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

mandco

@coxy11 happy birthday to ds

My 3 youngest all have their birthdays within 3 weeks so I know what it’s like - gets more expensive as they get older too.

What are you seeing? Hope you enjoy it

We’re off to florida for a last trip - we looked at other (read cheaper) holidays but my travel insurance was £1500 😳 the joys of an unpredictable medical condition so figured what the hell we’d go back to Florida instead. taz is very happy my wallet not so much 😉. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a few bits for the kids birthdays & xmas -dd has already got her eye on some bath & bodywork’s stuff as it’s so expensive over here.

@spendless cluster birthday can be hard on the budget especially if they fall at the beginning of the year. I had 3 in Jan there’s 2 in feb one if which is mine then none till Aug which gives me a decent amount of time to save thankfully. Monzo pots are great it makes it so easy to keep spends for different things seperate - I have 7 on the go at the moment.

I thought I’d missed the Gruum offer but it’s still on so ordered the lip balm which can go in dd stocking
not gonna get to boots before the weekend so not holding my breath for any bargains - my branch didn’t really have much even before it got reduced further but I’ll have a look anyway just in case.

Spendless

I understand the thought process about having a leap day baby cos I was due early March in a leap year and Mr S had told me that if the baby was born that day he would only be buying a bday present every 4 years - not quite sane at 9 months pregnant , I believed him - lol.

Today I went into town early because I wanted to look round some of the shops, I looked in Roman (only customer in there), picked up some face masks in Boots at 70% off, the box was bashed in which is why it had been left. I intend taking them out of the box, the sales assistant suggested that to me as I bought them (I was only customer at the till) bought and ate lunch, got my top lip waxed (3 staff in only me in there, another client came in before I left - the place only does walk ins), looked round HMV cos someone had told me they'd gone over to selling a lot of vinyl (just went to see if it was true not cos I own a record player - it was), popped to the ladies, looked round a clothing discount store in pemises recently vacated by M& S (very depressing seeing what it now is compared to what it used to be) and finished off at Primark. It's a large store over 3 floors, I went to 2 of them, no customers at the till on either floor. All this took me exactly 1 hr 5 mins and I'd done. Then I went to work where we had the same lack of customers. I appreciate the weather played a part being raining and cold but still, I felt it was a real shock that barely anyone is buying.

Coxy11

Saw Book of Mormon last night - saw it about 10 years ago but just so funny (and beyond the pale in some scenes IYKYK).

So exciting to be off to Florida @mandco - cannot believe the cost of your insurance though!

Your town sounds like ours @Spendless. I ended up going today as ran out of time yesterday dashing for the train and negotiating many closed and flooded lanes - the joys of living rurally. It was raining this morning and it's market day - only the meat van and the crystal lady bothered to turn out.

I dropped off soft plastic recycling at Sainsbobs, and took a Vinted parcel to the Post Office where there was….wait for it…NO QUEUE! Must be some kind of miracle. Then went to Boots to recycle my empties. The only sale area was on the end of an aisle and just two narrow shelves. However, I got 2 x the Champneys sheet mask/eye gel set for £2.25 each (so four of each in total), a Sence sheet mask box of 5 for £3 and a little S&G set with shower gel and body butter for £1.95. The Sence masks will be for DD for Christmas. The S&G set will come in handy for when I take my DDad back to Cyprus in July.

My points total is now 1937 thanks to 3 x recycle drops this year. I have more to recycle and will need haircare in the new few weeks, so that's my next plan.

Got the Sky weekly freebie in Sainsbobs - TTD blueberry pancakes which the kids will enjoy.

Spendless

Just realised coxy if your eldest had come along on his due date hed have been born the same day as Brooklyn Beckham - maybe there's a reason he decided to turn up early. 😆

Mr S has got a £20 love2shop voucher from his employer for hitting targets. Going to check it cos of previous nil balances on! Not sure what or where to spend it though.

