NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Aril

Evening.
Partly for budgetary reasons I always get as much done towards Christmas before December. The other reason is I cannot abide the stress of queuing etc if I don't need to at this time of year. I'd rather keep my carcase out of the melee and leave the space for others who have no choice but to shop now. I always shop early in the supermarket for my weekly shop all year round as by and large it means I don't have to spend any more of my precious free time in there than I need to:j I've not seen many of the Christmas ads- in the main I record stuff so I can out and about and catch up when I'm ironing. That way I can fast forward through the ads and again reduce the watching time.

Today I have finally defrosted my freezer and cleaned my fridge. I've been gradually emptying it and have now been able to refill the freed up space with a few Chrimble goodies:xmastree: Despite believing that I knew what was in there it still turned up one or two nice surprises which can be incorporated in the meal plans for the coming weeks:j

One of my little treats today has been to paint my nails dark blue. Thanks to £land I've been able to build up a modest collection of whacky nail colours. I'm not a pale pink kind of gal unless it's for an interview or other formal occasion. Nope golds, greens, purple,black, glittery. I'm a dancer with a mad morris side these days and mad nails are more than appropriate. In fact I call them my dancing nails. This small thing makes me smile and very content:D It also fits in with my thrive not just survive attitude.

Arilx

lessonlearned

This Christmas thing........isn't it just so sad the way people celebrate Christmas now. It should be such a joyous time, filled with love, laughter, and good cheer, spending times with the peope we love best.

It can be religious if you are a believer but even if like me you ar a committed aethiest it is still a time for celebration. Yes it can be a time for largesse, good food, good times and yes, even exchanging gifts but it's the crass commercialisation that is so depressing and distasteful.

My husband died in August. He loved christmas, well he was a real party animal at the best of times, but at Christmas he just came into his own. We never spent a lot of money on expensive gifts but he was such a generous man and a convivial host. He was always at his happiest surrounded by family and friends, he even insisted on Christmas socks, daft headgear and flashing musical ties. The house was decked out like Santas Grotto at Woolworths, the more tacky the decorations, the more he love it all.

Bearing in mind
this is our first Christmas without him I was a it nervous about how I should play it. We have two grown up sons, no DILs or grandchildren.

I asked my boys what they wanted to do, perhaps go away or Christmas lunch in a hotel, they shuddered. No, they wanted to be at home because "that's what Dad liked best".

In the exact words of my eldest boy "We can open our presents, stuff our faces and lie around watching crap on TV, just the three of us"

My boys are 28 and 30 - they adored their father and his death has hit them hard. It's nice to know that his love of Christmas and how he felt about the importance of family has filtered down to them. They want to keep Christmas as he would have done, I find that so comforting.

We won't be spending a fortune on gifts. I shall indulge them a bit of course with all their favourite foods, and some nice eats for their stockings. But, because my boys have both recently bought their own houses and their money is stretched, the gifts this year are very practical, mainly diy tools and clothes.

They both love "man tools" so I know they will be chuffed to bits with their presents. :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Our family Christmases are very low-key, but that's the kind of people we are, low-key and content to spend time in each other's company, nattering, reading, knitting, throwing W*rthers Originals at each other and bowling hazelnuts down the floor for the cats to chase.

We'll drag out the Xmas box, inc some decs from my Grandma's day (she died in 1970) and we'll arrange them eclectically around the home. This is my duty, with input from bystanders, inc the inevitable vulgar comments about the tree-top angel having the top of the tree up her frock. :rotfl:

We also have some strange Xmas pastimes such as the trip into the loft between Christmas and New Year to dehoard cardboard boxes and various bits and bobs. Can't recall why I started this years ago, but it's stuck as a habit, and we usually end up roaring with laughter as various strange objects such as the chamber pot come to light.

There will be walks in the woods, complaints about carp on telly, so that will be mostly unwatched, and we're quite happy sitting around reading, eating too much and providing comfy places for the cats to sit on our laps.

All in all, a nice time-out from everyday life, and rather chilled out, esp since I suggested that we switch to a beef joint instead of turkey a few years back. No one particularly liked turkey (not even the cats) and the logistics of cooking it were a stressor. And I'm all for designing-out stressors, if humanly possible.

I don't know if there are any other Tom Lehrer fans here, but here's a linkie to something which may amuse:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSlpCBek1_M

camelot1001

lessonlearned - big hugs to you, my DH died 9 years ago when the children were 17, 16 and 13. The first Christmas was hard as he loved the festive season and the fact we could all be together (he worked away on submarines and somehow never managed to be away at Christmas!). We are lucky to have such good friends who we visited the first Christmas and it was ok, probably because it was different. The next 2 were spent abroad skiing with another family and this seemed to get us over the worse.

