Well we had a great Christmas. Of course, anything beats last year's: sitting on the couch in pain recovering from surgery eating toast and scrambled egg, not able to pick up or play with SG etc. There's a lot of leftovers. Half of one turkey crown is in the freezer, yesterday's is in the fridge. I sent my mum home with leftover turkey, stuffing and tomato soup.

The kids were spoiled so I have a massive declutter mission ahead of me. MIL dropped off a ton of stuff before Christmas. DH recognised a lot of it when we opened it, so she must have just been clearing out what stuff she had of SG's and J's at hers. One of J's presents was newborn trousers so they're in the donation pile already. I wasn't expecting her to get anything since they're still not talking so I guess I shouldn't complain.

My mum went equally crazy and brought more gifts over on Boxing Day for the kids.

Today has been spent getting rid of boxes and wrapping paper, and sorting toys. DH spent £1.00 on milk and that's been it.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

I was in bed by 9.30 last night. About ten minutes before I crashed out I noticed that MIL had text me. She wanted to know if it was ok to drop gifts off on Monday. I said it was okay. Today she text me again thanking me for the Christmas card that SG made for her. Then she added pics of the card to FB.

Our tree is up, but not decorated yet. Although SG seems happy enough with it. It will be decorated by Saturday because I won't have the chance to do it tomorrow when DH is at work and when he's home we're going to our friends to drop off the kids presents.

I've not done much today. DH got the tree out of the very back of the big front cupboard and then we sorted through our jackets deciding which ones to recycle/donate. We also found a hanging wooden side cabinet (if that's even its name) for the bathroom, and a few mirrors that DH is going to put up.

I went for an hour and half nap this afternoon. We didn't get the tree up until four ish then we had to get dinner ready.

I've organised a Graze chocolate treats box (3.89) to be sent to my mum next week. She asked me for a box of chocolates but I haven't got them so I decided this would be a nice touch instead. I wrote a personalised message and it will be delivered for free on Tuesday.

I looked at next month's budget and added a category for an allowance and gifts, ten pounds each. We'll see how that goes. I hope to find snowflakes to throw at debt and savings too.

I'm waiting on my credit card statements updating so I can see how much I've paid off this year. I know that it's not as much as I would have liked.

I finished wrapping the presents that I need to post. I'll post them on Tuesday. That's about all I've done today, I'm a bit behind on housework but I did put a load of washing on this morning. Some dishes to do but not too much.

I actually went for a nap earlier because J woke up at 5.30.

I'm close to redeeming a five pounds Amazon Gift Card. This will go towards snowflakes when it's used.

Other than that, it's been a NSD.

Took the kids to see Santa today. SG took to him in the end but J slept through it all. Cost: 1.50

Before our visit to see Santa, we stopped in at Greggs for two mochas, a flavoured water and a sausage roll for SG. Cost: 5.90

We also went to Poundland where I spent £5.05.

My cousin and her kids came to visit when we came home. We exchanged gifts for kids and I gave her ten pounds to give her eldest son for Christmas because I forgot to get his gift card in.

DH is away out for a meal for his work's night out.

I was playing about with next month's budget and I included my new, ideal figure of 160 towards CC2. Doing that apparently leaves me 50 over budget. I'll take a more detailed look later but if that's true then I can cut back on shopping or something to make up for the extra payment. I'll also be on the lookout for snowflakes, of course

Today's payday. I ordered my shopping for delivery tomorrow (4.00) instead of early next week because the fridge is practically empty (I gave it a quick wipe down this morning)and so is one of our cupboards. I spent 118.90, although 72.40 was on formula and nappies; 46.50 was on food including a few things needed for Christmas such as tin foil trays, paprika, frozen prawns and cranberry sauce. We're almost out of milk so DH is getting some today. We still need more but I'm going to Aldi for that stuff.

I paid both credit cards; 85 to cc2 and 30 to cc1. I'm optimistic that as of 9/1/15 I can pay extra to cc2 (four weeks from today, my next payday) I'm hoping that some snowflakes will come my way and help me pay it off.

I'm pretty sure I really have no reason to update my blog today but I decided since I had some time, that I would.

I went to the doctors this morning. I've had earache since Friday and today was the first day I could get an appointment. Turns out I'm fine.

