Santas challenge 2017

Happy_Kitties · 13 September 2017 at 7:25PM

Chanie I am totally with you, that is one of the pitfalls of buying early:(
.I took your advice I remember with my niece, she had her travel wallet early to make use of it with her travelling and use it she has:)
Also with how I store items, they have to be sturdy, I am limited with storage for fragile items:(

Well,Christmas is well and truly on its way:j, I think it has skipped Miss Hoodies birthday mum2one. There was a whole isle dedicated to Christmas in Home B@rgains when I went today.They were promoting Christmas sweets at the entrance aswell and also there was a whole section dedicated to Halloween-how my DD hated Halloween, she could never be bothered to dress up and go trick/treating, it just never appealed to her. Even when she stayed in for the night she hated the continual knocking on the door. I do like to have a pumpkin going in the window, and I like the history of it but I'm not a big fan of the commercialism of it.

chanie · 15 September 2017 at 2:22PM

I managed to save £20 today, which I'm pleased with. A couple of weeks ago, we bought DDs birthday presents and I noticed they were currently on offer, saving £20 on two items. Needless to say, I hot-footed it down there to rebuy at the lower price and return with the original receipt.

chanie · 17 September 2017 at 8:04PM

I've been thinking about doing homemade chocolate selection boxes for the children, as the ones in the shops seem to be shrinking in size. Today, I had some inspiration - the children have small metal buckets, which were filled with Easter eggs. The children have outgrown the characters on them (props pig etc), so I'm attempting to spray paint them, using those silver spray paints you get at Christmas. It's going to take a few coats, but I'll be able reuse them in the future.

Happy_Kitties · 18 September 2017 at 10:22AM

chanie you are doing really well and I don't blame you with DDs birthday presents, £20 Is £20 that can be used somewhere else. I wish I had an Ikea near me, unfortunately the nearest one is 2 1/2 hours away:(
Bought the 2 tubs of sweets offer at Tesc@s but ended up opening one when I got stuck into chores yesterday and I was so hungry had choc first:D:A and then food.
Morris@ns have their Christmas stock out, the selection boxes are so small and there is no sign of the cocktail baubles:(. Fingers crossed they do them again, would be gutted if they don't as they made brilliant presents last year

Anglea · 18 September 2017 at 1:30PM

Hi everyone,

I haven't had a chance to do anything because I've been trying to help mum with paperwork, dad doesn't have dementia or anything like that but ever since he had surgery years ago the mix of anaesthetic and medication in hospital has caused strange problems and there have been a lot of dramas because he doesn't think there is anything wrong with him at all, and he was always the one doing all the paperwork he's inadvertedly caused a lot of fiascos that now need to be sorted and as he's been hoarding the paperwork that's also an issue.

I've discarded some of my initial thoughts for hand made gifts eg book folding as it looked far more complicated than I imagined from the videos - for the online friend. I've now got a plan B. Her father's side of the family were Polish and even though she went there first time ever this year, didn't get to meet them or have authentic food, it was just international chain places, her father is deceased so she hasn't had any traditional food since she was small. So I thought I'd try and make some special biscuits that are made for Christmas (my family are Polish so mum usually makes them but it's been a while since I tried) and send them in the post.

Has any of you tried sending biscuits or cakes in the mail and was it successful? How did you package it?

I decided to make the 'open when' letters for Christmas instead of birthday as they will be easier to hide for when I have the boys at home as space is limited.

Mum2one, you always give Miss Hoodie brilliant presents no matter what the occasion.

Chanie, that's a really good idea about the chocolates. I'm glad you received a better travel wallet replacement and you're happy with it.

Happy Kitties, what are cocktail baubles? mini bottles inside baubles or ready mixed up somehow?

chanie · 18 September 2017 at 4:13PM

Anglea wrote: »

Has any of you tried sending biscuits or cakes in the mail and was it successful? How did you package it?

No, I haven't. But my Aunt sometimes receives homemade goodies, all packaged in weird and wonderful ways, purely because the most important thing is that they arrive fresh and not broken. I was going to suggest sending them in a nice tin, but that could work out quite costly, so maybe a plastic tub (you could recycle your Tesco's sweetie tubs!!!).

