Is frugal the new normal?

suki1964

tuskel wrote: »

Well, whatever gets people into the frugal lifestyle when they are a bit more mindful and not wasteful, is good enough for me. Because honestly, the thing I hate more than anything is wasting perfectly good things, be it food or furniture or electricals etc. So yes, I am judgemental towards the people who do that. I want to scream: "Do you know how much energy, clean water and time went into making all those things and getting them to you??? And you just throw it away????" That gets up my nose and I do not care if you can afford it or not, I think the old saying "More money than sense" applies there.

tuskel,
sincerely

Totally agree

Does my head in when a new TV is bought when there was nothing wrong with the old one, just the new one has more bells and whistles. And don't get me going about phones:eek: Esp iPhones. Like why the need to upgrade every year? Don't get me wrong, I do have one myself but it was paid for outright and is three years old. Yet a work colleague has upgraded his 4 times in the same time frame:eek: What's the point?

Our best TV in terms of sound and picture is a very old jvc, you know those huge monstrosities which are all back? It's got to be 20 years old and it's the only TV I can hear clearly without having to adjust the sound with every programme. Yes it's huge and takes up a lot of floor space but it's going nowhere till it dies a death

Our daughter benefits if we are getting rid of something. Right now she has my old kitchen table and chairs ( been sanded down and seats recovered many many times) and our old suite. Grandson benefited when we sold the caravan by getting a TV for his play station. When my cooker died and I changed to induction and needed new pans, the students I work with got my old ones. Dog pound gets old duvets, charity shop gets anything that I can't car boot or sell on gumtree

It saddens me when I do have to go to the tip to see the vast amount of electrical/white goods sitting there. I'm looking a new to me freezer for the garage and there's always stacks of them there just dumped and unfortunately you can't help yourself.

[Deleted User]

suki1964 wrote: »

Does my head in when a new TV is bought when there was nothing wrong with the old one, just the new one has more bells and whistles.

Each to their own. I just bought a new TV, LED with internet access, only 32" but it was a modern replacement for my fully working flatscreen with freeview. It consumes far less power and pleases me. I gave my old tv away to the county re cycling people, they came and collected it and it is probably helping someone in need right now

Like I said, each to their own and there is no one size fits all. I like handing things on

Islandmaid

Almost nearly put central heating on - but am currently sat with the cats in front of the wood burner instead - much more sociable

I have cleared out the fridge this morning (bin day Thursday) and was quite chuffed at the lack of waste - have chopped a couple of limp carrots, some celeriac tops, a leek up and with 3 chicken thighs, have made a chicken pie to accompany the remainder of the spuds, which will be mashed.

It looks very empty now, awaiting the new veg delivery tomorrow, I,ll pop into Aldo tomorrow for some basics and match some meat for next weeks meal plan

The money I have saved will go towards freezer fillers of meat joints which I portion up

meritaten

you know - its one of my 'bugbears' too! why 'upgrade' something that works? my computers always have to 'die' before I even think of an upgrade - and so does every other leccy item! I hate this 'must have THE LATEST' mindset. people throw perfectly good things away - the waste simply horrifies me!
passing on items is not only helpful to those in need, but is far kinder to the planet - this just dumping of stuff for others to dispose of shows a selfish mentality. and some councils refusal to let others take items from the dump.............words fail me! our council has this policy too - luckily their workers mostly have far more common sense.

GreyQueen

My desktop computer has just had it's 13th birthday. It has a CRT monitor which weighs a whopping 21 kg. Fortunately for me, I only move it when I move house. I was offered a flatscreen monitor by a friend who seemed surprised when I declined.

My reasoning was simple; this 17 inch CRT monitor is in excellent nick, has a lovely picture and does me just fine. If I accepted the flatscreen, all I would gain would be a few inches of unusable space on the back on the computer desk. I would have to dispose of the CRT monitor and no one wants these things, even as a freebie. All in all, I wouldn't gain much and would lose plenty.

When I am away from the computer for more than a few mins, I turn the power off to the monitor, as I have done for years. Even when it's on, it's an energy star rated appliance and my entire household is only using 2.5-3 kWh per 24 hrs anyway, so I don't think a flatscreen model would save me much.

