & cupcakes for dessert 
 

Spendless

I'm really happy with the holiday gift bags. I brought them back from my Mums and have just assembled everything.

DH ordered DD a 21st tiara and sash and it came with a key-ring. I didn't need this as had bought DD one in a charity shop months ago. I decided to put the newer one in DD's bag inside a box that says 21 on it (from an old beauty advent calendar I have and am going to use the boxes as packaging) then the charity shop 21 keyring I've put in a small drawstring bag (again using packaging I  already have in ) for DD's friend as she was 21 back in Jan. 

 I  found 2 good brand (Dior and Prada) carded mini sample perfumes  in the house that are in little tubes and put them in. I also added a small wipes which netted to 20p (79p for 4 in HB) so I have 'sort of' gone slightly over budget depending on whether I treat the bottled water as 'items from round the house' or not or include the gift bags

Contents are as follows

DD -
Lindor Easter eggs, - 2.70 (Mr T clubcard deal)
Slippers  -  £1 (clearance Primark) 
sheet face mask -  49p (HB)
mini perfume - FOC (Item found in house) 
mini wipes pack - 20p (HB netted down from 79p for 4) 
bottle of water - 15p (Aldi multi pack netted down) 
Gift Bag = 59p (HB)
Tiara, sash, keyring - wasn't including as part of my £5 aim for the bags
Total  2.70  + £1 + 0.49 + 20p + 15p + 59p = £5.13 for contents inc gift bag 

Friend has same minus tiara and sash and I'm not including her keyring in costs

I called in at Boots yesterday, they had a load of clearance items out. Just one mens Ted Baker bodyspray left scanned at 93p. Bought for DS to put away for Xmas. Used my Boots points purely because I wanted all 'real' money to go to DD's 21st and it's still early on in the year to build back up again.

I'd wondered whether to get the atomisers (called perfume pods) as they were cheaper, but decided to stick with what I know and there was an offer in the Fragrance shop for buying 2 which made them the same price anyway.

Just had a delivery of my last TK Maxx  treasure which is some really nice mesh zip up bags. Ideal for laundry or holiday purposes.

Today I have to get everything sorted for DD's 21st birthday buffet tomorrow. 

princesskitty29

Happy Easter Saturday! It’s actually mine and DH’s 11th wedding anniversary today and it was Easter Saturday when we got married. The boys are going to their grandparents today and DH and I are going to a really lovely pub for a long lunch and hopefully a nice walk afterwards – if we’re not too full! First DS1 has football training and I have to make the mini eggs cheesecake for tomorrow.

The sun is shining this morning and I just hope it lasts, it has started off like this every morning this week but has ended in rain. I have been trying to get out in the garden, I like the idea of having a nice garden but I don’t particularly enjoy the process of gardening. I’ve been setting myself 10 minutes each day so it’s not overwhelming and I’ve managed to get quite a lot done, often I’ll spend longer when I get into it. We went to the garden centre yesterday and bought an apple tree, I’ve always wanted one so we’ll be getting that planted this week.

Spendless I actually love making goody bags, I did it a few times when I had friends round for my birthday, only small ones but I really enjoyed doing it. The goody bags you have made for DD and her friend sound lovely. Great bargain in Boots, I need to pay more attention to any clearance sections!

mandco Yes my boys love it when I do goody bags at Halloween etc, I will have to see if they still like them as they get older. I am lucky as both of mine are really into football at the moment and like you say there are always lots of bits and bobs you can get to do with football. I’m trying to save points and things for Christmas but I don’t do so well with supermarket ones as we only have a Tesco and Aldi nearby and we use the Tesco vouchers towards a Butlins holiday each year. That said I could top up a savings card throughout the year to use for our Christmas shop. I have been earning lots of points and testing products for Ipsos who I find to be the best survey site so far and selling stuff on Vinted for our Christmas savings pot.

