NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

girlinayellowdress

I_want_a_baby wrote: »

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

Yes I just searched it, my son loves banana cake (me too). I'm sitting here with the stupidest grin over this, it's the small things in life

thriftwizard

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?

I think it's the Keeping-Up-With-The-Joneses thing, only more so; more, if you don't follow the herd, You Are Doomed, which is a very strong subconscious urge, almost an instinct. It probably stems from our earliest days, when if you dared to be too different you might well have got yourself exiled from your clan or "shunned" and found yourself unlikely to survive on your own. And it makes us very easy meat for advertisers and those who would like to keep the wheels of the economy turning smoothly, because we don't analyse why we "need" to do what everyone else does.

You only realise what you're up against when circumstances force you to step out of the mainstream, for whatever reason; when I had to take my younger daughter out of school & home-educate her, because of undiagnosed special needs, it felt like deciding to drive the wrong way round a busy roundabout. It may well have saved her sanity, possibly even her life, but suddenly a number of my "friends" started to make excuses not to see me, invitations dried up, and I still get flak from members of my own family for daring to try to save my daughter. Who is safe & well, if still not doing what society "expects" of her. As a fit & healthy 19 y.o. with no academic qualifications, she should be working for peanuts, not studying astronomy (with OpenLearn) & nutrition!

It's very hard to walk away from the herd; you feel very much on your own sometimes & possibly even at risk of predators. But it doesn't take a lot of thinking to realise that it's the herd that is actually being preyed on, now, and IMHO it has been led very far astray.

thriftish

Also wanted to offer "the men who made us spend" - a BBC 3 parter that is available on youtube. It's by Jacques Peretti and while it's probably a bit OTT in places it's an interesting watch if you have the time, (as are his other shows - "the men who made us fat" and "the men who made us thin" about the food and dieting industries). Maybe you've all watched it before - I only came across it recently!

edited to add - it's on dailymotion, not youtube

lilian1977

Good morning all.

I have decided to start my own frugal blog as I'll find it easier to update that than posting on here (not great on a mobile whereas I can update Wordpress through my phone).

If anyone would like to visit/subscribe it's here: https://afrugalmonth.wordpress.com/

I will endeavour to update a few times a week.

You're all doing really well!

thriftish

Very insightful Thiftwizard, thank you for sharing. When you discuss it that way it makes sense for people to be afraid to leave the herd.

I think you are wonderful for doing what your daughter needed you to do, and it's wonderful to hear how she has benefited from it.
I don't know what it's like in the UK now but here in Ireland we have seen regressive cut after regressive cut and any progress that had been made towards helping children who need that bit extra seems to be lost. It's a total disgrace and I wonder if it comes back to seeing children as economic units and only being willing to 'invest' in those that they feel they will get the greater 'return' from iykwim. I live in an area with a lot of disadvantaged families and I see how extra funding by the Dept has made a difference to the futures of the children, yet that has also been affected by harsh cuts.

The 11 year old I mind told me yesterday that she thinks I'm great because I don't care if my furniture doesn't all match and how I don't worry about what people think of what I wear (not sure if I should be slightly offended - lol!). She informed me that she preferred my "welcoming" home to "posh" homes where everything matched but you don't feel you can really relax. Mind you, she is also bemused by my feminist views and refusal to dye my smattering of greys. Even at 11 she is aware of societal expectations and can recognise that we do things our own way.

Lilian I will add you to my blog reader

moneyistooshorttomention

Pinksteps wrote: »

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 do that regularly, as the bunches of bananas I buy are really too big for one person.

