NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

mishmogs

Morning all

am still reading, lurking and occasionally posting!

We have reduced our weekly shop to £35 for the 3 adults with a few bits ys for the freezer, so doing really well. Planted another apple tree in the front garden and when it starts to produce fruit, we will be pretty much self sufficient for fruit (baring strawberries).

I managed to save enough money to buy myself a lean to and staging so I can start more seeds off and then grow more tomatoes and cucumbers. I also removed ebay from my tabs so have stopped browsing and this has saved me money too.

I have also managed to make a couple of extra payments on the credit card and this is coming down nicely. Hope to have it paid off by September.

I have decluttered my sitting room, dining room, bathroom and will do the understairs cupboard next week (busy with seed sowing at the mo.) and then its the biggie.... a couple of kitchen cupboards a week!

Sorry to hear about the puddy cat, pets really add to a home.

Right must get going..... have a good day all.

Purple_kitten

I’ve been lurking on this busy thread reading and keeping up. I’m rather enjoying not spending / not buying it, coupled with we have very little income at the moment as I am job hunting but we are prepared as we can be.:o

While I’m looking for a role thou, the heart foundation could run a satellite shop on the clothes I have de cluttered,:o and it feels wonderful to get up and be able to go straight to an outfit. I’ve also tried my hand at mending a few items - yes I may need one or two items in the summer but not much at all so I will easily save on clothes. :T

The garden is looking really good, I did a little spend on a vastly reduced whole new hoselock drip kit at £10, I have seeds sprouting on all the window sills. Neighbours have commented on how good/bright the front garden is looking as well.:)

I have been through the kitchen cupboards and we are using up the stock we originally have and there is a lot of it, we are lucky to have a big freezer that is also stocked with reduced meat got as and when it was a silly price, so most of the shopping is fresh items.

Not buying it for us has had a fantastic effect on quality time. We take in some animals here, and I can spend time playing with them, effectively working with them.:D great for both them and me:rotfl:

I found myself the other morning just sitting in the garden reading the kindle for an hour just enjoying.

With saving we are going to go camping, it will use fuel to get there but once there it’s a beautiful secluded site. We will part be taking food and we will eat out for things likes fish and chips and there is a great roadside caf! that sells freshly caught seafood.:p

Today my plans are to start cleaning the caravan up in anticipation of a trip. Job searching on the web. I’m going to make some cupcakes and we need to get a little shopping in later today. I will try to coincide with the yellow labels although recently it’s been a very unreliable pastime, with crowds of people doing the same thing, or indeed one particular chap who just picks he entire shelf up and pours it into his trolley with no regard for if he would actually use it. I hope he does as no one else is able to get it.

One of the things on my list is to learn to knit, I am literally a complete novice so I may try and learn a little of you tube videos, but I am reading JackieO’s posts with great interest.

PenguinOfDeath

Hi all,

Just having a bit of a reflection on NBI and temptation with it being pay day... I find one way to avoid temptation to to keep away from the grabbit board! I used to be terrible going for offers that I either didn't need or weren't that good a bargain anyway. Random buying = wasted money and more clutter!

I also like to keep an eye on prices to see how much of a bargain they really are. Eg I have been eyeing up a posh chopping board on Amazon, usually price around £12 down from its probably fictitious RRP. It's involved in a Lightning Deal today so I checked the new price out. £10.59. Wow, a £1.41 reduction I must buy two quickly before they sell out! *rollseyes*. However people with a less mindful spending mindset might see that as a must buy and snap it up.

Payday today is all about paying into my isa, overpaying the mortgage, and oh I might treat myself to a chocolate bar

nursemaggie

Tillytrotter1 sorry to hear about your cat.

eandjsmum

Tillytrotter1 sorry about your cat.


Anyone I haven't spent since Friday. That is really good for me.
Tomorrow will be a big spend day. 1st to the Newsagents to get the Mirror, then work then Aldi big shop. I have done my list so far I have about £40 - £50 worth, that's just stocking up for the month. I have two freezers to empty. One needs defrosting and I am worried that the other one which is elderly might not last much longer.
DD has an orthodontist tomorrow so needs bus fares for that and DS phone needs topping up.

