NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Effyb4

Thank you so much Greyqueen your post was really helpful. I have a medium sized south facing garden, with an apple tree in the middle of it. I have a small bed approximately 6ft by 3 ft and another about 6 ft by 1 ft, which I am hoping to be able to grow some vegetables in, as well as some in pots on the patio. I was thinking about starting off with tomatoes, peppers, beans, carrots and beetroot. I was also thinking about getting some raspberry canes, but these seem quite expensive.

Where I am likely to find well rotted manure?

We have had a couple of no spend days here, but the boys and DH want to hit the shops at the weekend and spend some of the money they have got for Christmas. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

[Deleted User]

Hi there shipmates!
I have been following this thread and catching up with the posts since it started, but the last time I posted was on page 9...!
I have been very good since subscribing to and following this thread, only buying essentials and remembering that I am not buying stuff this year! So much so that I have been saving the money I am not spending, selling bits and pieces in a de-cluttering mission and then today I have just paid off my 2nd credit card in full (£750), so now I just have a £2k overdraft and owe a family member £2450. It has made me even more determined to keep going, pay off my debts and then get into the routine of being super-good with my money!
I hope you all have had a good Christmas and are looking forward to a great, money-saving New Year! xx

GreyQueen

Effyb4 wrote: »

Thank you so much Greyqueen your post was really helpful. I have a medium sized south facing garden, with an apple tree in the middle of it. I have a small bed approximately 6ft by 3 ft and another about 6 ft by 1 ft, which I am hoping to be able to grow some vegetables in, as well as some in pots on the patio. I was thinking about starting off with tomatoes, peppers, beans, carrots and beetroot. I was also thinking about getting some raspberry canes, but these seem quite expensive.

Where I am likely to find well rotted manure?

We have had a couple of no spend days here, but the boys and DH want to hit the shops at the weekend and spend some of the money they have got for Christmas. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Well rotted manure is just stuff that's been sitting around for 1-2 years ripening. You can purchase such things from garden centres, I believe, but for a pretty price. If you are in or travel through a rural area, it's pretty common to see bagged manure esp horse manure, at gates, often free or for a token sum such as 50p/ £1 a bag. But you obviously need a means of dragging it home.

You could also try looking for riding stables in your area, or looking for farmers who sell and deliver manure - farmyard manure will normally be sold by the tonne and delivered on a tipper trailer, and is likely to be far in excess of your need.

Re your plans, peppers and tomatoes aren't native to this climate and don't really like being outside, esp peppers. They also need a longer, hotter growing season than we have in the UK (peppers, I mean) and you need to start them off quite soon in a heated propagator because they're a long time germinating. Tomatoes can thrive in a sheltered suntrap such as a patio, but you will need to feed them once they set fruit and keep a close eye on the watering as pots dry out a lot more easily than the soil in the garden.

In terms of bang for your buck, you would get the most out of your beds by looking at runner beans, to use the height vertically and some beets, plus perhaps saladings and herbs, if you use these. Carrots are a bit dodgy and are predated upon by the carrot fly, which can tunnel all throughout the roots. Given the limited space, I would be tempted to skip the carrots.

Have you thought about growing spring onions, garlic, herbs? They're relatively compact.

Raspberries grow on canes and once you have them, the main problem is stopping them appearing all over the place. If you ask around (Freecycle?) you may be able to get a handful of them as a gift. They're easy to grow and you cut down the stems which fruited to ground level, and the next year the other stems will fruit, so a bed of rasps will have a mixture of one and two year canes.

Black and red currants give a lot of fruit for the space they take up; I got 12lb of fruit off one blackcurrant bush this year, and they require miminal effort but they do lurve a great lump of manure. I accidentally turned a sullen and indifferent twig of a blackcurrant into a monster bush by having a farmer dump 5 tonnes of mixed pig and cow manure on top of it (bush was kinda in the way, it wasn't deliberate). One happy blackcurrant.

Gardening is a bit of an adventure, sometimes things don't work and you don't know why, sometimes they work fantastically well, and you don't know why, either. I love the unpredicatability of it.

