Getting my Home ready for Christmas - Wreaths

We have a number of wreaths that we use around our home. When I lived in our first home I always had a fresh wreath on our front door at Christmas but I have been unable to do this in our current home because the seal on it is so tight that there is no room to fasten it on the back of the door and I will not attach it to the front as it will leave a mark.

I make up for this by having a large wreath in our lounge and one in our dining room. I love the simplicity of the one in our dining room as it just red cranberries on a wicker background but it has a big impact against the plain white wall. I bought this in the January sale from Marks & Spencers some years ago and it still looks fairly new.

The one in the lounge was bought from the damaged counter at Costco. The wreath itself was not damaged but the cardboard box it came in was slightly crushed and torn so it has been reduced. Just for information, if you ever want to know if something is reduced in Costco they do not advertise it as reduced but the clue is if the price ends in 7p. So you could expect something to be £9.99 and it is full price but if it is £9.97 then it has been a higher price and reduced to that price. Anyway, this wreath is a great as it is a fair size and has real traditional colours. It looked great when we had an ivory suite and green carpet but now we have changed the suite to pumpkin colour and put down a rust coloured rug I am not too sure whether some of the colours will clash. I may have to make some adjustments and change some of the red for white, cream or silver.

The decorations have been collected over a number of years from various locations. I will be posting about my Christmas Tree in a later post and showing you my tree decorations but I just had to show some of purchases for the tree that I made this year. I have a few Beanie baby decorations that have been bought at car boot sales and this is my latest purchase. I think it is so cute with the little Santa hat but not as cute as the knitted cupcakes. These all cost around the 50p mark which I think is a good price because they are fairly large decorations.

I just had to show you my Dairy Milk chocolate advent calendar that I got free at Waitrose today for completing a 5 minute on line survey while I was getting my free latte coffee. I just love a freebie and  even better it is chocolate!

Getting my Home ready for Christmas - Candles

I just adore Christmas and I will be writing quite a few posts about it over the next month.

I love all the preparations of writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts and putting up the tree and decorations. I am doing this earlier this year because we are going to New York for 9 days next weekend and will not be back until 17th December so I have needed to get organised.

I get my home ready over a few days and leave the tree until last. White scented candles are lit in my lounge every evening and this year and I have bought some gorgeous candles in jars from Yankee Candles. I have gone for a slightly different scent than my usual Christmas spicy scents. I have bought Hot Cocoa scent for a change which still gives that comforting warm scent and it just makes you want to snuggle up in front of the fire.

I dressed my fire surround and have gone for simple this year with black, silver and gold. I bought the  two heavily gold embroidered Christmas stockings in the January sales from Marks & Spencer. They are black velvet with this exquisite embroidered design across the front. I think they should have cost £25 each but I paid around half this. They will be used for years to come and I will not fill them with gifts as they are just a decoration. I have two black etched glass hurricane lamps on my mantelpiece and light scented tea lights in these most evenings. At the moment my two favourite scents are Salted Caramel and Vanilla Chai. You can still buy the Vanilla Chai ones here. Both of these are Yankee Candle and I bought several boxes of each from a Hallmark shop that was closing down in an outlet village. They were 70% or 75% off and cost about £1.75 a box instead of the usual £6.50. When I see bargains like this i always buy as much as I can rather than 1 or 2 as they will always be used. Bulk buying is often the key to making bulk savings.

Not everyone is a fan of scented candles so I sometimes use unscented ones in my lounge. I have a wide selection of shapes, sizes and colours depending on my mood. I have some lovely round ones that have a rough texture to make them look like snowballs. However I have decided to use these Ice Crystal Candles that I bought from Lakeland. They are £7.99 but I bought three at the tail end of their sales a couple of years ago and paid a fraction of this price. I think I paid about £2.50 or £3 each. They look so beautiful lit in the evenings with it dark outside and flickering through their intricate lace design.

Tell me about the candles you love.

This Week's Food Shop

I have not needed to do a full food shop this week as we went out for our evening meal last night at Pizza Express and David is away with some of his friends for a long weekend so I have not needed to buy much just for me.

Our meal at Pizza Express was excellent as usual at their restaurant in nearby Hale village. I had the last of my Tesco Clubcard vouchers to use there so £20 was knocked of the bill. I love using my Clubcard vouchers and have written about them in a previous posting Here. I always have a number of them stored in an email on my iPhone and I just take this with me and show the waiter the email on my phone and they knock off the money using the code. A happy addition was that we were given two vouchers for BOGOF main meals when we visit again in January 2015. These are probably worth about £11 - £15 each. We went to Pizza Express last week too and got two of these vouchers so we had 4 of them so I gave one to Emma who I work with for her and her partner to use. She was delighted and we often swop or give each other free offers for meals or night out.

