NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

atypicalblonde

Good Afternoon all,


I have been reading daily but not posting due to Real Life getting in the way, funny how that happens isn't it! I wish I could reply to everyone individually, but suffice to say that reading the achievements of each and every one of us daily is such an inspiration to me. Someone commented on how flexible this thread is, we are all getting from it what we need in terms of outcome and its so lovely to see.
Brief updates and comments from me are:

• First Direct discussions - we bank with them and honestly find them fabulous. Anyone considering making the switch I would heartily recommend them, and with my OCD tendancies particularly around money that's saying something!
• Someone mentioned bins. I was amazed to see that our bins have only been half full when emptied this past fortnight. Normally they are both (black for general waste and green for recycling and emptied alternate weeks) stuffed to the brim come collection day. I don't know why it surprises me that this is reduced, as its a fairly obvious side of Not Buying It, but its still lovely
• Babies - huge congratulations to all of you expecting. We have two children, a 2 year old DD and DS will be 1 in March. Our little family is complete now, I had the home birth I always wanted as well so no yearning for anymore. I am pleased to report that as a direct consequence of my involvement with this thread and being much more canny with my cash we can afford to send DS to nursery a day a week :-) This will give me time to build up my little business (self employed will writer and solicitor) working from home. Also some precious 1 to 1 time with DD, who starts at school nursery in September.
• Slowing down and mindfulness. I'm getting better. I think. Being mainly at home all the time there is never a real need for me to rush per se, but when I was training in my chosen profession and working at my old office in my former life, we were trained to be workaholics always finding the next thing to do. Sometimes there's nowt wrong with sitting with a cup of tea, browsing the MSE forums and being ME for a few minutes, not just Mummy/the solicitor/the wife/the chef/the cleaner

That's all my wittering for now, take care shipmates x

Wantobeasaver

Great to read how everyone is doing, really inspiring me to not spend.

Been under the weather with a cold this weekend, really fancied some biscuits (comfort food). Was tempted to pop to the shops but knew temptation could take over so found a quick and easy recipe online and made a batch of choc chip cookies with ingredients from the stores. They must have tasted good because BF came home and ate four :eek: they're big cookie sized ones as well, so was a bit miffed. Had to get the rest out that I'd put in the freezer

Will have to put raisins in next time, then he won't go near them :mad:

tatabubbly

don't post here often but I am definitely on the not buying it ship..

Went clothes shopping on Saturday, I really needed new gym gear, mine was so tatty and holey! Got lovely pair of bottoms and a cheap top.. I'm on the lookout for decent work trousers as well, they are much needed too but I hate forking out for them!!

Been doing out a meal plan every week and I'm happy to say that we aren't getting take aways as much now! Definitely a big plus for the health!

Running down my own stocks at the moment of make up and toiletries, I didn't realise I had so bloody many!

IrisViolet

Hi all, had a busy day so gonna catch up in a month.

Had a successful month, can't think of any unessesary spending and don't feel like we have had a lesser month in fact I feel like it's been lovely.
We have accrued some freebies and I've made use of a lot of things we already had. I'm really thinking about where my money goes.
With that in mind I have a few questions to put to you all.
So its payday tomorrow and I have a budget for everything which is great and working well. But one thing I want to improve is really being conscientious of where our money goes and who to.
Now I always got online deliveries as its hard for me to go shopping with three kids and home eductating plus my ASD kiddo hates the places. But I was using tesco who I want to back away from.
This month I've used aldi, which has been affordable, but again it takes lots of time, I don't really want to spend there either.
So now I'm wondering waitrose, there is one ten mins away. I was wondering about getting my abel and Cole weekly back on, and going to waitrose once a week or getting wait rose delivered twice a month. Maybe not necessary though I could just use abel and cole. I'm not sure what to do because I also don't want to spend more than 250 pm.
Do any of you shop like this, I really want to shop more ethically and stop giving money to giants.
Also petrol, anyone know best place for it? I stay away from shell but wonder where best place get it really is. Obviously things like petrol and food need buying so I want to make good choices.
Also anyone know much about John lewis? I saw that wait rose is part of John lewis partnership so does that mean JL is a good company too like waitrose? I do get a good vibe when I go in there which tbh isn't often!!

Primrose

I like Waitrose. They are the grocery arm of the John Lewis partnership. They don,t have shareholders as such and are not listed on the stock exchange as are the other supermarkets because all their employees are effectively their shareholders. It's a good company to work for because all their employees share in the profits which gives them a real interest in how their company performs. That's one of the reasons why their staff are so courteous and helpful. Waitrose also have a more ethical stance in dealing with their suppliers, ensuring they can make a reasonable profit so no dairy farmers who are paid only 1p a pint for their milk so their herds of cattle have to be slaughtered because they are going out of business.