I like my bananas not to be very ripe at all, so there's always some that "go over" the level of ripeness I like and I just de-skin/chop in half and stick in bags in the freezer and haul a couple of "halves" out and just eat straight from the freezer as a sort of banana icecream. Guess I could just blitz them to bits and add some cream or something similar if I wanted, but "as is" is quicker and easier.

grunnie

Keep up the good work as I am enjoying this thread. Just had a banana sandwich with the last black banana in the fruit bowl.I have ordered Judith Levine's book from the local library and look forward to reading it. I also have Don aslett's books and they saved my life years ago trying to keep the house tidy when I worked and the family were at home. I follow flylady and also Jill Chivers shop less live more website. www.myyearwithoutclothesshopping has some great ideas. I have been retired for over 10 years and found being on a pension easier than I expected.You have saved me money already as a few times I have seen offers for skincare etc on grabbit and in the passed I would have just bought them. I also used to sell loads of clothes and stuff on ebay but the cost of the postage made it just so expensive that it is now easier to give them to a charity shop.Now with this thread it dawned on me that the stuff I used to ebay was the stuff I shouldn't have bought in the first place -tada lightbulb moment.

Caterina

thriftish wrote: »

.....
The 11 year old I mind told me yesterday that she thinks I'm great because I don't care if my furniture doesn't all match and how I don't worry about what people think of what I wear (not sure if I should be slightly offended - lol!). She informed me that she preferred my "welcoming" home to "posh" homes where everything matched but you don't feel you can really relax. Mind you, she is also bemused by my feminist views and refusal to dye my smattering of greys. Even at 11 she is aware of societal expectations and can recognise that we do things our own way.

.....

I had a similar comment from two little girls I look after, they came in and told me that my house is a mess, but coming from them is almost a compliment LOL , their home is spotless, but to the point of obsession. Their mum, lovely woman, don't get me wrong, is totally obsessive and control freaky about anything dirt or mismatched, so the girls aren't even allowed to garden because they would spoil the neatness of the garden. They love coming to my home because they can eat biscuits and drop a few crumbles (within measure!) on the sofa without being told off, they can just relax.

Isn't it a pity that some people make such a rod for their own back, this woman is so lovely, such a warm kind mother, but just can't let go. She knows and admits it herself, but my impression is that she has an internal drive set to Keeping Up With The Joneses, big time. Not my problem of course but it is sort of sad to see.

I_want_a_baby

I've just realised how I really need to practice being mindful and not functioning on auto drive/just doing habits.

It sounds silly but I was making beans on toast and it started when I took three slices out of a new loaf to put in the toaster.
I assumed the last three slices of the old loaf would be stale/bad on autopilot. I took the three slices back out and checked the old pieces and they were fine. So I used up the original loaf.

On sitting down to eat I realised the following.
I automatically slathered the toast with butter which was a bit wasteful as you can't really taste it and was double what it needed.
I'd used a separate knife to butter than I used to eat it with.
I'd used a whole tin of beans for me and my daughter but in fact could have put a 1/4 of a tin in the fridge.

It seems silly insignificant things but I am wasteful without realising it. All of this was done out of habit/on autopilot. I would have assumed the last three slices were stale (as I would have preferred to use the new loaf) and then when they were stale they would have been thrown.

I am going to have to work a lot harder at being mindful, making concious decisions and breaking bad habits!

lessonlearned

Pinksteps wrote: »

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!!

What a fabulous present for his 18th.

Here's another idea that might interest you, I did it for my boys 21st.

I bought a really nice leather photo album, and did a mini Who Do You Think You Are, going back through each set of grandparents as far as I could, some as far as great, great, great grandparents with photos, dates of weddings etc, dates of birth and any little snippets of information I could find for the fist section, starting with the ancestors and working forward to my OH and I in chronological order.

The second section was their childhood pictures, I themed them into baby, school, hobbies, holidays, friends etc

I left a few empty pages for their own weddings etc

I wasn't sure how they would react, but they were absolutely thrilled and fascinated. Those family histories went down a storm.

Talking about keeping up with the Jones, loads of people who have seen them have asked if I mind if they copied the idea:rotfl:

The biggest expense was the album, I think about £20 or so from Costco, but they are large albums, made of leather and with really good quality paper.