NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Goldiegirl

kittie wrote: »

I only eat a tiny bit of fruit these days maybe 2 pieces a week and we eat a tonne of veg. It was so hard at first, the sugar addiction but I don`t crave sugary things now and even made my christmas cake without icing. One thing we have done and that is to go from lo or no salt to adding salt according to our taste buds. Very new research out that low salt is causing health problems and sugar is in fact the cause of heart problems. I see the living proof in my dh, long story but 40 years of low salt. He is an athlete for pity`s sake. Look up low salt and aldosterone link. Dh has been able to cut his bp pills by 3/4 and we are aiming for zero bp meds within two months. He has got his life back but honestly not a tale for open forum as I don`t want to influence people.

It just shows how everyone is different - a low sodium diet is what I use to control my chronic health condition (Meniere's Disease)

During the summer, before I was diagnosed, if I went out to a restaurant, I'd have a bad vertigo attack within a couple of days, due to the salt in the meal. If that had carried on, ultimately my balance system would be destroyed, and I'd be stone deaf in one ear! So low salt is the thing that works for me.

ArthriticOldThing

Yay!!!! Finally read whole thread. Only taken me 4 days.
Can I come aboard please?
I'm another who doesn't post much but do lurk and I REALLY must get my head around only buying what I need NOT what I want!! There is only me to cater for so being extra careful about buying won't adversely affect anyone else. As I had to retire from work before reaching the 'new improved' state retirement age, and live on a miniscule private pension, this thread is exactly what I need.
The ideas and support on here are fantastic.
I'll not be able to go with the no supermarket shopping challenge, though, thanks to arthritis which often restricts me to online shopping.

PenguinOfDeath

Two small purchases over the last two days, first a digital album costing 99p that I was going to buy for £6 on CD the other day...patience is a virtue! Then today I had to nip to SM on the way home to buy some eggs to make Yorkie puds tomorrow - far cheaper and more versatile than spending £2 on some aunt bessies ready dones. £1.99 in all, not too bad I don't think!

Echo what was said earlier re Waitrose, we went on a rare trip at the weekend to pick up an online order and to get some items for NY instead of my usual aldi shop whilst there (having a MOC also helped) I like waitrose and their values and some of their better food is totally yummy, but I did find myself thinking 'how much?!' at the prices of some of their normal items. Plenty of people milling around too in a zombie 'must buy things' state which left me cold - these days I prefer the get in, get out policy of my usual shopping habits...not inviting OH helps with this muchly!

Books are a bit of a weakness for me, we have two big shelf units full and despite trying to get rid of some of the stash but it never seems to go down Luckily I got tow or three for Xmas which I shall take my tie over, and make more use of my library membership.

Next year looks as if it going to involve a big shift work-wise, at some point I'm probably going to get relocated 30 miles and many more traffic hours away from the current workplace to either a better similar job with more money or a better completely different job on even more money *fingers crossed*. A totally different direction to most on here but I'm not one to turn down an opportunity if it presents itself and I'm determined that OS ways in other areas will help ease any pain and keep pleasures simple.

So my main Aims / Guiding Lights for next year (for now) -

Get into better breakfast habits, have gone back to just grabbing a cereal bar (from a multipack bought for £1, not individually at least) which is hardly healthy or filling. I want to go back to making my own bars or making breakfast muffins, I have some fruit in the freezer I want to experiment on first.

Actually save more and don't just keep money in my current account, so it can't be touched, I finally put a bit away in my ISA yesterday for the first time this financial year so I'm hoping to keep topping this up at least until May.

Start overpaying the mortgage with money saved throughout the year, I say this each year!

Add more healthy recipes to my repertoire to try and get down the flab, less lazy takeaways needed...

Do more de-cluttering, and with less buying in this should make the house bigger

Put available money to better use, I want to go away for at least two long weekends if not more, for our anniversary and my birthday – this will be my main motivation in money squirrelling.


Happy frugal new year everyone! :j

Chrisblue1962

TudorRose wrote: »

It'ss taking longer and longer to catch up with this thread because of all the great posts.....

It may be of use to some of you who have been thinking of getting a slow cooker. Tesco have own brand 3.5l ones for £10.00 and CrockPot ones for £17.00 today.

Looking forward to seeing how we all progress in the new year.

