Last minute Christmas bits & New Year plans

The end of the working year approaches, and it’s time to start winding down, relaxing a bit, and getting into the festive swing of things.

I’ll be having a few days off, so don’t trash the place while I’m gone, okay?

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a quick reminder about last minute Christmas stuff, and a heads-up about what’s coming to this site in January 2025.

Last minute Christmas bits & bobs

First and foremost – don’t panic! You can’t be all things to all people, and it’s absolutely fine to keep things simple.

Have a look at our week-by-week tips for Christmas prep in December to make sure you haven’t missed anything especially important. Oh, and don’t forget to stock up on sticky tape (trust me).

Festive food and drink

The last few days before Christmas usually sees supermarkets heavily discounting vegetables to tempt you into the stores. For example, Lidl have Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, shallots and white potatoes for 8p per pack.

Don’t overdo it with the groceries, the shops will reopen soon enough. Less is more, and try not to get pressured into buying the most expensive version of everything because it won’t necessarily be better. The cheaper options regularly win in taste tests.

If the worst comes to the worst, there’s nearly always a corner shop or garage nearby for the basics, or you can make do. It’s not like you’re trapped in a fog-bound port on an isolated peninsula for days on end, with nothing but semi-frozen burgers and dry-roasted peanuts to keep you from starvation. Which actually happened to me once, but that’s a story for another time….

New Year on the site

As always, there will be no extreme ‘new year, new you’ gubbins on here because you’re loved exactly how you are, but we WILL be doing a Jump Start challenge with something small to try every day.

There’ll be a slightly different format for 2025. The posts and prompts will drop once for the week, rather than daily, so you can find them all in the same place. The final week in January will be a budgeting challenge, like one of our old Tenner Week challenges, because many/most of us will probably be feeling skint before payday.

I’ll post about it on social media, and send out a mention in the weekly email beforehand to remind people before it starts.

FREE

Tenner Week Spending Diary!

You can sign up for the weekly email in the box above (there’s a free Tenner Week spending diary too), and remember to add it to your safe senders to get the reminder before the challenge.

Meanwhile, I hope you have a happy, peaceful festive season, whatever you’re getting up to. Thank you so much for visiting the site and all your support during 2024.

See you bright and early in the New Year and let’s have a great 2025!