NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

117pauline

I have decided to do my own "100 day challenge" as we are going to be bombarded with the numbers until the election.

So my first is..... consider when I do things - for example, preparing a meal before I need to put on the lights, reducing the number of trips I do in the car etc etc

I thought all these little things might help with my Not Buying It!

There are so many things that we do just because it is a habit we have got into.

So I am challenging myself to find 100 little things which will make a difference.

What does everyone else think of my plan to keep me on track?

Pauline

pm2326

Primrose wrote: »

We are lucky to have such a wide choice, but as many of us on here are asking, do we really need it all this stuff to feed ourselves? We've all become victims of the Brand advertising campaigns. Those of us who have traded down to the supermarket Own brand products and are finding them just as good are discovering how much we have been duped over the years. All this advertising has to be paid for somehow, and each branded item we buy at higher cost is partly because advertising and promotion costs have been built into the price.

I've been in one of the big 4 SM's twice so far this year and have to say I hated it both times. I wandered round looking for certain items then when I eventually found them I'm presented with numerous options like different brands, pack sizes, do I want it in bag or a box, single or multipack, BOGOFF, half price, full price......for gods sake I just want one bloomin thing!

Much prefer Aldi, you get limited or no choice on most items and you either like it or do without...heaven :rotfl:

Primrose

117pauline wrote: »

I have decided to do my own "100 day challenge"

So I am challenging myself to find 100 little things which will make a difference.

What does everyone else think of my plan to keep me on track?

Pauline

Doing 100 little things differently is going to be quite a challenge and a test of ingenuity. I hope you will make a comprehensive list and share them with us . Here one to kick you off...

Set the central heating timer to come on 15 minutes later and switch off 15 minutes earlier every day. It won't be a huge saving but the fuel savings will will build up over time.

117pauline

Thanks for your good wishes Primrose.

Changing the heating - I have actually already done that one as my partner likes the house roasting and I think we waste loads of heat so about three months ago I changed the timer and he has yet to notice. I also reduced the temperature of the hot water.

What we have noticed is that our DD has decreased by £25 so it is worth doing.

I don't have the heating when I am here during the day, just put another jumper on, wrap my cuddly around me or do some housework or ironing.

So do you think I should be allowed to count this one on my 100 list when I can't think of anything?

Primrose

117pauline wrote: »

Thanks for your good wishes Primrose.

Changing the heating - I have actually already done that one as my partner likes the house roasting and I think we waste loads of heat so about three months ago I changed the timer and he has yet to notice. I also reduced the temperature of the hot water.

What we have noticed is that our DD has decreased by £25 so it is worth doing.

I don't have the heating when I am here during the day, just put another jumper on, wrap my cuddly around me or do some housework or ironing.

So do you think I should be allowed to count this one on my 100 list when I can't think of anything?

Well done! Yes that definitely counts ! Now you're going to get me trying to think of interesting challenges when i go into "busy brain" mode at 3 am and can't get back to sleep. :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Another one could be if you cook using an electric oven turn it off 5 or so minutes before the end of cooking time. I do this on crumbles and pies as well as turning the hob off a few minutes before needed and use saucepan lids. Saves on electric and when everything is out of the oven leave the door open to heat the kitchen.

pm2326

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

Another one could be if you cook using an electric oven turn it off 5 or so minutes before the end of cooking time. I do this on crumbles and pies as well as turning the hob off a few minutes before needed and use saucepan lids. Saves on electric and when everything is out of the oven leave the door open to heat the kitchen.

Another that I've started doing....cut up some old tattered clothes and use them instead of kitchen roll, they can be reused numerous times and thrown in washing machine with towels etc .

I now only use kitchen roll for soaking up grease/oil on food ie chips etc so roll lasts ages so reducing cost and landfill

suki1964

Thank you all for the good wishes and expressions of concern, got a tad tearful reading them. I don't think it is rheumatism, just doing too much. I work as a cook/ chef ( depends on the mood of the boss lol) and it's extremely heavy hard work A 12 hour shift on pay weekend was tough going to say the least, followed by a quiet night where I had the time to deep clean the grills and ovens. I do have tendinitis of the shoulders and feet, being tired , emotional , it was all too painful. Hands still painful today but a lot less so. Feet, well they always hurt so no change ....


