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NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

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  • Primrose
    Primrose Posts: 10,620
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary I've been Money Tipped!
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    I thought I had unsubscribed myself from many of the mass consumer mailings aimed at encouraging me to open my wallet but my email Inbox has been completed flooded out with all kinds of Black Friday offers creeping through the net. It has made me realise just how vast this retail selling initiative really is.


    I suppose I should be grateful as it will enable me to clear out these remaining sneakers. When I opened my email inbox yesterday I was overwhelmed by the blighters ! Is anybody else suffering from them too?
  • grunnie
    grunnie Posts: 1,789
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    I have just been to a floral art demonstration and now know how to do door wreaths, swags lanterns etc (;) ) Then I realised I had all the bits in either my garden or amongst my Christmas decs box and don't need to buy anything at all to make them. I even have huge candles lurking in the garage kept in case of a power cut. I have now washed out 2 large vases to make into Christmas lanterns. No spend day for me. :D
  • grunnie
    grunnie Posts: 1,789
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    Lynnplatinum belated birthday wishes and thanks for the recipe. I will definitely make oatcakes. My OH's aunt used to make them but didn't have a recipe she just used handfuls and they didn't taste the same when I made them. To roll them out she use walnut sized bits between 2 pieces of cotton material and then she rolled them removed the material and used a cutter to make them perfectly round. :T She won loads of prizes at the WI.
  • Having spent an arm and a leg and the GDP of a small country on our ferry crossings for next August this morning to the IoW I have shut my purse's/bank accounts firmly with an almighty clang for the foreseeable future, and will only buy something now if in dire need for awhile :):):)

    Anything and everything that's in the slightest bit edible is going to be used before I buy anything else.Luckily I have pretty good stocks in store indoors.So I shall be eating some ...err interesting meals in the next few weeks.:):):)

    Tonight I think I shall have a tuna and sweetcorn salad as I have a good few tins of both in store, if I use half of a tin of each tonight I can use the rest for lunch with a wrap and some salady bits .

    Tomorrow night and until Sunday night I am at DDs as I am DGS sitting as DD and her OH are out for the evening and overnight.I have quite a few bits of sweeties 'n' stuff for the boys so no need to buy anything and I shall find something on the TV for us to watch tomorrow night. Definitely lots of NSDs ahead for me :):):)
  • Evening all

    I had a few e-mails from organisations that I still want to hear from re Black Friday deals - unfortunately not for anything of theirs that I wanted!! :rotfl:

    Other than that I hibernated for the first part of the day as I had no clients and felt a bit rough. But back on it in the afternoon.

    But another NSD for me!! Still loads of grub in the house - only need butter at the moment!! Somewhere I have a recipe for chocolate cake that does not use butter but oil. May be able to stretch out till Monday!!! :-)

    The greed inspired by Black Friday makes me sick. It really is a way of keeping the masses from revolting against the Ban!ers. (give them bread and circuses - from Juvenal) I really must do my last PPI this weekend + Experian claim. Not gonna let those swine keep my dosh!! :mad:

    On more positive note - I have been able to work out a good HM Hamper for these posh folks I will be spending Christmas with! Most of the things I will have to buy will be under a £1! or are part of everyday ingredients that I have in or, in one case - old curtains!! No doubt they will get me something costly so me- I'm not gonna compete!!
    Nite all
    Aim for Sept 17: 20/30 days to be NSDs :cool: NSDs July 23/31 (aim 22) :j
    NSDs 2015:185/330 (allowing for hols etc)
    LBM: started Jan 2012 - still learning!
    Life gives us only lessons and gifts - learn the lesson and it becomes a gift.' from the Bohdavista :j
  • Hi everyone - thank you for the birthday wishes :)

    I had a nice day and I am continuing the celebrations as I am treating my friends to a meal later with a big voucher I won earlier in the year.

    I've just got back from a couple of days down in Dorset to see DH's family. Luckily the weather was mostly day and we had a nice walk along the cliffs. We also went out for dinner in the evening and managed to find a black Friday deal to get some money off of the bill.

    I need to go back and catch up on posts but I hope everyone is well!
  • GrannyKate
    GrannyKate Posts: 1,427
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    Well didn't quite make my £250 grocery challenge for November but came in below £300 again. Still too high but much better than when I started back in March when it was about £400 per month. Still way too high for just 2 of us and occasional DGCs. I did sort my freezer and find space for some YS joints. December will be tricky as away a lot but will try in earnest to save money and lose weight in January.
    We ordered 2 CDs over the last few days from Amazon neither of which were delivered yesterday as promised. Just an email last night to say sorry they will be a few days - guess that has happened to a lot of people with all the Black Friday sales hype. These were not special offers or anything just planned Christmas gifts.
    Off to Germany at weekend with DD but have lots of euros left from our Greece holiday as we took extra cash, due to crisis there, but did not need it. All paid for as is my trip to Scotland the following weekend with friend.
    Walked round Mr t the the other day and spent £20 - this time last year I would normally spend £100 every time I went in. Need a few bits but they can wait until next week now.
    2024 Decluttering Campaign 415/2024 🏅🏅🏅
    2024 Weight loss target 2/25 lbs
    2024 1p challenge 91/366 days Total £79.31

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 17,413
    First Post I've been Money Tipped!
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    edited 1 December 2015 at 8:41AM
    Good Morning fellow frugallers ,a new month and a new challenge ahead,very hard not to splash the cash when the shops are full of bright lights and Christmassy music,all clever marketing to get those purses open and people spending.

