Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

Kiwisaver_2

kittendothroar wrote: »

Erm will let you know if I ever manage it! :rotfl:

I think it must be somewhere near the end of the rainbow, I travelled half way around the world looking for it and never found it.

I'm at the end of day six and that means only one thing, if I can resist any overwhelming urges to get up in the middle of the night and go shopping in my jim-jams I will actually make it to seven days . :T

Had a near miss today as I had to post a Birthday card but scoured through all the rubbish and receipts in my purse and found I already had a stamp. Phew! If I hadn't been FF'ing no doubt I wouldn't have put much effort into searching and would have just gone and bought another.

I am really looking forward to hitting the supermarket tomorrow but will try to contain myself and stick with the program. I will only get what I need, but do need a LOT.

Keep up the good work!!

Ches

Neither OH or I had anything to eat at breakfast this morning but did drink several mugs of coffee. A friend came and we went to the pub for lunch. We take turns to pay and it was her treat this week but my sister decided to come along and my GS called in and we offered him a pint so I felt obliged to pay hallf the bill. Couldn't let my friend pay for all of us although she was fairly insistant that she would. Result £15 spent out of the £20 I had allowed myself for odds and ends this week. The other £5 will be needed for milk so thats that for the next 7 days. The good news was that neither OH or I wanted much this evening so settled for sandwiches and a piece of HM victoria sponge.
I have some salami in the fridge that needs using up so I think I will make pizzas tomorrow. OH can have poached eggs on toast and fruit juice for breakfast.
Oh blooming heck, I have just remembered we are going to a coffee morning at my sisters complex tomorrow. Oh well OH will have to fund it as that doesn't count, does it?:)

GreyQueen

taplady wrote: »

morning!

Greyqueen - I dont feel ready to go grey just yet - at least not this side of 50. I'll be pure white eventually as it is genetic in our family - Mum's got a wonderful head of hair but as we look very alike I dont think I want to be a mini-me to her just yet

It's pure white on one side of my family, too. One of my great grandads had a full head of dazzlingly-white hair by the time he was 23 and his kids inherited the trait. It's a little diluted in my generation but I'm letting nature take its course. Just call me a plutonium blonde.:p

Either I'm a child of nature or an idle slovenly mare.....you choose!

Today I didn't stress about spending or not-spending and had a browse in some c.s. after work and spent £1.49 on a candle holder which was something I was after. Didn't buy any food, just dined from the stuff in the fridge. Finished the last of the bacon chopped into an omelette and had some more of my h.m. apple pie, nomnomnom. The discipline of avoiding T*sco is doing my peace of mind no end of good. Am still reading Tescopoly and will try very hard not to darken their door again for a long time.

A pal who has been into the store recently told me that they have installed more of the automated tills and several of the regular cashiers appear to be missing. I hope they haven't been laid off as there were several guys and gals in there who were so friendly and had been there for so many years that we'd become pally. They used to pull my leg if I bought something without a yellow sticker...........:rotfl:I'm very angry that this small but hugely-busy store sees fit to make most of its customers self-checkout as well as selfserve in other respects. Next, they'll just be parking the lorry out back and getting us to offload our own groceries..........:mad:

OK, time for beddy-byes. Good luck and happy Fasting, everyone. GQ xx

greenbee

GQ - there's a website too: http://www.tescopoly.org/

calicocat

greenbee wrote: »

GQ - there's a website too: http://www.tescopoly.org/

just dropped in quickly as work busy..i have been looking at this website. I dont shop there (prob as not one local to me) but am pleased about this,i use C*-*P as prefer their ethics...just hope they arent pulling the wool over peoples eyes too.

GreyQueen

calicocat wrote: »

just dropped in quickly as work busy..i have been looking at this website. I dont shop there (prob as not one local to me) but am pleased about this,i use C*-*P as prefer their ethics...just hope they arent pulling the wool over peoples eyes too.

I hope so, too, hun. It would be great to feel that a concerned shopper could make some ethical choices. Thanks for the linkie, greenbee.

I buy such veggies and fruit as I cannot grow myself from an indy family greengrocer, I know 3 generations of the family and they take very good care of their regulars and we always have a lovely chat, swop recipes etc. I buy herbs and spices from the market, from a crazy crazy guy who's had his stall for years. Going to do business with him is like interacting with a stand-up comedian, you have to be on form to keep up with him.

I don't buy a lot of my stuff, proportionally, from supermarkets, just milk, eggs, cheese, oil, tea, tinned basics and t.p. but I'm soooo brassed-off with them that I'm racking my brains for alternatives. Gonna investigate buying eggs from a little indy store in the uni part of the city - you can take your own eggcartons which had got to shave a little off the landfill pile. I'm in a city centre with no car so buying stuff from the farm gate/ cottage gate isn't an option for me.

