NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Islandmaid

Had to spend a fiver on Manflu stuff for DS2 - hope I don,t get it before Monday, don,t think work would beleive me if I lhoned in sick on my first day back in 2 weeks - hey ho will just have to get moaned at for bringing my 'germs' in - can't win either way

Pollybear

I did spend some money this morning but I was very pleased. I had a recipe to try and the only thing I needed to buy was a cauliflower. Yesterday when I bought the newspaper I noticed a cauliflower reduced to 49p but I didn't have enough money on me. When I went over this morning it was reduced to 20p and I had the money so I was very happy with that. And I've made the meal and it was pretty good and there's enough left for tomorrow too.

Earlier I was cold but instead of putting the heating on I got a cloth and some stardrops and cleaned the skirting boards in the kitchen and hall/stairs. That warmed me up. Now it's finally stopped raining I've been out for my walk too. Very chilly and puddly and the underpass was flooded so I had to cross the grass verge and the road. Apparently my shoes aren't waterproof......

Never mind. My socks will soon dry;)

dND

dragonlily wrote: »

We have had a big spend of £75 today. Our kitchen has halogen spotlights (x 9) built into the cupboards, which recently stopped working.

We have just spent the money on new LED fittings and bulbs. So expensive but hopefully our kitchen will be properly lit and they are apparently far more cheap to run long term, so hoping will be an investment as will pay for themselves in saved electricity.

Has anybody else gone LED and have you saved money?

x

No idea about saving on bills as it's happened gradually but as halogen bulbs blew in my 4 bulb lighting strip I bit the bullet and replaced them with the LED version, (LED's are 4 or 5 times the cost of halogen here). What I have noticed is that the LED's don't die anyway near as quickly as the halogens did. If I got 6 months out of a halogen I though I was doing well. I think it's either because they don't heat up as much (electricity wasted to produce heat) or because they are less sensitive to spikes in the power supply but overall I feel they are saving me money.

Slowdown

Ahoy me hearties!

The rain has been beating downhere all day but that didnt stop my trip to the dump with items from the garage that have been cluttering the place up. I should have filmed myself loading up the mattress on my own. Seeing me try to bend it in half and close the boot would have made good viewing.

There is enough water here to keep our craft afloat. I had to make a move to H and B for DH supplies for his lunches and drove through several flooded roads. I have written off a car in the past by driving it through a flood so wasn't feeling overly happy about it.

So here's the good news. I haven't been anywhere near the sales this January, not instore or online, even avoided the CS when I went into town. Went straight to H and B and back again. Hooray. I usually go and root out a few (perceived) bargains but not from the decks of HMS NoBuy! Glad I drew up the gang planks.

Also recorded two programmes I wanted to watch especially so I could skip through the ads. I have also taken to watching and getting up and doing a job during the ads.

With all the mast hoisting and deck scrubbing I shouldn't really need to go the gym but sadly virtual exercise isn't helping my post Christmas baggage, so will leave in about 15 mins. It's a 5 minute journey but the parking is free and I am seizing up from lack of movement over the last few days. I have quit the gym before to save money but all that happened was I got fatter and lazier. When it rained I had an excuse, when the nights drew in I had an excuse, when I was late in from work I had an excuse. Do you get the picture? I pay £24 monthly and get swimming and classes in with that. Swimming is very good for fibro sufferers by the way.

I don't know what you have started Slowdown, but I like it! Bexster1975
Thanks for that and I'm delighted at the interest it has sparked. I think I've started an evolution! I can't lay claim to a revolution, but perhaps an evolution of our thoughts and habits into something more than passive allegiances to giant corporations, sneakily draining our mental and monetary resources. Hip! Pip! if that's so. (Obviously not on my own, but with a fab crew too!)

Three days in and not a single bit of 'stuff' has been added to my 'stuff'. I'm counting that as a victory.

Kind regards
Slowdown:)

CEW

Hi Shipmates,

Sorry it's taken me the past 2 days to get my sea legs so this is my first post since we cast off.

Well so far I have clocked up 2 NSD's on this voyage with a very respectable £4 spend on day 2 for some milk and shaving foam for OH. Just finished a meal plan and no more spend expected until at least mid week when we may need milk again. The fridge was too full to buy more than one 4 pint bottle yesterday.

I have completely ignored all sales and intend to carry on doing so as there is nothing I either want or need at this particular point in time. I will have some big ticket items to buy later in the year - property renovation and then house move but each of these spends will be carefully considered and bargains sought.

Decluttering has been achieved each day for the last week albeit only a little bit each day but now the holidays are over I intend to ramp up the pace from Monday.

Off now to do today's mini declutter.

Chez x

mumto2monkeys_2

NSD here, which is a big achievement as we ALWAYS go to supermarket on a Saturday to pick up something nice for lunch (and end up spending £20). This usually leads to me eating a pile of rubbish and then ordering takeaway.

Not today! I made lentil soup using some dubious veg and rather old lentils, we had it with cheese on toast and we're having homemade pizza for tea.

Feeling pleased.

I've also defrosted the freezer and tackled quite a bit of housework. In a particularly proud moment, I repaired two pairs of DS's school trousers that would have normally been thrown and replaced.