Spendless

DS dogsat for us whilst we went away for the weekend. I said 'help yourself to anything' He tried 1 of DH's chocolate stouts - lol (we genuinely didnt mind). Anyway he said how nice it was. I bought them in Aldi from a recommendation on here.

Im just back from there shopping and pucked up a boxed set of wooden paddle board with 4 small beer glasses. When we have friends round, Mr S frequently gets out different ales to try, so this will be a gift for him for Fathers day/WA/Bday or Xmas. Will see nearer the time.

Im really happy with how much Im ploughing ahead with buying gifts in advance this year. I have £150 saved in the occassions fund, which will cover Dads bday at the weekend even if I have to resort to just money in a card and DS bday in early March. He mentioned needing new headphones to DH as well as something else which to me goes under the heading of 'gadget/technical' so will leave for the boys to choose and order.

PennysIntoPounds

Glad DS liked the chocolate stout and that DH didn't mind too much @Spendless 😁 They are scrummy.

The beer paddle board sounds a lovely gift

Spendless

I called in Boots yesterday evening to see if there was anything let in the gift section. It had been reduced to 90% off. I guess it started yesterday but I don't know for sure. If I'd realised I'd have gone earlier in the day. There was next to nothing left, but I did pick up a fragance hanger disc with an oil which was now £1. It was too good to leave for that price even with the box bashed in (why it had been left). I will re-box though and it's probably going to be another stocking gift for DD.

mandco

@spendless hopefully dh voucher will be valid this time

Sounds like you’re doing well so far with the present prep buying/saving - I’m with you on the tech front haven’t a clue so if they want something specific they have to send me the links or order it themselves.

@coxy11 I knew my insurance was going to go up as I now have an official diagnosis but really didn’t expect it to be so much especially as nothings really changed. Lots of planning going on as it’s really not that long till we go and it’s very last minute for us as we’d normally book this Kind of trip 12-18 months in advance so actually starting to feel excited about it now especially as we’re doing the new epic theme park so lots of new things to see/do.

Didn’t make it to boots in the end as woke up sat to a water leak that ended up being on a pipe inside the wall so that was the whole weekend written off

did ordered a couple of pairs of Xmas socks for stocking fillers reduced to clear £1-£1.50 2pk on Argos

Coxy11

Hi all,

That's a nice idea for FD @Spendless especially as you know DH will use it when you have your pals over. I hope the Love2Shop voucher is valid and has a balance on it this time! Also going great guns on your occasions pot.

Don't blame you being excited about your trip @mandco, sounds amazing. That's a good price for Xmas socks.

I walked into town this morning - it's 3 miles each way. Want to up my steps and DH has taken our car to work the past three days as his needs fixing AGAIN. I took soft plastic recycling and got the Sky VIP freebie pizza in Sainsbobs, then went to Boots to recycle and get hair care products. I usually use the VO5 heat spray and frizz control but the John Frieda was on offer. The two equivalent JF products would have come in at £8.50 and were smaller bottles too, so I stuck to VO5 which came to £10.15. I now have £24.37 in points and another 6 items to recycle. It soon mounts up.

I did a trawl of the chazzers whilst in town. Got an RHS gift set in BHF for £6 BNWT. This is going to MIL for MD. It's this one:

HEATHCOTE & IVORY RHS LAVENDER GARDEN WEEKEND AWAY BAG - Stratford Garden Centre

Luckily she likes Lavender and ILs have several Warner weekend breaks booked, so I know she will use it.

PennysIntoPounds

What a lovely gift, and what a bargain @Coxy11

I went to a Boots today and not a single sale item to be seen. Suppose it saved me a few quid in the meantime!

I won a £50 M&S voucher so that will help with the forthcoming celebrations bits and bobs that all add up. Though I suspect we'll mostly spend it on coffee as we wince every time we have to part with cash for it, it's gone up so much in the last year or so