NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

pm2326

I'm out of the house for nearly 12 hours a day, and although I'm home by 7pm at the latest, I don't want to start cooking at that time as it'll be near 8pm before I get to sit and eat it.

I have a slowcooker but it's second hand and I've had it for 9 year now, I no longer feel comfortable with leaving it on during the day when I'm not here in case something happens with the electrics, so until I replace it (which won't be until it's actually broke) it's HM 'ping' meals during the week

Bathory

Hi everyone. I'm still on the ship doing as best I can and enjoy reading how others are getting on. I will have a treat or two later this week (birthday) but it won't amount to very much as I can sometimes get a little down with getting older.

We have a plant in the yard which is feathery looking but very spiky if you touch it. OH says its nicknamed a 'bottlebrush'. It recently came into flower for the first time in around 6 or 7 years and had the most brilliant deep red blooms. You should have seen the swarms of bees that were attracted to it - they were delighted. However, the flowers were short lived and now all gone. Not sure if it was suppose to be short lived or whether the bees had taken all the nectar but it was so pretty, I should have taken a photo.

I continue to be gobsmacked at how disconnected some people are from food. Where my OH works there is an abundance of blackberry bushes that are ripening nearby. He picked a few to see how they were getting along and a girl who also works there asked what he was doing. Her response was something along the lines of 'eeewww', 'that's really dirty' and 'you don't know where those bushes have been' !!!! :rotfl: Anyway not to worry, I will be sending him out with a container as soon as the berries are ripe so that some crumbles can get underway.

Where I grew up there were damson and greengage trees and around this time of year there would always be loads of fruit ready to be made into jam. I love, love, love Autumn. Anyway - will have to log off now as I've just seen a flash of lightning and the sky has gone really black

DawnW

Bathory wrote: »

I continue to be gobsmacked at how disconnected some people are from food. Where my OH works there is an abundance of blackberry bushes that are ripening nearby. He picked a few to see how they were getting along and a girl who also works there asked what he was doing. Her response was something along the lines of 'eeewww', 'that's really dirty' and 'you don't know where those bushes have been' !!!! :rotfl: Anyway not to worry, I will be sending him out with a container as soon as the berries are ripe so that some crumbles can get underway.

Lol - where on earth did she think those bushes had taken themselves off to? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

That reminds me of conversations heard when contemplating the reductions in the supermarket some young office workers were being very sniffy at one of their bunch who was going to look at the YS foods' You can't buy that' said one of them ' everyone will think you can't afford to buy proper food', 'you'll be ill if you buy those, they're only with that label on if the food is off', you'll get samlonthingy and die if you buy that'.. 'eeewww prople will think you're poor and look down on you' etc.etc as they wandered off to the expensive 'because you're worth it' food aisle.....I dug deep and came away with many bargains, people didn't look down on me (I wouldn't have cared anyway), I didn't get salmonthingy and I'm still here to tell the tale!!!

GreyQueen

If I see a person with a load of YS bargains, I am respectful. Jealous as all come out, but definately respectful.

But please keep schtumm about the edibility of YS bargains or we'll have every other person competing for them.

I did some more blackberrying this afternoon, up on the cyclepath, and there were many other people up there. Have a bowl of berries sitting in the sink in salted water, in case they have any little passengers. I am going to freeze some on a tray to add to my morning porridge, which I have been doing for a week.

As for the rest, I have a cunning plan to make courgette and blackberry pie, with a shortcrust lid. Can't see any particular reason why it shouldn't work, and have loadsa courgettes and no apples. Worst thing will be it's edible but not terrible nice. In which case, I'll eat it with custard on.

Found out in the course of making yesterday's courgette and cheese pie that the grated and squeezed courgettes are much reduced in volume and very versatile.

I also saw a recipe for courgette bread online. I am going to aim to get courgettes into every meal for the foreseeable.:rotfl:

Primrose

It really surprises me how short sighted some people can be about economising. I have a relative who is appalled beyind belief that i quite happily admit to buying amd wearing clothes from charity shops. Now whenever she admires something i'm wearing I just reply "Thank you, it was only £4 from the charity shop" regardless of where it came feom, just for the hell of it!
More power to all your yellow stickered elbows! Just think how all those savings mount up!

VJsmum

I grate courgette into my overnight oats - some call that Zoats. You can't taste it and it bulks the oats out wonderfully. Ups the veg intake also..

I am liking the sound of blackberry and courgette pie....

GreyQueen

Primrose wrote: »

It really surprises me how short sighted some people can be about economising. I have a relative who is appalled beyind belief that i quite happily admit to buying amd wearing clothes from charity shops. Now whenever she admires something i'm wearing I just reply "Thank you, it was only £4 from the charity shop" regardless of where it came feom, just for the hell of it!
More power to all your yellow stickered elbows! Just think how all those savings mount up!

Love it.

If people get sneery about pre-owned clothes from a chazzer, you could try a bit of reverse psychology on them. If nothing else, it's amusing to you and messes with their heads.

Firstly, affect a wide-eyed look of horror and breathless, shocky tone of voice. OMG! you say. Can you believe people go into shops and buy things which other people have tried on their sweaty bodies, which was going on days or even weeks, and then take them home and wear them?! Eww!!

Contrary to popular imaginings, new clothes do not descend from the heavens untouched by human hands. They went through lots of pairs of hands before they got to the shop and were probably shipped around the world or. at least, across several countries. They went in warehouses and trucks and shipping containers. Who knows what they have been in contact with? Strangers have touched them in the shop, too.:eek:

Whereas most chazzer clothes come fresh-laundered from a private home. Mine certainly do, even my stuff for rags is pristine, just raggy.

I get great enjoyment about telling people that my fancy mac cost 50P (true).:rotfl:

Nargleblast

Re YS bargains.....You could have knocked me down with a feather the other week! My OH came home from Mr T E S Cohen's food emporium with two great big YS joints of beef topside. Normal price would have been £32, YS price £16. I cut them in half, making 4 good sized beef joints at £4 each. In the freezer they went. We had one roasted today, lovely and tender, and there was enough for the three of us (me, OH and hollow legged 17 year old DS). There is also enough left over to make a meal tomorrow as well.

At last the money saving message is getting home!

Aril

I have bought clothes from the charity shops ever since I fell in love with Laura Ashley [this was the 1980s:o] and I was a student. Mushroomed from there- I always reckon that I can buy better quality second hand than cheap new and it means I don't have the same stuff as everyone else this season. Am much more mindful where I buy now though because some of the prices here in the South East are rather:eek: I picked up 3 good quality t shirts for £1 last month and I buy all my shoes [except trainers which are expensive but I'm not risking my feet when running] Found a pair of gorgeous unworn purple leather boots for a fiver earlier this year:beer:

A most frugal weekend. Park run done yesterday and then we had friends over for lunch. We popped into a well known department store and I was amazed to see they had onion goggles for sale at £23! Well that was a new one on me I have to say. Different strokes for different folks and all that. We bought a beautiful picture when we were in Orkney and managed to find a decent frame for it for £2.49 from a local rather than national CS so The Compact is still holding good.

Been blackberrying- we have enough to make two demijohns of wine.

Had a bit of an oops moment when I managed to inadvertently felt a woollen scarf my Mum knitted for me. Initially I was going to put it straight in the recycling but I have remembered that I have a toning corsage that my sister made me and buttons taken off an old cardi so I'm going to see if I can make something vaguely stylish from my disaster. Worth giving it a whirl.

Arilx