NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

purpleshoes_2

13 ingredients in mcdonalds french fries apparently, I wouldnt eat chips out of there if you paid me a fortune.

mummyroysof3

There are 5 of us and I do 9-10 loads a week...not always full ones though. I wash everyday mon-sat and 2 days a week I do bedding aswell. I don't always wash towels seperate and bath mat goes in with bedding

Slowdown

Ahoy shipmates!

Once again a rather long post was washed overboard on the waves of a 'prone to freezing' ipad. Time to rewrite.

So, on a personal front lots of NSDs but one rather expensive curry with an old workmate. Thoroughly good catch up I have to say and money well spent.

On a wider front the news of Tesco. Again they are being investigated but this time about their unfair dealings with suppliers. It was interesting listening to a small chocolatier who described how they are often changing the terms of their agreements and leaving the producer with higher charges, or passing the price drops in store onto them. They also make charges for product placement. If you want eyeline space on the shelf you have to pay Tesco dearly for the priviledge. Small company = less income = low shelf space = fewer sales = less income. It's a vicious cycle for many small companies and the corporate giants win out again! Shame on them! But how many others are practicing the same tactics? Rather than a lists of the best performers in the supermarket business, we need a list outlining their working practices so we could make better informed decisions ourselves.

The other news this week is the poor practice of the online comparison sites. I can honestly say I have never used one, probably because I'm too lazy and distrustful. But it would appear that they make a fortune. Ultimately we pay as the charges, that are made to the energy companies etc who use the site, are passed onto us in their increased bills. There is no such thing as a free lunch!!!

Just read a funny headline on the business news. "Budget retailer Poundland has said it wants to buy 99p stores for £55m." Surely that's a £54,999,991 overspend!:rotfl:

Time to replenish the ship's stores today, hope to bring it in around 80 pieces of silver. If it goes over I may have to trade in my eye patch!

Kind regards
Slowdown:)

Slowdown

comparison sites - forgot to mention that they often do not display the best deals as some companies will not, or cannot afford to pay their fees. We are definitely not being given the full picture by these sites. That's not to say people don't make a saving at all, but they may well be able to do better!

Keep it up!

thriftwizard

Been missing in action for a bit, and afraid that I have been buying it; the "it" in question being seasoned logs, dried food, cat-food, tinned food, chicken feed, etc. We have an ongoing family situation that's reaching its sad but inevitable end, and I will need to be elsewhere for an unknown length of time whist things settle back down into a new "groove". So am stocking up on basics so that the Offspring can keep the home-fires burning - which they are very capable of doing - and I can relax & get on with whatever needs doing at the other end. I feel as if I've spent the whole of the last week flying from shop to shop, some of them supermarkets - a grim experience!

115K

I do about 7 loads of laundry a week as we have animals that sleep on our beds and I tumble dry to get the fur out as I have allergies.

I haven't washed my pillows in ages, maybe I should do that next week.

I spent nearly £50 on groceries delivered today and we should have a lot of food in the cupboards and freezer which should last until next week.

We have another unexpected expense as my DH needs to get new glasses. The nice thing about having savings is that these unexpected expenses don't throw us for a loop any more but it's still annoying when money has to go out when we are trying to save!:rotfl:

GreyQueen

Grim but necessary, thriftwizard. It's a blessing that the Offspring still at home are all young adults and competant to manage. Sending good wishes to you at this difficult time.

It does re-inforce how loathesome back-to-back shopping is, doesn't it? Today is a non-working day for me, so have had a bit of a lie-in and am easing into the day. Will be heading up to the allotment later to do a bit of work and, should energy hold, may go to the supermarket for some teabags as am running low on the bog-standard kind and a wumman cannot live on peppermint and red berry 'erbal ones alone.

But if I don't feel like it, it isn't the end of the world, enough regular teabags for another 1-2 weeks here.

I also plan to 'shop' the veg plot for carrots and leeks. Lovely to have fresh things waiting for you at this time of year when large parts of the plot are bare soil. If things get really bad, there is one solitary giant Feral White Chard, which wilts slightly in extreme frost, then perks up again. Seemingly indestructible and probably inedible by now.

mirry

Morning shipmates, I haven't been on deck for the past two weeks. We had a surprise bill yesterday when our car broke down, £480 to get it fixed. But that's ok because my no spend habits covered it :money:

Listed 20 things on ebay yesterday and hope to bring in over £100 from that. I still have more to list but I have to make my sons birthday cake for tomorrow as it's his 21st. He has a egg allergy so I have to make it & I'm no delia . My daughter will help me as she's quite arty and I can't cope for too long on my feet as I have a condition called eds3 which makes everything a challenge anyway.

We also managed to sow some tomato seeds and courgette seeds as someone gave me their heated propogator and after 3 days the seeds are up

vodkawitch1

Morning shipmates

Taking niece to lunch at Har@@ster today, she paid for me last month so I want to return the favour. From now on though it will be lunch at home

Paid for my flights to Pisa yesterday as going on a cheapie holiday to Italy in June (staying on a campsite but in a basic `hut`. Think garden shed. Anyway return flight was £82 so well pleased with that. E'syjet from Luton. I want to get the train from there and see Florence for a day or two.

Freezer and cupboards still well stocked so just milk fruit and veg for next few weeks I hope.
Well done everyone and take care.

nursemaggie

117pauline wrote: »

I much prefer things that you can judge how much to use like washing clothes liquid. I am just about finished some persil washing tabs which I tried because they were on a money back guarantee but I hate it that I can not reduce the amount I use. I simply do not believe that we need half as much as company's tell us.

OK so here is Number 91 Does this really need washing?

Now before anyone cringes, I am not convinced that all clothes need washing as soon as they have been worn - there are obvious exceptions which we need not list but there are others that really don't need it.

I agree there are a lot of things that don't need washing as often as people think. My DS used to wear a pair of jeans only a few hours so I was always washing. I started putting them back in his draw.

After a few times of doing that I told him. Now he wears them a week unless he spills something on them. He thinks about it now before putting things in the wash. I only wash about every five days now, dark colours and light colours. Occasionally I get an extra one.

I make sure the washing machine is full before I use it. If I need just one thing it gets soaked in a bucket and rinsed.

The one treat I have bought myself this year, a pot of daffodils, are still going strong after a month. There are still lots of buds. When they are finished I shall put them in the garden. Only cost me £1.99 from Ald!