    Not this lady though, :)I keep an even more watchful eye on spending at this time of the year.The less I spend before Christmas, the more I can hopefully bag the bargains afterwards.

    Sounds a bit Scrooge-like doesn't it, but I'm not in the least, I just find that January seems like the longest month in the year, and everyone seems to suddenly think "Oh crikey, look at how much I've spent !"

    Not me though, :) I am squirrelike in my spending, and if I can get a few odds and ends after Christmas to last through the long grey days of January when maybe we have snow and ice and I can't get to the shops so much the better.

    I learned a long time ago that Christmas,nice as it is ,and I do enjoy it, is (this year at least, just another Friday ) and it will fall again in seven days and all the hoopla and nonsense will disappear, but the bills will not

    So set it in your mind that you really don't need those bags of nuts that you may possibly bin, because Gt Uncle Charlie can't eat them anymore because of his plate , or the dates that only one person seems to eat but won't touch once Boxing Day has gone

    Thinking about what you will buy and use, and not just buy and bin afterwards will save you quite a bit of cash.

    I remember one year I didn't buy those Newberry fruits as once the red ones were gone no one like the other colours ,or the crystallized orange and lemon slices that folk ate the orange ones, and left the lemon ones.

    Buy what you need and will use, and not what the supermarket folk think you should buy.

    Last Saturday I went to get some frozen fruit salad for my DD in our local Iceland has my DGS g/f can't eat ice cream and anything with dairy in it for pudding bless her. The lady in the shop told me that at this time of the year they like to stock the desserts for Christmas only.I eventually got them in Mr T's but even then had to search for them amongst all the Christmas rubbishy desserts that were piled up high in the freezers.

    Shop with a bit of savvy and save yourself from adding to the landfill with junk food only sold at Christmas.

    Those king prawn platters. Have you ever seen them all finished and eaten, or do half of them get thrown away. You wouldn't want to eat prawns after they had defrosted and and sat on the table for hours would you, not unless you were keen to see the inside of A&E for the New Year

    So I'm not being a Scrooge , just a bit more of a canny shopper :):):) If you want to buy extra then get something that you can eat in the New Year when life gets back to normal and the Hoo Hah has passed :):):)

    Happy Christmas chums
    JackieO xxxx
  • Bathory
    Bathory Posts: 206
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    Very good post JackieO. A lot of what gets bought gets thrown out and after seeing Hugh's War on Waste not so long ago I'm personally more determined than ever to watch what I buy and what goes in the bin. The shops only shut for 1 day now even though some people buy enough to feed an army. Imagine going back to the days when Christmas/Boxing Day fell at the weekend and the shops were shut for up to 4 days because of bank holidays added to the week. I doubt some would be able to cope.

    We gave up buying a lot of presents a few years ago and when we told people we found that, rather than call us Scrooges they were of the same mindset, so it was a big relief on all sides to cut the present list down. I get something for mum and OH and even then its within a budget. Neither of us is keen on Xmas cake or pudding so these got shelved. I also noticed that we both had a habit of leaving the stuffing on the plates so that went as well and one less thing to faff around with in the kitchen. Some of the nicest memories of festive seasons past are when we didn't have very much and I'm very grateful to still have my mum here as I nearly lost her to pneumonia last Christmas.
  • Siebrie
    Siebrie Posts: 2,887
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    An English colleague went to England for a long weekend, and brought me back a pot of custard powder. I like custard, and cannot find the powder in Belgium. They have something called 'yellow pudding' powder, which is NOT the same. She did not want to be reimbursed for her expense. So, I gave her a bottle of champagne I had lying about. I don't like the stuff, and it was given to me by my horrible former boss. My colleague likes it, but cannot afford it. Closed purses and happyness all around!
    Are you wombling, too, in '22? € 58,96 = £ 52.09Wombling in Restrictive Times (2021) € 2.138,82 = £ 1,813.15Wombabeluba 2020! € 453,22 = £ 403.842019's wi-wa-wombles € 2.244,20 = £ 1,909.46Wombling to wealth 2018 € 972,97 = £ 879.54Still a womble 2017 #25 € 7.116,68 = £ 6,309.50Wombling Free 2016 #2 € 3.484,31 = £ 3,104.59
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