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The 2008 Xmas Savings Thread

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  • Update on Boots - went in today and it was looking a bit bare as they had put out half a dozen of each of the 3 for 2s they were still filling the shelves though.

    Also got DD her Wii with a good bundle of games from Game - fortunately my clicks through the year have paid for most of it :D
    Officially a non-smoker but still rounder than recommended :p
  • Triggles
    Triggles Posts: 2,281 Forumite
    Another £5 voucher put aside for Amazon. £20 in total now. Hoping to get another £5-10 by Wednesday. I have a list of things we want to buy on Amazon for Christmas presents if we can get the vouchers built up in time.
    MSE mum of DS(7), and DS(4) (and 2 adult DCs as well!)
    DFW Long haul supporters No 210
    :snow_grin Christmas 2013 is coming soon!!! :xmastree:
  • Hi all, not sure if this has been mentioned but Woolworths has got a 50% off clearance sale at the moment. The only store that have this promotion is Cwmbran, Newport out of town and Swansea(not sure about Swansea, would have to check) These are all in Wales but there are last years Christmas decos in it and there are boxes of cards going through our till for as little as 25p! Get a bargin!
    Freebies - Savvy Shopping Bag, Energy Saving Plug, Hugo Boss Sample
    Winnings - Dvd The Road sold on Ebay for a tenner :)
    :j
  • Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone had ever bought vouchers from voucherlink?

    Where I used to work, we were able to buy retail vouchers through our wages, so for a couple of years, I've been saving up vouchers which gets us through Christmas / New Year. But, as I've just been made redundant I cant do that anymore which is a real shame! But, I found a website (voucherlink) which sells the vouchers that I was saving up. They only seem to charge for Recorded delivery (£3.95, or you could pay special delivery charges) and as they sold the love2shop vouchers, I'm quite interested! Plus, getting into town to buy the vouchers I wanted will probably cost that in bus fare! Plus, I can get them monthly, stick them in the kitchen drawer and use them for birthdays too.

    I just wanted to know if anyone has had any dealings with them? I figured it might be a good way to save in advance as I'm alot less tempted to spend vouchers than I am 'real' money!

    I've never been a big fan of the hamper companies and like to get these things 'up front'.
    I wish I was a glow worm, a glow worm's never glum
    Cos how can you be gloomy, when the sun shines out your bum? :D
  • Lillibet wrote: »
    Hi Everyone:hello:

    I'm a bit late joining this thread this year, but I haven't been negelecting our Xmas plans. This year we are going to have a "recycled/enviromentally freindly" Christmas in the Lillibet household, all home made or recycled or maybe Fair trade gifts. This means it isn't so much a case of saving to spend later on, as keeping a sharp eye out & buying as soon as we see anything suitable now. So my local chairty shops, who think I have developed some kind of shopping habit, are doing a roaring trade! We are also aiming for our food & drink to be 75% organic/local/fair trade (there are some things that are unavoidable & just don't fall into any of those catagories ; diet coke for instance!). Plus as my hubby is a (until now) non-practising Pagan we have decided we will celebrate Yule on the winter solstice too.

    Plans are the usual Xmas lunch with local/fiartrade variations, a game & mead meal with small token gifts of candles/plants for Yule for a few family/freinds.

    Xmas gifts stand as follows :

    3YO son : got a bundle of Take along Thomas the Tank engine toys from ebay, total cost £50 for over £150 worth of products.
    Will also adopt him an animal which we do every Xmas
    We always buy him the limited edition Sworvoski star dec each year, not sure how we will get over this one as we don't want to give it up?
    Still got his stocking to do, but that will be home made jumper & biscuits, have bought 2nd hand slippers & a few small 2nd hand toys and got a few freebies to pad it out.

    Hubby : Got him a Bagpuss hot water bottle cover (he's a big BP fan!) for 50p (charity shop), I will get a new HWB to go inside it though!
    Got him a new pair of slippers (charity shop) £3 (tag still on RRP £11!)
    Got a list of books he will like which I will source from amazon marketplace/ebay etc.

    Mum : got her 2 vintage Archers audio books for £1.50 each from the chairty shop.
    Best find of all was a freshwater pearl triple strand necklace for £1.50, I am planning on re-threading this into a different design with some other old beads and there will be pleanty for 2 necklaces, so one for Mother in Law too! Thanks to the fab MSE Old Styler who sent me 2 jewellery making books to guide me thorough this process:T:A
    Don't know what else to get Mum yet.

    Dad : Gap rugby shirt from chairty shop, £5, still got new tags on RRP£29!
    French connection suade jacket, £5 chairty shop plus dry cleaning £5.25 plus needs new buttons.
    And......?

    M-i-L : Apart from the pearl necklace I just don't know? We usually get her a Boots voucher & a plant/s?

    S-i-L & Hubby & other S-i-L & family : ideally I want to get them both Terramundi which we can paint/personalise & put a little bit of money in with instructions that it is to be saved for a nice treat for themelves. Need to find somewhere that I can buy plain Terramundi cheaply?

