NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

GreyQueen

I'm glad you liked the Zero Waste Home website. There's a book of the same title which I've had out of the library. It's a good read, and she's very honest and funny about how she was prior to this life; bling-y, acqusitive, status-driven, all done up with a very artificial appearance etc.

When you think about it, ZW is very in tune with Not Buying It, funny how I hadn't connected the dots before. It's about not acquiring unnecessary Stuff in the first instance. I stand in awe of a family of four who can produce only one kilner jar of non-recyclable waste per year, year in year out. Plus I love her interiors........ and her motivation for keeping everything clear (spending time with her kids and hubby, being out in nature etc).

Don't think I want to put in the effort needed to get there myself, but that might change over time. I do know that my singleton household produces half a carrier bag of non-recyclables per week, with about 3-4 times the amount of recyclables. This ratio is also true of my family home (3 adults and 2 cats). I find it astonishing that singleton householders are managing to fill (and even overfill) a 240 litre refuse bin per fortnight. If I had one of those, it would take me about 4 months to put it out, there would be so little need for it. Fortunately, we have communal bins, so I can just tuck my little offering into the gaps between bulging black bin sacks).:rotfl:

I've never been particularly interested in shopping per se, as I've not had a lot of money at any point in my life. Plus most places cannot supply clothes and shoes correctly proportioned to my lanky frame, which leaves a poor choice (please don't mention LTS, I have had severe isshews with poor quality, consider them overpriced, plus I don't like their styles in most cases).

I do/ did have a weakness for bootsaling, jumbling, charity-shopping, and still go to these places, but mostly come away empty-handed. I'm after a few very specific things, such as certain books not available in the library system, or one or two homewares which I won't pay full retail for, but will buy if I see them cheaply secondhand.

But mostly, shopping isn't something which interests me any more. And it's amazingly liberating to think this way.

[Deleted User]

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Hmmmm.... . To buy 2 laptops from the same Apple store on the same day with the same educational discount account is rather errr.... lucky as . I think you need to check your receipt to see if you did actually get the discount you think you got.

Trust me I may be old ,but I'm not daft I got £119.90 discount as we also bought the software for O/E etc as well.Not a problem at all at Bluewater my total bill was £789.55 for a MacAir book 13 plus OE 365 software and jolly good it is as well. The price for the Mac on its own was £849;) Must have been my lucky day

janb5

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Hmmmm.... Apple RIGIDLY enforce limits per student on Educational hardware. To buy 2 laptops from the same Apple store on the same day with the same educational discount account is rather errr.... lucky as in at least 15 years I've never known it to happen. I think you need to check your receipt to see if you did actually get the discount you think you got.

Here's the official blurb....

2.8 The following quantity limits per academic school year apply to purchases on the Apple Online Store for Education:

- Desktop: One (1) may be purchased per academic year
- Mac mini: One (1) may be purchased per academic year
- Notebook: One (1) may be purchased per academic year
- Display: A maximum of two (2) may be purchased per academic year
- Software: A maximum of two (2) per software title may be purchased per academic year
- Apple TV: There is no limit on the quantity of Apple TV purchases per academic year
- iPod: There is no limit on the quantity of iPod purchases per academic year

The above quantity limits apply to purchases of Apple products with a dedicated education discount on the Apple Online Store for Education, Apple on Campus Online Stores, Apple Authorised Resellers or Apple Retail stores.

I`m sorry to say this but your post comes over as extremely patronizing. Moreover to add red script and capitals is verging on tautology not to mention downright rudeness. I am sure you were intending to `help` but to copy and paste the above information is rather unnecessary particularly if you knew Jackie O whose financial acumen is legendary on this site!


I may be speaking for myself but it may be best to consider the effects of writing your response. Remember Martin`s mantra " be kind to all MSers!

DawnW

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm glad you liked the Zero Waste Home website. There's a book of the same title which I've had out of the library. It's a good read, and she's very honest and funny about how she was prior to this life; bling-y, acqusitive, status-driven, all done up with a very artificial appearance etc.

When you think about it, ZW is very in tune with Not Buying It, funny how I hadn't connected the dots before. It's about not acquiring unnecessary Stuff in the first instance. I stand in awe of a family of four who can produce only one kilner jar of non-recyclable waste per year, year in year out. Plus I love her interiors........ and her motivation for keeping everything clear (spending time with her kids and hubby, being out in nature etc).