I intend to keep this setup as long as possible and when it's finally deid, I think I will discuss a rebuild using the existing tower, monitor and keyboard with my pooter wizard. I would do this if it could be done at a reasonable cost to preserve resouces and also to continue with the unstealworthiness of this putty-coloured behemoth.

Ain't nobody going to tuck this baby under their jacket like a lappy and run off with it.:rotfl:

suki1964

meritaten wrote: »

you know - its one of my 'bugbears' too! why 'upgrade' something that works? my computers always have to 'die' before I even think of an upgrade - and so does every other leccy item! I hate this 'must have THE LATEST' mindset. people throw perfectly good things away - the waste simply horrifies me!
passing on items is not only helpful to those in need, but is far kinder to the planet - this just dumping of stuff for others to dispose of shows a selfish mentality. and some councils refusal to let others take items from the dump.............words fail me! our council has this policy too - luckily their workers mostly have far more common sense.

My step dad in his last years read about the new ratings for double glazing and windows as a whole. In his confusion he decided that all ours needed changing as they no longer fit the new regulations. He couldn't get his head around that they were fit to pass regulations when the house was built,so he spent thousands getting them replaced. There was sod all wrong with what we had

I totally agree that if replacing, find a good home for the out going


My appliances are all A+ ratings at the time of purchase. Who's to say the standards haven't changed in the past few years and the new A+ ratings use less power, should I chuck out perfectly good working appliances just to save a few more pennies a year on fuel costs, or wait till they die?

[Deleted User]

I do agree about keeping appliances as long as possible but one by one they did all break down, my neff oven, my whirlpool dishwasher, my beko washing machine. I did eventually replace them with the best that I could afford, I was wearing my thrifty hat and it so happens that now they are top of the range and should last longer than me. More important than that, in some ways, is that I cannot again go through getting these big items replaced, the mess, the removal etc, I have just done all that and believe me it is physically exhausting and aching and now I just want to make my house easier for an older single person to live in and enjoy

Some more people are going to benefit later today, I am off to the cs with another trolley full of things I can no longer use

I suppose, although no longer frugal, I am thriftier than ever

tatabubbly

I've been following this thread and I thought I'd say that it really opens my eyes to how wasteful I can be!

Frugal to me is something I can do but more for lean times than good times, this has helped me remember that planning for the future is always wise!

suki1964

kittie wrote: »

I do agree about keeping appliances as long as possible but one by one they did all break down, my neff oven, my whirlpool dishwasher, my beko washing machine. I did eventually replace them with the best that I could afford, I was wearing my thrifty hat and it so happens that now they are top of the range and should last longer than me. More important than that, in some ways, is that I cannot again go through getting these big items replaced, the mess, the removal etc, I have just done all that and believe me it is physically exhausting and aching and now I just want to make my house easier for an older single person to live in and enjoy

Some more people are going to benefit later today, I am off to the cs with another trolley full of things I can no longer use

I suppose, although no longer frugal, I am thriftier than ever

Indeed they should our Miele washing machine is over 20 years old and still works perfectly , same with the vacuum. Hopefully the fridge and cooker will have the same lifespans

When things have died in the past, when we were cash rich, time poor, it was just a question of popping into the electrical shop and buoying whatever they had available at that time. No research, no costings, nothing. Now we have learned the hard way. Spend more time on research, spend a bit more money, spend the time finding the best price and then haggle that down further. We save up and pay cash so that usually gives a bit of wiggle room. We also tend to buy locally as well. Our independent electrical shop will haggle, will do free same day/following day delivery and will also remove the dead appliance FOC

grunnie

I replaced all my white goods in the few years before I retired 11 years ago thinking they would see me out :jbut last week the fridge freezer gave up and the cooker has 1 ring not working the oven only heats when it wants to not when I want it too and the fan hasn't worked for a year or so and the grill broke a while ago. I did my research and also looked in JLewis and chose a fr freezer a freestanding cooker and fancied a bigger freezer for the garage as well. Then I went to a local retailer and bought them from him at a great saving and he delivered for free connected them all for me and would have removed the old ones if I hadn't had them on freecycle. :T