NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Kerry_Woman

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.


I am not doing the supermarket challenge and going to declutter little by little as a temp work, care for my Mum and have psoriatic arthritis. It will make my life easier. Have been doing some decluttering over the past few weeks as I have not had any temp work. Looking forward to 2015 as hoping to sort out a few things and get into more of a routine.

Coulddobetter

Happy New Year shipmates. Like others dog walking is on the agenda today and a quick visit to my sisters to wish her HNY. I was nearly tempted to buy something this morning, put in the basket and then thought I really do not need another dress, thank you me hearties :j

Will do a little decluttering today, DH and I are both probably getting promoted this year and we have decided that we will save any pay increases towards early retirement. I have started reading the MMM blog and it blew my mind to think we could be retired in less than 9 years and maintain our new standard of living sounds incredible.

DH and I are in agreement that saving for our retirement is our 2015 resolution, so not buying it fits in perfectly. We do have some spends that will need to done and will be budgeted for such as 2 new windows but not the full remodel we thought we wanted. I am so excited now we seem to be sailing towards freedom.

Love Could do better xx

yellowbear

grunnie wrote: »

Someone mentioned here they were taking oranges with them - I make an kitchen cleaner with orange peel - soak in vinegar for a day or 2 and strain then add some water and put into a clean spray bottle.

Thanks for this. I usually use bleach/WUL/water but don't much like the bleach in the kitchen. Will give this a go.
(means I have to buy oranges though!)

CAFCGirl

7_week_wonder wrote: »

I have a question for our gardening gurus: how do you "plan" your veg/fruit growing. I usually end up sowing stuff shortly after it was supposed to be sown, or buying baby plants cos I've left it too late - and then just putting them in whatever bit of soil I can find. This year I'd like to try a more planned and, hopefully, more productive approach. Do people write out plans on paper or how do you do it?

I drew my garden out on paper, then use DS's colouring pencils to colour various areas, as in whats constant shade, what is open to wind, what has good sun, and then the measurements, which meant I could use the seed packets to ascertain what was a better use of the space to grow certain things, in terms of how much room they need.
This year I am making a gutter garden on the side wall of our house in which all my salad leaves will grown, as well as some shallow growing herbs. Toms (bush varieties) are all in pots on the decked area which is constant sun during their season, but is open to elements a bit. being in pots can be moved to side of the house which offers wind protection. My aubergines did very well in that area too. DS grew some potatoes in the GYO potato council pack that he was sent free, but in general I dont grow them as the spaces I have dont work as well for it.

CAFCGirl

grunnie wrote: »

Happy New Year all. OH not driving for a few months as he has double vision and no optometrist in Aberdeen or Elgin just now - first appointment is the middle of January so he is like a pirate with a patch over his eye. When he had this 2 years ago he saw all 3 staff in Aberdeen at the same time and got a lens fitted that same day. What is the NHS coming too.
I don't drive so this lazy me will be getting fit unless I am going to hibernate.
Someone mentioned here they were taking oranges with them - I make an kitchen cleaner with orange peel - soak in vinegar for a day or 2 and strain then add some water and put into a clean spray bottle.

Think thats in reference to my post.
I too made cleaner with mine! Found its worked wonders on hob grease and windows and mirrors

115K

Happy New Year everyone.:)

Last night I watched a show I taped on my box called Life Class with Oprah and Dr Phil and it was good, very inspiring. I then went to bed at about 10.30 and was woken up by the fireworks later but my dogs weren't too bad luckily.

I just made a lush soup and am going to read the books I bought on my kindle so a low spend day. I got two spooky ones for £4 so I think that is good value for money. I got the 2nd Woman in Black one as was mentioned on this thread I think so I hope it's good.:)

It's better to stay in and read them and snuggle under a blanket on my bed than spending outside or online.:cool:

It's strange that so many people on here suffer with fibro, my friend has that condition and she was passed around by lots of doctors. My husband's male friend also was recently diagnosed with it too and I read it was something to do with blood vessels in the hands.

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/aging-scientists-find-physical-cause-of-fibromyalgia-062113

7_week_wonder wrote: »

Today we won't be venturing out of the house. We will watch the New Year's Day concert from Vienna and generally catch up on reading, with a bit of pottering and decluttering thrown in for good measure.