Don't think I want to put in the effort needed to get there myself, but that might change over time. I do know that my singleton household produces half a carrier bag of non-recyclables per week, with about 3-4 times the amount of recyclables. This ratio is also true of my family home (3 adults and 2 cats). I find it astonishing that singleton householders are managing to fill (and even overfill) a 240 litre refuse bin per fortnight. If I had one of those, it would take me about 4 months to put it out, there would be so little need for it. Fortunately, we have communal bins, so I can just tuck my little offering into the gaps between bulging black bin sacks).:rotfl:

I've never been particularly interested in shopping per se, as I've not had a lot of money at any point in my life. Plus most places cannot supply clothes and shoes correctly proportioned to my lanky frame, which leaves a poor choice (please don't mention LTS, I have had severe isshews with poor quality, consider them overpriced, plus I don't like their styles in most cases).

I do/ did have a weakness for bootsaling, jumbling, charity-shopping, and still go to these places, but mostly come away empty-handed. I'm after a few very specific things, such as certain books not available in the library system, or one or two homewares which I won't pay full retail for, but will buy if I see them cheaply secondhand.

But mostly, shopping isn't something which interests me any more. And it's amazingly liberating to think this way.

I loved the site too, and will look for the book (library or second hand).
I am not one of life's shoppers either GQ, and asked our local council for smaller bins than the huge and ugly wheelies that everyone has to have The did provide a slightly smaller general waste bin, but apparently the huge blue dalek for cardboard and plastic bottles (but nothing else,we also have a box for paper and glass!) is the only size available :eek: Who on earth has enough plastic bottles and cardboard packaging to fill that once a fortnight? I put ours out roughly every two or three months, even though I am very conscientious about putting these materials in it as opposed to in the general waste. There is also a green bin, which is for garden waste, but I had them remove that. I compost, and don't want my garden filled with horrible plastic bins

It doesn't seem very long ago when each household made do with a small metal bin which was emptied once a week, there was far less fly tipping, and our gardens and streets were not full of ugly and frequently stinking plastic skips. Such is progress, eh?

nursemaggie

GQ Oh how I agree with you about the bins we have the biggest black bin I have ever had for just two of us.

We have one bin for cardboard and paper, one for glass plastic and cans, one for food waste. What food waste, I can't see how people have all this food waste? We too have a huge bin for garden waste and all we have is a 2ft by 5ft flowerbed at the front. With 5 bins in my very tiny back yard all I can hang on the line are underwear and socks.

We too only put our recycle bins out about 3 or 4 times a year and the black bin the council insist on calling grey (is that pc gone mad?) a few more times, not because it is full but because I feel it needs empting more often.

As this town is largely terrace houses one wonders how any thousands of pounds are tied up in useless garden waste bins. I also wonder if they count the recycle bins every so often to get their figures of only 1/3 of us recycle. When we lived in Gloucester we had one bin for garden waste we hardly ever used and a box the size of a small suitcase for everything else.

Mr_Singleton

janb5 wrote: »

extremely patronizing.
Jackie O whose financial acumen is legendary on this site!

Patronising? Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way.

As for "financial acumen" my money is with Apple.... it paid £10.2 million Tax on £11.5 BILLION of UK sales not to mention the its $203 Billion cash pile!

Anyway back to the point in hand Apple isn't stupid.... I wouldn't be surprised if the individual in question is mistaken regarding the discount OR that should a warranty claim be made it won't be honoured until the discount given in error is paid back.

Apple has repeatedly be fined millions for conning people into paying £100's for AppleCare when people were covered by Statuary Consumer legislation.

I'm truly sorry if you don't like what I'm saying but I've had many years experience dealing with Apple and I can tell you they always win in the end.

GreyQueen

DawnW wrote: »

It doesn't seem very long ago when each household made do with a small metal bin which was emptied once a week, there was far less fly tipping, and our gardens and streets were not full of ugly and frequently stinking plastic skips. Such is progress, eh?