[Deleted User]

Good evening all,I had a really nice morning at the new 'interest ' group I joined via U3A It was a sociology group and we had a great debate about education and how its changed over the past 140 odd years. Next months topic is (rather appropriately ) poverty/class and how it affects todays society Just before the election as well:)

My History group is great there are about 8-10 of us and we have all been together around 8-9 years.It used to be held in a local Adult-Ed centre but with budget cuts etc the LEA decided to double the cost of the class, and that way fewer folk would go.

Well it worked, as we all decided that this was a step too far for most of us (including the tutor ) so now we meet at her house once a week and 'donate a fiver each for two hours of her time (Money well spent I think .We get a great tutor, she was my tutor at Uni as well )At the end of each 'term' we all pick a time or person who we would like to know more about and then she researches the subject for our two hour session Its great as every one has a different period perhaps that they are interested in This week as its the end of 'term' our lesson wll be all about the Mary Rose from its launch to its demise and its ressurection when it was brought up to the surface again.
since January we have studied
Crossrail
Different great artists over the centuries
The transatlantic slave trade
The Armada
Livery companies of London
Mary,Queen of Scots
The Battle of Sedgemoor
The Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Trafalgar
and last week
Working the river ,all about the watermen of the Thames
so there is a very wide range of subjects.
Bless her she also does a pretty good HM cake as well:):):)

Tomorrow my gardener comes in the morning and we will have a great long chat about what I would like him to do in the garden over a cuppa and some more cake .My life doesn't really revovle around cake ,but it is one of lifes pleasures isn't it :):)

Still hanging on to my purse strings tightly ,but I will do my last shop of the month on Friday morning, then the residue from my monthly food budget will end up in my holiday fund on Tuesday and a new month starts again on Wednesday.Time is just flying by at the moment
have a great evening chums
JackieO xxx

Karmacat

Jackie, that sounds a brilliant group, studying history like that - thats definitely for me!

edwink

eandjsmum wrote: »

Tomorrow will be a big spend day. 1st to the Newsagents to get the Mirror, then work then Aldi big shop. I have done my list so far I have about £40 - £50 worth, that's just stocking up for the month. .

Hi eandjsmums


Just a thought for you and for others too!!! If you are doing a big shop and I mean BIG shop and you think it might come to £80.:eek: Why not get 2 papers, hence 2 coupons and split your shopping at the checkout. You can ask the till operator if they will sub total the amount for you so you know where you are cost wise and don't go over the £40 for each coupon. Although saying that the till monitor gives you a running total amount as items are scanned. Not always easy though to keep your eye on that if you are on your own and trying to pack. Last time we got 2 coupons and cut them out in the shop and just duplicated some items in our shopping trolley that we regularly buy. So an £80 shop would cost you £70 and save you £10.


We allow ourselves £50 per week for shopping. But on coupon week we spend £80, the 2 coupons @ £5 each save us £10 so total costs comes to £70. Then the following week we allow ourselves £30 and not £20 so we can have some treats that week. So in theory the 2 x £5 vouchers are used for our free treats. Confused??? So am I after reading this back to myself and I thought it was so simple!!!!!:rotfl:


Anyway I am sure you get the picture!!! I hope!!!!


Edwink x

emslovesmickey

Well I felt a little guilty about buying that coat the other day...then I received it this morning and it is absolutely gorgeous! The coat I've always wanted to have. Now I just have to keep it in good condition forever...

dND

Just a flying visit as I am so busy at the moment but trying to keep up with the thread. So congratulations and/or hugs to all that need them.

I was reading the U3A posts and thought I'd add the Futurelearn scheme to the mix. Some courses can be quite intensive/long hours, but I do them at my own pace - currently signed up for one on the science of ageing although I seem to be managing that on my own really well

https://www.futurelearn.com/

The choices of the free courses are very varied and if you want, you can buy :eek: a certificate of participation (£30) at the end. (maybe useful if the course is relevant to work)

Keep up the good work all - I'll hopefully have a bit more time to report in, in a week or so. Meanwhile, it's back to decorating/cleaning/de-cluttering and eventually photographing the house I must go.