I just watched that and it was lovely.:)

mumto2monkeys_2

Coulddobetter wrote: »

Happy New Year shipmates. Like others dog walking is on the agenda today and a quick visit to my sisters to wish her HNY. I was nearly tempted to buy something this morning, put in the basket and then thought I really do not need another dress, thank you me hearties :j

Will do a little decluttering today, DH and I are both probably getting promoted this year and we have decided that we will save any pay increases towards early retirement. I have started reading the MMM blog and it blew my mind to think we could be retired in less than 9 years and maintain our new standard of living sounds incredible.

DH and I are in agreement that saving for our retirement is our 2015 resolution, so not buying it fits in perfectly. We do have some spends that will need to done and will be budgeted for such as 2 new windows but not the full remodel we thought we wanted. I am so excited now we seem to be sailing towards freedom.

Love Could do better xx

What's the MMM blog? This sounds like something DH and I could do with!

merzal

Second NSD in a row here! Going to do a separate grocery NSD challenge too!

This thread is really making me think, got lots to eBay but just need to get motivated! I had a huge declutter over the summer as my mum moved house so all the stuff I had been keeping at hers came to my house. Did a few car boots, sold on Facebook and ebay and made over £500. We totally gutted our DVD collection too, still have lots but got rid of the majority of them as we have a sky package so very rarely watch them. Planning on buying much less DVDs and this thread is really helping.

Still seem to have a lot of stuff in the house but it much more manageable. Under the bed in the spare room is half filled with toiletries so def no need to buy these, determined to make more space. I don't want to get rid of them though as it is all stuff we will use eventually.

Planning on having a lazy day today, we just got back from taking the pup for a long walk, OH is watching the football so think I might do some surveys to earn some extra pennies. I was going to ebay but it is all hidden behind the christmas stuff so will wait till we have put all of that away!

Happy New Year everyone!

Lavender_Cosmos

Had a frugal New Years Eve and made dinner (roast chicken and veg from the garden/allotment) for the family from things already in the freezer/fridge/store rather than popping to the supermarket to buy 'party food' stuff and probably spending £20.

Looking forward to doing some more decluttering and eating more healthy food.:j

Have a happy, frugal and productive 2015.

GreyQueen

7_week_wonder wrote: »

Enjoy studying for your degree. I am a huge OU fan - I did a degree with them about 10 years ago and as a result of that I went on to do a PhD (I was old enough to be a mum to most of my fellow students) and have completely changed careers.

I have a question for our gardening gurus: how do you "plan" your veg/fruit growing. I usually end up sowing stuff shortly after it was supposed to be sown, or buying baby plants cos I've left it too late - and then just putting them in whatever bit of soil I can find. This year I'd like to try a more planned and, hopefully, more productive approach. Do people write out plans on paper or how do you do it?

Umm, planning, planning, it's a lot more informal than that.

A lot of sowing is weather dependant and that varies year on year, plus you have to consider which part of the country you're in; I'm in southern England so pretty much going to be sowing earlier than the North.

I was once at a talk given by famous gardener Bob Flowerdew, and an audience member asked him if you could plant parsnips in February? You can certainly plant them, Bob twinkled. They won't grow, but you can plant them if you like. :rotfl:

My plan for the next few months will be
Early Jan buy onion sets in £land, one pkt white and one red. Put aside in a cool place for about 6 weeks.
Valentine's Day (approx) buy seed spuds. Set them upright in eggboxes in the living room to 'chit'.
Feb/March - sow broad beans in additon to overwintered broad beans.
Early March - poke a row of holes in the ground and drop the onions in. Replant a few a few days later as some get tugged up by birdies.
Mid-March - plant seed spuds in trowelled holes, heaving up the soil into baulks as you go. Ignore - they should start poking through about a month later. Fretfully watch the weather for frosts - latest frost here can by mid-May.
March-April - sow leeks, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, turnips.
Late April/ early May, sow runner beans and dwarf french beans indoors and pot outside when several inches tall (or the slugs and snails eat them as soon as they germinte).

April-May-June-July- mostly weeding, hoeing, etc. Broad beans first crop, then the runners/ dwarfs, beets, onions, root crops.

Broadly speaking, lots of things don't need planting until March/ April, but there are a few exceptions where you have to finesse things because they are veg from Central and South America (spuds, toms, runner beans, squash, sweetcorn) and aren't frost hardy, so you need to time it carefully so they maximise their growing time around the frosts.

Do your soil prep in the next few weeks. When the annual weed seeds come up like cress, you'll know it's warm enough for the veg seeds. Or you could follow the fake folkloric country 'tradition' of dropping yer trews and planting yer bare bottom on the soil; if it strikes cold to the funament, it's too early to plant.