NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Synonymous

Slow Down, I’d like to join you and you crew, I’ve paddled up alongside in my dinghy and am ready to board!


I’ve been reading this thread from the start since before Christmas, and have just caught up. Everything you said in your first post made sense to me. Although I am always careful with money, I’ve not being looking after myself very well recently and this has probably meant I’ve overspent for convenience in lots of little ways that have added up over the year. When you’re not firing on all cylinders it’s even easier to be sucked in by the razzle dazzle. I’m keen to do some serious overpaying of my mortgage before my deal ends in 2016 too, despite having very little disposable income at the moment, so that is my other motivation.


I found it quite a challenge to go home for Christmas and have my new non-consumerist bubble assaulted by my extravagant relatives. We have agreed for about 5 years to do a Secret Santa among the adults which is £50 and guided by a wishlist. This year some people didn’t want to do it as they still felt obliged to get immediate family something extra too, so we said NO spends outside the Secret Santa, but designer handbags still made a rule-breaking appearance, whilst my parents felt embarrassed that they had stuck to the rules and didn’t get me and my sister anything. We have one child in the family and she was getting new-born clothes from Next for her new doll, and I couldn’t help think that some people can’t afford to clothe their actual children in Next-priced clothes. I hope she’s not being set up for a brand-driven outlook on life. Even Russia’s firework displays last night were declared ‘boring’ and ‘pathetic’ because they didn’t match up to the extravagance of Dubai (my sister lives there and the things people spend on to ‘use up’ some of their endless wealth is sickening to me).


A few things I wanted to comment on on my way through the posts – sorry I am terrible at remembering names for who said what!
- - I have an allotment that has really been neglected this year, so I will be tackling that in the winter months to make a fresh start this spring. Will try and only use the seeds I have, plus maybe some potatoes and onion sets.
- - I have also got a shampoo bar from Lush a few weeks ago and am going to try it this weekend – I asked the assistant for a sample, and she just gave me one (£6)! Any advice on how to store it between washes to make it last would be welcome.
- -I won’t be avoiding supermarkets, as making it easy to get back to eating properly is more important for me at the moment, but I will buy meat from the local butchers, and will try some cheaper cuts for slow cooker experiments.
- -I’m also working my way through MMM’s (Mr Money Moustache) blog from the beginning but haven’t ventured onto the forum yet. His brilliant post on ‘cutting the cable’ (i.e. cancelling TV packages) convinced me to finally cancel my cinema membership which I haven’t used for ages and which will never pay for itself now, even if I went every day for a month! Also means I am subjected to even less advertising as I don’t have a TV either.
- -I think Glittergirl mentioned curly hair problems. I have very curly hair too and have spent years trying to get it right. It depends how old your daughter is, and whether she is embracing the curls or battling against them, but my family swear by the tangle teezer brush for knots. I am at one with my curls so I don’t actually brush my hair unless I need bushy hair for some kind of fancy dress, I just finger comb it while the conditioner is on in the shower. I now scrunch my wet hair with conditioner instead of styling products before drying and it keeps it very soft and reduces the tangles too. Encasing hair in a turban (microfiber or cotton) overnight can help too and you can wrap a large cotton t shirt into one easily using the arms to tie a knot. Let me know how you get on with the new pillowcase, it sounds very luxurious at least


Sorry for very long post! I’ve been storing up things to say until I got to the end! Happy to be on board and looking forward to progressing with you all.

oceandreamer

Well day 1 has gone quite well! Have decided to draw money out of the bank each week to cover food, petrol etc and not use card. Anyhow nothing spent today, eaten up lots of leftover cheese, pate and mince pies (may end up accumulating pounds in more than one way!) then made a curry from the freezer/cupboard. Tomorrow I shall take a trip to the farm shop to get a sack of potatoes which is about £4.50 and lasts us about 6 weeks. They also sell 'dirty' carrots ie with the soil still on, which keep really well too and work out cheaper than the supermarket, so I shall get a sack of those while I am there. Took the xmas decs down today and decided to only have one or two ornaments out on the surfaces. I have put the rest away so I can change them over now and again. I can't believe how much bigger the room looks and how much calmer it feels! Just the rest of the house to go now!

tatabubbly

Hi all!! Having a great quiet day in the house today!

Haven't made any real New Years resolutions yet but I will do a wee list of aims soon enough!

Synonymous, I too live in the Middle East and honestly, the mind boggles!! I use MSE to keep my thriftiness and bargain ways alive! I'm very luck, my OH is quiet good with saving etc so we don't spend much!

Had a spend day today : driving lessons - it's impossible to get around where I am without a car so I need to apply for my test. Fortunately, lessons aren't expensive so I'm lucky in a way, much cheaper than the UK and Ireland. Having another lesson tomorrow which is already paid for - whoop!

Eating out of stores at the moment, thinking a nice ham and tomato pasta bake will fill us up today!

notjustlaura

Started the year as I mean to go on - with an NSD. I wasn't feeling very well (upset tummy) so had a really chilled out day working on my goals and plans for the year. One of my goals is to read more and, specifically, read more paper books rather than electronic. I have more than enough shelved in the house to see me through the year and anything I want will go on a wishlist to be thought about and either discarded or made as a considered purchase.

