NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Butterfly_Brain

Plumber has arrived now cutting a big hole in the kitchen ceiling :eek::eek::eek: So we will have to replace the ceiling before Christmas

thriftish

Oh nightmare, hope it all gets sorted quickly and with the minimum of fuss!

We didn't replace our dishwasher when it died. I wash up twice a day and the hot water comes from heating the radiators so in the winter it feels fairly cost free. Although with the water rates coming in I will have to calculate it!

thriftwizard

Butterfly Brain, I hope your problem is easily & inexpensively sorted!

Liking the album idea very much; too late to do it this year for my five, I think, but I could get a head start on next year.

Another one here who didn't replace the dishwasher; ours went several years ago & I decided I needed the storage space more, plus of course there were/still are lots of "willing" hands to help wash up... I always needed something that was in the dishwasher before it got set off so ended up hand washing quite a lot anyway! And I regularly "cull" kitchen gadgets that I'm just not using; I cook a lot, but I do it best with straightforward knives & graters, hand whisks, wooden spoons & similar low-tech gadgets. I can feel how things are coming on, that way. The three gadgets I wouldn't part with are a) slow cooker, b) Bamix stick blender, and c) the bread maker, though I'm perfectly capable of, and happy to, knead & bake my own too.

Slowdown

GreyQueen wrote: »

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

Shockingly corrupt practices indeed.
And here is a tremendously shocking advertising problem, outlined in brief but I think you'll get the picture.

McDonalds has long chips, standing in a red carton, apparently for our satisfaction. It is one of their main advertising strategies
These chips have an unbelievable 19 ingredients, at least one of which is marked as hazardous for ingestion. 19!!??!! They're chips for goodness sake.
Worse still, these chips can only be this long if you grow a particular potato in the States, which are tricky little numbers as they are prone to a specific blight. This little blighter of a bug puts long brown trails through the potato which means McDs won't buy them.
So rather than spoiling their advertising with shorter chips from easily grown potatoes, they cure this problem by spraying the crops with an insecticide so dangerous the farmers refuse to visit their fields for many days afterwards!
The potatoes have to be stored for ages after picking to allow these chemicals to seep out.

Shocking enough? The lengths (no pun intended) to which they will go in order to present us with a long chip is the absolute pinnacle of morally corrupt practice in my opinion. What cost to our planet? What cost to our pocket? What cost to our principles?

I have not been in McDs for many, many years and will never set foot in one again. My DH has never bought anything in one. Amen to that!

So this leads on to my Guiding Light#5 I will try my best to avoid companies which are known to indulge in corrupt practices and attempt to replace them with more ethically sound, locally sourced, smaller businesses.

If I can find the link for the site and video about the points on the above fast food giant I will do so.

So me hearties. I'm sure won't mind if the ships stores are devoid of long chips and hazardous to health ingredients. Hopefully we can survive on a positive attitude, alert minds, and a healthy dose of consumerist cynicism!

Keep it up shipmates, 22 days until it's up with the gang planks and anchors aweigh!

Kind regards
Slowdown:)

VJsmum

http://www.mumsnet.com/food/recipe/259-Sugar-free-banana-and-date-flapjacks

Banana and date flapjacks - sugar free wheat free

Goldiegirl

I'll never eat in McD's again either.

Due to a chronic health condition that I have been diagnosed with, I have to follow a low sodium diet. All the coatings that they put on their chips mean they are very high in sodium and completely unsuitable for me. Much better a portion of chips from the local chippy, a good low salt treat for me

VJsmum wrote: »

http://www.mumsnet.com/food/recipe/259-Sugar-free-banana-and-date-flapjacks

Banana and date flapjacks - sugar free wheat free

And low sodium too:)

fairy3

Good evening shipmates and interesting topics being discussed - agree wholeheartedly with the buying local and supporting our communities as long as the products are well made and affordable. I live in the sticks in a village but the shops simply do not allow anyone to shop for the necessities so a trip a little further afield is a must.
On the subject of those mags love your take GQ and spot on - reminded me of the dated sketch by French and Saunders where they are mag editors discussing topics for the new publication of 'The Wordly Woman' magazine - still funny and can be found on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2decxYmJkiM - it's 6 minutes long and gives a view of the consumers of the day.
In my own bid to jump onboard Nobuy as 'lightly' as possible have given two brand new items to a worthy cause - Barnardo's Childrens Christmas gifts, a scheme where you choose a tag which has the sex and age of a child and you send a gift to match. It beats secret santa and helps too! I added chocolate coins in HM bags.

BB - so sorry about your ceiling gets fixed soon

SD - Would like to take on your guiding light 5 - 19 ingredients

Early night for me as been working today - have started reading one of my many unread books, no more buying books!

Butterfly_Brain

Update, it was the pipe under the bath and I now have a big square hole in my kitchen ceiling, DD thought it was brilliant when she could see the ligh from the kitchen in the bathroom

To top everything off the plumber missed the front door step and went flying :eek: He was ok and was really nice about it and told me not to worry, but I was mortified :eek:

thriftwizard, the plumbing was under Homeserve insurance, but it doesn't cover the ceiling damage, and as I have a £200 excess on my house insurance, it is going to be a lot cheaper to do the ceiling ourselves

I will be glad when today is over

Caterina

(((BB))) what a day, pour yourself a stiff drink, or a nice cuppa if you don't take alcohol, put your feet up and take a few deep breaths!

Aril

Hello! This looks to be an Aril type of thread. I've been on this path for a few years now and it's only when I look back I realise how far I've come. There's still much work to be done though. One thing I've managed to do this year is buy three pairs of leather boots in excellent condition at the charity shops for £15 in total. I shall be reading with interest. Christmas gifts this year have in the main been made or bought in the charity shops. Other bits have come from £land, second hand market on Amazon or with vouchers online to reduce the cost.

You might enjoy the make do and mend blog where Jen spent a whole year just doing this.
Arilx