Gosh, yes, in my 1960s/70s childhood there was one galv metal dustbin. Enormously heavy, the poor bin men used to come to the house, haul the bin up over their shoulder and carry it to the lorry, then return. Their poor bodies must have been so worn and damaged by the weight and those one-sided hefting motions all day.

Can't remember when wheelie bins first appeared, but I agree they are wretched objects. I think there is just so much more trashy stuff about now, and when I was a kid, we still had an open fire, so things which were non-toxic burnables got burned. In my Mum's girlhood and early married life, there was the copper in the kitchen, with its own fire when heating water, so it used up any burnables there. And furniture and carpets weren't regarded as semi-disposable items, either.

People having food waste always surprises me. I have some; orange peels, the cores from peppers, a boiled-down-for-stock chicken carcase occasionally, but mostly the contents of my little bin bag is non-organic. Eggshells I rinse, dry and keep for a while in the bottom of the oven to get brittle before crumbling them and adding to the allotment soil. I used to add teabags to my allotment compost bin, but they don't degrade properly. I have been throwing them away but have decided that I will switch to loose leaf tea once these ones are finished, and compost the leaves. A bit less trash on the planet.

I confess myself a bit fascinated by people's bin habits (I work for the local council and take calls about bins, amongst many other things) and it is one of the hottest of hot-button subjects. That and fly-tipping.

Oh, the slovenliness and wastefulness of our society, it's appalling.

nursemaggie, we have a lot of streets of Edwardian and later terraces here with either no yards or pocket-hankie sized ones. Views down the streets are blotches of wheelie bin uglinesses. We don't have individual wheelies at the flats because there isn't anywhere you could keep them, so we have communal bins, several groupings of them. Suits me pretty well, I never wanted to turf out a black sack with just a tiny amount of rubbish in it as it seemed such a waste.

I took a donation bag and two bags of clean worn out textiles for ragging to the chazzer today. I did glance at the tops and was tempted by a per una one, then thought that I have plenty of tops, shouldn't feel I had to have it just because it was per una and only £2.99. It was so-so nice but not ohmigod gotta have you nice. So I left it there, and am pleased with the decision.

DawnW

We have only had wheelie bins in this area since the 1990s GQ. I live in an Edwardian terrace with only a small garden, hence my dislike for the things A communal area would suit me fine.

We have a wood burning stove, a couple of compost daleks and 3 hungry chickens that polish off outside lettuce leaves, breadcrumbs etc, so don't have much to throw away

I must confess to buying a cardigan at a charity shop this morning, but I have been looking for some time for another one.

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there me Frugal Harties!

Wow - so many folks thinking alike on here! I have 1/4 to 1/2 carrier sized bag of non recylable/non compostable waste a week - even when my boys were at home we only made under a bag per week! My recyle bag (plastics and paper) goes out once a month and my box for glass twice a year (? ish) and then not full. All jars go for jam and pickle making to my friend who collects from allotmenteers who have surplus and then sells them at her church's coffee mornings (profits split between charity and maintaining church!) So glass one is rarely full - usually just one layer!

However, across the road the lady has two boys (like I had) and puts out 12 to 18 black (non recylable/non compostable waste) per week :eek: unbelieveable!! She is also divorced (like me) so there is only the three of them and a dog!

Today walked down to the bank and, despite paying the *** tax man the OD is not as bad as expected Due to wombling was able to treat myself to a small coffee and Linzertorte biscuit at C!sta (my main weakness) for free and then went for a potter round the town and there was nothing I wanted to buy. Shopping never did have much appeal for me and since being on here it has even less! I have £1.20 left in my food and cleaning budget for this week (Fri - Fri week) and was mildly tempted by a tin of tuna but I will wait until I get some more left overs and can by the better value 3 tins at once!!

Went to the library and read a magasine for free on the way home and then through the park - and reflected that perhaps my council tax was somewhat worth it!!

So overall feeling very lucky! I have the brains and means (i.e. things to sell - skills to use) to get back into the black ASAP!:j
Frugal onward fellow sailors!

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there

Feeling very NBI today!

Up went free curtain (already had material and curtain poles) Got rid of another pile of drifting paper. Ate a meal with ingredients that were already here. Also decluttered some more and found a tenner!!:T

Hope you are all ok - no comments from others yesterday!!
Sailing frugally onward!