NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

thriftish

Happy birthday ThriftWizard, sounds like a fabulous day was had!

My daughter went off to a birthday party today and my son is a teen so doesn't need watching. DH & I made the most of our free afternoon and popped off to a craft fair in the village. We spent €17 on items that, while not strictly necessary, supported some folks we know who had stalls. We then purchased some bits off our Christmas gift list in a local independent toy shop and then into the garden centre for a cuppa. It certainly wasn't a frugal sort of day, but in the spirit of spreading some money around the local area I was happy with our spends and had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

IWAB ~ it would be wonderful to have some money left in the fund to start you off for 2015! Fingers crossed for you.

I am really enjoying reading all your "not buying it" light bulb moments and successes, and plans for next year.

Bobarella

cydney65 wrote: »

I have just visited The Minimalist's website and watched one of their videos-WOW it really resonated with me, especially the bit about community.
CydneyX

They are really interesting & engaging people I think. What they say isn't new, but the way they say it resonates with so many & if they inspire others to find ways to let go of & move towards the 'some is plenty' mindset then that is half the battle.

thriftish

They are very engaging indeed. I wouldn't tend towards their minimalism but I enjoy their (and others) discussion about a sharing economy and purposeful ownership/purchasing.

edited to add In a similar vein I enjoyed a couple of videos on youtube a while back, (again many people may have watched them already) from the Center for a New American Dream - "The High Price of Materialism" and "Visualizing a Plenitude Economy"

suki1964

Happy birthday thriftwizard

Lessonlearned, I know this Christmas will be particularly hard, but you will get through it and make new traditions this is the third year without step dad and mother in law ( they died within a week of each other over Christmas ) and we all miss them terribly and part of Christmas Day is spent reminiscing about them in a joyful way.. They are both still part of our lives and still have a say ( so to speak) in our lives


I hit the supermarket early and got the weeks shopping for £30 ( including a crate of beer for hubby). My god the queues were horrendous and people had trolleys overflowing. Madness , esp as the shop is only closed two days


I worked tonight and it was a Christmas party night. Seriously I've never seen such waste. People paying £22 for a three course meal and just picking through it because they were too drunk to eat it . Heartbreaking when we ( cooks) have put so much effort into cooking it and presenting it


Still the local pigs are getting fat on the left overs


It's our staff night Monday, off for a meal and dance. All paid for. I rashly chose my meal last night but today realised it would be very heavy so have altered it. It wouldn't sit well on me ordering food and not eating it so just the one course will do me fine

Anyways I'm in agony with my teeth still and to top it all have received a letter to say the dcu surgery that's been cancelled 5 times this year, has now been rescheduled for Christmas Eve. I don't want to accept it but if I don't it's going to be another 4 months wait and I really can't carry on much longer


Oh well, onwards and upwards. Working all day tomorrow so have the dinner all prepared for hubby to pop in the oven. Moments of sanity, hubby is also one to suggest take away, yet he knows darn well he will get gut ache and a raging thirst from eating it. Hence working the next few nights till late I ensure I have something homemade ready to go for him. Last night he said Chinese , luckily I had some southern fried chicken in the freezer and insisted we ate that with home made wedges and onion rings ( who needs KFC ) and whilst the oven was on I roasted up squash and peppers for soup and made tomorrow's casserole,as well as roasting the squash seeds for nibbles


Feeling very virtuous for a change

vulpix

It seems that we all have Christmas spirit.It is all about spending time.That's it really,just time.It's free,anything else is a bonus.

My youngest daughter lost her Mum at age 6.I am trying to give her memorable ,sparkly,warm family Christmases.

She has no memory of her mother not having cancer and being very ill.Unfortunately there was no financial help for the family and her Dad worked 3 jobs to keep them afloat.She spent her time when not at school being looked after by friends.

Time and love,that's all it takes to make a difference.

xxx

fuddle

Happy Birthday thriftwizard

We wandered into town yesterday to go to the bank and pharmacy and found that the preparations for the Christmas Parade were under way. Now I'm not grumbly lady but we went to the parade last year and found the constant pressure to put into the charity (it is a charity event) buckets as we stood watching was too much. We didn't watch this year because of that. We went home. It's such a shame because we would have happily made a donation and watched/enjoyed but the incessant shaking of buckets in front of us put us off. Counter productive but more is better in the eyes of making money I guess.

Also in a bit of a pickle house wise as we're changing bedrooms so the girls can share a bigger space (they are struggling, as we are, with bickering and arguments. A bigger space means they will have their own areas to look after and retreat to). Now we don't have a lot of stuff - 3 VW Transporter fulls to be precise (we moved using one of those medium sized vans) but it is shocking just how much we do have that we really don't need. It is cathartic to have a sort, have a refresh etc.

