NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

purpleshoes_2

I live in a purple house Kinda. My living room walls are lime green and purple. My bedroom is purple and my kitchen was purple before I got a new kitchen put in and the walls had to be plastered over with plasterboard.

The reason my bedroom ended up purple was because for a long time (think many many years) I lived here and just left the decoration the way the previous tenants had it. There was nothing wrong with the wallpaper but eventually things changed as I got new heating installed by the council and they had to rip some of the wallpaper off so my mum painted my living room, Im useless at all things DIY. When I eventually got to the stage where I couldnt look at my bedroom wallpaper any longer we decided to look and see if the leftover purple paint that my mum had used for the living room was still useable, it was so we just used it up.

(Actually I think one wall of my bedroom is lilac as well). My hall is lilac and my mum had painted it a few years ago, but we freshened it up (I hold ladders and supervise) with another shade of lilac. We used eco paint which is a bit more expensive than ordinary but there's no paint smell and its great stuff.

Next is my spare bedroom which my mum is dying to get her hands on, Im going to have that raspberry I think. My mum's entire house is magnolia, we have very different tastes in DIY, but she's great at all sorts of things Im crap at, but shes not so great at cooking and Im better at it so I make her lots of meals when she's here.

I actually did a course in colourworks which is now called something else, you can do readings with the bottles and you can bathe in them as well, I used to do complementary therapies back in the day.

I still wear far too much black and blue and I steer clear of red even though people say it suits me, my eye make up tends to be either green eyeliner or guess what, lilac and purple although Ive worn blue eyeliner lately and at new year I wore some black sparkly eyeshadow.

The upside to living on my own is that I can live in a house with lime green and purple walls.

Anyway, I spent £1.40 today on various assorted tat from the corner shop, didnt go near a supermarket. My classes were supposed to be starting back tonight but aren't due to an issue with the booking so its Thursday. Will give me a chance to get new health questionnaires for the folks who come done up.

Really done not a lot. Its been really cold today. I met my mum for an hour or so and I was sitting in the pub with a T shirt, hoodie, bubble jacket on, still cold, I had one alcohol free pear cider and one alcohol free becks.

Didnt need anything from the supermarket so am going to avoid until I do. Dinner will again be something from the freezer. The mogs will need litter tomorrow so I'll go and do a spin class tomorrow lunchtime and then hop over to home bargains and get that and more cat biscuits but I shouldnt need anything much for me.

I did a decent amount of decluttering last night, just as well given my lack of oomph today, but I'll get together a bag full of books to go to the charity shop tomorrow.

My mum can also knit, sew, cross stitch, crochet, all of the other things I epic fail at.

She found loads of wool during her de clutter and I bought her a book ages ago, patterns to knit hats and bags so she's going to crack on with it.

I don't mind this time of year, I just hate the cold weather, as much as I love scotland sometimes the weather drives me round the twist.

Possession

Primrose wrote: »

Can you tell us how you make your butter? Is it from buying cheap milk in the supermarket and perhaps making it in a food processor? If so, I would be very interested in having a method and recipe as we get through a lot of butter and if there's a cheaper way of making it at home I'm all for it

Couldn't be easier, I bought reduced large cartons of double cream (must be double) for 30p each, and stuck in into the food mixer until it turned into butter. Then drained the buttermilk off (which I'll use for scones) and squeezed the butter to make sure all the buttermilk was out. I haven't salted it yet.
It's obviously only worth doing this if you get the cream really cheaply.

Definitely not a NSD here, have just had to pay £140 for DS's bus pass this term.

System

alice-mary wrote: »

Hi Rosyq, which part of Gravesend is your Mum? My family are still there and I visit a couple of times a year but am always so pleased to leave the town behind me (not my family though)! Mum and my sister are near the girl's grammar school and Dad is in Istead Rise.

Alice
x

Small world! Mum's near the grammar school too, I went there many many moons ago :rotfl:
I'm there every 2/3 weeks, it's much easier now the HS1 stops there, but i too am glad to leave although I'd rather not leave mum obvs.

It's taken me days to read to here (page 89) in the thread - I'll carry on back into lurkdom until I catch up with you all. Very interesting thread, with lots to think about. I'm considering life choices at the moment so it's really good to read how others approach life's challenges. Thankyou all.

GreyQueen

Bambywamby wrote: »

Oh my god yes, I thought it was just me that gets a deep aching pain in my bottom cheeks when I get a heavy cold/flu.


My Ex used to think I was making it up...

You are never alone with an interesting disorder in Interwebulador, the land of the online pals. I normally go from one year's end to another without the slightest awareness of my glutes, being as they are well-covered with natural upholstery, but give me a cold and suddenly, I can feel the darned things aching.:rotfl:

Well, have ravaged the old bank account today by purchasing a new washing machine. Nipped to the library after work and dove into the Which? magazines, noted down some makes and models and then went to that place wot is never knowingly undersold. I always get my appliances there, they're lovely plus I get to rub shoulders wiv the posh people (I wore my anorak and burglar hat, I'm not proud but I am solvent, hee hee).