After the appointment I went to the butcher's to order our turkey for Christmas Day. I got the smallest turkey crown for 12.00 and also half a pound of streaky bacon. I'm picking it up on the 23rd, it was either that or Christmas Eve and I'm refusing to go anywhere on Christmas Eve. I'll pay for it when I pick it up.

I wrote out a list of what food I'll need over Christmas. When I get paid on Friday I will do an online order and get a few things that I either can't get at Aldi or refuse to get it because it's too heavy.

I wrapped two more of SG's presents today.

I'm feeling a bit optimistic about next year's financial goals. I'm out of the habit of tracking snowflakes, if I remember I used to track any extra money, under budget and now probably SBs. I'm not sure if I ever get any Amazon gift cards if I should track it when I get it, or wait until I use it and it's officially been used so is a snowflake, if you know what I mean? That really doesn't make sense. For example, if I redeemed a gift card now but didn't use until March say for SG's birthday, would I just count it then?

I completed a SBs survey this morning. It's the first one I've done in a while. I've neglected Swagbucks but now I'm thinking I should go on it occasionally because it might, either directly or indirectly, help me with my goals for next year.

I'm going to cancel Love Film as soon as we get the film that DH wants to see and we've watched it. My package is changing from 4 discs unlimited for 10.34/month to 2 discs for 7.99.

I'm going to change my phone contract too, but I'll do that this week while I remember. My Swagbucks survey this morning was about mobile phones, otherwise I might never have remembered that I want to "upgrade". Thank you SBs. I've been meaning to do it for ages.

I spent 15 mins there wrapping one of SG's presents. She noticed it the other day so it had to be the first one to get wrapped. I added ribbon and a bow so it was fiddly but worth it. At least I'm not stressing at the last minute doing it.

We're having mince and tatties (potatoes) for dinner tonight. Mince is in the slow cooker cooking as I write, just need to get potatoes ready later.

The sun is out here but it's icy. Hope everyone is warm and safe!

Tonight we're having breaded chicken in wraps with salad. Then we will have a caramel desert that I had to make up as it needed using up. The packet mix for the chicken, wraps and desert are all from my Approved Food shops over the past few months. The desert in particular I had been putting off making up but today I finally bit the bullet and made it while J was napping this morning. It didn't take long to do since it was out of a packet, it's just getting the motivation to do it.

I wrapped a Christmas present today and wrote a card. Our tree isn't up yet because the living room isn't ready but I'm still in the festive spirit.

I made us lunch today from leftover chicken, pesto, tomatoes, halloumi cheese and pasta. We've just had an early lunch and there's plenty leftover for DH when he's home.

I wrapped a few this morning, getting SG to"help". She decided to wrap up a present for J so she gathered up his soft toys and attempted to wrap it for him. A few minutes later she gave up and decided just to draw for him instead. I've wrapped the majority of the presents that aren't for immediate family. I will wrap up my mum's present when I get some photos of the kids printed to put in the frame that we got her. Next I will start wrapping SG and J's presents but that won't take long.

I've had quite a productive day. This morning I managed to sort through clothes that I'm getting rid of. I'm donating a few bags and recycling the others.

I posted four parcels today: 11.20. They weren't Christmas presents. I'll post Christmas presents next week.

We were talking today and DH mentioned no housework on Christmas Day. I'll need to do dishes and a tidy up obviously. I think he means no sorting out laundry etc. I'll just need to be caught up by then. What does everyone else do?

Today I managed to do some more shredding, as planned. I also found the cellotape but I need to buy more. At least I can start wrapping now though.

I made of list of what food (non-perishable) that I still need to buy last night. My mum phoned today and she's offered to bring drink for the meal, even though I told her we won't be having much.

I ordered some things from the catalogue recently. Next year I think my goal will be to only order from it when I'm using my rewards (which will make it free)

Today was payday. There's not much to report. I paid some bills. We went to the local shop and bought some groceries and formula, that was 19.xx. I'm waiting on my credit cards updating so I can make a payment.

I've still got some presents to buy for Christmas. They're in shops that don't take my vouchers. The plan is to not go crazy. Next year I think I'll have some cash savings for Christmas.

I was really tired and wanted to order a takeaway. But I didn't.