NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Cuddled on the sofa with a blanket and should actually go up and get a cup of tea, but am too lazy...

Ended up spending quite some money at the end of July but did well all together. Went to IKE@ with my sister on Wednesday and the bedlinen I was lurking around for months was 20% off, so got that plus a nice glass bottle. Rest was small household bits and bobs like batteries and dish brushes.

Went to a concert by an old time jazz band in our town, met a lot people I know there and eventually people started dancing and I ended up dancing with a friend of my parents as well, although I'm a hopeless case when it comes to dancing. But it certainly was fun!

Tomorrow I'll go over to my sister, our plan is to make vegetarian "meatballs" with chips, she bought the chips and I will bring "meatballs" and sauce and a dessert. Got the veggie balls 50% off as expiring date is tomorrow, 50% is the closest you could get to ys heaven round here....

Caterina, good to see you back! Don't be too harsh on yourself and enjoy the time with your Mum!

Busymum everyone falls off the waggon/ship every now and then. But see it like that; if you've been good for say three months and then fall of the waggon for 2 months, you'll be far better off than if you'd spent 5 months with mindles spending!

Jackie, the BenBox sounds quite full! and I think if he is as good with money as you are he'll make 50£ stretch quite far!

Have a nice evening everyone! I think I'll run a bath now

emslovesmickey

Hi all,
thought I'd pop in to say last month was a lot better for me spending wise. Managed to put over £500 into my savings, getting my total to 65% of my target. A few more months like that and I should hit it. For those who remember my ten tasks, I only have two of them to complete now, one of them being hitting my savings target. I'm keeping myself busy with the crafting at the moment, which seems to be the key for me with the spending! I'm even going to try my hand at making some clothes. I have two different kinds of fabric and a couple of patterns

Hope everyone else is doing ok.

Caterina

Hi all,

JackieO, how lovely to read about your help to your DGS, he is a very fortunate lad to have such a kind granny, and I am sure he fully deserves the help! I have no doubt that, knowing how much time he spends with you, he must already be a wise money saver!

RicardaRacoon thank you for your kind words, I am having a good time with my mum!

I am moderating the expenses at the moment but in a few days my birthday will mean that I will have a meal out or two, I decided I don't want a party, too lazy to prepare before and clean up afterwards!

I have booked a holiday with DH, not the cheapest because we are travelling to Barcelona by train, but not too bad, managed to get a good deal overall. Not too worried about spending a bit extra as this will be our silver wedding honeymoon! It only comes around once and considering that our original honeymoon was spent with 15 months old twins (still breastfed!), we are long overdue this treat!

Bathory

Hello there. A very wet and rainy day over here today. I have managed to save back a months wages so far. Not too bad but a bit hard going as I'm on minimum rate. I need to do this incase I don't get work immediately after this job ceases, (unless they extend me as there is still a lot to be done).

I didn't spend very much at all in July. Today however, I stocked up on Lux bars that one of the market stalls occasionally gets in and some yogurts and fruit. I'm out next weekend to meet a friend who I've not seen for ages, but unsure whether I'm up to any boozing. I just don't seem to drink much these days (maybe had 2 bottles of cider so far this year) as I just can't handle it anymore. I will have to pace it out or alternate with soft drinks as I'd hate for the room to be spinning at the end of it.

I will need to replace a few winter clothes in time for autumn and some money will have to be spent on a new mattress before the year is out as the old one is giving me a bad back. Apart from this I've resisted the sales that are currently on and managed not to slip overboard.

boultdj

The Ben box is a lovely idea JackieO,he's a very lucky lad to have a gran like you who can help out.

Well the food spend's are holding stable, it's the house that's costing money at the moment, but better now than in the middle of winter, last 2 week's have been expensive, had to replace a 1/4 of the floor board's in one of the bedroom's, still need to do the other room, it was chipboard flooring and the blasted thing's 'go', now replaced with proper floorboard's so should last a long time.Should explane there is a mixture of old fasioned floorboard's & chipboard flooring in each room,done by previous owner's bodge it diy'er son in law.Then we had the valve go in the toilet, and the replacement glass for the 'blown' double glazing finely turned up, so hopefully that's it for a bit so I can save up to do the floor in the other room.

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Bathory - if you are min wage then I really admire you and take my hat off to you well done for saving that much!
Caterina - we all need treats sometimes. If you are craving T/aways then think why you are feeling deprived - if you can work out why - budget in treats (I am gonna pick up/nic Jackie O's 'Happy Stash' Idea - it seems to work well) and spoil yourself - you deserve it!
emlovesmicky - well done for finding something that helps you stay on board! I too can loose hours either doing my Scrapbooking or my writing! It stops a person spending!
Jackie O - this is exactly what I did for my two boys - and then once a term I would do a 'beans and bog roll' run up to their Unis to see them - also continued until they were both established in their own places. Cash could be easily spent and new temptations greet them away from home - including unscrupulous folk who will happily spend their money for them - do tell your DGS the old 'never a borrower or a lender be' - unless you have known some one for years - my son fell foul of being too kind and polite!!