Wishing you all all the best

atypicalblonde

Nellie - thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me and your kind words. It is incredibly hard, the phrase "This Too Shall Pass" is a bit of a mantra to me. Its very sad as I do feel I have missed out on the fun baby days I had with DD, but it just goes to show how different each child is, they have been parented in exactly the same way. I do hope once he starts toddling in a few months it will get easier.4

Well the house is now clean and tidy with all Christmas decorations put away. Today's plan is to pay a cheque in, go to the bottle bank and pick up the essentials from L!dl - I cant put it off any longer as I need things like instant coffee, bread and yoghurt. I have written a list and shall stick to it. Have lovely days everyone xx

Slowdown

Ahoy! And welcome to the rocky seas of 2015.

No Spend day #1 today will be my first as yesterday I spent hours and hours driving to York and back to drop DD off so she can revise in piece. She has her first set of exams starting on Monday. She is studying a masters in astro-physics so I'm hoping will can use the stars to navigate when it gets dark! Had to buy petrol - £50 and I stocked up her cupboards as I want her eating decent food if her brain is to be kept alive -£40. All in a good cause though.

On the title Slowdown I chose this name two years ago when life was just overwhelming. I was doing way too much and was feeling unwell most of the time. I sought out part time work to regain balance ( not easy in teaching as many have pointed out), I started saying "no" to things I didn't want to do, I began to nurture myself more by telling myself it was ok to be still, to be quiet, to be untidy, to watch and to enjoy without trying to achieve. In short I gave myself permission to slow down. It saved me.

On grow your own we have a huge fruit cage where strawberries abound and red and black currant bushes grow. They tend to get invaded by slugs but DH has many a trick up his sleeve and hunts them out on a regular basis. We make jam every year. Last year I picked an amazing 22 lbs of strawberries! I give it away as presents at Christmas. We also grow a lot of the same type of veg like potatoes, onions and courgettes. We eat loads and they're not tricky. Often grow outdoor tomatoes too. Green tomato chutney is delicious. Two Apple trees and a pear also give us fruit. Pears in mulled wine. Yum.

Just got to jump ship for 5 while I give son a lift to the kennels where he works. It was so windy last night he nearly got blown off his bike (it's happened before) so his dad picked him up. I now need to drop him off!

I'll be back! (Please read in Arnold Schwarzenegger voice)

Kind regards
Slowdown

Thistle-down

As I got up to go downstairs and make supper yesterday, my DH said "Why don't you just go to McD's? " I couldn't believe it - we rarely spend money on that kind of stuff and had just been talking about not buying anything unnecessary in 2015. I mentioned the whole NBI thing and he said, "well, that doesn't really start till Monday." Not sure of his logic there.

The old, lazy me would have jumped at the chance of an easy life, but the thought of wasting £20 (which is half of our food budget for the week) plus the petrol to get there and back made me determined to keep the money safely in my purse. I just told him I already had dinner sorted.

He's normally the voice of reason, so it was kind of a shock to hear him talk like that. :eek:

patentgirl

Morning shipmates this must be the fastest thread at moment just spent another hour catching up!some really good advice on here thanks everyone for gardening tips especially Dawn with the Tomato variety started to sort out raised beds last year only managed spinach successfully by the time I prepared them but eager to start soon.
Christmas decs to come down later then will start due cluttering and tidying. Off. Work till Wednesday so hoping to get a lot done Oceandreamer will be trying to follow your plan, before house looked like a charity shop itself with so much bits and bobs family photos and my love of candles but will try and limit myself to only a few of each.
Unfortunately will need to spend either today or tomorrow need few essentials but will try to resist main supermarkets and support local shops, hate watching everyone pile their trollies up without thinking what they really need, I know because that used to be me chucking everything in because bogof and cleverly placed offers end on aisles making you think you can't live without that product luckily I came to my senses saving money for retirement is now much more important.
Off to make a big vat of soup.
Have good day everyone

tori.k

I've Just had to give myself my first stern talking too of the year and it's not even 9am.
It's amazing how fast bad habits creep back making breakfast I used the last of the marmalade then further inspection could do with more cheese and im running low on milk tho i've got some boursin "nice fresh bread would go a treat with that"
Reality is I have jam, honey and lemon curd in the cupboard I've only run out of edam I have cheddar & feta still in the fridge + the boursin a packet of part baked rolls and bread mix in the cupboard and enough milk to last me until tomorrow..why on earth do I think I need to pop the shop :rotfl: so will be another NSD for me

Wonder how many times i've just spent for the sake of spending I would lay odds it's more times then i've actually needed too am I the only one guilty of this

I_want_a_baby

Tori,

I've had the exact same conversation in my head!

Two days in and I'm feeling the need to go to the supermarket because:
We are low on foil (but haven't run out)
We don't have much bread (but have pittas, 6rolls in freezer and 4 Cornish pasties in freezer that could do hubby's lunch).
We don't have much fruit (we have 4 bananas, 6 apples, 10 clementines, tinned fruit and frozen fruit).
We don't have ham for husbands sandwiches (we have cheese or sliced turkey in the freezer).
We only have about 30 tea bags (we have coffee, fruit tea, hot choc, I'm sure it can wait until Thursday shopping day).

I think I don't like the uncomfortable feeling of "going without" but this is the exact feeling I need to embrace and feel empowered by!

On another note what would people say is the difference between waitrose and sainsburys. I'm keen to shop in a more ethical supermarket for the bits I can't get at the market/butchers. Sainsburys is more convienent for me to get to plus I have £11 of nectar points to use up. In my head they are the better two of the bunch but I've never really shopped in either!

IWAB x