NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

CAFCGirl

Im considering our Xmas tree coming down tomorrow. Mainly because the pup has done quite well with leaving it alone so I dont want to tempt fate as it doesnt 'need' to be up anymore. Plus we have to re-jig furniture to have it up, and I want my living room back to a sensible layout LOL

[Deleted User]

Evening shipmates. we went in to town this morning on the bus and found DD1s work jumper in the sales ( I gave her an IOU as we couldn't find one before Christmas) we got wrapping paper at 50p a roll and enough cards, really nice ones, to last a couple of years and I spent £5.50 in full. I also got a really lovely and warm snow suit for my grandson at £15 reduced from £30 which will fit him next winter. We also found 2 x Christmas Puddings with a use by date of 2016 at £1 each so they came home with us too. I think that's most of the things we need the only large item I still need to find is a pair of properly waterproof boots to wear when I walk that Lurcha, I don't want walking boots or wellies but am finding great difficulty in locating a pair of flat and sensible boots WITHOUT a stitched welt, these always leak. I'll hunt on and hope to find something suitable, Lyn xxx.

Bathory

We keep the low-key decorations up until 2/3 January. Takes a few minutes to pull down and then I re-use the christmas cards one more time as shopping lists before recycling.

Purpleposting4: I'm not surprised you unfriended this friend, how nasty in nature must they be to slate family off on something so public as FB. Unfortunately with some people it really is a case of - the more they have the more they want - so she probably got a 'shock to the system' to get less for a change.

Karmacat

Its interesting about the timing of putting the deccies up and taking them down again. When I was little, it was definitely much nearer to the historical practice of up on Christmas Eve, down on 12th Night. Though even then, we usually had them up for my birthday, which is 17 Dec which was nice :rotfl:

Nowadays, people seem to put them up in the first few days of December, and take them down fairly soon after Christmas, though I'm surprised that its *this* early. The modern number of days is a bit longer, but not horrendously so, its mostly just shifted, from the sound of it.

And ... I know we're about Not Buying, but people are talking about decluttering too. I'm really tempted to just declutter one of those Energy Monitors - its a really bad design, I can't open the battery compartment, the screws are welded and no-one I've asked can open it either. It doesn't link in to my account to tell me what prices ... to have an Energy Monitor sounds great, but actually, for me (singleton, small, fairly well insulated house) its not helpful. Has anybody got one and not bothered?

DawnW

Karmacat wrote: »

And ... I know we're about Not Buying, but people are talking about decluttering too. I'm really tempted to just declutter one of those Energy Monitors - its a really bad design, I can't open the battery compartment, the screws are welded and no-one I've asked can open it either. It doesn't link in to my account to tell me what prices ... to have an Energy Monitor sounds great, but actually, for me (singleton, small, fairly well insulated house) its not helpful. Has anybody got one and not bothered?

I have one, but when the power goes off (as it randomly sometimes does) you have to set it up again each time, and I soon got fed up with that and put it away in a drawer. It was useful to see which appliances caused it to rise dramatically, but I soon cottoned on it was when things were heating up (kettle, washing machine etc). I will look it out and freecycle it!

IrisViolet

My tree is down, its never up for long, my eldest is autistic and Christmas is a huge sensory overload for him that affects him quite badly, we need the normality back asap for him, if I didn't have other children we would probably be way more low key about Christmas for his sake but we have to compromise. Growing up the tree always came down around the 2nd/3rd just before dad would go back to work.

We got a £50 amazon voucher of in laws for xmas. Clearly burning a hole in DH pocket as hes bought a cake mixer and slow cooker with it already. Im glad though as we have been after these things for a while, its nice to have them as presents, and both purchases will be used regularly to help us be more frugal. The mixer also has a dough hook which will be great for me making bread as i really struggle to do it all by hand.

To the poster with *friend* who slagged off the cinema voucher, im not surprised you deleted her, its disgusting. I have three children and im so conscious of how expensive it makes xmas for those who gift to us. with my sister we do no adult gifts but she only has one child, she always gets mine lovely gifts so i do give her daughter an extra present as i just feel so bad that i have three. I tell my parents not to worry about me a DH but they wont hear of it, and spend a lot on the kids despite me saying not to, they buy lovely stuff and i know they can afford it but i still feel bad, my choice to have a big family I don't want others financially suffering come Christmas because of it. A £50 cinema gift card would be really appreciated here.

I could do with writing some guiding lights to keep me going, i have ideas in my head, i know what i want to achieve, i also know what irritates the hell out of me now and that's definitely shopping, i hate even doing the food shop tbh its really helped me not waste as much money any more. I have a really good set of spreadsheets sorted for all my bills and spending with budgets for everything, thats really helping.

Karmacat

Thank you Dawn! Thats true, isn't it - once you realise the principle behind what costs you, the faff of setting it up just isn't worth it! I'm glad to hear it, to be honest - but with the battery compartment unuseable, this one's going to go to electrical recycling at the tip

Karmacat

Purpleposting4, I missed your post first time, I've seen so many people commenting on it, I went back for a look. How horrifying, what the ex-facebook friend did! I think that was really sensible of you, to just unfriend her and not comment - someone who writes like that about her sister on such a public space isn't likely to be someone who can take constructive criticism well

emslovesmickey

purpleposting4 wrote: »

Hi again :-)

Good day today and managed not to spend a penny, except petrol to travel 20 miles. Family gathering today too, but a couple of non-alcoholic drinks were bought for me and the car park barrier wasn't working so I saved £6 for the 3 hours parking!

Using up food in the freezer for tea tonight - sausages and other bits and pieces, plus leftover xmas pud or chocolate log for pudding. Wrapped up warm and took the dog out for a walk when we got back earlier and really appreciated the fresh air and exercise - really clears the mind!

Got back and read a status on facebook by a 'friend' (not seen or spoken to in years) complaining that she received a £50 cinema voucher from her sister as a family gift, but as there are 6 of them (2 adults and 4 kids) then her sister had ONLY spent £8 on each of them and was calling her every name under the sun!!! Needless to say that really angered me and I felt like writing something including the word 'ungrateful' underneath, but instead just unfriended her. This to me really is the ultimate ungrateful consumer who not only wants everything for their children, but who demands their family does the same. Is a token gesture not enough? £50 is more than enough. Do people really expect too much these days??? For goodness sake it was her sister. Anyway, rant over. I can do without people like that in my life.

Tonight I am finishing off watching Downton and the tomorrow will be a mixture of taking our dog out for a walk, using up leftovers, cleaning and putting away bits and pieces. I also plan on re-writing my budget for next month and seeing if I can tweak out any more pennies from anywhere else! The kids have written thank-you notes to people and we have a few things to drop into the charity shop on monday morning too.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend :-)

Perhaps instead of dividing it per person your ex-friend should have seen that her sister gave her whole family an outing together. A chance to do something as a family. Just shows how peoples priorities are wrong

sjprmc01

I'm 'up' 4 items today but I didn't purchase them. OH knows I like the 'gorjuss' range of stuff and picked me up 2 x key rings and a notebook and matching pen in the boots sale while I was at work. (He'd nipped into argos to pick up a couple of reserved annuals for the kids and boots is beside it)

And also, it was with his Christmas money given to him by his parents, so who am I to tell him what to/not to spend it on? Lol