NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

[Deleted User]

Hi all. I pay £5.50 for dry trim. My hair is shoulder length and straight so very easy to manage

pm2326

I get my hair cut every 4-5weeks and costs £10 it's short so grows out quick. I colour it at home every few month dark brown and the dye costs a £1 from B&M.

Went out for a walk this afternoon, still trying to clear headcold, and ended up buying extra cat food at B&M just to make sure I have enough for January.

I've worked out I need £15 out of the bank to pay for something when I go back to work but nothing else so I'm hoping no more spends until next pay 23 January.

I was sorting out my handbag earlier and decided I needed a new one, I removed the lining earlier in the year after it wripped and kept getting caught in the zip, but the handle is nearing the end of its life now and I can't fix it. But I then went in the spare room and started to declutter a box and found an old bag that I haven't used in years. This one also has a wripped lining in the pocket but I managed to glue it back together so now don't need to spend money :T

[Deleted User]

Talking of diaries I'm going to try and do without one this year. I use my phone notebook app for shopping lists and calendar for important dates.
I like to keep track of my electricity usage as well as food spends, other spends and petrol.
Does anyone know of an app that could be usefull. I have an andriod phone. Hopefully free in keeping with the mse in me ....

smileyt_2

Oh, now here's a challenge:

http://www.zerowastehome.com/p/tips.html

This woman produces just one large jar of waste a year - and she has kids! Everything else is recycled or composted.

Not sure I could do it - especially with regard to medication as it all comes in blister packs, and my hearing aid batteries and tubes come in blister packs. But reading through her tips has shown me that there is definite room for improvement.

edwink

pm2326 wrote: »

I was sorting out my handbag earlier and decided I needed a new one, I removed the lining earlier in the year after it wripped and kept getting caught in the zip, but the handle is nearing the end of its life now and I can't fix it. But I then went in the spare room and started to declutter a box and found an old bag that I haven't used in years. This one also has a wripped lining in the pocket but I managed to glue it back together so now don't need to spend money :T

Well done!!!! Bet you are real pleased with yourself!!


I often just change the buttons on a blouse or top to maybe different colour ones or for a different look multi coloured ones. That gives me a different top to wear and saves me money on buying something new.


As we grow a lot of veg I always put quirky patches on my jeans if they get threadbare in places. Saves me buying new ones and wasting a good pair that just have a hole in the knee. I love my home designer jeans!!!!!! My mother in law gave me a pair of curtain tie backs that she did not want. One had a lamb on and the other a duck (from children's curtains). Yes you have guessed it I ended up with a pair of jeans with a lamb on one knee and a duck on the other. I love them!!!


We save all our kitchen roll and loo roll cardboard to use as fire lighters. We do not buy news papers but our neighbours give us theirs when they have finished with them. We use them to light our fires with too!! Since owning our home for over 5 years now we have never purchased a single firelighter to start our fires!! HOORAH!!!!!


Maybe we could start giving each other some handy tips to help with saving money!! So it is not just about not spending money but how to make our money go further!!! We have had lots of ideas on here about making meals go further and that really does help with shopping costs. But, good ideas for reusing items would be interesting. What do others think????


Have a good evening everyone, well what's left of it should I say!


Edwink x

oceandreamer

This thread has convinced me to stop lurking and join in! The more I think about it, the more annoyed I am with myself for being brainwashed into thinking that I need all this 'stuff' which incidentally I am now busy trying to declutter. The posters who are unhappy in their jobs struck a chord with me too, for although I love my job I would prefer to work part-time but am in a vicious circle of having to pay for all the stuff I didn't really want!!! No more! I am going to stop buying things unless they are absolutely necessary, luckily I seem to have hoarded enough food to keep me going for the first couple of months (not that this is a good thing - rather its more stuff that really I didn't need). So I shall join in if that's ok, starting by avoiding the SMs like the plague!

kacie

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

Talking of diaries I'm going to try and do without one this year. I use my phone notebook app for shopping lists and calendar for important dates.
I like to keep track of my electricity usage as well as food spends, other spends and petrol.
Does anyone know of an app that could be usefull. I have an andriod phone. Hopefully free in keeping with the mse in me ....

Do you have a spare notebook somewhere that you could use or scraps on paper that could be stapled together to make one?

I'm sure if you look under the finance category you will find a suitable free app

[Deleted User]

kacie wrote: »

Do you have a spare notebook somewhere that you could use or scraps on paper that could be stapled together to make one?

I'm sure if you look under the finance category you will find a suitable free app

I was thinking on the lines of less clutter in my handbag. I already have a notebook but don't want to carry this around all the time. I will search the apps section of my phone.
I just wondered if anyone uses any such apps?

Thistle-down

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

I was thinking on the lines of less clutter in my handbag. I already have a notebook but don't want to carry this around all the time. I will search the apps section of my phone.
I just wondered if anyone uses any such apps?

I've just started using YNAB (which I am finding confusing) but this one has been recommended to me:
Spending Tracker

lobbyludd

I've thought about it a lot and won't be joining you on the no supermarket challenge. It wouldn't simplify my life, wouldn't save me money and I end up buying more "aspirational" stuff if I go to more independent shops than if i do my tried and tested online once a month order.

I am loving some of the thoughts on here, I used to derive an enormous amount of pleasure from my previous career but couldn't combine it with a family life and reluctantly jumped into a steadier, less interesting but well paid one that Ive been marking time with for a decade now whilst my children were small. recently I was asked to go for a job that would be a promotion, that needs sorting out, would challenge me and perhaps launch a career but involve very large frustrations with baffling systems and difficult people. This was just after I'd asked my boss if I could cut to 4 days a week as I have NO time.

I've been faddling back and fore over it, but I think actually I don't want a higher flying career in this area I definitely don't want to manage more people and make decisions on issues with less personal knowledge of the nuts and bolts. I'm bored stiff with what I do now, but higher management is not where I want to go.

I've been asked to delay going down to 4 days until after a restructure, but that is what I'm going to aim for in the shortish term and then I'm going to focus on my outside of work life, and whittle down my work hours - if I stop spending on frippery nothings that should be very possible.

I've been hanging onto this job, full time, because we've had redundancies hanging over us for 6 years and I've a public sector pension I wanted to build into a useful cushion. But I am less and less convinced I will be able to retire before I drop off this mortal coil and definitely not unless I have more time to rest and take positive steps to improve my physical and mental wellbeing. so that's tipping the balance of my decisions too.