Well, my already frugal Christmas plans have just been blown out of the water by a dental crisis which is going to cost hundreds of dollars (ie my entire Christmas budget several times over) in the week before Christmas (it's never a good time to have dental pain, might as well be spectacular about it hey?)

ANYWAY I was thinking tonight how much my attitude has changed. In the past I would've scrimped on my kids presents and scraped and gone without in order to make sure there was a gift for everyone else on the list . But now, I've put my kids first - they are both still going to get the "big" present we had planned. Everyone else can have a jar of homemade chutney.

Half of me is scandalised (the old half who would never have let this happen) but the other half of me is quite pleased that I seem to have evolved beyond needing validation by gift-approval.

So, what's your tight-arse Christmas revelation! Come join me in some Tightarse Christmas cheer