NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

babyboysmommy

camelot1001 wrote: »

An early rise for me so I have unsubscribed from all e-mails that I may be tempted by so bye bye Gr0upon, It!son, Amaz0n, etc. I think I have only ever bought 1 thing from them this way anyway. If I NEED anything I will have a look myself!

I've just been unsubscribing from emails too

GreyQueen

Caterina wrote: »

Katkin that's exactly how I feel, like I am staging my own quiet revolution, refusing to buy not only the stuff, but principally refusing to buy the illusion!

I had an interesting experience yesterday, staying in bed with this pesky cold. For the first time in ages I read one of the women's magazines I used to love and religiously subscribe to. I found it so uninteresting, I just saw it for what it is, a shopping catalogue, really. Must have this and can't miss that and the gimmick you can't live without, peppered by interviews to celebs who are totally irrelevant to my life.
I shall know better than buy one again!

One of the amusing things to cure you of magazines (and I had a heavy habit as a young woman) is to take one from the same time of year which is a few years old and compare it to that same month now.

It's essentially the same old reguritations, with a lot of the so-called editiorial actually advertorial, which means it's puffery which happens to be in close proximity to a paid ad for that product. Funny how often that happens in these shopping catalogues.

The humourous anti-cluttering writer Don Aslett (highly recommended) wrote about how 70% of magazines are adverts, and these are updated monthly, and the remaining 30% is mostly outdated and silly ideas, and that nothing too controversial gets published in magazines case it offends an advertiser. So that hoarding old mags is a complete waste of time.

Women in my own age group (the middle-aged) have a lot of spending power. Not necessarily because we're rich, but because we make a lot of decisions. If we decide we ain't buyin' it, it mostly stays unbought, and the sellers are in trouble.

In a consumer society, not buying it is a highly-political radical act. We can stay away in droves from stores selling carp, vote with our feet not to give our business to businesses who exploit their workforce with zero hours contracts and their suppliers with shockingly corrupt practices.

Re unsubscribing from emails, I do this, and recall the advice I was given many moons ago when I first got a computer; a dear friend told me to guard my email address as zealously as I guard my terrestrial address and not give it out to commercial companies. Saves a lot of aggro; I won't enter competions which are essentially cheap ways for businesses to gather email contacts for marketing purposes.

Our time is precious, not because we're the great important I Ams, but because it's ours, and we need to be spending it wisely, on things which matter to us, as we can never get it back again.

nursemaggie

Good post again GreyQueen.

Your mention of magazines reminds me of my RE teacher in my last year at school.

She used to say "Girls women's magazines are merely comics for young ladies between school and and college". I hope none of you will be reading them beyond the age of 18.

Then we used to discuss the issues of the day rather than RE.

This was in the days before the teenager had been invented so teenage magazines were not around then. I hate to think what she would have thought of today's women's magazines.

As for unsubscribing from emails. I agree avoid giving your email to companies if you can, but how do you do that if you buy something on line? You need to give your name and address for delivery and your email address so they can let you know when delivery will happen.

I belong some sites that pay me to sign up for things. I used to sign up for newsletter and just keep deleting them. I then discovered if I just leave the site open for a couple of minutes they still pay so I don't need to unsubscribe any more. I still get paid.

I have to admit since this thread started I have bought a washing machine, I did not want to have to buy one but my old one,(well I still thought of it as my new one as it was only 4 years old) was beyond repair. I have bought a new coat but first one for ten years. I have previously bought CS but they don't last long. Usually one year at the most.

I think I will unsubscribe from all those coupon companies I only delete them every day. They never have coupons for what I need.

girlinayellowdress

Although pretty frugal and going big time in 2015 I've had one thing upmost concerning me, my son is 18 in Feburary and I'm certain a present made from cereal boxes and the inside of toilet rolls would of not gone down well. So, I explained my dilemma to my 82 yr old mother (who I must admit thinks this is a brilliant thread when told) and she comes out with "would you like your grandfathers gold pocket watch to pass on to him?" Well you can guess the answer, it's beautiful, the watch is in a leather pouch inside a tortoiseshell case. Now what to do with the empty cereal boxes and toilet rolls!!

Bobarella

@nursemaggie -I would not consider buying an essential bit of equipment like a washing machine anything to feel guilty about. Yes maybe there are some people out there who skip daily to the river and scrub their smalls whilst singing to birds & animals but most of us need the machine

I_want_a_baby

Morning all,

Still loving this thread, it is like a little dose of sanity amongst the busyness of this time of year.

Walking against the flow is much easier when there are others by your side!

So far I have:
Started a spending diary. It is one of those that would be much easier to do from the 1st when spending is greatly reduced but now is the time to monitor the spending, make conscious purchases and record everything. By the new year it will be habit!
I unsubscribed from approx 15 emails received in the last 2 days. I have thousands in my inbox so a long way to go but I figure if every day I unsubscribe from the junk/shopping/offers at least what comes in will reduce.
I put an over ripe banana in the freezer, normally this would have been left until un edible so at least I can use it when I have time.
I'm bidding on a kenwood chef, I hope I win! If successful this will be my gift from my mother in law and I hope will be the start of me making most of my bread, cakes, biscuits, pastry, crumble topping and so on. Cross your fingers as it ends in 2 hours!
Also for the last month of so I've been thinking of subscribing to home farmer (which we used to subscribed to but stopped when we moved to a town). So I've bit the bullet and done this as my Christmas present from hubby to go with a few (essentials) stocking bits. Now we are back in a village and hVe lots of garden/land I'm looking forward to using lots of the ideas in there!

Off now to potter round, wrap gifts I've purchased & finish writing my cards.

IWAB x

Dee2

"Walking against the flow is much easier when there are others by your side"

What a lovely thought!

Off to work now but I have a couple of bits to get - I'll be getting them from the market whereas I would normally nip into the supermarket. Scarf and gloves on though to brave the cold!

Have a lovely day everyone.

thriftish

Just popping in to read back.
It's great to see lots of people refusing to buy into the idea that that we are simply economic units who must consume more and more to have value.

GQ ~ you are so right, our time is so valuable and a lot of people don't think about it.

I personally know people who work incredibly hard in jobs they dislike in order to pay massive amounts of money for fabulous homes they never have the time to be in, or for a never ending catalogue of material goods that are hardly in the house before they're dumped. They seem so miserable but refuse to step off the treadmill. I don't get it. If they were happy then that would be great, but to be prepared to be unhappy just to keep up appearances - I don't get it at all?

IWAB ~ I totally agree, planning a further step back from unconscious consumption is such an antidote to the craziness of the festive period!

All that notwithstanding, I have a black bag here to take to the charity shop. Most of the clothes are leftovers from a bag of castoffs my brother-in-law offered to my teenage son but half the items were purchased with our own hard-earned money; attractive decorative items I no longer like and items I thought would improve our lives in some way and obviously didn't. This household still has a lot to learn in 2015!

girlinayellowdress

I_want_a_baby wrote: »

Morning all,

I put an over ripe banana in the freezer, normally this would have been left until un edible so at least I can use it when I have time.
I'm bidding on a kenwood chef, I hope I win! If successful this will be my gift from my mother in law and I hope will be the start of me making most of my bread, cakes, biscuits, pastry, crumble topping and so on. Cross your fingers as it ends in 2 hours!!


IWAB x

Oh my goodness, I never realised you could freeze bananas as they shouldn't be stored in the fridge, sad to say, this has made my day!!

I_want_a_baby

Pink steps

Take them out of the skin and put in a tub or bag.
They are mushy when you defrost them but perfect for banana cake etc x