Thanks TudorRose for the tip about slow cooker. I am totally ignorant about slow cookers - Are they really any good? What volume / size is sufficient for two adults? Are they easy to use?
All help gratefully accepted!

I would like to join this merrry band of folks as the idea of consuming less appeals on both financial and environmental levels.

In 2015, I and OH seriously need to totally de-clutter our life - possessions, clothes , leve of debt I / we are carrying and I am seriously thinking of getting rid of my car as I am now office-based and there is a station only 5 minutes away from both our home and my office. Keeping the car makes no sense so I'll look at making a decision after MoT test on 21st Jan.

Thank You to everyone who has posted so far - lots of ideas and inspiration which are making me optimistic for the future

Karmacat

VJsmum wrote: »

Just highlighted this post to say to anyone reading but not posting - don't let the ship analogy stop you joining in. Even if we have "Set sail" please don't let it stop anyone "coming aboard". All hints and tips, and experiences are welcome at any time.

Slowdown wrote: »

Can I just say the ship analogy is just a fun way of looking at the voyage ahead and while we may set sail at midnight, many little life boats will be bobbing around for anyone who wants to jump aboard at any point during the journey. This is a magical, expanding ship that has no capacity restrictions or boarding passes. Hop on, hop off whenever you like.:)

Magical and expanding :j how lovely! I was going to mention helicopters, but thats better

I'm in flu recovery and my task today was to walk to my little town centre - picked up two sets of BHF Christmas cards for half price, and I bought 3 ordinary price birthday cards for the stash too to round out the purchase price (3 cards cost £3.29, so its good).

I'm so glad people like Waitrose, they do indeed have very special values. I spent a day at their orchards a few years ago, it was a very special place.

dND

Chrisblue1962 wrote: »

Thanks TudorRose for the tip about slow cooker. I am totally ignorant about slow cookers - Are they really any good? What volume / size is sufficient for two adults? Are they easy to use?
All help gratefully accepted!

I would say the bigger the better or at least big enough to take a whole chicken. Crock pots, in my opinion, work best for cooking in bulk - a meal for now and some for the freezer.
Crock pot chicken usually falls apart in my house and when it's finished the juices and the veg cooked with it make the most wonderful soup.:T

Picklepot

Hi All


I have not caught up with thread yet so apologies if my post is a bit out of kilter with everyone.


A few posts back there was a lot of discussion about work life balance. I saw this link and thought the section ''Traditional V modern work life patterns'' very interesting.


http://www.businessballs.com/life_balance.htm

atypicalblonde

Good evening all,

Just a quick one from me before we commence the usual bathtime routine for the tiddlers. I am more than a little bit excited about 2015 and all it will bring, this year has had some major highs but some extraordinary lows, one of which came to a head today. I am painting a smile on my face and thanking my lucky stars for my lot, challenging though it may be at times.

This thread has drastically changed me already! This morning I thought, oh we need coffee, and tomato ketchup, and bananas, and before I knew it I had spent around £20 in my head at the supermarket. I am proud to say I DIDNT GOT AT ALL - WE WILL MANAGE WITH WHAT WE HAVE :-) I drove past both the big T£sco and A$DA whilst I was out, the queues to get into both were crazy. Rather than have our usual steak for NYE, we are having lamb from the freezer and cava that was already in the wine rack as a gift from a friend for Chrimbob :-)

So all I spent today is the £25 on my pedicure which was budgeted for (so not worth it, i'll do it myself from now on, but hey ho you live and learn). So I have £60 for food and other essential spends to last until 23rd January - totally doable :-) I have also transferred funds from savings into the current account to pay for the boiler on Friday when their office opens - I do not want to drag that debt into the New Year.

Been meaning to say - I Want a Baby - thank you so much for the tip regarding Almat - I was a Fairy snob and now I am converted! It will save me £££££££s thank you :-)

Happy New Year shipmates cannot wait to get started xx

bexster1975

Many thanks picklepot! The article certainly resonated with me as I wish to leave my job and work for myself ( in the same sector!). I am trying to put myself in the best position possible to do this in 2015, hence joining this thread happy new year to you all!

Bexster

lobbyludd

thanks to the lovely words about me not joining in the SM challenge! I am interested in giving up sugar though (although also terrified) I did i've it up before, along with wheat and was much more energetic, healthier, brighter, more awake, less random food cravings, my skin perked up (it's really sensitive to allergens), my period pain ceased, - all great, but oh the temptation.....