Are you ready for Christmas?? (I did say that, so did it get your attention!)

That's right. The old chestnut of, 'oh it's Summer Christmas is aaaAaaaAaaaAaages away'. Well, it's not! Not when you consider that the average family spends around £300 on the seasonal festivities and gifts.
Where will that money come from when the time hits?

• How much did you spend last year?Are you still paying it off?
• Did you eat or drink everything you bought for Christmas AT Christmas? Or was some still being eaten in January or even February?
• Did everyone enjoy their gifts?
• Did you charity shop or sell amny of the gifts you got given?

The reason for my post it, if you start planning now both in terms of finances and gifts, you can make Christmas 2013 a much less expensive and more enjoyable experience.

Here are some ideas that might get you started in the thinking-about-it-as-a-minimum-starting-point:

- Start saving now - a regular saver of £30 a month will help massively and be less painful than paying for it all out of November and December wages (and January and February and March....)

 

 

- Start collecting ideas - Check out Pinterest and start pinning ideas now that might come in handy - I''m thinking big jars full of goodies like: Christmas flapjacks in one, a 'movie night in' in another (ie popcorn, dvd, chocolate, unusual facts about the actors of the movie), peppermint sugar foot scrub in another (brown sugar, olive oil, peppermint oil, MIX!), a bath salts treat in another (SO easy to make - some bath salts from the £1 store, some aromatherapy oil, mix  - DONE!), some vanilla essence in a bottle (250ml vodka, 8 vanilla pods from ebay, split pods, store in cupboard for 5-6 months, shaking gently weekly). I will blog from Summer onwards with ideas to keep you inspired. What about a jar full of homemade laundry powder? Grated soap, some borax, some washing soda crystals, some baking powder, some aromatherapy oils...  This link even has a lovely printable, too cute - see pic below!

Another would be some homemade eye make up remover (maybe jojoba oil, rose aromatherapy oil. water, witch hazel)

- Make a list - Start adding ideas for presents onto a list. This could be in your diary, on Evernote, on a document on your pc. Just somewhere so you don't forget! I like to take photos when I see a present idea, and Evernote it so I know what to look at around Christmas time.

- Buy now, save later - That's right. How about buying items at boot fairs or on ebay, or making some of the gits now and keeping them to one side? Vanilla essence, laundry powder etc can all be made now.

OK, so that's probably alot to even think about right now.

So how about just two baby steps?

1. Start a list
2. Start a regular savings account

Make life easier on yourself - take just these 2 steps now, to save your sanity in 7 months time.

Yes I am mad, but this will hopefully at least get you thinking about the subject and saving your whole family some stress come Christmas time. I will try to think of other ideas as the months go by too so we can all work on it together.

Have a fab week everyone x

Santa recommends... ebay and thinking ahead!

Autumn is here and we’re all left wondering what wardrobe we have for this kind of interim weather… or wanting to go and spend more on a new wardrobe! Keep an eye out for good bargains in 2nd hand stores in preparation for the cold, as this is the time folks start getting rid of last years winter coat for that ‘must have’ new coat this year…

Aaaanyway today’s topic is more about preparing for Christmas. Yes, that’s right – I said that word! In all seriousness though, you have September, October and November paydays, to use towards spreading the cost of Christmas. So here are my top tips for a cool yule that won’t break the bank:

Make food items for foodies

Vanilla extract made for pennies by soaking 3 split pods in vodka for 4 weeks, peanut butter and chocolate, Christmas cookies, your own alcohol like home made Baileys and so much more. You could make some rum butter, gingercake, lots of yummy things, so much tastier and cheaper than store bought… some creative wrapping or a basket from the £0.99 store can perfect the look, perhaps reuse some ribbon from a gift or some brown paper from an item you received in the post.

Make Beauty Products

As you all know I love making lotions and potions. You can make lip balm in less than 2 minutes, face lotion in less than 10, heavenly face scrubs in 10 and some delightful butter melts for massages and bathing for pennies. My secret weapon is to borrow library books and scour the internet for ideas and then buy the items from ebay. How about a luscious face oil for a few pennies, rather than £30+ in the stores? Plus that way you can customise it to the recipients exact skin type.

Buy most Gifts online Through Cashback Sites

Those of you in the know, already realise that when you buy from HMV or Boots, that if you did it online through a Cashback portal site, you could get 5-10% cash back in your hot little hand, for the same items you would normally buy on the high street. So for Christmas, buy the normal stuff you would usually, but via cashback websites instead, the sites in my Guide (see the Cashback section on the right).

THAT way January will be fun as you will have cash back on it's way to you!

Those are just some ideas, I don’t want to inundate you now, seeing as we’re only in September, but start preparing and a) it will be less stressful, b) it will be cheaper and c) you can dedicate more time to choosing the right present with thought, rather than a last minute gift card. Have fun with it, and get creative!

I will intermittently write a few more ideas just to get the creative thought process going, you never know what we might all come up with!

Christmas Madness or sanity?