Anyway, I digress. Got another B0sch washer, which was listed by Which? as costing £429 but which JL had at £369. Sweet. Plus £9 to have the old one taken away. Only fly in the ointment is that due to a rush of people buying Stuff (how very dare they!) it won't be delivered until next Tuesday morning, which is the first slot free and is a day I have off as TOIL, to make up for working on a Friday, so it's all coming together.

Of course, Mt Washmore will continue to grow progressively between now and then, but this is a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things, and will mean that I will really appreciate the washer when it arrives.

I was cream-crackered after doing 6 hours at work then all that and was sooo tempted to get a fish supper (£5) but bethought a better way. I went and got a chilled Indian dinner from Tosspots which was further reduced by a 70p voucher, bringing it to 95p, chucked some h.g. veg into the steamer pan below the section with the ready-meal in it and bob's yer uncle; reasonably healthy meal and cheap and fast and still ahead by £4.

I also got some parsley on YS and will incorporate that into salmon fishcakes tomorrow, with h.g. spuds and tinned salmon from the stocks, which should be lush and can easily make enough for a few meals.

Loving that thinking about what we do is making positive changes and leading to greater confidence and happiness.

Droops

Good evening everybody,

First day back at work for me but the Herberts don't go back to school until tma.

Found in my desk drawer a notepad I'd taken in to use when I started my new job in September last year but got issued with a work one so have earmarked it for my spending and eating diary. Took in a packed lunch and have had a reduced ready meal I've had lurking in the freezer for my tea. Trying to count the little blessings in my day as I go along, had a horrendous journey home from work ( normally takes ten minutes but took nearly an hour due to an accident - really hoping all involved were ok as it looked nasty ) to find my lovely OH had finished uni early and had popped in on his way to his home and put my gas fire on and my storage heaters so the house was warm to come into. And he emptied my bin and ran the Hoover round downstairs as a surprise. What a sweetie x

nannygladys

Hi everyone, well my no spending 2015 is going ok so far as I haven't spent anything so far but that will change tomorrow as I will have to buy a couple of bits, but it's nothing major yet!!!

This is doing me a power of good, it's making me think about all sorts of things, life and the such like and this year is going to be one of change for me. I'm definitely finishing work and hopefully next year will,start to a bit of travelling which I should have started years ago but to be able to do it I will have to be frugal this year, nothing too far though no oap gap year for me!!!!! Much nearer home there's so much of this island I haven't seen

Nannyg

maria3104

Love the R4 programme, many thanks for this.
Just had 2nd NSD of Jan.
Need to menu plan for the rest of the week and continue not buying stuff, feel over confident which is dangerous, often is the pride before the fall sensation, so must be cautious with myself.

Tillytrotter1

Just listening to the Radio 4 programme also. Ventured out for the weekly shop today using Tesco for loo rolls, cat food etc and the local farm shop for my fruit and veg. Have decided to have a food purse and pay for all food purchases in cash to make me more aware of where my money is going.
Have also just given my hair a long overdue cut and thinning out so I feel better for doing that.
Haven't bought anything non-food related so far although the cat will have diabetic blood tests, insulin and needles at the end of the week. Nevermind will just have to factor it in somewhere.

Night all x

I_want_a_baby

:-( not the best day.

Had an 'episode' where I almost fainted and then was violently sick and had diahoerrea at the same time. I was then really tired and had tightenings and cramping. At 28+5 I'm not ready for labour yet!

Anyway was going to phone the midwife but it seems to have settled now, I have an appointment Thursday morning so I shall go through everything then.

I decided to cave and do an online supermarket order to get this weeks shopping plus all the nappies/wipes/bags/sanitary products I need so I can get my hospital bags packed ASAP. My daughter did try to come at 33 weeks so I should have been more prepared really.

I wish I could have started my no supermarket challenge this week but pushing a toddler around a market whilst carrying bags of fruit and veg, and then going to a supermarket after is not the most important thing right now. If I am having early contractions I need to rest.

Let's hope everything settles down so I can start next week.

On a plus note I stuck to my list and bought only 'needs', plus I bought two 750ml bottles of evian water for £1 and two boxes of cereal bars for 97p each to pack to save visiting the vending machine/cafe at hospital!

IWAB x

7_week_wonder

Oh - take it easy IWAB, looking after yourself is far more important than the no supermarket challenge.

No spending for me today and I survived the first day back at work (massively helped by finding half a bar of yummy Lidl chocolate in my desk that I'd forgotten about in the run up to Christmas).

And if anyone needs any extra motivation for their jogging/running plans let me know. In my spare time I lead a running group and have got quite a few people round their first 5k, and many of them have carried on to do a half marathon. I've been described as a benevolent Sergeant Major

I'm off to bed shortly, I can't decide between reading my novel and listening to the Radio programme (and no I can't do both at once!)

Have a good evening everyone.