NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

GreyQueen

rosiepup2000, my Mum had a pair of shoes put by in the cupboard for when her existing ones wore out. One morning came their chance to get into service. She walked from their house up to the garage (about 20 yards) and they felt a little strange underfoot. She attributed this to their newness.

She drove to town, parked, started walking and they felt stranger and stranger and she noticed she was trailing black rubber breadcrumbs as the soles fell apart more with every step. They were unwearable and she was passing a shoe shop and the inevitable happened........... a bloke I know had the same thing happen with his stored shoes.

A good pair of leather soled shoes might last for decades but these rubbery soled jobs definately have a shelf life, which is one of the reasons I only have one pair at a time, as I'm light on shoes and they last for years.

One of the sadnesses of dealing with a deceased relative's possessions is confronting the Died in Storage stuff, particularly the good stuff, the stuff put away for best, which was seldom used and is now useless. Think of the enjoyment which could be had by using the best china or wearing the good clothes..............just do it, ladies and gents.

ETA pm2326, I find it helpful sometimes to imagine that it would be a 10 mile walk to get to a shop, or that I literally have no money. And to use my initiative to make do with what I already have. It's astonishing how easy it is to improvise once you remove the temptation to throw money at the problem.

mummyroysof3

Yesterday I was searching for a solution to do a repair in the kitchen. I have a gap between 2 cuboards that is slightly to narrow for a 150mm wine rack or cuboard. Manage to use bricks and wood to build a platform then I've put trays and my fold up stool on it to hide the water stop tap. This gap had been annoying me for years every time I walked in the kitchen lol

pm2326

I have, in the past year, built up a stock of necessities like toilet rolls, teabags, couple bottles of water, shampoo, bleach, cat food etc etc and been storing them in spare room.

I've tried numerous times to bring them downstairs but seeing as cupboards are already busting it's not an option. Last week it suddenly dawned on me that I have a walk in cloak room cupboard next to kitchen that is hardly used although it has gas meter at the back.

First thought that came into my head.....if I can buy a shelving unit to fit I could store my stuff in there, so I measured up, priced up and sat there pondering for a day....the result of pondering? I stacked everything on the floor in neat little piles and now there's no bloody need for a new set of shelves!

Clearly I have been a sucker for the 'spend for the sake of it' marketing ploy but why has it taken me best part of 25+ years to realise this :mad:

boultdj

Money still being kept prisoner here, helped today by being dry and the rotory wash line has at last got put up, so washing done and on the line.


It's been a nice few sunny day's here, pity I had to work Monday & Tuesday, but I'm off now till the weekend, so I'v been busy in the garden & the greenhouse, raspberry & loganberry bush's have got planted out, the surport has been made up and fitted, the everbear strawberries have been lifted and put into new compost, found 2 baby plant's hiding under the bigger one's, so hoping to have soft fruit from the garden till a least September, so long term saving on the shopping is looking possible.

purpleshoes_2

If anyone uses quidco, Ive just signed my mum up to that site and she transferred her broadband from talk talk to plusnet and she got 12 months broadband, only paying the line rental of 15.95 plus 30 pounds cashback and 50 pounds off during the sign up process as well. There are a few quidco plusnet offers on at the moment. Shes paying 30 pounds a month with talk talk just now so that's almost halved, took 10 mins to do.

I also took out a new phone contract with EE, have had enough of vodafone, can use my phone abroad at no extra cost and I got 30 quid cashback from quidco and will get 110 pounds cashback from EE in 90 days time as well.

I also make body shop purchases through quidco as they usually have cashback, only works out at around 2 pounds per purchase but its better than nothing.

Am still plodding on, some days are more spendy than others, but nothing major. Got a huge haul of YS food last night, spent 7.92 and we got 4 bags of shopping, my mum and I went halfers, so her bunny and her new guinea pig got 4p bags of parsley and coriander and loads of carrots as well.

eandjsmum

Evening all
Had a day with my purse closed today.As it started as a sunny day I started off by tackling the garden I have managed to fill the garden bin and now have several bags full of Ivy, I have managed by accident to dismantle a rotten trellis and started on my CD collection got rid of 20 but I have many, many more. Perhaps as I have started it will be easier next time. Haven't chucked any of the shoe mountain as I am not buying anymore this year they will be worn. Several years ago I had a series of ops on my feet so going into a normal shoe shop isn't an option for me. What I have fit and will have to be worn until they fall to bits.

vulpix

Oooo doesn't some sun make a difference.I pottered in the garden today,mowed the grass.Mended the fence,hard to believe it blew down in bad weather just a few days ago,It's now screwed together but I don't want to buy a new one before we move unless absolutely necessary.I potted up some muscari (sp?)and some bluebells to take with me when we go.I also drilled some holes in a couple of old washing up bowls ready to plant future things that pop up.I also planted some seed that I found in the cutlery drawer.

I have started to strip the wall paper off the stairs,hall and landing.It was desperate,I will just emulsion afterwards.

Shopping tomorrow and making a key lime pie trifle to take to my son's on Friday.

Vx

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone,

I haven't checked in for a while as I have been so busy! I now have two jobs (and I am very grateful that they are both in the sector I want to work in!) and today was my first day off after a 13 day stretch! Back to work tomorrow but the best thing is that all of my earnings from my new job go straight into savings!

DH and I had a spend today which were National Trust memberships (purchased through Quidco of course plus a discount code) and we will get a lot of use out of them as we live in Surrey and are surrounded by NT sites!

We are also devising spreadsheets on our food shopping and petrol costs to monitor them so see if we can make changes and challenge ourselves to make our food shop last longer before the next one!

I hope everyone is well - it's off to bed for me now ready for work bright and early!

freyasmum

Well today I was in boots during my lunchtime. Lethal, I know.

I got 2 foaming burst shower creams, a scrubby shower foam, and the full sized sanctuary free gift comprising of 1 full size shower gel, a full size body lotion and a mini scrub and a £7 body oil. I paid £11 for this.

I will gift the sanctuary stuff to my aunt come Christmas with some sweets and she'll be delighted and I bought the oil for myself. Tbf, had I not read this thread previously, I would have done so much more damage :eek:

Tomorrow's walk about during lunch will be in the park

Lynplatinum

Hiya all

Yep it is amazing what lurking or getting to post on here does to you. you question every purchase.
Am off on hols on a coach trip organised by a friend (i.e. not a company) and this year, instead of buying food for journey I: made box of healthy flapjack; packed own drink; packed own roll; scoured As!da for bargain crisps and fruit (not the right time of day for YS - sadly)
Also used this site to get best deal on currency and collected it today. would I have bothered before becoming a NBI + MM&M fan - probably not! But am eating so much more healthily now and dont want to spend!! (also decanted small amounts of moisturiser and show stuff into small bottles rather than buy the tinnnnnny weee bottles in the supermarket.

Pennies are tight but B&B and Coach + a couple of trips + single room supplement for £310 for 4 days in Belgium doesnt seem that bad a price to me? What do you folks think? Plus I save for this all year - starting the day I get home! LOL
Back in a few days (must start e-baying and therefore earning when I get back!)
Keeping saving folks