NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

annagaradair

Ahoy there!

This is just what I've been looking for

I don't have much money coming in (ill-health retrial) but still spend as though I do. For the past few weeks I've been looking around at all my stuff and not even liking having it there. It feels like it sucks the life out of me as I constantly catalogue and rearrange it. I do declutter from time to time but just replace it the next time I'm bored/unhappy/celebrating.

Am off to start writing my Guiding Lights from notes I've made on the thread ...

Can we think up something to put in our sig lines, please?

Anna

Broomstick

As a signature 'No-buy Year' is pretty much to the point

B x

Butterfly_Brain

I just put Not buying it 2015! on my signature

I_want_a_baby

Kittie - we are currently paying £300 per month, what they don't know is that we are saving up to pay it off in full. So far since September we have saved £1500 and we should be able to save approx £100 a month extra through bits and bobs. This way should an emergency arise we have the savings to see us through but hopefully we won't need to touch it.
They are quite blaise about it and say if we have a tight month we can skip a payment and whilst this does give us peace of mind, it only makes me want to repay it quicker! X

I too need to jot down some of these ideas, as inspiration for the more difficult times in 2015!

Loving everyone's input.

I think I need to write down a list of my preferred alternatives to refer to as well.
Things such as:
Painting my own nails instead of getting them done,
Growing my own fruit & veg instead of buying shop bought.
Walking for enjoyment, health and errands instead of using the car.
Reading a book, sewing or doing a craft instead of watching tv/using the internet.

Just inspiring ways to live the life I want to live instead of consuming and being a sheep to life and following the 'norm'.

IWAB x

fairy3

Can I jump aboard too please? Have recently taken early retirement and finances will be reduced so whilst I can still do some work am aiming to live a simpler and 'lighter' life. Recently did the 7 day fiscal fast on here and enjoyed the spare time and challenge.
Have also been 'toying' with the idea of staying away from the SM's in 2015 as they are hideous places IMHO - and using the market and local butcher and fishmongers for quality rather than quantity.
Also need to tackle the clutter and stuff accumulated over many years which I simply do not need. The Japanese have a word for "the act of buying books and not reading them, leaving them to pile up": TSUNDOKU ... well I have one of those too so no more buying books in 2015.
Looking forward to the challenge maties.
IWAB - It may be worth mentioning at the hospital if you have increased visits they can give you a pass which waives the car parking charges, the ward staff usually have a supply.

Fairy x

I_want_a_baby

Thankyou fairy3, I will ask if I happen to keep going in. Fingers crossed I don't!!

Very much looking forward to this challenge. I would love to shun the supermarkets but I would really struggle to afford it. We have £200 a month food budget for two adults a 5 year old boy and 3 year old girl. I made this stretch by using aldi super 6 veg/meat offers and lidl weekend offers. I may start using the local market though and go from there...

Something to think about/work towards.

IWAB x

Nargleblast

May I come and play too, please? I do try to be frugal but my OH has an eBay addiction, he and our DS eat for England, and there always seems to be someone or something demanding money from me. We are less than a year away from completing our IVA and I am determined to start making extra payments towards the mortgage once completed.

A friend cuts our hair every month for £20, and I treat myself to a massage session once a month for £35 - I feel so much better since I started doing this so will keep that going. Food wise we eat well, homecooked food, very little processed stuff. We make jams, marmalade and chutney, some of which we give as presents. I am determined to put more work into growing veg and fruit next year, and trying to reduce the amount spent in supermarkets. I don't smoke, drink little, don't gamble or go on nights out, too expensive and too much hassle after a long day at work.
Those purse strings are going to be pulled so tight next year!

MoonJelly

Hello! Can I join as well?

I have been cutting down on buying stuff for a while but this thread looks like the perfect incentive to stay on the straight and narrow.
I do have a couple of expensive purchases in my future which I don't think I can get from a charity shop: a tumbledryer (new or used but it will be over £75) and 100% wool yarn to knit husband a jumper (he spends a lot of time outdoors). Other than that it will be charity shops as much as I can. DS's shoes are another item which I cannot get easily because he requires narrow-fit shoes but of course I will scour ebay first.
I have more makeup than a professional make up artist. This morning I mixed several face cream leftovers to make a whole jar. I think I have enought face cream for the who 2015.

Slowdown

Ah, did I hear Country Living magazine mentioned? This little number, along with Homes and Gardens and House Beautiful, need to be moved to the top shelf and wrapped in brown paper packaging.

They are dangerous to consumers at every level. Paraded in front of our eyes are rooms with 'accidentally" strewn goods that are stylish yet ramshackle at the same time, kidding us that we are wandering through an equally ramshackle country barn shop full of locally hand made goods that will make us happy and comfortable, stylish and admired, fulfilled and successful simultaneously. Now that is quite a feat!

Of course I don't just emulate these lifestyles but I have a problem closer to home. I have tried very hard to emulate, of all people, my sister. She lives in a huge detached house in the Home Counties, with acres of kitchen, three reception rooms, five bedrooms and four bathrooms. She has extended, decorated, extended, decorated, extended decorated. It's beautiful. But why? Six kids? Nope. Live in parents? Nope. Ten dogs, five cats and a guinea pig? Nope? So why?

I don't know. She has always wanted bigger and better. She has friends in high places with big bank balances. Now don't get me wrong, I love the girl to bits. I really do. But I have spent way to long letting her be one of my guiding lights. I have admired, I have yearned, I have envied. But it will never be me. So now it stops.

It is no longer a case of keeping up with the Jonses but keeping up with the Beckhams, the Middletons and the Zeta-Jonses. So this is my Guiding Light#4 - do not try to emulate anyone, especially those closest to me.

I am still most grateful to all you scurvy dogs helping me to hoist the mainsail. HMS NoBuy appears to be crewed by hard working strivers, economists in charge of rationing, quiet philosophers pacing on the fore deck and a lot of shipmates to direct our passage through the oceans of resistance.

Let the flotilla of consumerism pass across our horizon, for we will resist the temptation to chase it down and claim it for a prize!

Kind regards
Slowdown

GreyQueen

Hey, Slowdown, one of my friends has a serious 'house p0rn' habit, some of the decor magazines you mention. I flick through them with my BS Alert on and play little games such as how many times will this magazine mention the word bespoke? Or some other pretentious word/ phrase of your choice.

Minutes of innocent fun. Anyone with slightly-older children could sit down with them and deconstruct the advertising images and ask them to work out how they're being manipulated. If you're good at this, you could cure them of consumerism at a young age and set them up for life.

Once you start this game you'll never be able to take advertising seriously again. Such as me, about 15-odd years ago, around a mate's place. He had cable TV on in another room and I wandered through to see what was playing and sat there, transfixed, roaring with laughter.

Pal came through to see what was so funny; I was watching a shopping channel assuming it was a satirical comedy show. I laughed even harder when I realised that it was actually for real.:rotfl: