Breaking my own rule

Well, after my smug little diatribe yesterday I am breaking my own rule and have been seriously thinking about Yule. The truth is that I am desperately behind on my gift projects, so I'm frantically trying to make up for it by getting parcels ready! I have now chosen my Grandfather's gift (philatelist pack from the Post Office), bought treats for my mother's, sister's and sister-in-law's pets (a cat doesn't know the Terrine of Chicken Liver you got it only cost 38p), and got my father's favourite "diabetic" chocolate (as he himself has often pointed out, the chocolates are in fact 'dietetic', as he is the diabetic!) with a cheery little bowl to put them in.

Now the reason why I got him a melamine bowl (apart from the fact it is less likely to break while in transit overseas and is bedecked with festive Santas) is simply that I saved about 50% by buying two bags of assorted chocs instead of a nice box of them. Offering two plastic bags from a well-known chocolatier chain is a little basic even for my father, so I felt I needed a little something to up the presentation. Even taking into account the cost of the bowl it still works out to around a quarter off what I would have paid for a standard cardboard box. Being currently a domestic engineer (i.e.- a housewife) funds are scarce and I need to economise!

I am normally generous with Christmas gifts. Actually it would likely be more exact to call me a bit of a spendthrift when I have a good excuse like "well it isn't for me"! However, even I must admit that it has been a good exercise for me to find a way to bestow my loved ones with gifts without shelling out hundreds of pounds (which, I fear, has been the case in Christmases past). There is a little frisson of anticipation when I think about my agreement with the other half that we can buy as many gifts as we wish for each other, but the total value must not exceed £5. (There are a few thoughts floating around my brain regarding this, but I will save that particular challenge for another day!) I have drawn on my old interests of self-sufficiency and home cooking to make every penny go a little further, and there is some sort of basic satisfaction to be had from it.

True the old post-war "make-do-and-mend" attitude is very en vogue at the moment, and if I won the lottery tomorrow my idea of "self-sufficiency" would be buying from the local farm shop rather than the supermarket. However, at this moment my stress levels are at their lowest in years, and I genuinely know that even if we can't have all the luxuries we used to, we'll be just fine. All I need now is the motivation to actually make the jam I've been planning to do for months, and I'll have that much less to worry about!