Spendless

Happy anniversary for the other day princesskitty. The year you married was when Easter Sunday was also DD's 10th birthday. It fell that way again yesterday for her 21st. I've looked it up and she doesn't get an Easter Sunday birthday again until she's in her 80s!

Good Friday, she returned from drama school with DH who had set off after work to get her on Thursday and stayed o/night. Traffic was bad on both days for him  due to holiday traffic.  There was a birthday buffet awaiting her with my parents, DS (DIL unfortunately had a sickness bug so couldn't attend) and family friends dropping in. She opened her presents too. Listing her gifts in case it gives anyone inspiration, don't always know/remember prices but will include shops if known.
Our main present to her was a refurbished laptop. It worked out cheaper to buy one than get hers repaired.
We also bought her a digital camera for her trip (again cheaper than replacing/repairing her instamax one)  I believe both these were purchased thru Amazon but I can't be sure as DH sorted them.
A pandora ring was bought as part of a mother's day deal - Voucher sent to DH's email due to previous purchases
2  twist and spritz atomisers were bought from The Fragrance shop for 2 broken top perfumes. £16 for 2 (or £10 each) 
St Moritz Fake tan items in pouch - bought in TK Maxx inpost Xmas sale £7.99
Juicy Couture (one of DD's fav brands) overnight bag (something she desperately needed!) TK Maxx £49.99 from her Godmother.
Zipped sunglasses pouch with zipped coin part at the back was £14.99 from an independent shop and from DS and DIL
Travel jewellery case and pouch from family friends.
The rest was money in both £s and Euros the latter she took with her, a relative also framed a drawing she had done as a little girl which was a really nice idea. 

We gave her presents and because I hadn't had chance to put gift tags on, told her as we handed her them these were from me and DH, when we got to the laptop last and said this is your main present, she  was surprised and said she thought everything she'd previously unwrapped from us was a 'main present' said to DH we could have saved the money -lol. I was just joking though as she's been struggling with her Uni work without a laptop, so we''d have been getting her one anyway

On Saturday we took her and her friend to the ferry. Yesterday we wished her happy birthday and heard from her occasionally. Last night she stayed in a hotel. This was also part of her present but there had been little or nothing we have been able to do for her birthdays for the previous 4 years as her 17th and 18th were during lockdowns (18th was the week you were allowed 6 people inc yoursleves in gardens so very limited what we could do) 19th was the trip she's gone on this weekend but got cancelled 2 years ago due to the P&O fiasco, last year she spent her 20th birthday auditioning for a drama school several hundred miles away that rejected her the following morning.

The next family birthday is FIL's next week. DH hadn't remembered and was glad of the prompt. This is the only person I  completely refuse to get involved in  because FIL is difficult to buy for and I already have several of them of my own (namely my own Dad and 98yo Nan) without adding another. FIL is now living in a care home due to physical disabilities, I don't know whether that makes him easier to buy for or not.

Following that we have a cluster in June of our (silver)  WA , my parents WA anniversary. and Father's day. Then that is it until Mid Sept-early Oct which is in order DIL, Nan, Myself, DH birthdays followed by Christmas. As there was no message or card for DD's 21st from my sister or my twin niblings despite me sending theirs a few days ago, I am now drawing a line under that and not bothering anymore and am happy in myself with that decision. 

princesskitty29

Hi all, I hope you all had a lovely Easter? I was outside at the crack of dawn on Sunday hiding mini foil eggs around the garden! Thank goodness we have a dog now and I can use the excuse of letting her out, now the boys are a bit older they notice me not being in bed and being downstairs when they get up whereas when they were really little they wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Luckily they don’t go downstairs without us yet. They still love finding the eggs in the garden! I also did a treasure hunt with clues to lead them to the baskets we make for them which they really enjoy too. My in laws came over and we had a roast beef dinner and the mini eggs cheesecake went down a storm! It really was delicious, I used a Jane’s Patisserie recipe and I will definitely be making that again. After that we played Easter bingo (a simple game I picked up for £1 in The Works last year) and my youngest was playing as well as being the bingo caller so mysteriously he won 4 out of the 5 games! We now have enough chocolate in the house to last us another 6 months I think!