So after deciding I needed only a few things in my food shop I called into Marks & Spencer on the way home and it was just before 6pm when I arrived there. They had already done their second round of price reductions so I managed to pick up more than I had planned because I couldn't resist some of the reduced bargains.

Here are some of my bargains....

I found two lots of large sandwiches for David to take away with him on his break. They are chicken and smoked bacon reduced from over £3 to £1.05. I do not think I can make them for this price if I think about the price of sliced cooked chicken which is in thick slices and smoked cooked bacon. I also bought 4 Yorkshire puddings at 30p which I will warm up to have with a roast dinner on Sunday  evening. I know that they are best before the end of today but they will last a good few days yet with no taste or health problems from my experience. I also found two lots of sweet chilli crispy beef in their Chinese range for £1.20 each. These have gone straight into the freezer and I will use these when I have found other reduced Chinese food and we have enough for a full evening meal with a variety of main courses and starters. There was also a pack of ready prepared vegetables for 50p and some garlic & herb ciabatta dough balls for 60p. The veg will be fine for the roast on Sunday and the ciabatta have gone into the freezer for using with an Italian pasta dish for a midweek meal.

I found some Mediterranean roasting vegetables half price from £2 to £1. These will be used as a pack each next Monday evening to accompany a chicken leg each from the left over Sunday roast. The honey and mustard roast parsnips will used as part of the Sunday roast dinner.

I found two Taste Thai Chargrilled Chicken Pad Thai ready meals reduced from £4 to £1.20 each which I will have for my Thursday and Friday evening meals. There were also two Gastropub meals reduced from £4 to £1.20 each which were Macaroni cheese and beef ragu. These went straight into the freezer for use as a mid week meal maybe with the ciabatta mentioned above. Lazy I know but when I have had a long day at work and the usual nightmare journey home (I work 11 miles away and it can take 1.5 hours because it is across Manchester City Centre) then I want something tasty, easy to do and cheap!!.

Finally I found some lovely Aberdeen Angus stewing steak for £1.90 which is in the freezer already. Some brown chestnut mushrooms were 60p and will do as part of a scrummy cooked breakfast or as part of a casserole and I found an 18 piece Indian snack collection for £1.20 . This has also gone into the freezer and will be used when we have an Indian meal night courtesy of reduced curries in the freezer.

I have heard people say that they love M&S food but will not shop there that often because it is too expensive but with the prices I have paid I think it is cheap shopping there. What do you think ?

Re-gifting at Christmas

There can be so much money spent at Christmas that people get themselves seriously in debt. I have done this myself in the past by putting myself under so much pressure for everything to be perfect that I have been silly spending far too much on things that family are not that bothered about. The shops are full of festive tat and we get sucked into the frenzy of buying that we end up buying expensive food, drink, presents and stocking fillers. I have been bought things myself that I do not need but I can see someone has been caught up in the moment and bought it for me, handing over hard earned cash for over priced gifts.

My sister and I had a discussion about this situation a couple of years ago and agreed that we would not be offended to be given re-gifted presents or items bought from car boot sales or charity shops. We have found that many of these items are new, sealed and the very gifts that I have just mentioned above. When I was at Portmeirion two weeks ago I visited one of the gift shops they have on site. It sells the most gorgeous presents that are just so covetable that I find myself wanting everything until I look at the prices. There was a box of bath bombs from Bomb Cosmetics for £11.99 which were just lovely and just right for me only I already had the very same gift pack bought at the Cheshire car boot sale for 50p.

I cleared out some of my DVDs this week as they were starting to take over too much space in the dining room. I will sell some online but I found three live comedy DVDs which I have watched a few times and no longer want to keep. I have decided to pass them on to my nephew as part of his Christmas present. Not one of us in our family will be bothered that they have already been watched and I know he will enjoy watching them a few times before passing on to his friends. Now if I had bought them new we are probably looking at £12 but they cost me £2 for the three. This £10 saving can be multiplied on most of my gifts which means family members receive £100s of gifts but which have cost me a fraction of the price. We feel that we have luxurious Christmases but we know we have got real value for money and they have not cost luxury prices.

