New year Old Style resolutions...

Caterina

How inspiring!

Here are my few:

1- Seriously have a go at growing veggies - including sorting out the front garden into four "square foot growing" raised beds.

2 - Start baking again, for the pleasure of it.

3 - Before buying anything, pause and ask myself if this is really essential (and consider an occasional treat as an essential to avoid feeling deprived!)

4 - By end January, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, to have moved my office upstairs, have decorated the old office properly and have installed my DS in it as the office now should be his ex-bedroom.

5 - Wishful thinking: to give up sugar and refined carbs, eat only wholegrains, pulses and fresh veg - or try this as much as possible.

Enough for me so far!

Caterina

thriftlady_2

Well, the recession hasn't really hit us yet, but there has always been the possibility of OH losing his job -he works in the construction industry which is suffering like everything else. If worse comes to worse I can always go back to teaching (it'll have to be really bad before this happens though:eek: ), still at least it is a job that in unaffected by recession.

Anyway to help us through a potential sticky patch we're trying to build up a nice cushion of savings, to that end I am going to try to;

1) Stop buying cookery books -this'll be really tough for me

2) Stop buying unecessary food. I feel guilty about the amount of food I buy none goes to waste btw, but I always have the makings of several meals in the house yet still seem to fill up the carboot with food every Thursday. Part of the reason I buy unecessary food is to do with the cookbook habit -buy cookbook, see delicious recipes, make list of food to buy in order to make delicious recipes, buy food.

I could save pots of money if I stuck to these 2 resolutions.

My third resolution is the old favourite, and one I've never yet managed to stick to -Lose Weight. This is OS because it will result in less food being consumed and therefore wasted ('cos I don't need it) and because I want to do it in an OS way -ie not buying expensive healthy food but cheap healthy food. Maybe I stick my head round the door of the OS weight loss thread;)

ifonlyitwaseasier

thank you Lalaladybird,

1. get the veggies growing at my mum & dads
2. cut back on unnecessary spending, me and Oh are both guilty of this, i'm going to cut back on magazines, i don't need them, i have the boards!!!
3. probably move somewhere cheaper so we can pay off debts, more than likely to my parents, then we'd save a lot, would pay rent but wouldn't be anywhere near what we pay now.
4. start getting crafty and re-use, reduce, recycle
5. keep a proper spending diary and make sure hubby joins me in that.
6. save at least £20 per month for next xmas and £20 a month for a trip out for our wedding anniversary.


i'm sure there will be more...

ioiwe x

bellaquidsin

Good thread Lalaladybird, to get us thinking. I don't usually do New Year Resolutions as I find they don't often survive beyond the first week in January. However next year is going to be different for us because DH is due to retire so it will be a new start in more ways than one. I have been planning for this for some time now and reducing our spending in many ways.

We had designed our garden for our old age and put a summerhouse over what used to be a veg patch so we could just sit and watch the flowers grow, but with the way things are we are going to be looking at ways to reintroduce vegetable growning into the garden.

Today I bought two gardening magazines as a special treat to give me some inspiration, so through the dark days of winter I will plan, plan, plan for the lovely veg we will grow. Don't shout at me, I know I could have got books from the library, in fact I probably already have all the information I need in the books I have in the house, but the magazines are topical and I needed a kick start.

So - New Year new veg, in fact started today by sowing mustard seeds for winter salads and will have a go at land cress started off in my propogater.

Am I wandering?
Bella.

kippers

I think i need to have a 'to do' diary so i'm a bit more organised. I could write a list in it at the beginning of each day and try and stick to it! I could also write in the beginning of each month a list of birthday cards i need as i always forget these until the last minute and end of buying expensive ones from the local shops!

I may even put the coupons i collect in there so i don't lose them and if the diary is big enough i could use it for my food lists too.

BUT...in MSE fashion, i'll wait until the sales to find my diary

Blairweech

Here is last years thread if anyone needs any inspiration

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=648715&highlight=resolutions

I am big on resolutions. Well, making them anyway. Every year I faithfully make a big long list, say 'I'll only do one a month, then I won't get overloaded and give up' and what happens? Every year, by about March, I can't be bothered to carry on anyway

This year, I don't really have 'resolutions', more a set of targets that I want to achieve

So:

1. Live on £4000/year challenge
2. Save £5000 towards a house deposit
3. Get food bill down to £50/month - use oven space more efficiently, use the slow cooker with cheap cuts of meat in more
5. Shop locally - stay out of the supermarket, and use the grocers and butchers.

bullet_2

To reduce food spending as much as possible
To halve gas and electricity costs
To make as many meals from scratch as possible.

Barneysmom

This is a good thread! :T

1. Keep up to date with my food spending diary, I've completely lost track this last couple of months!
2. Don't just use the oven for cooking dinner, always make biscuits or bread or something else to fill the shelves! :cool:

stefejb

Same as last year ....... cut down on Unidentified Frozen Objects by LABELLING

[Deleted User]

Excellent thread and just the thing to get our juices flowing after Christmas. I hope to:
Get fitter by taking up swimming again:j
Stick to my GC challenge Have managed it for the last three months
Make all the birthday cards on or about the first of the month for that month.
Try to buy in the sales a few things to put away for next Christmas.
Try to walk a little further and rely less on my car.(difficult as I have a bit of a mobility problem):j
De-tox my spare room of my record collection (goes back to 1955):eek:
De-clutter my other spare room( I have my pal coming in January for a few days, that should help she is brilliant at de-toxing.:D
get my next two essays in before they are due at Uni
Finally eat through my freezer stocks so I can de-ice it
That should do to be going on with
I cook from scratch anyway, and portion freeze things.