NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Slowdown

wmf wrote: »

I'm sorry that your son was ill slowdown. A degree of depression sometimes follows illness. I hope he picks up soon.

Thank you for that. I think you often feel down after being ill, and when you are sixteen and your cousins are out enjoying activities and playing board games I think it's probably twenty times worse!

Kind regards
Slowdown

Floxxie

I have been following this thread from the beginning but with so many posts, I have struggled to find a breath to post in!

Anyway, it is almost a year since my life changed completely..and for the better. I was working full time and had three children to look after on my own and a house full to the rafters of stuff. In December 2013 I decided to get up and move to NI. I gave myself 6 weeks to complete the plan. I sold and gave away the majority of our belongings. There were in excess of 1000 books given to CS; there was very expensive furniture sold for a few pounds. It made my heart very heavy as I was viewing each item as lost money. However due to the volume of stuff, this view soon changed as to being a means to allow me to escape. I took the money I had raised and filled the car with our last possessions and ourselves and off we went!

I now live in a country where I can't do any of my former jobs and there is limited childcare available. It means it is impossible for me to live my life as it was. This is perfect. Yes I have minutes of panic thinking I must work, but then this is soon rationalised as I already know it is impossible and would cost me dearly, both financially and from a health perspective. I have spent my whole life being told that I must be educated and get a well paying job to be successful. Having these did not make me happy and did not move my life any further forward.

I have a few more bits that I can sell to make a little bit of money but my focus next year is to live a healthy and frugal life and to 'work from home' to raise some pennies to make more pennies, eventually resulting in purchasing land to build on. Anything is possible once you step outside of the 'expected'.

smileyt_2

I have contacted a local charity shop to come and collect a wardrobe that I've just emptied of old towels and dog bedding. Most of that is going to the PDSA later this week. Dust sheets and old curtains have gone in a box to go in the storecupboard. They will take smaller items if they are collecting a piece of furniture, which is ideal for me. Little do they know that said wardrobe will be stuffed with a box of books, a 6ft Christmas tree and all manner of odds and sods, including a long blonde wig (worn once) and around 30 craft magazines, incense, cuddly toys and various bits of useless-to-me-tat.

And nothing is coming into the house to replace all this stuff... this ship will be sailing light!

patentgirl

Can I dive in some really sound advice and interesting posts in this thread really made me think! I have been on and off bandwagon too many times but need to keep on straight and narrow my problem is I do well saving being frugal etc but can only keep up for few months at a time, then have spend up then takes me ages to get sorted again and so pattern keeps repeating itself!! But come to conclusion I am not getting any younger mid 50s dropped to 3 days week at work very stressful job, would like to retire at 60 so if this is plan need to stop spending and start planning for this retirement so not buying anything that is not essential in 2015 will be a good start.

Floxxie that's sounds a very brave move you made.

emslovesmickey

I now have spent another £7.45 of my £40 christmas money - £3 on a ceramic starbucks travel mug (kind of necessity) £4 on some Baileys for my mum, and 45p on some terry choc orange segments. So I have just over £7.50 left which will be used to go to the cinema - which is what the money was for in the first place!

This is what worries me though. When I'm on my break at work there is little to do but to go into town (I work in the centre) and I invariably end up at the shops. Most of the time I can resist spending, but at times, like today, I succumb. The only positive is that it was christmas money and not part of my wages.

I've made a start on my list though today, reading and reviewing one book - Elizabeth is Missing. Highly recommend it

Ches

GreyQueen wrote: »

I saw a cartoon online a few mins ago, St Peter at the pearly gates telling someone that you can't take it with you and that includes your i-phone.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Reminds me of a few years ago when I was standing in m&s trying to decide if I could afford the jumper I was looking at. Turning to OH I said ' I think I will buy it even though its a lot of money after all I can't take it with me' OH replied 'no and you can't take the bl...dy jumper with you either'.:)

vulpix

I have bitten the bullet and fired off an email to volunteer my services at the library,story time with children.

Vx

fairy3

Evening shipmates some really thought provoking posts as always, thank you, as a recent retiree from the NHS completely empathise with the teachers (my sis is one) and there are lots of parallels to be drawn between the two professions. With only two days to sailing had a mild panic today about bread of all things but have retrieved the BM form the back of the kitchen cupboard (was everyone in the kitchen yesterday?) and although had more success with pizza dough in the past am determined to crack it as will not be shopping at SM's in 2015.
Meal plan is done for 18 days and will only need.....bread and fruit so will not starve.
Plan on meeting up with a like minded friend tomorrow for a meal at a restaurant which has a BYO policy so bottle of gifted prosecco going with us and we generally mix and match our food choices so get to sample more.
One more bag of 'stuff' sorted for CS will be freed from its prison tomorrow.
Night all

purpleshoes_2

I had a great old YS spend in Tesco today, came to £6.45, two bottles of alcohol free cordial, some food for the mogs, blueberries, YS tomatoes and some hummus. Came home and made leek and tattie soup and also a pot of tomato and leek soup which was surprisingly nice (generally tomato soup and me are best avoided for reasons I won't go into except to say that heinz tomato soup and me are not friends).

Tesco wasn't full to the brim but full enough and yet again I saw people with full trolley after full trolley, some people must be cooking for 30 people at Hogmanay.

Another couple of bags of cat litter and thats me done shopping for the year. Ive got some prosecco to take to my mums at new year. I bought a bottle of aldi champagne weeks ago, thinking I would crack it open at new year if I passed my PT course which I have done, but Im not going to have it then. Im seriously considering seeing in the new year without any booze.

I just dont want to drink alcohol because its new year and thats what I should be doing, so I think I'll save it for another time.

I also dug out a pair of shoes that I bought from a site called natural collection a good few years ago and have never wore them and wore them today. They wont win any fashion awards (hell no), but they'll do on days when Im not in trainers (most days).

In fact my mum was saying today she probably doesnt need much more food either, cats, birds, rabbit and then us, well, its always pets first (I always go into shops thinking have the mogs got enough dinner in before I shop for me), this might go down on record as the year we've spent the least on food in a long time, particularly as the savoury snacks we bought for xmas went untouched.

Mainly because neither of us can face the crowds of the next couple of days, shops are only shut for one day, we won't starve, far from it.

Im going to have to make a relatively big purchase over the next couple of days, I need new glasses, but I have a 40 pound off voucher that expires on Hogmanay but the shop are going to honour it as I called today and they couldnt fit me in before saturday. I need to go to one of the large opticians as I have a fairly complex prescription, think short sighted in one eye, long in the other and my long sighted eye doesn't actually work properly. I have vision in it but my right eye does all the work, dominant, the upside is that it saves me money on contact lenses as I only need to wear one and those I get online (cheaper) and have done for a number of years now.

Ive been wearing lenses too long and I think my eyes need a break and go back to glasses, how I'll cope when Im mid burpee is anyones guess but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

I bought the alcohol free cordial because even I draw the line at seeing in 2015 with fizzy water.

K9sandFelines

calleyw wrote: »

the scroll wheel on my mouse has stopped working. Went to amazon to buy another,

then thought blow that. have to live with out. might try dropping it on the floor again might help as i think that what caused the problem in the first place lol!!!

Yours

Calley

TRy and remove ball and check for any dust, thats also how they can come unresponsive. Run a cotton bud around the inside and it shiuld get any 'gunk' out.