NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

emslovesmickey

Welcome Happy Home. Glad you've delurked, and it's good to see that this thread has already had an influence on you. £75 is a hell of a drop in spends. :j

I've not posted in a couple of days purely because there have been no spends, and no urge to spend. There will probably be some later though as I need some cat food (well my cats do anyway!)

Back to work on Monday, so I'm working on my tasks as much as I can before then.

[Deleted User]

Morning shipmates and welcome to our new matelot Happy Home well done on your saving this month.we'll soon have you running up the rigging :):)
Just done all my accounts for january and I am pleased that even though its been a seemingly looong month all is well and I am solvent
56p left over in my food purse which will go into my 'holiday fund tin' which pays for ice cream and treats for the grandchildren in August.Along with any 'road-kill' found on the pavement :0
All my cupboards are stocked up, also the freezer is pretty full still, so fingers crossed very little shopping foodwise needed in February at all. Today is feet up and do nowt day apart from read,knit and maybe watch a bit of catch-up t.v.All the housework was caught up with yesterday,alnong with the ironing.I like to think of saturdays and Sundays as days off from the week(even though I'm retired :):))I'm usually pretty busy during the week with clubs and the U3A ,quiz night and looking after three of my DGS after school,so weekends are MY time to do what I feel like if I feel like it :):)
The weather is cold but dry and bright so I may even wrap up and have a walk around the local country park down by the River Medway. I love saturdays as its a real lazy day for me and I can please myself.If I do go to the park I can call in at Dobbies on the way home and have one of my free coffee's that I get from being a member and just sit and people watch for awhile:)
Hope everyone has a good day what ever you are doing and if you are where there is snow I hope you are all warm enough
Cheers chums
JackieO xxx

Aril

Can I just say how lovely it's been seeing people who've read but maybe not posted or only occasionally on the forum popping up to say hello:j
Arilx

maria3104

Interesting day here.
Price for 3 bedrooms stuff, currently rooms totally empty so stuff does need to be bought, £4500 in the sales. I am hoping to come in at under 10% of new.
Mr T has delivered another week of stuff, £42.75 fridges are heaving. I loved the eat well for less programme, we have obviously down branded loads, but wierdly family will not have cheap tea bags and I had to abandon that plan. This has made me fancy another go, might just put them into the monkey box and wait and see!

Have a good weekend all not spending.

M

[Deleted User]

Happy home wow, awesome saving and welcome. I am the opposite end of the spectrum, did the lifetime frugality and in later years, saving but now kind of downsizing and happily giving stuff away, to benefit other people and mainly via the cs. I am also in the throes of a bit of kondo I suppose but always with an eye to getting older as I have reached the stage of `no second chances` however I still do all my different craftings and baking/cooking/preserving/wine making albeit in a downsized manner

Second half of the kitchen this morning and using up lots of the lock n lock boxes I amassed between 5 and 20 years ago. Trouble is that my mind is very active and I still cook wholefood/raw food/veggie/paleo etc so have an awful of must-keep stuff. For example I have 7 different types of rice in my cupboard and when the brown and white short grains are finished then they will be no more, same for the thai sticky rice. I am using rectangular boxes and they stack really well, bigger dimensions for the rices etc and smaller dimensions for raisins and the like. So far so good and the cupboards are looking lovely already. I am using my garden labelling machine and have different colours available, since doing my spice tins. Almost done and I have washed a lot of boxes to be put away empty, just waiting for the sun to come out, shine on them on a table and they will be bone dry soon, ready for storing in the dry shed, whilst I dither about which ones to give to dd`s. I have gone from a mish mash of boxes to some sort of order

I went through my dehydrated foods yesterday and this morning, out went lemon balm, turnip, swede, carrot. Everything left is useful and tasty. So now, again in lock n locks and stacked on a shelf in one half cupboard are potatoes, celery, beetroot, green beans, parsnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, leeks, courgettes etc. All the ones I can easily use in soups and casseroles, 13 different veg and in another place are bananas, apples, orange and lemon, all slices. Lots of this stuff was dehydrated in 2012 when I had a glut on the allotment and it is all pristine but I must use it to free space

Coffee finished so back to it, bread next. I formed two boules from my sourdough this morning and they will bake one after the other as I have to pre-heat my stoneware first, they keep very well and I cannot be bothered making a small boule twice. I am trying a new method of using a master starter that I can dip into over a week. I haven`t yet had a boule drop neatly from a baneton, so did buy 2 smaller ones this week as hopefully they will have less far to drop and I might get a bit more control

edwink

Welcome from me too Happy Home!! Wow!! That is a big drop in your monthly spending!! Well done!!


