NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

rosiepup2000

GreyQueen wrote: »

We're getting to the situation where highly-skilled people are saying S0d this for a game of soldiers, I'm going to stack shelves and live on a pittance, to save my life.

I'm one of them! I used to have a professional job, took years of study and training to qualify, and I ended up hating every minute. Waking up in the middle of the night with my stomach churning, worrying about the next day, hardly able to eat most days when I got home through the sheer unrelenting, grinding stress of it. Now I do a back-office job where my only worry is wondering whether I'm going to be made redundant this year. The pay is a lot less but I wouldn't go back for all the tea in China.




Another thank you for the person who posted the Amaz0n trade-in linky, just ran some of my paperback titles through and they will pay £3-£6 for some of them! Will go through the bookshelves over the weekend :-)

oceandreamer

Had to go to the supermarket despite all good intentions not to. Took a list and only bought 3 items which weren't on it, it was a trial though! Decluttered paperwork last night which looked as though it was quite a lengthy and time-consuming task at first glance. Anyhow, whilst putting off doing it I got to thinking about how few bits of paper you actually need nowadays with most things being online. So i made a list of the documents I thought I actually needed - insurance policies (so I know who I am actually insured with - house, life and car, car log book, paper part of driving licence and will. Very short list considering the amount of paper I have. So i went through the papers until I found these items, put them safely in a box and put the rest in a pile to be disposed of. Much quicker than agonising whether each piece of paper was needed (and reading half of them)! I know there are some other things to be located such as birth and other certificates but that will have to wait until I am brave enough to go under the bed!

suki1964

Lazy couple of days here when not been working. Staff night was a blast, we all enjoyed it. It's great working in a place where we are all happy to socialise together. Our youngest staff member is 16, oldest 65, and we are all included. We are planning a valentine afternoon together to see 50 shades , will be a giggle


Sitting here dying of thirst. Hubby picked up a boxed ready meal in the ys section, an Indian feast. Now don't get me wrong, it was tasty and I enjoyed not cooking, and for under £3 and it fed the three of us, I shouldn't grumble. But omg, they must lace the stuff with salt. I haven't stopped drinking all evening and will prolly be up all night with heart burn. I do remind him that ready meals and takeaway has this effect on us both but now and then, when I'm really tired I give in......and suffer


Shifts are a tad gruesome this coming week so meals are going to be a bit hit and miss, esp as mum has to eat at certain times with the meds she's on, but I will try to limit the shopping to needs and not reach for the dearer easy options. I have a freezer full of chicken and need to work through that. We are lucky that we live not far from a chicken processing plant and hit the shop every month or so. Last visit was 4 chickens (m&s ones) for a quid. Small but enough for the three of us with enough to do a soup with as well

Going to try another bread this week as well I've a load of ys leeks in the fridge to make soup from so a nice crusty loaf will be nice

Anyway, off for yet another cold drink and I'm hitting the nest. Long day tomorrow, fully booked restaurant tomorrow night so it will be a late one

I_want_a_baby

Morning all,

Had a really successful couple of days:
Switched my current account to halifax - should get £40 quidco cashback, £100 halifax cashback and 12 x £5 in first year.
Switched husbands current account to first direct - should get £125 cashback and access to the 6% regular saver.
Then last night switched energy supplier - should get £14 cashback for switching and should reduce energy bills by £127.47!

So in two days of 'making the effort' to make our money work harder/go further I have made/saved a total of £466.47 - this works out as 3 & 1/2 months income from my job as dinner lady or if you take away childcare I was paying.... 15.5 months net wages!

Today I need to spend as we have to go to town for:
A pair of trainers for my son - looking for something cheap ish (under £15) but good quality.
A booster seat for my son as he has outgrown his car seat - will check argos and halfords on line for best price - should be under £20.
A present for sons friend as he is going to his party tomorrow - will spend no more than £5.

Moneysaving things to do:
Need to do another manicure, nails are getting a bit long and could do with re painting - they have never looked so nice so I'm really pleased with them considering I've looked after them all myself!
Food from stores/mealplan.
A few projects need starting around the house but we have all the materials we need already.
Will look over the budget later and see if there are any more savings to be made 'with a bit of effort'!

Off for my morning cup of tea, happy frugalling all!

IWAB x

atypicalblonde

Good Morning All,

Another crewmate reporting in for duty! I have had a really good week, I have only spent on business expenses (which will be reimbursed to me next week) and a small amount of food. Only the cash in my purse has been touched, the debit card remains firmly out of bounds!

I do have to make a small trip to Ald! today (really wish I didn't have to go out in this weather) but we are out of some essentials including nappies for DS and Almat so I do need to go.

I just wanted to share my workplace experience, I come at this from a different perspective as I am in my 20s (just) so retirement etc isn't yet a consideration. I went to University, obtained a 2:1 degree in law, trained for 2 years to qualify and once I did I worked my a$$ off for 4 years to impress what I realise was now a truly vile man of a boss and a totally corrupt management team. I was just rolling with it, doing 12/14 hour days every day as a matter of course, dealing with sarcastic comments if I dared to leave before 7pm even if all my work had been completed etc etc.