The children are now doing their own thing, DD still lives at home and we are going to our good friends again, DS2 will join us there. DS1 and DGD will be with his GFs family.

Enjoy each others company, there is obviously a lot of love between you, enjoy it. XX

thriftwizard

It's actually my birthday today and I've had a lovely relaxed day. Got up at the usual time, to discover DD1 already in the kitchen, baking HM croissants she & DD2 made the dough for last night. Warm, delicious & flaky, with unsalted butter, HM marmalade & LIDL's real coffee - can’t imagine a better start to the day! And it's continued in similar vein; the girls made a lovely curry for tea, and now we’re lazing around the stove. I’ve had a potter round the market & invested in one or two nice items for my stall, been to the library & cleaned out the chicken shed, which isn’t a favourite task but is now out of the way well before Christmas. Total spend, about £7, which I expect to earn back very quickly.

I did wander into the local supermarket to pick up a couple of small items we’re low on, but took one look at the crowded aisles, overloaded trolleys & stressed-out faces & walked straight out again; I’ll potter back at a less mainstream time! Even if we do run out of something, we’ll survive.

The best present of all is finding out that DS1 is coming home for at least 5 days; for the last few years he’s only been able to take the day itself off, so one of us has had to drive up late on Christmas Eve & fetch him, and the other get up at the crack of dawn on Boxing day to return him in time for the dreaded Sales. It’ll be lovely to have his company for a good length of time! And we can bring him home at the same time as picking up DS3 from the airport.

There won’t be any grand presents or overly-lavish meals; a good spread of stuff we all like is enough. And I couldn’t care less that our tree has been with us for several years, and was hauled out of a skip to start with. It’s got character now! It may not be this year’s colour, but it doesn’t bring me out in a rash either, unlike a real one.

I do know how lucky we are to be able to afford Christmas at all, and to have a roof over our heads & warmth & hot water. Not everyone will…

ETA: Lessonlearned - {{{hugs}}} - I'm glad your DSs have chosen to spend Christmas in the way your DH would have wanted. But it's bound to be a poignant time of year for you all. I'm sure he will be with you in spirit every step of the way.

GreyQueen

:bdaycake: Happy birthday, thriftwizard! Glad you had a good 'un.

Funnily enough, today is my Mum's birthday, too, and she spent the day doing stuff over at Nan's (the usual Saturday stuff) and is now eating cake with her feet up and The Queen of Sheba aka The Lapseeking Missile, curled up on her lap.

I have h.m. pizza, bread rolls and fruit bread baking, nomnomnom.

cydney65

Watched 'Scrooge' tonight, the one with Alistair Sim in from 1951. It really brought back the idea of Christmas with the family and loved ones. I even got a bit weepy!

I'm reading 'The Moneyless Manifesto' online. It taps into a lot of what we are saying here in this thread.

Happy birthday thriftwizard, it sounds like you had a wonderful day.

CydneyX

7_week_wonder

I'm mainly a lurker, but I love this thread and I wanted to say thank you to everyone. Thanks to all the inspiring posts I finally plucked up the courage to send some e-cards this Christmas rather than paper cards. To me it's not so much about the money, we probably donated the same amount to the charity of our choice, but more about not generating waste and choosing how we spend our money. I was slightly worried how our friends and relatives would take to e-cards, so imagine my delight when less than an hour later we got an email "Loved this years Christmas card! Great idea and a fabulous charity!" :j:j So thanks for giving me the courage to do it.

Alas my mum has just been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease, so who knows how things will be this time next year. More than ever, this Christmas will be about being together rather than buying things.

Climbs of soap box and scuttles back to lurking:)

Dee2

Happy Birthday Thriftwizard!

Welcome 7 Week Wonder - drop in any time for a chat, its a friendly ship!

I_want_a_baby

Thrift wizard - happy birthday! You kept that quiet! Xx sounds like you had a lovely day xx

I've really enjoyed reading the thread today, so many interesting, thought provoking and like minded posts!

We had a no spend day today. Mostly due to my son misbehaving and therefore missing out on going to a birthday party!

I decided to take £500 our of our savings to pay for much needed brakes and a tyre for our car, to finish saving to cover paternity leave, to pay the extra £160 we need to find to pay for our roof repairs and for the last few bits needed for the baby! I feel much better knowing that these things have savings allocated ready and now I can just work on increasing the emergency fund from £300 back up to £1000 where I would like it to be :-)

Also I don't want to speak too soon but it looks like there may be about £100 left in the Christmas budget at the end of the month - fingers crossed as this would be a fab start to the savings!

Night all, keep on the straight and narrow!

IWAB x