Going to reconnaitre the Co-op again. It's some years since I went there last and maybe the prices aren't so high as they were, comparatively-speaking. My breadflour comes from a windmill which sells its stuff via a farmers' market in my Nan's village so I can get at that with a little organisation. It's lovely stuff.

Hmmmmm, lots of thinking to be done and some habits to be changed. Does anyone know if Iceland have an evil corporate rep, in supermarketing terms? What about FarmFoods?

Have finished up the apple pie for breakfast which has probably already settled on my hips, as pastry is wont to do. Lunch will be a h.m. wholemeal bread roll. Deffo going to the greengrocers after w*rk to stock up on the fresh stuff. Should be pretty modest spending overall this month.

Keep stepping away from those purses, ladies, we know it makes sense. Laters, GQx

lizzyb1812

Helloooo! Anybody in? All out shopping? :eek:

Managed a NSD today so just 3 more days to the 1st May.

HM soup/bread for lunch and made a big vat of chilli which I had some of this evening. Was v tempted to nip out for some sour cream to go on the chili but strained some yoghurt and had that on it instead.

Thinking of trying a new strategy in May - one big shop on 1st then a small fixed budget for each week to be spent whenever I want to but not to be exceeded. As Catznine has reminded me the FF is a temporary thing and my long term aim is to keep to a realistic budget, although I appreciate that doing the FF for longer if you have a savings target in mind is a good idea too.

So I'll have to do meal plans, inventories and a shopping list - something I always used to do but which fell by the wayside a bit. Will still be aiming to have lots of NSDs though!

GreyQueen

Relaaaaax lizzy, relaaaaaaxxxx............you are not alooooone......... (insert creepy cackle here).

Only kidding.

I got to my greengrocer and spent £1 which got me 4 large tomatoes, 2 small cauliflowers and 11 satsuma/ clemantine type thingies. Never quite sure which of the small orange things are which. Slight seconds, as you may guess from the price, but we're talking minor cosmetic damage. Love ma greengrocer.

I splurged on a paperback book at the c.s for 50p and had a lovely laugh with the assistant. I'm such a low rent gal that I've been going to some of these shops for years and am well known.

Tomorrow I shall have to venture to the allotment come rain or shine to drop off the compostable rubbish in the composter up there but suspect gardening won't be viable.:( Anyone up for donating sweat equity to my ark-building project?

My wet weather plan is to potter about at home and do some baking. Have need of more bread rolls and may try to do something from the Be-Ro website but only if I have the stuff in stock. Going to venture deep into the cupboards and drag some stuff kicking and screaming into the cold light of day and see what I can make from it.

Reminds me of cooking in my not-long-left-college days in a shared house. A friend of a friend who didn't know me was watching me cook and remarked that he knew I'd been a student because I wasn't flustered by finding half the things I needed for the recipe missing and just substituted as necessary.

I'll admit to being inclined to cook off-piste as it were but that's because I often can't find or can't afford certain ingredients. Sometimes it comes good, sometimes not so good but I haven't poisoned anyone yet.

Errrrmmmm, at least I don't think I have. Haven't heard from X lately, better text and see if he's still living after my homemade pizza last month.:p

I expect everyone knows that you can disguise some really weird veggies by chopping them finely and smothering them with tomato and cheese on top of a pizza. Even conned children into eating celery that way..........:rotfl:

Laters, GQ xx

niksyg

Evening all!

DAY 6

Well, unfortunately I had to spend £3.60 on uni library fines and £13 in the butcher on bones for the dogs, but managed to get a big chook for £3 as it needed to be sold today.

Like most others, for me this week has been more about adjusting my spending pattern and making me realise that I can really go without stuff and that it just isn't necessary to pick up 'bargains' just because they are there. I am on my own this weekend as OH is away, so this evening I am sorting out what food we have in the house and rewriting a meal plan to last as long as I can make it on stuff we have here.

Tomorrow should be a NSD hopefully....

modern_millie_2

Evening all,
I was indeed out shopping Lizzy, decided we were going to need a bit more fresh food, so tried the Co-op, interesting in the light of what GQ and Calicocat have been saying. I have always assumed they are the most ethical, but too expensive for me - however today thought they were more competitive - milk and bread were reasonable, fruit and veg not bad, and a few decent offers and reductions. Did notice dried fruit and nuts seemed dear, but these could be found maybe in smaller shops. Might try to avoid the big 4 except for the odd whoopsie hunt, and use the Co-op more.

Another interesting book, if you're into this sort of thing, is Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence - has a lot of info on supermarkets' dubious practices.

Was very good and avoided the coffee shops today, but might succumb tomorrow if weather is as bad as forecasted.

Have a good evening everyone.