NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

suzybloo

Oh dear! please don't make me go overboard! I have just spent all my money for this months incidentals on seeds, onion sets and some fruit bushes, we are taking on an allotment, have a large patio area, and a greenhouse - which haven't been utilised properly over the years and if this works out well we won't have to buy any veg all summer, black currants or blueberries so will be catered for. In total I spent £70 including compost - hoping I can save that over the 6 months growing season! Belt tightened again - will pop over to the green fingers board for some advice!

elona

It started to sleet today so decided not to pop to local supermarket but to make do with what I had in.

Running low on bread and on white bread flour so used some wholewheat posh bread flour with seeds and nuts in. Have dough for a small loaf and three big bread rolls proving and will bake later with home made veg soup.

Made apple crumble for DH and used YS lamb steak and fillet for lunch with roast potatoes, small yorkies and carrots with green beans
for lunch.

Youngest dd is back at uni and another is back at her new house today so only three of us eating here which seems very strange;)

Very relaxing feeling I don't need to go out for anything today.

mumto2monkeys_2

Managed to avoid the supermarket again this weekend - it is our fatal flaw, going in, buying 'nice' things to reward ourselves for a week at work.

As we were supposed to be out yesterday, but plans fell through, made HM lentil soup and DH rustled up some white bread rolls to go with it from flour we had in to make pizza. Today, fancied something sweet (can't start diet in January, too depressing) so have just stood and made the quick hobnobs from OS with some sultanas and a bit of brown sugar. Both of us feel poorly so needed a pick-me-up. Usually, we would pop to the shop.

I'm really pleased with the progress we've made through Jan. I've just had to order DS some new trousers as he's growing so quickly and is much taller than many of his peers, however I have a clothes budget and am sticking to it. Apart from these and a couple of birthday presents, we haven't bought anything.

However - there's always a BUT - we have booked a holiday. We rarely go away, but made the decision that we want to spend more money on experiences rather than things from now on. So, we bit the bullet and went for it. I'm so excited. I haven't had been on a beach/pool holiday since our honeymoon 9 years ago. We've only had one family holiday before. This will focus me as I want to pay the holiday and continue all overpayments to mortgage and on last CC whilst paying it off. If I keep my spending curbed then it is all do-able.

Aril

Evening. Have been busy these last couple of days so not had time to poke my snout round the corner. However, have still been following the principles

I had my first real test yesterday as I help out once a year setting up a jumble. You can imagine that we all get first dibs as the stuff comes in and some years I've definitely bought home as much as I took:o I think I said that I'd made a little list to help me focus a bit more and by and large it helped. I did get some lovely quality plain pillowcases as some of ours were threadbare and have gone out in the recyling and I found 3 porcelain mugs which Mr GBT prefers to drink tea from. He broke 3 earthenware ones last week :eek: and only I could upgrade via a jumble. I got another t shirt in the same colour to replace one that got damaged by bleach and a whole pile of clothing that I've now cut into suitable pieces for Morris dancing tatters. Have kept the ribbons, buttons and zips:A Impulse buys were a lovely ball of wool, a cookery book by Rose Eliot as am always borrowing hers from the library, a couple of quirky films on DVD which I can pass on again once I've seen them and 3 lovely Per Una skirts. Mr GBT got a halogen bulb which cost £10 for 2 online. A good 400 pennies spent I'd say. There was a load of bubblewrap leftover at the end which has come home as Mr GBT uses it for packing his orders- we use all recycled wrappings apart from the brown paper.

Other news- my Mum has kindly restrung a necklace one of my clients gave me that was on a very long ribbon and she's going to help me take in two skirts that a friend passed over.

Free wassailing and a takeaway with friends- we took a bottle of hm vino with us and sampled some of theirs [not me as still dry January] was this weekend's entertainment. Today though we have made a considered purchase and bought one of the Hairy Bikers books. I borrowed it from the library and we reckoned we'd do 90% of the recipes easily from it and as it's one of their lighter eating ones it makes good sense for us.