Am still on hols - driving back Mon Although I have spent on this hols - am pleased with myself overall as am still within budget - despite DS and GF landing on me for the last few days as ex was too mean to pay their trainfare home! (he is rolling in it! Tells me he can't spend all his pension money (private + state) and has boxes of cash (in the 1000s) hidden all round his flat! Anyhoooo - deep breath....... Its nice to spend some time with them and managing to keep within budget!!
sailing - if not frugally - then cautiously (within safety limits ) onward! Keep on calm waters folks!

emslovesmickey

Lynplatinum wrote: »

Hiya All

Bathory - if you are min wage then I really admire you and take my hat off to you well done for saving that much!
Caterina - we all need treats sometimes. If you are craving T/aways then think why you are feeling deprived - if you can work out why - budget in treats (I am gonna pick up/nic Jackie O's 'Happy Stash' Idea - it seems to work well) and spoil yourself - you deserve it!
emlovesmicky - well done for finding something that helps you stay on board! I too can loose hours either doing my Scrapbooking or my writing! It stops a person spending!
Jackie O - this is exactly what I did for my two boys - and then once a term I would do a 'beans and bog roll' run up to their Unis to see them - also continued until they were both established in their own places. Cash could be easily spent and new temptations greet them away from home - including unscrupulous folk who will happily spend their money for them - do tell your DGS the old 'never a borrower or a lender be' - unless you have known some one for years - my son fell foul of being too kind and polite!!

Am still on hols - driving back Mon Although I have spent on this hols - am pleased with myself overall as am still within budget - despite DS and GF landing on me for the last few days as ex was too mean to pay their trainfare home! (he is rolling in it! Tells me he can't spend all his pension money (private + state) and has boxes of cash (in the 1000s) hidden all round his flat! Anyhoooo - deep breath....... Its nice to spend some time with them and managing to keep within budget!!
sailing - if not frugally - then cautiously (within safety limits ) onward! Keep on calm waters folks!

You write? I do too!:j

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Our tread ended up on page three, need to do something and get it back to broad daylight again.

Am eating a lovely greek salad which is as local as it could be. Ok, melon (I put melons into my greek salad) comes from I don't know where, but the cucumbers grew 100 meters up the road where my sister and her coworker use a patch of land at work as mini-allotment and the tomatos are from a man who sells the veggies he can't eat himself from a box in his front garden. My sister picked them up for me and I got them from her place on my way home, so these tomatos have never seen the inside of a vehicle.

HOlidays are getting closer and I have a massive shopping list... It isn't often that I come near a Svperdrvg and it is so much easier to get cruelty free cosmetics in the UK than in Switzerland. And I'm sooo looking forward to a few days by the seaside and some walks along the beach and the cliffs. I'm travelling with my sister and I can tell already that we will have loads to laugh about, a lot unhealthy food and some silly, childish moments... We are the sort of people who take pictures of plushies, roll down a hill giggeling and run into the sea screaming because the water is cold.

Waving to Ems and Lyn, I'm writing too. When I think about it, it is the hobby that isn't costig money and keeps me off spending money on other things.

Will now go and get some things done, will go out tomorrow and will go over to my parents on Friday as they're cominig home from holidays tomorrow and plan is to come back into a clean flat when I come back from holidays, so need to get a few things done today.

Have a nice evening everyone

[Deleted User]

Good Morning chums I have to spend a bit of cash this week as next week is both my DDs wedding anniversaries.I usually get them something for their home and if they tell me what they are short of I buy that Eldest DD said she needs some drinks coasters and maybe some pillow cases so I will be looking in M& S today for those I normally buy some table linen for youngest DD as they seem to get through table cloths at a rate of knots (four children still left at home ) So I will be out today buying these.

My youngest DGS Mikey was brilliant yesterday he came home with a half empty packet of biscuits and said look Nanny I bought two packets of these when I was at the park and got them in the local 7-11 shop reduced They were an excellent buy at 25p each reduced from £1.25 each.Sensible boy had only spent half of his £1.00 and shared some with his pals and brought the rest home.

" I did what you do " he said "I looked at the reduced stuff first" :):) He knows me so well that boy :):)
He goes to the park to play football with his pals ,but always takes a bottle of squash with him in his back pack as well.He's only eleven but knows the value of cash bless him.

9 more days until our holiday and the boys are getting quite excited now.Fingers crossed the weather will be knid to us.a friend gave me a stack of music freebie cds so I will be playing them all the way down to Southampton to the ferry for which ever boy comes in my car with me and the luggage.I think its Henry on the way down and Mikey on the way back.

Henry is doing well with his paper round and saving well for his new football game for his Xbox.Once he's bought himself that he is going to save for a new bike.All the boys are sensible with their cash and know that if you want something then you have to save for it. I suppose coming from a larger family where things are saved for and shared, has helped them grow up with good ideas (also having their Granny instilling into them the value of saving for stuff and getting 'more bang for your bucks' helps as well :):) )

Right time to get a wriggle on,its supposed to be a scorcher here in Kent today, so I'll have to have a think about what the boys and I can do once we have come back from the shops

117pauline

OH returned from work yesterday with several kitchen cabinets and cupboards plus two huge worktops for £10 so today he is happily fiddling with all the bits - perhaps, who knows, some clutter may go!!!

Garden is jam packed with weeds after the wet/sun cycle here so they are definitely winning. I have been trying to plan next year's garden so I minimise the need to weed.

I love watering for some reason and have my best ideas then too. Today I have seen several frogs or toads not much bigger than an inch high! The first one made me jump but I have enjoyed their company.