Dear Father in Law has been ill and at the age of 93 it's a particularly worrying time. He has been given some antibiotics which have definitely worked and he is feeling much brighter but is becoming increasingly frail. We know that it's inevitable, of course we do, but his quality of life is very poor. We took him out to lunch yesterday but, although he enjoyed his lunch, I think he was glad to get home again. It got me thinking that we seem hell bent on increasing our lifespan but do we really want to live to be a hundred if we end up dependent on others and housebound to boot? I know I don't. What do you think?
This morning has dawned bright, a little misty in the distance and cold. At 7.30am the heating clicked on at 13 degrees and I am happy to let it warm up the house a little before we get out of bed. Half an hour is just enough at the moment to allow us to get up without shivering. We have a full tank of LPG which I have just paid for so we are ok for a while. It's the time of year when I review what we have spent and work out a Christmas budget. Over the last year any savings from the food budget have been popped into my little pot. If I have had a £5 Morrisons voucher, for instance, I have used it the following week and put the £5 cash equivalent into the pot. With careful shopping any money left over at the end of the week has also gone in. It has produced a useful sum of money....
There is precisely £135 which I am really pleased with. We are spending Christmas day with our daughter so we will buy the turkey and we'll also give her a contribution to the rest of the food she needs to feed 7 people for a whole day. Oh, and a bottle of something nice to say thank you for having us :) Whatever remains will buy us food for boxing day as they will probably come to us then.
Throughout the year I have also been putting loose change into my 'sealed pot'.....
Yes, I know it's not exactly sealed :) but I have been doing this for several years and have the strength of mind not to keep peeking or dipping into it in lean times. Whatever is in there will be used for Christmas gifts and it will be opened on 5th November just in time for my annual shopping trip with DD. Hopefully, it will be enough to cover the gifts especially as I have already bought 4 of them, bargains snapped up when I saw them. I don't buy as many gifts as I used to. Now that nieces and nephews have grown up, there are no school friends to buy for and we have ceased to buy for other adults by mutual agreement, it is much easier and less costly. OH has refused to get involved in present buying ever since we married 43 years ago. If it was left to him nobody would get anything! He doesn't buy me anything either so last year I finally gave up and didn't buy him a proper present either. This year will be the same. He has far more money than me, he just can't be bothered.
Are you cutting back on gifts this year? Does anyone else not buy gifts for a spouse? Looking back, I don't think my parents ever bought each other gifts.....
Anyway, have a lovely day whatever you have planned x
Hi Angie sorry to hear about fil, we have been through this x
ReplyDeleteWell done on your savings for christmas, what a great help. Hubby and I have always got gifts for each other but we have come to the point where we are saying we have everything, what do we need, and also we need to save as much as we can so we are just going to give a small gift or two which doesn't cost much.
I tell Francesca and James not to buy gifts for me, but neither listens so I keep a small wish list on Amazon. I buy for them and the children and make up goody baskets for a few friends. Christmas food is really not much different than any other time, a roast dinner and a pudding of some sort. There is always fruit, nuts and cake in the house and I do not go overboard on sweets and chocolate, just some chocolate covered ginger and Brazil nuts. By the time I have spent 8 to 10 weeks shopping with tinsel. cards and stacks of Pannetone around me I have almost lost interest.
ReplyDeleteWe have cut back on who we buy for, as for Christmas, both hubby and I will plan a trip in the new year for our present to each other, neither of us want anything.
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