    Auntie : Chairty shop(new) beaded sandles £3
    Uncle : Fleece (like new) from chairty shop £3.75
    Freinds 3YO : Dressing up collection, got 2 charity shop outfits & 2 hats so far for £5, want to get aat least one more outfit & some sort of dressing up box. Usual budget is about £10-15 so plenty of wiggle room on this one.

    Nan & Great auntie : Will get charity shop books. Can get 3 for £1 round here & they are both big readers so easy to cater for, will get between 3-6 each. (plus P&P unless we get upto Yorkshire to deliver them?)

    Cousin & partner : Will make homemade elderberry champenge from recipe I got from this site years ago.


    I would like to include more HM stuff but I am not especially crafty, I can knit s-l-o-w-l-y, can sew a little bit but nothing complicated, can cook but so can the rest of our families (most of my side are chefs so would be coals to Newcastle). Still, got pleanty of time to gather ideas!

    Hope everyone else is enjoying the challange?

    if you can sew even a little bit then cross stitch is easy and makes great gifts when framed, cheap frames easy to get from £land/charity shops etc. if you can knit squares, may be a little late this xmas but for 2009 think about doing patchwork style throws, small blankets for babies/little ones, scarves for anyone (so easy)
  • I'm living on a pretty strict budget this year so to pay for Christmas i've got a bit of leftover stock from my old business which i'm planning to sell on eBay and using the money i'm going to buy the materials to make as many gifts as possible.

    I like the idea of making minature hampers with a jar of homemade chutney, cracker selection (52p for jacobs cracker selection at lidl atm), a little bag of chocolates (Tesco is selling tins of chocolates at £5 each atm) and maybe some other little goodies.
    Overdraft- [strike]£500[/strike] PAID! Computer Loan- [strike]£292.67[/strike] PAID! Credit Card- £369.00 PCDL Loan- £6664.80
  • rospax
    rospax Posts: 26 Forumite
    ... to raid your neighbours apple trees or bag the odd marrow or squash from someone who has a glut, or some quinces or crab apples (which so many people have and few know what to do with) and make some lovely apple & marrow chutney, apple, quince or crab apple jelly or xmas spiced jelly (cinnamon, ginger, etc...) to give as Xmas gifts or to use on the Xmas table. You can also find rosehips at this time of year, perfect for syrup. You can even use a glut of runner beans and preserve them as sweet pickled runner beans. in fact, you can make chutney, jam or jellies out of practically any fruit or veg.

    Costs are minimal: free fruit or veg (loads of people leave their fruit to drop and even windfalls are fine for this), old jam jars topped with pretty cut out circles of paper or fabric (pinking shears helps), tied with recycled ribbons, raffia or string, hand written labels (or if you want to be posh, make them on your computer), then all you need is the likes of sugar, vinegar and spices and maybe some raisins. There are loads of recipes around, all very easy to make, and one batch makes several jars of the stuff. Most preserves are better after keeping for a couple of months, so that's perfect for Xmas if you make them now.

    I've just made some delicious carrot and ginger relish which cost next to nothing and tastes divine. Unusual too. Trouble is it's so nice I doubt any will be left by the time Xmas comes around!
  • lynsey78
    lynsey78 Posts: 224 Forumite
    Well im a bit behind on things this year so only just started this month..

    So far for my brother i got a fantastic book of walks around the country-from the Coast series..we have a book club at work, you know the ones where people drop books off for us to look at, anyway the book is worth £17 and got it for a £5. excellent bargain i think.

    Went to Trago mills in newton abbot and got my sister in law a fantastic box of green and black chocolates which she loves at half the price of the high street.

    Have got my mum a box set of lovely chutneys and hope to find her something else.

    Still need to get other sister in law, dad and aunt and uncle who i always buy for...

    Getting there since its a late start.

    However we have been good and slowly buying things for food and drink over the last month so there will be no major expense in december..
    Love my hobby ;-)
  • shed35
    shed35 Posts: 241 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Academoney Grad Combo Breaker
    I like to thank everyone for their tips. I have certainly been using them.

    I would like to return the favour. Last year as I was on a tight budget, so I sent my overseas cards by surface mail. It was 1/3 cheaper than airmail.

    I have done same this year. The last post for Australia was on 1 October 2008 but friends last year told me they got their cards really early so might still have time. I know you have to organised!!!

    Check the Royal Mail website for dates of other postings.
  • I just got a 2 person picnic wine cooler set off ebay for £3.20 + £3.50 p&p, brand new still in original packing, it's a good bargain cos when BHS had em in about 3 years ago they were £15, now all I got to get is a bottle of wine and that is the neighbour sorted, should come in handy with them having a caravan.

    Decided what we wanted from the Argos book last night, we have picked out 2 people pressies, 1 cat pressie ( big scratch post for our 2 cats) and picked out our pressie to ourselves, we have chosen a cutlery set, dinner service x2 basic white ones and some coasters.
    We inherited a proper dining table a couple of months ago and we only had a breakfast bar before so now we can inveite friends over or a proper meal but aint got enough cutlery and stuff so we picked them out.
    I will organise them next week for delivery and I will get my cahback on it like I do the ebay stuff.

    Not got many more pressies to get now
    I'm working on it.
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