I have spent yesterday afternoon and this afternoon wrapping presents while watching Christmas films on TV. I know this seems early to be wrapping gifts but I am having to get myself organised as we go to New York for 9 days in two weeks time. This will mean that we will have just a week on our return before it is Christmas and I hate having to rush any preparations. I have loved wrapping the gifts and putting them in festive bags. My nephew and niece are 18 and 16 years old but I still but Disney wrapping paper and kids lollies to attach to the front of the gifts.

I found two reels of the most adorable ribbon in my wrapping paper collection. I bought these at a car boot sale in the Lake District a year ago and am still using them this year. I think the wooden bobbins are lovely with their heart shaped tops so I will keep these once I have finished all the ribbon.

How do you save money at Christmas? I would love to know.

Luxury Christmas at Low Cost

Believe it or not I am pretty much set for Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year. All my presents have been bought and I do not even have to go out and buy wrapping paper, ribbon or crackers. It is not my intention to sound smug, I just love Christmas so I love to get organised for it in advance plus I love to save money and find that I save a lot by doing it this way.

Most of the food has been bought and stored in the freezer or pantry and any fresh food such as fruit, vegetables, bread and cream etc will be free courtesy of my Nectar card. I have over £75 on it at present as I have saved up all the points on it over a year. I have already posted about loyalty cards and making the most out of them here and am a great believer in doing a bit of research and working out how to get the most points on cards and what are the best ways to spend your points.

The wrapping paper, Christmas cards, ribbons, bows and gift tags were bought in the January sales or car boot sales or at shopping outlets. Boots are great for their 75% off sale towards the end of the January sales. They do not advertise when the day will be when they reduce down from 50% to 75% off but if you strike lucky on the day there are some bargains to be had.

On the wrapping paper front I often buy Christmas wrapping paper that is plain silver or gold so this can then be used to wrap birthday presents throughout the year and which costs a fraction of the cost of birthday wrapping paper.

I have shown you a number of presents that I have bought at car boot sales throughout the year,in previous posts. I have stored these is large storage bags in our garage and I start to get them out at this time of year to wrap them up and spread the task over a few weeks. I often find things that I have forgotten I had bought and take some delight in finding them.

On the run up to Christmas I will post details of my Christmas preparations and the bargains that I have bought over the last year and hopefully give you some inspiration on how to prepare for next year and make some great savings along the way.

Luxury Christmas at Low Cost - Food

In January each year I buy Christmas cake and Christmas Puddings. These can be up to 75% off and I have been known to buy expensive Christmas cake for as little as £2. They usually have a best before date of around 6 months or so meaning that they need to be used by the summer at the latest but I have found that because of the high sugar and alcohol content that they last a lot longer and are fine to eat for the following Christmas. I usually buy around 3 to 4 puddings and a few cakes. I don't always save the cakes for Christmas as after all they are fruit cake and can be eaten at any time of the year and at the price I pay are cheaper than a normal fruit cake. The Christmas puddings can be left as they are or turned into Christmas ice cream or cake pops. 

I sometimes buy a turkey in the sale too as these do last a full year in the freezer. I double wrap it in plastic and put it at the bottom of my chest freezer. They can be half price or a lot less and before now I have bought 3 or 4 to freeze. One year Marks & Spencer were selling ready stuffed turkey crowns and three bird turkey crowns at £8 each instead of £30+ so I bought 3. I would have bought more but my freezers were nearly full so I now make sure my freezers have space for January sale bargains.

One of my favourite starters on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (I cook two Christmas dinners on both days for extended family) is Coquille St Jacques. I love these and particularly the ones you can buy fresh in a pack of two rather than the smaller ones that are ready frozen and in a box of four. If I see these reduced over the autumn period I buy them and freeze them. I usually end up with around 6 to 8 of them for the two days.

Not everyone likes scallops so I also serve two other starters as a choice or change them on the two days. I serve thin slices of smoked salmon, pieces of hot smoked salmon with prawns, avocado and salad. Again these can be easily bought reduced and frozen. I also serve soup, sometimes home made and sometimes bought in. My favourites are broccoli and stilton or something a little spicier such as spicy parsnip or sweet potato or butternut squash. I have served soup as well as a starter, but I have served the soup in teacups so that we don't get too full.

The smoked salmon in particular freezes really well and I also use this as one of my appetisers. I serve belinis with sour cream or sour cream and chive dip with smoked salmon and some chopped dill. I buy ready made mini belinis if I see these reduced or on offer and freeze these too although they are fairly cheap to buy anyway. The supermarkets often have ready prepared buffet food available at this time of year so I usually see what is available on the reduced counters and buy what I think would be tasty as another choice with the belinis. Hot breaded Camembert or Camembert wrapped in filo pastry is delicious especially when served with a few drops of cranberry sauce.