DH and I commented how we could live in a small space if it was just us. We could quite easily. We seem to be drawn to minimalism and a purposeful attitude to possessions. Believe me, it hasn't always been that way for either of us but it's heartening to see DH change with me.

thriftwizard

Thanks, all! It's a sorting-out day here today, after a peaceful lull yesterday - I stayed out of town after my foray to the library & the supermarket early on, Fuddle, for the same reason as you - and several excess bits of furniture & other bits are leaving with a freecycler to make room for the two sons who are coming home for a good stretch this Christmas, instead of their usual mad dashes. It's lovely to be able to see the wood for the trees in their rooms now. Now, to make them welcoming! But that's what my collection of tartan rugs & blankets are for...

parsniphead

Dee2 wrote: »

Afternoon shipmates!

I was working this morning (in a shop in a shopping centre) and let me tell you it was mental! And people were spending-really spending. Long queues, cross faces, not many manners or smiles - whats that all about then? (that was the customers not me!)

I finished my shift and headed for the market for my fruit and veg. A cheerful lady served me, not a lot of money spent, nice recycleable paper bags no plastic, but by gum it was heavy! I'm off to blanch copious amounts of brocolli now!

Mrs Lurcherwalker - your post earlier today brought a tear to my eye .....

I used to work in a large shopping centre Dee until 2007 when I managed to escape not only that but retail. It's the worst face of Christmas, no spirit shown whatsoever. The greed and grabbing used to wear me down very quickly, especially on boxing day......how much stuff do people need? One Christmas a lady and her daughter came in on Christmas eve and the little girl was holding two toys her mum had just brought for her. She started to play up for something else from our shop and get angry when her mum said no as it was Christmas tomorrow and she would have presents then. She carried on being naughty and I just lost my rag and said "Do you not think you will get enough tomorrow on top of what you have had today". It shut her up but I waited weeks for head office to contact me about a complaint. It never happened. I decided then and there if and when I had kids I wouldn't spoil them with a constant stream of stuff. My little one is so good and will go into a toy shop and leave empty handed without causing a fuss.

This thread has just reminded me I need to send a Christmas email.

Aril

:bdaycake:Thriftwizard

I went wild in the charity shop last week and bought myself an A4 notepad for 50p for me to personally log my challenge and note down some ideas I wanted to try. Then I found this challenge the next day...coincidence? No don't think so....

Thus with pencil and notebook at the ready I started reading from the first page...am part way down page two and have had my first realisation. I buy too much stuff from the charity shops:D I'm good at decluttering and recluttering:o Part of it is I think that humans are naturally acquisitive and we need the stimulation of different sights and things. I just need to keep fine tuning where that inspiration comes from to keep me from buying as much to provide it.

One little thing I've done today is to recheck the recycling facilities available in my locality. I'm au fait with most of them but there is a one off scheme that I can walk to which takes things like toothbrushes, milk bottle lids and a whole host of other things to raise funds for a variety of charities. I've now discovered that since I last looked at the list they're now taking foil crisp packets which are used to make bags to sell. Now crisps are my downfall and yes probably my first personal project will be looking into ways of producing more homemade savoury snacks to eliminate the waste in the first place but if I say no crisps then I'll just go mad and break my own rules. Scouting around on the internet you can cut up the foil packets into snowflakes and chains for Christmas streamers and on one film if you wash them and then turn them inside out you can used them as a bag for wrapping presents.Interesting.

Arilx

GreyQueen

I wonder if we're unconsciously training kids to be hyper-consumers and proper little modoms (of both genders)? Not that I believe that any more than a few dysfunctional parents want anything other than the best for their children, but that so many who are now parenting themselves have grown up as hyper-consumers and cannot see beyond their own programming, as it were.

The consequences of always giving in to childish demands in pursuit of a quiet life can be severe and life-long, affecting both the child and the parents. Check out the blogger 1500days and his blogposts about his sisters. He and his oldest sis were 14 and 12 when a contraceptive accident caused younger sis to join the family. The older two were raised sensibly and became sensible adults, but the spoiled autumn crocus......well, read about it for yourselves if you like, but suffice to say that this woman is well into adulthood, bone-idle, self-indulgent and still firmly attached to the teat in terms of siphoning mucho dollars from their elderly parents.......:( And I have encountered many a Brit version of Spongesister Spendypants IRL.............

Yesterday, I was doing some retail, not in the main hullaballoo of the city centre, but in the small shopping streets around the cheap end of town. There was a woman in a shop with a wee girl, 2-3 years old, who started chanting Mewantabikit, with slight vartiations in tone and volume, incessantly. It was moderately annoying, but I did have a bit of a LBM about how often our Inner Toddler is doing exactly the same thing inside our heads, minus the endearing lisp.

Mewantaglasswine, mewantbarchocolate, mewantnewboots, mewantanewcar, on and on and on.............:rotfl:

Tell ya, if we could only find a cure for Wewantitis, we'd all be happy.