Yesterday we went to Northampton Town FC as DS1’s football team were mascots for the players, so they got to walk out of the tunnel with them and onto the pitch and shake hands with them all before the game. They also got to do penalties on the pitch at half time so he was one very happy boy! They also let DS2 onto the pitch to have a go at the penalties which was nice.

We’re having a quiet day at home today, DH is also off this week so we’re going to get some jobs done including planting our new apple tree – we’re not naturals at gardening so wish us luck!

Spendless It’s good to hear your DD is finally able to celebrate a birthday properly, I hope she has a great time. It sounds like she got some lovely gifts! How funny that it will be that long again until her birthday falls on Easter Sunday, DH and I won’t be alive the next time our anniversary is on Easter Saturday again!

mandco

Hope everyone had a lovely easter 

Princesskitty belated happy anniversay wishes 
team mascots what a great experience for ds really nice that they let ds2 join in too 
good luck with the gardening it can be hard work but its worth it eventually. I'd love an apple tree I remember picking apples off my uncles when I was a kid that and blackberries which they turned into jam ect but we just don't have a suitable place to put one. we do have loads of blackberry though the things grow like wildfire and the thorny branches are a nightmare to keep on top of.  we've grown veg the last few years - really need to make a start on this years patch thinking I might branch out and try some new ones.
really hoping we're finally moving into spring proper and we finally get some consistantly warm weather as its been cold and damp for what seems like forever this year.

spendless the gift bags sound great and even with the extras were still a bargain cost wise.  Hope dd enjoyed her birthday & her trip goes well. Crazy to think she'll never have another easter birthday till she's 80.
You got some really good deals on her gifts & you've raised an amazing dd to know how happy she was with what she got and didn't expect more even before she received her main gift. I know people who are always complaining their kids were ungrateful or wanted/expected more as they've been spoilt.


Its been hard on them not being able to really celebrate significant birthdays thanks to covid- we'd just come out of lock down so dd was really looking forward to having a small party with her friends but ended up spending her 18th birthday in isolation as she got scheduled to have her tonsils out and wasn't allowed to see anyone - she had to spend 2 weeks prior to surgery in her room not even socialising with us she even had to open her presents alone. 

I need 1 more key for my next txmaxx reward - I haven't been getting out much and a change in hours means I can't meet ds from college anymore so not earnt as many as I'd hoped so far this year - 'I've given up ordering online as 1 i  begrude paying the p+p charges but also the last 2 orders I placed got cancelled with no notification and it took ages to get my money refunded.

we ended up seeing the grandkids easter sunday instead of the saturday as originally planned so didn't end up having our roast - they stayed a lot longer than expected and by time they left it was too late to cook. If I'd known they'd be here all day I'd have just cooked extra and done dinner for everyone but they were only meant to be staying a couple of hours so I'd put on a mini easter tea. 

other than fathers day I don't have any other occasions till august so a little breathing space to save and look for deals
my ipad died last week - for some reason it just won't charge so need to see if it can be fixed though they want stupid money just to look at it so not sure its worth bothering?

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Glad you all enjoyed the Easter weekend. My children are 25, 22 and 19 but still received an egg! Gotta love the snap of the actual egg chocolate - there's nothing quite like it.

Glad DD enjoyed her 21st birthday celebrations @Spendless x

We saw family on Easter Sunday but otherwise just caught up on garden/house jobs and having a rest. I'm going on my JoGLE hike again from Thursday - Crewe to almost Bristol - but there's a train overtime ban that day so I'm not sure if the train will actually run. Just typical and it feeds into the anxiety I already have.

In terms of gifting, it's nephew's 5th birthday whilst I'm away. He has some Lego (space shuttle) and a lightweight sweatshirt from Tu at Sainsburys. Total spent £23 which is £7 under budget.

