Santa Baby - it's the 2026 Christmas Chatter Thread!!

mandco

Coxy11 & spendless I’d agree the bags thing is definitely a generation thing my dd also loves bags particularly branded ones and often drops hints over the latest find she’s after but while she has a couple of bags she does use 1 for work & 2 different sized ones for days the rest she rarely ever actually uses they mostly just sit on a shelf looking pretty 🙄

@coxy11 sorry to hear things in Cyprus with your dad were more challenging than enjoyable I do think sometimes parents can be more work then the kids are. Great deal in dutyfree though.

@spendless good to hear your mums doing better. recovery certainly gets harder the older we get - it still amazes me sometimes how quickly the kids can bounce back from the same illness compared to us.

Boys are currently debating the outcome of tonight’s England match. tbh I was surprised they beat Mexico I didn't think they really played that well more they got lucky as it was a very scrappy match with some reckless play which could quite easily gone the other way.

Spendless

Back in Jan I bought a perfume set at the airport reduced ex Christmas stock and duty free. Its being saved for DD for this Christmas. Yesterday I found the matching hair mist in TK Maxx for £19.99. Looking online it would have cost me at least £30 by the time I took p&p into account and many places it retails around £40. Even the cashier commented on what a good price it was.

Coxy11

Good find @Spendless x

I’ve just been on my Tesc0 app and they have a Summer Savings event until 20 July. Lots of categories including toys, household, cosmetics etc. We are looking for some new garden furniture - they have lots reduced so will discuss either DH when he gets up (late night!)

mandco

great find Spendless

thanks for the heads up coxy11 I rarely check the actual shopping part of the app as I leave it set on the clubcard

1 of my items from next has finally arrived I store the rest is showing as “there was an issue sending your item” we’ll try and get it to you as soon as possible a further update will be provided if this changes which means it’ll likely get refunded eventually.

Ordered a couple of bits from the George clearance sale this morning and they’ve just both been cancelled as now oos

Argos clearance section has some decent offers on if you can find any stock locally they’ve added quite few new bits the last couple of days. ordered a couple stitch T-shirts £2 ish & a stitch top trumps puzzle cube game £6 rrp £20 for dgd2 plus a couple more squishmallows reduced to £2.70 each for the donations box.

Dd got a couple of holiday days back - she was signed off sick for a week which overlapped some her booked time off so has asked if i want to do a spa day or something on her birthday as she’s taking that off now so need to try and find something reasonably priced.

Spendless

Have a look at Spabreaks.com @mandco

mandco

@spendless cheers they have some really good offers compared to booking direct

Ds had an opticians app today - he needs new glasses. He hadn’t noticed any difference but apparently his prescription has changed significantly in the last year so shows it’s definitely worth keeping up with routine checks. He’s always picked the exact same pair but she talked him into trying a different style - he didn’t seem that keen on them but she was very pushy and I think he just agreed to shut her up so guessing I’m going end up buying another pair in his usual style later - I did offer today but he said he’d try the new ones first.
As we were already going to town anyway I thought we’d go a bit earlier and check smyths to see if they had any of the new pokemon cards that were released today omg the queue was huge - apparently they started queuing 3+ hrs before opening 😳 they were limiting it to 1 of each item per customer but even so time we got to the till they were pretty much sold out with only a handful of items left - did manage to get one of the large sets ( dd is paying for it) and a couple of single booster packs for taz. Assuming a lot of it will end up online at double the price as usual.

I didn’t realise m&s have updated the sparks rewards and you can now earn cash rewards in various weekly offers so will be keeping an eye on those - most of the ones I’ve had aren’t ones I’ll use I’m not falling for the buy things you wouldn’t buy otherwise just to get a reward but did use a get £1 for £4+ spend on cleaning products, £1 for £3+ spend on bakery items & £1 on £6+ baking ingredients. Probably won’t earn much but whatever I do earn can go towards xmas treats - they usually do some lovely stuff but don’t often buy much of it as it tends to be on the pricer side.
my sains/tesco reward points are building nicely as I’m trying to maximise bonus offers ect hoping between those & my Asda savings card top ups it'll be enough to cover the bulk of Xmas shop in those stores.

Coxy11

We have one of the only two Tokyo Toyz stores in our little town and the queue for that on opening day stretched the entire length of the High Street @mandco !

I decided to order myself some new bras and found I had £4 on my Sparks card - don’t know how as I barely shop there but all rewards welcome!!

mandco

@coxy11 never heard of Tokyo toyz but checked out the website and not surprised the opening day was so popular - they also have a few things I think taz might be interested in which opens up some ideas for his birthday/Xmas so thanks for mentioning it.

All rewards definitely welcome though it’s even better when it’s unexpected - I have a couple of it’s possible I’ll use m&s offers this week so have activated those figure even if I only earn a couple of pound a month from it it will give me a nice bonus of £20-£30 for Xmas

still waiting on my missing item from next they haven’t sent it but not refunded it either it’s sat in limbo & Had a vinted ordered cancelled as the seller didn’t post it so need to find a replacement for that.
In slightly better news have ordered a birthday present for ds1 as he finally decided on something he wanted. In typical fashion he picks something that’s limited edition and pretty much oos everywhere so I had to order it from the states - item cost £65 postage was a ridiculous £45 😱 now I’d normally refuse to pay that but it’s literally the only thing he’s asked for and the alternative would be to spend the same amount on things he’s not so bothered about so ultimately it’s a better use of the money even if I wasn’t happy about it

Spendless

I reached another TK Maxx treasure recently and selected a free breakfast deal from Greggs as my reward. Sunday before the key holder got to my workplace I sat inside enjoying my free bacon sandwich and large latte, should have been a regular one but assistant hadnt read the info before pouring, she gave it me begrudgingly (not my fault love!).

Spoke to DD last night, shes aware that the graduation jellycats are oos everywhere and doesnt want a different one in its place. Hers is one of the last grad ceremonys of the year, so we'll see if they do bother restocking. I have bought her some other items in its place and have a personalised bag on its way to put gifts in.

Postage costs too/from US are ridiculous. When DD was studying there, she asked me to post a dress to her. I parcelled it up, to be told it would be £25, doubt dress cost much more! Told DD Id send her £25 towards buying a new one instead, as it happened house party she wanted it for got pushed back, which coincided with DH going over for work, so went in his suitcase and his employer paid for his flight and luggage - happy days - lol.

mandco

A free Greggs breakfast has to be one of the better tkmaxx rewards they’ve had in a while every time I get enough keys it seems to be all comps or donations

Us shipping is definitely extortionate and this particular company’s prices are quite a bit higher than others but it was the only place that had it in stock and to be fair can’t fault the service they said allow up to 4 weeks shipping time to the uk but his present arrived yesterday just 5 days from ordering.

need to pick up a birthday card and some euros this week for dgd1 birthday as we’re dropping off her presents at the weekend ahead of their holiday next week - puppy is being dropped off the night before now as they’re no longer driving to the airport.

next have finally issued a refund.