[Deleted User]

PRIMROSE you could put a marker on your large jars when they are empty to the point that would fill a smaller jar, transfer the older dry goods to the small jar and then your DH could fill the big jar while you continue to use the older stores from the small jar. I've run with this system very successfully since having an insect event a few years ago due to exactly the same circumstances. It's never nice but definitely cheaper to throw out the tail end of something rather than let a whole new supply be contaminated.

thriftwizard

Sad to see several of my friends on FB crowing things like "That's it! Tree out the door, decs ripped down & binned, house bleached top to bottom, Christmas is SO OVER now!"

I think they may be missing the magic somewhat! It's only the second day out of twelve. But I suppose if you've had your tree up since November and spent quite a lot of money you don't have on "must-haves" for your kids, it is a relief to have it over & done with. They probably think I'm very strange - or possibly lazy - to leave my decorations up into January.

I gather I'm off for a game of Cluedo now... we were going for a nice long walk down at the riverbank, but the weather has turned to nasty cold grey stinging rain; discretion is the better part of valour, methinks!

shortchanged_2

The best thing most people could do is get out of the apple Mac trap.

sjprmc01

Happy Boxing Day!

I didn't resist the sales completly (Boxing Day is the only day OH likes to go shopping and as he gets a lot of christmas money from his parents he likes to see if he can toiletry-himself-up for the year lol. Even HE didn't go overboard and only bought a few things he was very happy as he managed to get Guinness book of records for £3 and ripleys believe it or not book for £5 in tesco home shop. (About the limit of his want for reading). He was very kind and let me get a few bits (actually he was going to get me more like the boots no 7 star gift that I'd failed to get pre-christmas, and I had it in my hand, but weighed up what i 'needed' out of it (well I didn't really need any of it but the bits I actually wanted) and it wasn't worth it. He also offered to get me any reduced perfume sets I wanted but I have an abundance of the stuff so I said no. He did get me a dove set with 2 x shower gels in (don't think I've seen the dove for less than 1.50 a bottle in yrs) a toni and guy shampoo and conditioner set (I use it and was a saving on buying them individually) philosophy glazed raspberry shower gel and an animal print cardi in Asda for £6 instead of £16. Considering last year I frittered away hundreds in the sale this is a HUGE improvement, and also being that I'm a shopaholic, I think this was as saintly as it gets for me

yellowbear

Wasn't planning on spending anything today but had to get mother in law some milk as she's due back from visiting family tomorrow. Popped into Family Bargains and picked up 80 cards, 2 rolls of wrapping paper and a box of posh crackers (and some milk!) all for £8.48!

Mint1955

Boxing Day for me is my day ..... Everything was about making sure everyone had a likely Christmas Day. Far to busy for me and I didn't sit in a comfortable chair all day.

I have just done a Buffett of left overs and jackets and a few frozen tasters and now I will watch tv or whatever for the afternoon.

If anyone is hungry now they can fridge dive or make a bacon sandwich.

purpleshoes_2

I actually did spend more money yesterday than just the cat food, 25 quid on a voucher for my bro online, but I checked with him on xmas eve whether he actually wanted it and would use it, was going to buy him something from the football club we support shop but my mum beat me to it.

Today I spent 3 quid, again on cat food. Im not bothered so much about whether I spend money on xmas day or new years day, its what I do all year round that matters more and as some small shops around me are open on xmas day and new years day, in fact every day of the year, if Ive run out of something, I'll buy it, tends to be cat stuff rather than me stuff though.

Next year my plan is, get rid of my iphone, I bought it as back up for my ipod to teach fitness classes, but there was a mess up, happens, half of my songs wont play and are now what they call ghost songs so once the contract is done in May, my mum is giving me an old one of hers and Im going sim only

My mum and I are still ploughing through all the YS veg, 2 massive pots of soup made and frozen, rabbit got lots of veg, I got about 40 quids worth for 6 quid in all

I cant really see me spending a lot next year, food shopping could still come down a bit but thats more so about eating what I have in the house before refilling, Im actually amazed at how much stuff I bought and how long my mum and I will make that last, we also bought lots of savoury snacks and didnt eat one of them so they will do for hogmanay and beyond.

No excess in our house this year but we still enjoyed, thats all you can ask for.