Many thanks for the kind offer Katsu [such lovely peeps on this thread] of the knitting needles. A chum has lent me hers and I'm lending her the pattern once I've finished with it!
Arilx

emslovesmickey

Spent £4.85 on cat food and granola today (strange combo i know but i've just discovered granola and cat food was necessary)

Still doing well concentrating on the tasks. I wish I'd thought of it sooner cos it does keep me focussed. Currently finished reading 17 books so 83 to go. I've also got to give a talk on Wednesday at my old school, so wish me luck!

smileyt_2

Just done an Approved Foods order for £30, but it's all stuff I will eat and it has saved me £40 even taking into account shipping. A lot of their stuff is processed rubbish like sweets and sugary drinks, but sometimes they have things like rice cakes, linseeds and quinoa bake mixes - the bake mixes cost me 33p each and I can get at least three servings from each one. I bake several at one go, slice into portions and freeze them, then fish them out and have them with vegetables.

The linseeds are the same price as Aldi's, so although no saving in price, it will stop me from going there and spending money on things I don't need from their 'Special Buys'!

I did take advantage of the lucky box offer though - for a penny. If I can't use any of it (I'm vegan) I will donate the stuff to the local food bank. I don't think 1p is a profligate amount to gamble...

RicardaRacoon

Evening shipmates!

We have snow as well, but not nice, christmas card kind of snow but the very wet one that partly melts as soon it touches the ground.

Due to the weather and the fact that my middle name at the moment is "lazy" I cancelled my small groceries round yesterday. I only had planned for a small top up on bananas, milk and cereal bars. But then I noticed that I still have enough for this week, so no need to to up right now.

Had the first spend from the meals-out-category of my budget today. A muffin and a coffee when out with friends in the morning and some sushi for lunch.

I'm a bit out of sorts since yesterday evening as one of my neigbours died. I didn't really knew her, we just said hello when we met on the street, but I alway kind of liked her.
Well, yesterday evening I saw an ambulance parked on the street and paramedics in her flat but was quite sure that I' saw her walking around, so I thought that she probably had called the ambulance for a visitor. Well, eventually the police arrived and then a hearse.... When the police left they switched off the light.... Today my Mum, who lives in the same street and knew her, heard from a neigbour that a friend went to check on her and found her dead. Both my Mum and I have last seen her only days ago and she looked fit and healthy, so most likel just dropped dead...

GreyQueen I think losing weight and reducing the food bill work very well together! Kind of a double reason to not buy things. My food bill is at it's lowest when I'm trying to eat healthy.

suzybloo, that isn't spending, that is investing! You can't harvest without planting and you first need to buy the things to plant.

Possession

I'm sorry about your neighbour RicardaRacoon.

Another NSD day here, with lots of packing, sorting and decluttering, plus have sold some lego for £40. Quite a good day really!

suzybloo

Cheers Ricardaracoon, sorry to hear about your neighbour. unfortunately OH thinks it was very costly so I had done a breakdown to let him see that growing your own is a win win all round! I am working on the basis of supermarket prices ( no discounters here)if I get

A lettuce for x20 weeks @ 70p = £14.00
10 bags of kale @ 79p = £7.90
40 onions @ approx 20p each = £8.00
25 red onions at 25p each = £6.25
20 garlic bulbs at 40p =£8.00
10-15 cucumbers at 60p each = £6.00
20 bags of Rocket salad leaves =£16.00
20 Courgettes @ 30p = £6.00

The above covers the £70 I spent on starting out if I were to buy in the supermarket but I still have tomatoes, spring onions, beet root, green beans, leeks, butternut squash, black currants, blue berries, peppers which were bought out of my initial layout costs so although there's hard work involved the investment should see a good return, as long as I get something along the lines of the above.

purpleshoes_2

smileyt wrote: »

Just done an Approved Foods order for £30, but it's all stuff I will eat and it has saved me £40 even taking into account shipping. A lot of their stuff is processed rubbish like sweets and sugary drinks, but sometimes they have things like rice cakes, linseeds and quinoa bake mixes - the bake mixes cost me 33p each and I can get at least three servings from each one. I bake several at one go, slice into portions and freeze them, then fish them out and have them with vegetables.

The linseeds are the same price as Aldi's, so although no saving in price, it will stop me from going there and spending money on things I don't need from their 'Special Buys'!

I did take advantage of the lucky box offer though - for a penny. If I can't use any of it (I'm vegan) I will donate the stuff to the local food bank. I don't think 1p is a profligate amount to gamble...

They are doing free shipping just now as far as I know, when I looked into my account tonight I had a code for free delivery, maybe worth contacting them to see its an offer they are offering all customers and if you could get your delivery refunded if so.