Alternatively, you could make up a 'bake your own biscuit' jar, when you add all of the dry ingredients in a jar and then send that over with instructions, so that all your friend will need to do, is add the wet ingredients and bake.

mum2one · 18 September 2017 at 11:56PM

Boots have there Christmas range on-line, I did notice a few quirks...

Most of ted baker range is not on 3 4 2
There's not a big dial and glory item...
Benefit items Ans some smashbox - not on 3 4 2

......
Digressing thou...

All over f/b and news channels, it looks like toys r us are in deep trouble, with a view to going bankrupt, so if u have gift cards etc, spend them asap.

........

Xx

chanie · 19 September 2017 at 12:32PM

That's interesting about Toys R Us. Thanks for the heads up.

Sainsburys are doing their 25% off clothing this week. I'm going to buy some Pjs for the children for Xmas Eve.

mum2one · 25 September 2017 at 2:00AM

its 3 months till Christmas, where does the time fly....

christmas cake
How’s the time to get the fruit soaking, whether you chuck it in with sherry, brandy, rum or what ever you fancy, it will be nice and juicy for baking.

light bulbs
Now the nights are starting to get darker, the lights are on more, so have a wonder around the house and see how many you need, even if it’s just 2 spare bulbs, you never know.[/

fuse box
Following on from my mother tripping the elec with the toaster.... do you know where the fuse box is, ideally leave a torch near there.[/

smoke alarms[/
Rest the alarms, give them a quick hoover through to get rid of dust, if your battery powered, and you don’t remember the last time you changed it... time for a new battery.

bartteries[/
Not just for the remote control, but if your buying toys etc, add some batteries, save the upset on Xmas day.

christmas catalogues / stick moving
Most of the shops are starting to get there xmas ranges in, and will soon be bringing out the catalogues

With all the Christmas ranges being brought in, that generally means a shuffle around,you may ur doing a marathon around the supermarket looking for that item which is now 10 aisles away...in between times 1001 things end up in the trolley

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"promotional leaflets, adding in for Xmas.
Promo - this time of yr supermarkets start there spend xx get xx off, usually if you haven’t used them for a while.(mr s sent me offers £42 off next 4 weeks shopping) as its money wouldn’t of had, it will get done extras for Xmas, win win all around, they get my custom, get a bottle of baileys and some chocs, biscuits for Xmas.

Adding in... sounds daft but if your liable to have a house full of visitors not just tea, coffee, milk that’s needed, ur toilet rolls are going down quicker.... if your at home and not work,,,,

[/
christmas cards
Start your Xmas cards list, break them up, post, family, street, work. So when you do start writing the names are ready, have a quick flip the address book and check there up to date.

Stamps - by preparing your post list ur know how many stamps also if you can post 2nd class, save a few more pennies.

summer clothes
What was our summer now feels like a distant memory, before you fold the summer clothes away, check what fits / doesn’t, like / don’t like...[/

winter quilts
Don’t discard the summer quilts yet, if you get really cold, don’t buy a higher tog winter quilt, add the summer in as well.[/

Are you single..
It’s alwats been a joke - don’t get a new man before Christmas as your have to buy him a Christmas present...

Miss hoodies cleaning corner..
The freezer, by giving it a clean and a sort you can see what is there, and find space ready for Xmas,

me, me, me[/
Without sounding selfish, we’re the ones who do most of the Xmas planning, sorting, make some me time, whether it’s acoffee out,or a lock the bathroom door, for a long soak, make sure you take some tine x

Happy_Kitties · 25 September 2017 at 11:27PM

Anglea the cocktail baubles have ready made cocktails in them . There are 3 cocktails in a pack, each cocktail served out of a bauble. They're out of stock in M@rrisons at the minute, but have cashed out my vouchers ready as they were very popular last year, so I will be ready to pounce as they were a very popular present aswell!

Going thru mum2one list I think every time I use the post office now I will buy a 2nd class stamp to put away to use for Christmas cards. I do the royal mail surveys but try to keep those stamps for sending of any parcels.......saves a fortune!

Just need to choose my charity Christmas cards this year and I'm ready to go. I love at the beginning of December taking all of my Christmas parcels and cards to the post office to get them sent off

Santas challenge 2017

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