Anyways the rabbit is in the oven, smelling devine and am looking forward to the finished dish sometime tomorrow

I opened the purse today. I had the full day off and needed a change so we went out to lunch. Blew a weeks food budget but I so needed to be pampered and I had put in the extra hours to pay for it. Then a nice walk along the sea front before hitting the tuppenny slots and wasting another £2 lol great fun behaving like kids trying to get tokens

However grown up head reared itself as I hit the Sm. Weeks groceries came to £42 for the three of us, and that included 3 good sized steaks for a treat this weekend. Got a lot of ys veg to pad out what I have here, shampoo, and a box of lager for hubby in the cost. So now other then bread, that's the purse shut now for at least a week


I think now food is a lot cheaper then it was in the late 70s early 80's. I remember having to spend half my wages -£20- to feed three of us a week, yet now I spend not much more yet earn more. Maybe it's because I can cook a lot better and know how to stretch food, I dunno. I can still remember my shopping lists back then, half a pound of back, half a dozen eggs, half a pound of cheese, 6 sausages, a blade of pork, quarter pound of liver, half a pound of mince and three chicken legs. Then obviously bread, veg and cleaning stuff. Veg was the same week in week out. Only thing that changed were cabbages became spring greens or sprouts depending the time of year Food was boring and bland and jars and packets of sauces were our saviours. Now I can't abide them but have a broader palate and know how to cook the dishes I want


I always turn of the oven before the end of cooking time. The fan still circulates the heat for ages after. I also bring rice to the boil, slam the lid on and turn off and let it cook on using the absorption method. Another tightwad trick I use is when showering, I turn off the shower whilst shampooing and scrubbing down, just turn it on again to rinse off. Also refuse to put lights on just for one- I know where the loo is and where to aim, so why turn the light on? Lol. I also only ever put a full machine on to wash. Means there's always something sat at the bottom of the laundry basket but I'd rather that then waste electricity and water

Well on a brighter ( joke) note, we are on an amber alert weather wise again. Supposedly up to 10 foot drifts in the next 48 hours. Still have oil, coal and wood so won't freeze and having stocked up today we won't starve. Could be lucky and get snowed in for a day or two so I can duvet dive with a good book or three . Btw my amazon books are still sate here, still not found the courage to box them up. In my favour though, I'm getting a lot of Royal Mail postings so stocking up nicely on stamps


Night night everyone. Xxx

allybee101

Primrose, we had a similar experience when some family came to visit after the iron curtain fell and Ukraine became independent. My great aunt thought that Gateway(? - became Somerfield) was a model supermarket, set up to make them believe we had it better than it actually was. She had a panic attack when she saw a woman being picky over the packets of bacon. For the rest of her visit she insisted in going into every supermarket we passed, to see if she could catch us out!

nursemaggie

I agree we do spend a smaller percentage of our housekeeping on food, at least once we get reasonably OS. What we spend a much bigger percentage on is electricity and gas. If you are on a low income the two can add up to 30% of your income.

There are lots of things that just were not part of our monthly spend. like now when I first got married we did not have a TV. most people have a TV provider and broadband. Very few people don't have a mobile phone.

I have found since we went onto benefits it is almost impossible to do without the internet. Everything has to be done on the internet. It is not true you get free internet in local libraries. Where we used to live until last year it was cheaper to use the local internet cafe than the local library in fact it was more than twice as much. The difference between having it at home and and using the internet cafe is negligible. I feel cut off from the world without it. I can do without TV, have done for nearly 7 years now. Originally it was just a freedom thing as EX used to force me to watch TV of his choice. My choice just sat on the Video player for years never watched. I am still watching those on You Tube have not caught up by any means.

If you can manage with just using what you can get on You Tube for free, giving up TV is the biggest saving.

I agree we can manage without lots of the extras the main supermarkets. I started using Ald! last April when we first moved here. I shopped at Mr S for the things I could not get once a month. I now find I can manage with a shop at Mr S about 3 or 4 times a year. I first married in the 60s. Over half the stuff available in Ald! was not available then. I have just found I have stopped buying all the luxuries I soon realised I do not need.

Being in an area where there are quite a lot of Asians I find I can buy all of the spices I need at a fraction of the price of any of the big supermarkets. Sometimes I follow an Asian lady through the check out in Mr M (they are about 10 mins away) I have an almost identical shopping basket to her. The brands I thought were from Pakistan and India turn out to be based in Birmingham. They work out cheaper than value brands and Ald!

We don't have either a timer or a thermostat on our cetral heating so it gets switched on when I get up and off when it gets too hot or just over an hour before I go to bed. The rent must be the biggest increase it was £3.10s a week in 1967 and is £425 a month now. I think mortgages have risen much the same. I was paying £835 a month before we moved. You can see why we moved.

It has taken me months to get my food spending down because I have different shops available to me.

I think I have always turned off the cooker at least 15 minutes before the end of cooking a meal and switched off rings when vegetables come to the boil.