It's another nephew's 16th mid-May so will canvass DSis for ideas whilst we are walking. I'm sure he'd just love cash but I'll check.

I also purchased my first Christmas gift last week. It's a Feathers McGraw soft toy from John L for DD. We all love W&G and particularly the evil penguin. It was on offer so I ordered it along with some new bath towels to get free delivery.

Coxy x

princesskitty29

Hi all, it’s a beautifully sunny day here this morning, I hope it stays that way! I’m still recovering from our family overnight trip to London on Thursday/Friday, DH packed out the itinerary to include Borough Market, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, The Natural History Museum, the Hard Rock café, Hamleys, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament! We did miles and miles of walking (on top of several tubes) the boys did really well, but oh my, my legs and feet were aching! It was a fantastic trip though and one we’ll remember for a long time, the boys marvelled at being on the London Eye. I haven’t done it for years and I’d forgotten how much it made my palms sweat and legs go to jelly!

So it’s a quiet day here apart from taking our washing to my MiL’s, our washing machine was tripping the electric yesterday even after changing the fuse so there’s something wrong with it. I think it’s going to be time for a new one, we’ve had it for years and it’s had a few problems in the last couple so that’ll be the next big expense.

mandco I’d love to try blackberries too, I’ve been looking at some thornless varieties recently. I’ve sown some seeds and currently have cucumber and tomato plants on the go, I’m just waiting to see if my courgette and herb seeds germinate. There’s lots more I’d like to grow but I’m taking it slowly as I am not an experienced gardener and don’t want to overwhelm myself. The ridiculous thing is I’ve now got a bit of an appetite for gardening right at the same time that my boys are obsessed with football and they will probably ruin every plant I have! I hope you manage to get your ipad sorted, quite often these things cost more to fix than it’s worth, I hope that’s not the case for you. Perhaps there is a person locally that fixes things like that?

Coxy I do love the snap of a chocolate egg too! I hope your walk is going/went well and everything was ok with the train. It sounds like another lovely hike.

Spendless

I too like the thinness, snap and shape of an Easter egg. It's why I still buy. You can't get this any other time of year.

DS lives in a cottage that overlooks a canal. Nearby are blackberry bushes. Perfect scenario on the doorstep but without you having to control them. When he was off recently using up AL, he watched a zombie movie with DIL and updated his zombie apocalypse plan (he's had one since he was 14). He intends to block off entry to his row of cottages and will either hide in the cottage's cellar or the nearby pub and use the canal as a food source. I pointed out that DiL is allergic to fish! Apparently she will have to live off berries and nuts. Was he really considered old enough to marry last year?? 

Today is FIL's bd. For the first time I created a s/sheet and made a budget. I've done rough workings out   before with pen and paper and an idea of 'I normally spend a bit more/less' when buying family presents. this has a more detailed aim, though as I'm just starting it, realise I may need to re-jig things around. The hoodie we bought plus some chocs on behalf of grandkids came in at £8 under budget. Not entirely sure if we should also include cards and gift wrap when creating the budget though?? What do others do? 2 cards were bought, one was £1, not sure of other cos DH bought when I wasn't there. He forgot gift wrap, but as it happened I had a gift bag large enough. This has now used up all my 'birthday' giftbags. I have Xmas ones and winter (snowflakes) left.

No more occasions to buy for now until June. 

Auti

I have several rolls of wrapping paper stashed away that I have bought when on offer and thought might come in useful. Also have brown paper wrapping paper roll that I can stamp/decorate if needed for special occasion or person. For cards I have a stash of various bought cards that I got when 3 for 2 offers or discounted that can also be personalised by sentiment stickers, gems, stamping etc. finally I have a few home made (various crafts) in a box that I add to when I feel like doing that particular craft - I move from craft to craft it is whatever I feel like at the moment

Because I do this it means I dont count the wrapping/card as part of the birthday amount as to be fair some of the paper I have stashed away is several years old but still comes in handy unexpectedly (baby/young child paper).
 
 Well done for being so organised though