My wonderfully amazing daddy quite literally dropped dead in his 40s and, as a distraught grieving young woman, I took 8 weeks compassionate leave with the alleged support of my boss and management. However, when it came to my annual review that year, I was utterly lambasted for being lazy, having a "face on me" and walking round like I "didn't want to be there". I was so shocked I couldn't even bring myself to point out the obvious, I've lost my dad you idiots of course I'm not 100% happy 100% of the time! And I just broke down and walked out of the meeting. Clearly fearful of a backlash if I complained to HR, my boss from then on was nice as pie to me, until I announced I was pregnant 6 months later.

They were just awful, completely point blank ignoring me, refusing to give me any work then accusing me of being lazy, then one day tasking me to go into a hostile meeting with a group of men where he knew sending in a heavily pregnant woman would annoy them just to get a reaction in a hostile mitigation.

Needless to say, all of the above has taught me very early on just how cruel people can be in the workplace. I handed my notice in sharpish once my maternity leave came to an end and now run my own small business from home utilising my legal knowledge. I earn around 1/4 of what I did, and DH is also self-employed so our life is arguably high risk as we have no "guaranteed" income but I wouldn't change it for toffee. If it all goes t!ts up I will find work doing something, anything, to support my family.

Time is the most precious commodity in this life, not money. We have a home, clothes, heating, water and enough money for the odd treat, who needs anything else? If I had persevered at my old job I would be earning £65k + now, but at what price? I often see FB comments from former colleagues who are working all night on deals, surviving on M&S pre-packaged sandwiches. If they enjoy it then good for them, each to their own. But its not for me and I will certainly not work for people I don't respect.


My daddy's passing taught me you really do have to live for now, not tomorrow, not next week, not this event in X years... etc, you have just the here and now so make sure you are doing what you want to do and what makes you happy, life is not just about working a job you hate to pay bills and then eventually die, there is so much more to it than that if you allow yourself to see it.

Sorry for the epic post, have a good day chums xx

emslovesmickey

atypical blonde I'm sorry you lost your dad. I'm also disgusted by the way your ex-boss treated you, and so glad that you chose to branch out on your own. As you said, regardless of the money, there is no way you or anybody should be treated like that.

I spent £9.94 yesterday on food for work and cat food, but have no plans to spend beyond that until the end of next week. I've also been working on my ten tasks, it is a perfect way for me to avoid spending!

boultdj

:shocked: The blasted wind has taken out the glass on the door end of my greenhouse......not happy....good job I'm getting some extra work,I need it to pay for the glass

atypicalblonde

Thank you Ems. xx

I also meant to add on my post that even if I am not doing paid work now, I spend my time doing what I class as purposeful activity which more often that not impacts on our finances in a healthy way, so that is as important as earning. In my old life, I didn't have the time nor energy to do things such as batch cooking, meal planning, baking, using greengrocers instead of Ocado for veg etc etc, whereas now I can do all of those things and much more which easily "saves" me in excess of £200 a month compared to what my "corporate lifestyle" expenses where.

A lot of my former colleagues who are around the same age as me would be mortified to think a Friday night could be spent baking a banana loaf to use up wrinkly bananas that you bought from the grocers for 20pence a bunch, but that's just how I roll nowadays .... xx

CEW

Hi Shipmates,

Well I just had a quick count up of what I have spent so far in January and it really was quick! I have only spent on 2 days so far so 7 SFD's for me :j it appears that I have spent the grand total of £5.20 on groceries. This included £3 for shaving foam for OH. THe rest was 2 lots of milk and 20p for some yeast to make bread. The lovely baker in Mr S gave us 120g of yeast and charged us for 50g. What was even better was the advice he gave us :j

In addition to my grocery budget I also have a pet budget, 5 dogs, 4 chickens and a parrot. So far in January I have spent a little over £6 on them. We can see who takes priority in this house then :rotfl:

Still have lots in the freezer and food cupboards but will need to spend today to get some meat for the dogs and a few top up items. OH had wanted to cook a full blown meal today whilst I was out shopping so was expecting my budget to be blown but he has decided not to so I will pick up a few bits for a nice lunch when I am out.

Decluttering is going slow but a little is being done each day so I will get there.

IWAB I am really impressed with your achievements on making your money work for you. Well done :T

Best get up soon as I need to run a duster over the lounge before we go to meet Mum for breakfast at the garden centre. OH and I rarely eat out and never have takeaways so I don't mind the odd breakfast out and as it's only approx £15 for the 2 of us I think it's OK.

Keep up the good work everyone. You are all so inspirational.

Chez x

cornishgirl18

Enjoyed a non spendy week apart from 2 packs of runner beans for 9p. I have changed our home insurance saving £10 a month for a far better policy, got £30 off our RAC renewal, started a PPI complaint for a previously misold (imo) policy....Been putting it off for ages. Also trying to use dishwasher and wm more efficiently...what's the point of having a big drum when I only half fill it. Did all kids bedding and towels yesterday which are currently drying on airer. Feeling another productive day today....filing is top of the agenda.

Oh forgot I purchased nappies and wet wipes in bulk and due to a problem with delivery got £10 back. So 240 nappies and 12 packs of wet wipes for £25. Now we just have to get nursery finished.....