NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

I've spent the last few years working towards becoming a thrifty minimalist type to get debt repaid. It was at one point then there was a house disaster and now.... £15,393 needs to get down to £7,500 by the end of 2015! I've made most of my Christmas presents - I've spent just over £15 - £1.20 for two felt squares in colours I didn't have, £2.50 poster printing for parents family trees (thank you Ancestry free trials) £3 for brown paper, string and washi tape for wrapping, £6 for a frame for OH's cross stitch character present, £3 for the rabbit's hay cakes. My brother and his fiancee will get lunch bought for them next time I visit so maybe £25 for them.

I do Project 333 for my clothes and don't anticipate any purchases this year as I have enough to keep me going. Makeup has already been downshifted and all I will need is face powder, which my mum is getting me for Christmas. Toiletries I'm using up my supplies, which will definitely last me all year as I did an inventory last year so I know I have enough

I haven't bought a dvd/book/cd/game all of 2014, I use the library regularly and watch most of my tv online if I have time. I have a budget of £5,000 after the mortgage and council tax are paid and I need to stick to it to reduce my debts.

Great thread Slowdown

May I join you? About six months ago I joined a group I think it was called "No More Stuff" Far from helping cut down the other members were buying into things I had never bought or cutting down on spending in areas I have never bought anything. I could not identify with them at all. I unsubscribed after a week.

There average age was well under 30, I am a pensioner on a very low income. My spending patterns bore no relation to what I spend. I think my big problem is I buy things I cannot afford, to help me save. I think I have cut down quite a lot on my charity shop buys because if I asked myself do I need it, the answer is probably not.

The way advertisers get to us is a lot more sophisticated than we know. I had a lesson in colour yesterday from my son. He spent a year studying advertising at college. Now how do we combat the effect a particular colour has on our minds if we don't even know they are doing it.

My son was actually talking about the luxury end of frozen fish. He proved to me I fell for the packaging. I don't think I am prepared for the next time.

Glad you include replacements because I had to buy a new washing machine just over a week ago. Having read about doing without a washing machine I decided I could not do without. I have no where outside to hang washing and would have had to buy a spin drier anyway. I thought even if you can buy one how much less would it be than buying the WM.

JackieO wrote: »

Recycle,re-use or repair seems to work for me ,well done on getting your 'lightbulb ' moment The more the merrier.I too hate all the kerfuffle with the multi-nationals and large SM groups telling us what we need and want instead of giving us what's really required, which is a better service, and better quality.

I came home tonight from my DDs with a discarded plastic bowl that had held a chocolate trifle that had been eaten over the weekend. It will be reused for something else (what yet I haven't thought ) but its not going to be chucked away into landfill.Just had a thought whilst typing,I may fill it with compost (got some left over in a bag on the patio) and throw some seeds in it (have some free parsley seeds that a friend gave me off the front cover of her gardening magazine) a small herb garden that can sit on the window sill in my conservatory, sorted
Often its just a case of thinkng 'what can I do with this'

Good luck with your consumer holiday I am pretty frugal anyway and love to streeetch meals as a challenge .Look on the 'fiscal fasting' boards we are a pretty good lot on there as well

Jackie - don't forget to punch some holes in the bottom of the bowl so the seeds don't get waterlogged. Last time I had something similar I forgot the drainage holes and drowned everything!

Denise

What a brilliant idea for a thread, Slowdown! And it's so comforting to find out that other people agree with this kind of lifestyle! My husband are I are very much make do and mend types - we don't have debt except for a small mortgage, but we choose to do it because it's how we like to live. It makes me feel quite sick to see all the stuff in the shops at Christmas - the overwhelming message is 'buy more, spend more, eat more, drink more, and you'll be so much happier'. As nursemaggie says, they use every trick in the book to lure us in. I'll be checking in regularly to see how you're doing!