They also have a good community ethic. If you go into any Waitrose store you will be given tokens commensurate with your spend to put in a box for a choice of three good local good causes which receive then receive donations from Waitrose according to the number of tokens donated towards each local charity.

I_want_a_baby

Irisvoilet

I did have a look into Abel and cole and it just wasn't viable for us.

At the moment I am trialling £50 a week for the four of us (two adults, two kids under 5 one on the way).

The aim is to spend roughly £10 on fruit and veg at the market and then buy eggs locally (£2 per dozen free range), cheese and possilbly meat/fish from the market (or butchers using sister discount) £10 a week and then the remaining £30 for everything else at waitrose.

I prefer to buy in person when it comes to meat, fruit and veg and I often change my meal plan if something isn't as fresh or a different ingredient looks nicer.

For me I am going to trial this for a few weeks and see how i get on.

One thing I am doing is going to the market and then waitrose on the same day and then not shopping for the rest of the week end of.

Also I have written out all the weeks for the year and on the months where there are only 4 Thursdays as I budget £250 for the month, the extra £50 will be used to bulk buy loo roll or cleaning products at aldi, stock up on dry goods or meat offers or do an approved foods order.

IWAB x

natnat13

Irisviolet, I know your Waitrose is close but I had my first delivery from them yesterday and was really pleased with price and quality and service. If you spend £100 you can get £15 off your first order, £20 of your second and £10 off your next 3. So I bulked mine up, bought stuff that I use like tea and coffee that won't go off and got a great deal.

DawnW

IrisViolet wrote: »

Now I always got online deliveries as its hard for me to go shopping with three kids and home eductating plus my ASD kiddo hates the places. But I was using tesco who I want to back away from.
This month I've used aldi, which has been affordable, but again it takes lots of time, I don't really want to spend there either.
So now I'm wondering waitrose, there is one ten mins away. I was wondering about getting my abel and Cole weekly back on, and going to waitrose once a week or getting wait rose delivered twice a month. Maybe not necessary though I could just use abel and cole. I'm not sure what to do because I also don't want to spend more than 250 pm.
Do any of you shop like this, I really want to shop more ethically and stop giving money to giants.
Also petrol, anyone know best place for it? I stay away from shell but wonder where best place get it really is. Obviously things like petrol and food need buying so I want to make good choices.
Also anyone know much about John lewis? I saw that wait rose is part of John lewis partnership so does that mean JL is a good company too like waitrose? I do get a good vibe when I go in there which tbh isn't often!!

I keep getting voucher codes and free delivery for Ocado which has some relationship with waitrose (some of the products that arrive are waitrose branded, and they have the half price offers at the moment that Waitrose have), so am using them for deliveries atm. The prices are reasonable and there are lots of offers. Just as important, they haven't yet messed up my order which all the others I have ever tried have done :mad: No stupid substitutions, nothing missing, it arrives when it is supposed to etc. So currently I am getting a delivery from them about once a fortnight (or when they send me a discount code ) and get odd bits in between, which isn't much to be honest, at Lidls or occasionally Sainsburys.

Might be worth having a look to see what they are offering? There is no reason why they would send me discount codes etc if they aren't doing it more generally.

greenbee

For anyone looking for information about ethical buying, try Ethical Consumer. Although you have to pay for some of the data, there's a lot of information available for free.

The supermarket report is new, so best buy info isn't available, although a lot of background is.

The petrol report is old enough (2009) that the best buy info is there as well as the details of the report.

Definitely worth a look.

Aril

For the first time I have caught up she says staggering over wheezing away:rotfl:

So here at GBT all the shredding is up to date as of today [some composted and the rest gone out in the recycling. I've made a batch of the Christmas flapjacks which has finished up the opened jar of mincemeat which I've been "storing" since Elizabeth was crowned [that Eliz I not our current Queen:D] so many thanks for the recipe. Further gleanings are two small freebie toothpastes which are now being used up- I stopped sending for free samples about a year ago as I was trying to cut down further on the waste we produce. This afternoon quick pop into the library to return and borrow a couple more books. I am very interested in the folklore of Sussex and the two titles I found could turn up some gems. Only things on the list bought including shallot bulbs from Wilko.

As I can finally respond to current posts my input would be: £land currently have fruit bushes for sale, kitchen storage: at our old flat with the tiny galley kitchen we used to have a shelf high above the cooker where we kept the pans and then hooks underneath where we hung the lids, resisting charity shop bargains when dropping stuff off- if it's clothes perhaps dropping them off at one of those recycling skips instead might avoid the temptation. I drop all my textiles off at the Tosco carpark when I go shopping.

Arilx