The 2008 Xmas Savings Thread

mummytummy

This is where i am so far:-

Tesco vouchers 12.00
tesco stamps 9.00
sainsbury stamps 19.00
High st. vouchers 500.00 (paying monthly up to october)
post office account 127.00

feeling very pleased with myself at the moment:D

nitnurse-not2

Hi there,
I've started my savings early this year. I've got:£35 Morrisons stamps and £5 voucher off petrol there too.:j
I'm hoping to keep this up and save £200 for Christmas goodies. I know that sounds a lot (this is just the extras!!!!!!!!:rolleyes:) but I do loads of entertaining over the holiday period.
I've also got my crackers, gift wrap and cards for the kids to send.:j I only send 4 cards and with the money I save I donate it to charity so someone else can benefit.
I've also got a little stash of pressies in my cupboard made up of bargains from Aldi & Lidl which I pick up occasionally.
Good luck to all.

ashlea170706

hi could anyone tell me what pigsback is please? thanks ash x

vodkawitch1

Thanks for some great ideas - the £1 a day sounds a great idea

WelshWoofer

I started putting £25 in a bank account in January (plus £25 to open it) and so now have £100 saved so far.
There's only OH, mum, dad, sister, gran and OH's immediate family to buy for (plus the dog!) and so £300 should be a good start. Anything extra I can gather together will go towards the food - all stay at my house (like sardines) and eat me out of house and home.

surfsister

surfsister wrote: »

I picked up a leaflet in the post office today and it says:

save from £5 anytime you wish up to £1,000

go to the post office with a form of ID and complete the savings club applications form you'll be given a savings card once you put £5 on it it will be activated

End of oct you will be contacted with your balance you can spend it from Nov ist at the recognised shops or get the Po to convert the money to one4all vouchers

www.giftvouchershop.co.uk for list of retailers

supposed to be discounts and coupons during the year but no mention on them on the leaflet

What are the “Consumer offers” that you are giving as a bonus to the savers?



'We will have a range of different offers from many of our retail partners that will make your money go even further. These offers will be either product based e.g. a retailer providing some money off festive products or simply offers that reward you when you spend their vouchers/card in certain retailers, i.e. £5 off when you spend £50. A booklet of offers will be posted to Christmas Club members in October.'
'

smilelols

Here's an idea which I've used many a time!
When Boots do those offers where they offer you a five pound off voucher - I pick up things from the range that I'd get free. I then pack them into a Christmas bag and there's a lovely (free) present for someone. (Time Delay items are the best things to pick up free like this!!)

Purple_Sparkles

Great idea Smilelols, I'll do that next time they have such an offer on, I've got about £70 of Boots gift vouchers courtesy of Pigsback that will help them go further and none of it will have cost me a penny :j

polkadot

Mappygirl wrote: »

Think i need to join in on this one to! Really need to be more prepared! So far I've got wrapping paper and cards which i brought in the sales. I'm saving on my Asda card - have about £30 already.

I'm also going to practice making biscuits/jam/chutney and save jars through the year so hopefully will be able to do some food hampers. For my friends I've got some face mask recipies, I need to test them and see how long they will last, sounds like a night of pampering for me lol!

I love christmas soooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!

Also havent started at all,moved to UK in JUne and getting ready to move again in May (lease expiring) this and my DH motorbike getting stolen a few weeks ago have knocked us some so now my thinking cap is on. Noticed some nice stuff on Agos clearance (pamper sets at £2 etc) but Mappygirl reminded me of something my mum used to do...
Bake a swiss roll using your fave recipe. Cut the tops off of 2 coke bottles with pretty shaped edges (like the ends of a christmas cracker)to make a mould. Fill the insides with chocolate and freeze. Ice swiss roll with chocolate icing and decorate with pretty patterns using designer icing. Unmould the ends and secure to the ends of swiss roll. Wrap in foil and bring to your hosts to share on boxing day. Maybe description is a bit hazy but if you know what a christmas cracker looks like you'll have the jist of it.

Lillibet_2

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?