Well the season has truly begun! Time to set up trees, get the bulk of Christmas present shopping underway and even start giving some thought to the Christmas meal. We’re looking forward to the break and all the festivities, however this year we have agreed to have a limit to what we spend on eachother – this way we both know there will be no overspends! Amongst family we agreed no presents to save us all some money, but for children etc of course there’s no limit.

Our Christmas food and drink will again this year be courtesy of cashback sites (click the links on the right hand menu if you would like to know more). I believe I have beaten last years amount made – and remember this is all made entirely free, from simply clicking on internet sites. My estimate will be £360 made from free clicking. Next year I will up the limit and hope to make more but it all depends on how much time I have to dedicate to it.

In addition to cash made from clicking, we have received over £100 in vouchers throughout the year, from Pigsback, stationery companies and also from competitions etc. We chose to receive these in Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Next and the Burtons group. This will be spent in Marks & Spencer (£50) and Waitrose (another £50). I will buy Xmas bits and pieces but as we are away for most of it this year, I will try to buy staples with this cash too, such as tea, coffee, marmite, rice etc. Personally, I then also received approximately another £50 in vouchers which was used for birthdays and clothes etc.

Overall, from money saving activities and ideas, we have been able to give ourselves a £600 raise in vouchers and cashback, plus approx £1,500 in other savings, meaning that over £2,000 has stayed with us, rather than being passed on to other companies or being wasted! Food waste has been a big thing for me the last 4 months or so and it really has made a difference.

Plus as you can see from this blog the following steps have helped me a lot:

- Making chutneys, curds etc
- Batch cooking to freeze various portions
- Shopping last minute in supermarkets to get reduced items
- Creating and using my PriceBook (see right hand menu)
- Using cashback sites and Free Clicking to the maximum (see right hand menu)
- Buying presents as and when throughout the year so that I don’t pay high prices at Christmas or on last minute impulse birthday gifts for example
- Re-using wrapping, getting creative round the house by recycling rather than buying new
- Buying clothes and items for the home from charity shops. This applies only to very good quality items and has saved us a lot of money.
- Buying during sales, and planning ahead.
- Using a cashback credit card then paying it off in full each month, gaining cashback at 1% on everything I buy.
- Getting a free Orange SIM card so I can go with a friend to see half price movies on a Wednesday. I loaded it with £10 over a year ago and I still have lots of credit as each text costs pennies and I go perhaps twice per month.
- Using discount vouchers for meals out etc – almost all restaurants have begun to offer these this year in a big way and this has influenced where we eat out at least 50% of the time.
- Using discount vouchers for clothes, homeware etc.
- Work extra in self-employed capacity – a few hours per week can really add up and is well worth it for anyone who can do this

All of these steps have made a massive difference which we will definitely carry on in 2009 in a big way.



If you have any suggestions as to what we can all do, or special steps you are taking, please do leave a message as we could all do with more ideas in these credit crunch times!

Comfort food - make some & feel the warmth!

That's right - make some yummy homemade treats to celebrate Autumn! I discovered how easy lemon curd and rice pudding are to make, thought folks on here might like to try making some too!


Homemade Lemon Curd

• 1 large juicy lemon, grated zest and juice only
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 50g unsalted butter

Put sugar and grated lemon zest in a bowl.

Whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs, then pour this over the sugar.

Then add the butter cut into little pieces, and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.

Stir frequently till thickened - about 20 minutes.

Pour into sterilised jar and lid (washed glass jar then carefully dried and placed in a warm oven upside down for 15 minutes - lid can be boiled in water).

Store in fridge – lasts around 4 weeks if you can get it to stick around that long!

Costs: Lemon: £0.20p, Sugar approx £0.25p; eggs approx £0.30p, butter £0.26p.

Homemade jar of lemon curd for around £1 - can't beat that!

How about making some for relatives this Xmas as inexpensive gifts? Just save some pretty jars and enjoy the look on their faces when they have some freshly made lemon curd on toast!


Another favourite for me has to be delicious creamy rice pudding. I made this yesterday afternoon for us to have after a Sunday roast and it's amazingly easy and so tasty you will want to make lots! It can be frozen as well, or if you can bear it, given to friends and family!



Slow cooker rice pudding

For a 2.5 litre slow cooker:

• 25g butter
• 100g pudding rice
• 100g sugar
• 1 litre milk
• grated nutmeg


For 4.5 litre slow cooker:

• 40g butter
• 150g pudding rice
• 150g sugar
• 1.5 litres milk
• grated nutmeg

My slow cooker is 3.5 litre so I followed recipe #1.

Butter inside of the crockpot
Add all ingredients
Cook on low for 4 or 5 hours depending on how thick you want it
Stir halfway through cooking time

For added yummyness, put your portion under a grill with some brown sugar on top. If desired, add some homemade lemon curd for that extra touch!

Cost:Pudding Rice: £0.10p, milk (longlife semi skimmed) £0.55p, sugar £0.50, butter £0.13p, nutmeg £0.3p.

£1.31 total and made us 5 portions @£0.26p per portion approx.

You could make it more luxurious by adding clotted cream or evaporated milk but I loved it naturally creamy. The longer you cook it the creamier it is.

Again this could be cooked for relatives or friends for Christmas... start looking for and saving pretty containers!

Enjoy!