NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Rowan9

Really enjoying everyone's posts. Such a great thread with a really good feeling about it - people caring for and about each other.
One person posted about being tired out after years of being 'just' a classroom assistants sorry can't remember who but please please know that your role was vital and also very pressurised and people realise that.

On the cooking front, when I was boiling veg last night for tea I decided to make a whole potful, took out ours for side veg and then added two stock cubes, cooked a bit longer longer then whizzed up for soup. Had some today and it was lovely. It will last a couple of days.
Steak pie, yellow sticker, in freezer for tomorrow and it can be cooked from frozen so that's fine by me. Have some braised cabbage in freezer in a tub so that can be reheated at the same time and I think I will put in potatoes for baking, makes sense.
We had a lovely walk today, were out for 3 hours. We had muesli bars from a multi pack as fuel and then had a cup of tea when we came home.
I hope everyone enjoys their evening tonight, celebrating it or not in the way you choose.
Very best wishes to all for 2015. I'm so delighted to be part of this story.
W

Effyb4

I spent a small amount of money buying some seeds and garlic bulbs, so that I can start growing my own vegetables in the new year and got a free packet of seeds that I've never heard of. A little bit of googling and it turns out to be a loofah plant, but you can eat the fruits as well apparently. My green fingered new year begins.....

bellaquidsin

Honey Bear DON'T use henna on your Mallen Streak. I had one in my youth and when I used Henna it turned it BRIGHT ORANGE. The streak has spread now and I'm white all over.


Bella.

7_week_wonder

I_want_a_baby wrote: »

I've also written my supermarket challenge rules on an index card to go into my purse to remind me what I am aiming for. I'm looking forward to shopping mindfully, consciously and thinking about needs vs wants and what lifestyle I'd like to live, I'm sure it can be done on a small budget if we think about it enough!

That is complete genius! I sometimes think I go into a panic brain fog when I get into a supermarket (probably cos I'm desperate to get out again!) and just grab stuff and put it into my basket/trolley. But if I have my guidelines written on a card I think it might help me shop more mindfully.

We're just waiting for our dinner to finish cooking. We had a very mellow afternoon - I spent some time helping my mum catalogue her photos into the album we bought her for Christmas. She thoroughly enjoyed it and we chatted about the memories associated with the various photos. To mis-quote a certain credit card advert "Some things are priceless".

And even the visit from the relatives wasn't too bad. No snippy comments and they spotted that OH had lost two stone since they saw him last, so he was chuffed about that.

Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone and I'll see you when we set sail. I'll be the one leaning over the side with my face a delicate shade of green - did I mention I get *really* sea-sick!

dND

Effyb4 wrote: »

I spent a small amount of money buying some seeds and garlic bulbs, so that I can start growing my own vegetables in the new year and got a free packet of seeds that I've never heard of. A little bit of googling and it turns out to be a loofah plant, but you can eat the fruits as well apparently. My green fingered new year begins.....

This blog - which turns up regularly on MSE - is the one I used for instructions on how to grow. I grew mine in a polytunnel and it got quite big and the luffas took quite a while to grow and dry. There are other posts that explain how to clean and prepare the luffas too.

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.fr/2009/02/growing-luffas-loofahs.html

Good luck

pm2326

Feeling rather smug with myself ...

Decided this morning I was having a takeaway for tea as a treat, worked hard all day, went online to order, took for ever to choose what I wanted, went to pay for it and suddenly stopped...did I really NEED this, did I really WANT to wait over an hour for delivery???

Fast forward 20 minutes, tea on plate using food from freezer, thoroughly enjoyable and no extra cost to me :T and probably less in calories than what I would have chosen from takeaway

Now sitting with a nice measure of JD in a fancy tumbler courtesy of secret Santa present I was given last year and only rediscovered in spare room yesterday!

moments_of_sanity

I can't wait for us all to set sail and begin our journey into 2015.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be for 3 people but ended up feeding 6 (veggie DD decided she wanted me to cook for her tonight and both DD's boyfriends turned up too), normally this would have made me panic about whether I had enough in and whether people would eat what I had in and ultimately I would have popped out to the shops and grabbed something to cook. Today, I didn't! We did, admittedly, have a very strange/odd concoction but everyone said how nice it was. We had pork belly strips cooked in a HM chilli style sauce, noodles cooked and them some of the remaining sauce poured over them and half a jacket potato each with cheese and beans. Veggie DD had the potato with cheese and beans. The only ingredient I didn't have was honey but a quick visit to the local shop solved that.

When sitting thinking about this challenge, I can honestly say there is nothing I need in terms of things for the home or for me so really hoping I can stay focused and not buy it in 2015.

I hope you all have a lovely New Years Eve and are looking forward to 2015 :beer:

Aril

Evening:D Still very little spent here. Mr GBT bought a new set of scales on clearance for £7 yesterday but ours belonged to him originally and he's had them for at least 25 years and the plastic has cracked right across the bowl bit. It's likely to disintegrate when it's full of flour one day and plastic is now too brittle to glue.

Pleased because I've won 3 empty swing top beer bottles on freecycle so together with the saved one I already have I shall be suitably equipped to either make ginger beer or elderflower champagne for the first time:j

More decluttering achieved in between working. Haven't really gone at it hard yet but a load of magazines went out of the door with a chum today who in turn will share them with her dad [they come from my parents]

Tonight we are remaining at home. I've defrosted the tray of Tesco snacks reduced from £5 to £1.75 that I got earlier in the week and along with a bottle of hm vino that should see us right for this NYE.

May I wish you all a happy 2015 and I look forward to hearing all your adventures on the high seas as we embark on our voyage of discovery. The thread is proving a fascinating read even though I am still on page 52

Arilx

Bobarella

edwink wrote: »

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?
Edwink x

Edwink - I like that idea. There is a great thread on OS called something like 'More ways to stretch your pennies' which is really good reading but I am always up for more tips.

an oldie but a goodie. I never leave home without my trusty sports bottle filled with water. It means I never buy soft drinks on the move. It keeps endless plastic bottles out of the recycling if I think of all the drinks I haven't bought this year & I'd guess I've saved hundreds of pounds to. Average bottle of water is now 70p x 365 =£255.50

Roadside

Just a quickie to wish you all a fab Not Buying It New Year. I won't be celebrating tonight, had to cancel the meal I was cooking for Mum, Dad and two very good friends, I have got another cold bug so am already in bed (have been since I got home from work at four), I had the gastric flu that has been doing the rounds just before Christmas and it knocked me off kilter, hence the second cold in a fortnight, or maybe the same one come back for seconds.
Anyway enjoy your evenings whatever you are doing. X