PenguinOfDeath

Ooh its taking me a while to catch up with this thread now!

2 out of 3 NSDs so far, the 1st we stayed in and had a roast dinner, but yesterday I was so tired at work I got a can of fizzy stuff from the vending machine – 70p :eek: then further off the bandwagon as we had a chippy tea but under £10 spent between two of us isn't too bad I don't think.

I almost fell off completely as I spotted an item online which would would make a lovely birthday / Xmas present for a friend, added it straight to my basket then realised delivery wasn't free (funny how we're even less inclined to pay for some something that isn't tangible ), thought for a few moments if its still worth it including postage and during this time said friend text me with a bit of a ****y msg (crossed wires it turns out) – this made me even less inclined to buy it...then I thought of this thread and closed the page completely :j

Today I had a lovely lie-in, then we tackled the mess of a kitchen to chuck out some unwanted items, clean and re-arrange some cupboards to make it a nicer space to be cooking in this year. 5 items into the giving away or CS pile from there so far.

I had been after a cast iron skillet for ages, had a target price of around £20 for one, then a couple of weeks ago I spotted one in home bargains for a fiver – Merry Christmas to me!! So today after taking instruction from a website this has now been seasoned, just waiting for the oven to cool down fully to ensure all is well.

Christmas decs are going down tomorrow, can't wait to have the LR back to normal! I also want to make some soup with fridge bottom contents sort some bits to go in the freezer and come up with some sort of meal plan for the week.

Just had a bit of a :idea: moment here – sat down catching up on a bit of TV after sorting the kitchen, thought it was a bit chilly so got up to out the heating on to realise I was sat in my thinnest hoody and OH in just a t-shirt! Extra garments put on instead, that will buy us at least an extra hour without the rads on

kittie wrote: »

I made a non-chutney topping for 2 lean mutton chops today. No sugar, just hm wholegrain mustard, olive oil and lemon. They are going in the oven soon to slow cook, together with some whole beetroots for salad tomorrow. I have lots of mustard seeds and the mustard is very easy to make. Basically a recipe like http://thehealthyfoodie.com/home-made-whole-grain-mustard/ I use wine vinegar as I had some in gallon containers. Anyway it is a good non sugar sub for chutney

Thanks for the link kittie, that site's name is what I want to achieve! Will have a good peruse this weekend :T

skint_chick

peony40 wrote: »

Was going to buy some cotton wool, but then thought I would make some face cloths out of an old cotton towelling robe I was going to ditch.

I have now ran out of facial moisturiser do any of you have any suggestions for a more natural moisturiser? I am thinking of doing the oil/warm water cleansing routine and I wonder if moisturiser is needed after this? I will give it a go and see.

Peony I've been using coconut oil and olive oil for cleansing and moisturising - I thought I would eventually get around to buying fancier oils but they have worked well for me - I use them with muslin squares I bought off ebay a couple of years ago and my skin is supersoft, a lot less red and I don't have any issue with flaking - if my skin feels a bit dry I use a little coconut oil at night

1 of 3 a tablet could replace your computer but if you do a lot of typing it can be annoying typing on a touchscreen rather than having a keyboard. If you use any specific software then I would check that they will still work ok with the tablet operating system. Also does your library offer digital magazines? Mine started offering them and I can now get all the titles I would have bought for free with email alerts when there are new issues so worth checking this out. Have you looked getting a small laptop rather than tablet?

Made my first spend of the year today - lunch with a friend, it was her turn to buy but I paid £1 for the parking. I am planning on a long walk tomorrow and then batch cooking with the rest of the freezer contents so that I can start defrosting the freezer and not have to worry about cooking or groceries until Thursday.

mrswive

peony40 wrote: »

Morning all,


.

I have now ran out of facial moisturiser do any of you have any suggestions for a more natural moisturiser? I am thinking of doing the oil/warm water cleansing routine and I wonder if moisturiser is needed after this? I will give it a go and see.

.
I don't know if you have a Superdrug near you ; I have been using their 'Simple and Pure' SPF moisturiser for sensitive skin for a few years. It has SPF 15, and is fragrance and paraben free, hypoallergenic and v. cheap, only a couple of pounds. I tend to get a few if they're 2for3 and it lasts quite a while. I am currently on my second week of using an 'empty' tube using the 'cut the top off the tube' method of eking out!


I've read the whole thread and am loving I; it's nice to know there are so many like minded people out there.


Am stocked up with seasickness pills and ready to board if I may.

smileyt_2

I'm stuffed full of home-made oatcakes and hummus, yumyumyum!

Recipes: for oatcakes - 1 part fat/oil to 10 parts oatmeal, mix well. A pinch of salt. Add water gradually until you can make a dough sticky enough to roll out. Cut out your rounds, pop on a baking tray and bake for about 20-25minutes on gas mark 5.

Hummus - one tin of chickpeas, drained. One clove of garlic, chopped or crushed. About 1/3 jar of tahini. Add to food mixer. Squeeze half a lemon into it and mix. Add some olive oil if not gloopy enough.

Eat together until you are full, and relish the fact that you haven't had to trek to the supermarket in the freezing wind and rain...