We have allowed ourselves a budget of £50 for food shopping a week which includes packed lunches for hubbie for work. There are 2 of us!! Plus some hens, some ducks, a couple of drakes and a Cockerel. Their food does not come out of our spending budget because they are Self Sufficient!! HOORAH for them!!! But, we do buy them pasta and porridge from our budget as lunchtime treats!! Also hubbies wine 2 bottles a week come out of our budget too.


We spent a total of £188.89 for the month of January!! So a rough drop of £100 per month!! We are both really pleased with that. Store cupboards looking a little bare so will need to see how Feb goes on the shopping!!


Keep warm everyone!! Off to cook pasta for my cold ickle feathered friends.


Edwink x

Igamogam

Got through January without buying any thing other than food cleaning stuff and toiletries, oh and diesel for the car:) Did buy some bird feed for garden birds but it was planned and budgeted for. Cant think I want anything for February either:D

Primrose

JackieO wrote: »

)I'm usually pretty busy during the week with clubs and the U3A ,quiz night and looking after three of my DGS after school,so weekends are MY time to do what I feel like if I feel like it :):)

JackieO xxx

I'm another one who is a great fan of U3A. (University of the Third Age, which is NOT a university, but more an organisation for retired people who want to share common interests in a wide range of topics from music, to gardening, theatre, art, reading, science, whatever). For anybody who's retired and wants an interesting social life at low cost, especially if you live on your own, do check it out. It's a great nationwide organisation with loads of interest groups so virtually everybody will find something to appeal to them, and once you've paid your annual subscription which isn't massive, all the meetings and events are usually free apart from about 30p for a cup of tea. I can honestly say it's probably been the best retirement investment I and many of my retired friends and colleagues have made.

Aril

Quick January update from me. Spent £240 on groceries out of a £250 budget. Am really pleased as it was five weekly shop month and it included £40 worth of cat food which will feed Humphrey for four months. Looking online saved us £16:j

Today I will have completed Dry January and have continued to buy fairtrade Sainsburys basics and give to the foodbank. I've also helped out at the Parkrun as my way of thanking the others who've give their time so I've been able to enjoy running it.

No charity shop purchases and only one book bought from the jumble sale which I've already used for a cheap veggie recipe.Have used the library and read a couple of books from my pile.

Lots of decluttering and sorting which amazed me as have already done this very thoroughly before and am not a hoarder. Freecycle has been my best friend along with my shredding scissors and the various recycling schemes around the town.

I have really enjoyed January which is a first for me. Lots of new free experiences, fab times with chums, first time I've run four miles and am even managing to understand my first knitting pattern. Am looking forward to February now- another month I have struggled with in the past. Thanks for letting me be part of the crew!

Arilx

[Deleted User]

Primrose wrote: »

I'm another one who is a great fan of U3A. (University of the Third Age, which is NOT a university, but more an organisation for retired people who want to share common interests in a wide range of topics from music, to gardening, theatre, art, reading, science, whatever). For anybody who's retired and wants an interesting social life at low cost, especially if you live on your own, do check it out. It's a great nationwide organisation with loads of interest groups so virtually everybody will find something to appeal to them, and once you've paid your annual subscription which isn't massive, all the meetings and events are usually free apart from about 30p for a cup of tea. I can honestly say it's probably been the best retirement investment I and many of my retired friends and colleagues have made.

Indeed its the best £18.00 per year I spend If I wanted to I could be at different interest groups five days a week morning and afternoon. I have to allot my time to the things that most take my fancy.But once the DGS are off hand a bit more I will be joining a few more