For dessert we have the Christmas pudding but I also offer another cold dessert and I have already bought an apricot tart which I bought for £1.50 instead of £5 this past week. I will offer fresh cream or ice cream to go with the tart. I make my own ice cream and although it is easy to make when you have an ice cream maker I have found a simple way through using Angel Delight ice cream mix. I don't know whether you can still buy it or not these days. I tried some once and thought it was great so decided to buy some more only to find it had been put on the clearance shelf at less than half price. I cleared them out and bought chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and add anything that I can find from my pantry that I think will taste scrummy such as chocolate chips, mini merengue pieces, chopped dried apricots etc.

A few of the supermarkets have had offers on wine in the last two weeks. Both Tesco and Sainsburys have had an offer of 25% off wine if you but 4 or 6 bottles. I have looked at the half price or reduced champagne and bought a couple of bottles with the extra 25% off to have for our celebrations. I found some Nicholas Feuillatte champagne at Tesco half price from £32 to £16 with 25% off making it £12 a bottle which I thought was a bargain.  There were only three bottles left on the shelf so I took them all. I also found some Antoine de Clevecy champagne at Sainsburys reduced from £18 to £14 with 25% off making it £10.50 a bottle. I know they are not the best champagnes in the world but when we have a lot of family round it is great to have a few bottles between us all and we can't tell whether it is    Bollinger or not after a couple of glasses. To be honest, I love Tattinger but we save this for just the two of us on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve as this can be quite pricey.

Savings at Marks & Spencer

I had another long day in work yesterday and was at my desk before 8am after an hour's drive across Manchester City Centre. I finished work after 5.30pm and was passing Marks & Spencers at 6.30pm on the way home. At this time they are normally reducing items so thought it would be worth a quick 20 minutes to see what bargains were available.  

I bought two bunches of flowers for in the lounge and in our bedroom which were both half price. I love fresh flowers and really think they turn a house into a home. I really love the woman's touch that they give to a room so always buy flowers when they are reduced and use them in the bathroom, bedroom, lounge, dining room and kitchen, although not necessarily all at the same time. These lilies were £3.75 and I used some contorted twigs in the vase to give some height and a different texture.

There were a number of desserts reduced and now is the time to buy them and put them in the freezer for use at Christmas and New Year. I bought two Sticky Toffee Puddings at £1.15 each. These will make a change from Christmas Pudding as David does not like currants, sultanas or raisins but does not mind the dates in the sticky toffee pudding. I always serve Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and feel sorry that David misses out on a hot dessert so think this will make a great alternative for him.

I found a delicious looking Apricot Tart which should have been £5 and which I bagged for £1.50 plus a selection of mini macaroons for £1.80 reduced from £6. The macaroons were scoffed straight after our evening meal and we're just delicious. They were not overly sweet because they had sharp flavours such as lemon, raspberry and passion fruit. Simply delicious. Finally I found a tarte au citron which will freeze well (I've successfully frozen these before) and will be great as an option at New Year with a some raspberry ice cream. There is something divine about lemon and raspberry together and fresh raspberries would be great but not at their high cost in December so ice cream will do nicely thank you.

I bought some roasting vegetables, Italian potatoes and cheesy potatoes at £1 each. I know that you can buy these cheaper if bought separately or made or assembled at home but with the busy lives we lead sometimes you just want something easy to pop into the oven or heat up when you get home and this is the price you pay for convenience. We ended up eating at 9pm which isn't good as we went to bed at 11pm which I don't think gives us time to digest everything. I need to make a concerted effort to get home earlier and spend time on my home and looking myself more.

I had an email from the Money Savings Expert website with details of numerous current offers. There was a code for the Marks & Spencer Outlet website for an additional 25% off their reduced prices. I had been looking for some winter coats and managed to find 3 that I liked. Two had been reduced from £95 and £89 to £62.50 and with the extra 25% off they were £46.88 each. I also found a lightweight stormwear jacket reduced from £75 to £45 and with the 25% off it cost £33.75. I am a plus size and to be able to find three coats that I like, are available in my size and do not cost the earth was a miracle. I bought all three!! They cost over £100 but good value in that they nearly came out 3 for the price of 1. I can't wait for them to arrive in the post and try them on and work out which scarves from my collection will look good with them.

Marks and Spencer - a British institution that I just love.