Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

mavvymoo

The Ads are a strange one as I used to work in furniture sales for my sins and yes Boxing day was one of the best sales days of the year :eek:
So the answer to your question JackieO is yes sadly a lot do.
Goodness knows why.I would have been at home with my family if these slaves to the Ads people hadnt wanted to trek around all the stores to buy that 'perfect' sofa as they were going to decorate in Jan and the colour of the one they had didnt quite go.

We also used to take the old sofas away and I could have cried as some were so lovely and looked brand new and they all had to go to landfill :eek: So shocking and so wasteful.

Does anyone else notice that the volume increases when the Ads come on ? I have to turn it down it goes so loud.

Also there is a lot of products I would never ever buy even if I needed them really badly because of the Ads they annoy me so much :mad:

Anyway I am off the buying treadmill and staying off for as long as I can

Mav x

mirry

SALE pieces you need right NOW!

This was the title of the email I received this morning from a famous clothing store.
I can't believe how aggressive the title is.
It reminds me of "you are feeling sleepy, very sleepy" , lol.

As for sofas, I know someone who had a new sofa, but walked past a shop that was selling "one off" designer sofas, so had to have one and took a £6000 loan for it :eek:

We got our sofa set off gum tree last year, it was 10 months old. They paid £5000 we paid £150, couldn't believe our luck, but they did seem very wealthy so it's all relative I suppose.

mirry

I forgot to say.....

For those struggling with depression, I have been reading some very interesting articles about how they found people with depression have inflamation in their blood. And they recommend eating high omega 3 foods to treat it. So the past week I've been eating an omega 3 seed mix every morning & it tastes lovely mixed in with a bit of granola or bran flakes & banana.

[Deleted User]

Still lurking and not buying!

Just popping in to say that yes, the volume does increase when the adverts come on. My dad used to work in that department for ITV and said that it is deliberate - to make you wake up a bit and notice them!!!

Not bought anything other than the weekly planned food shopping so far. I have a birthday coming up and the only thing I 'need' is a bed night shirt, so I have requested that from my sister and an experience from my parents instead and am going to the theatre with hubby! So lookng forward to it, it's something I enjoy, money is not being wasted and I don't have something bought for me just for the sake of a 'prezzy'.

Larumbelle

tooties wrote: »

Good evening everybody,

I am failing miserably at this challenge!!
I think i have spent money mostly unnecessary every day. I am in the midst of a deep depression just now so i think that could be the cause of my spending.
However i have gave myself a good talking to and i am starting from a clean slate.
Onwards and upwards

regards

Tooties, huge hugs :grouphug: I have depression too, and it does not make anything easier. And it makes you hard on yourself too! I know it is all so easy to say don't be, so I won't

What I found helped me get back on track with my house, which I let slide so horrendously it seriously looked like it belonged on one of those ghastly reality shows, was to make a note of every tiny little victory. Don't make any record of anything negative, just focus on the positive. So for me, I have a note book that literally has entries like

01/01/16 - 2 bin bags of rubbish
02/01/16 - gave bag of clothes to charity shop
03/01/16 - did three loads of washing

Utterly ridiculous to anyone not recovering their home after not cleaning for a year after they had a breakdown! But useful and helpful to me, and not a mention of the six hours I spent procrastinating whether I could clean up, or the fact that I only gave one bag of clothes to the charity shop when I probably could have sorted out six if I had been more brutal!

So apply the same principle to NBI. Remember the positive, forget the negative, and remember that every tiny victory helps and matters!!! Hope that helps xxx

Aril

Day 7/366. NSD. Long day of working and out tonight to do my volunteering. Have recently become involved with some additional recycling schemes via a local green group which raises money for charity. Doing stuff for other people helps me manage my anxiety/depression. Please all be kind to yourself on this challenge- you set the rules and rules can be changed. There's no failure- do what suits you on that particular day. If it doesn't work out don't use it as a stick to beat yourself with. If you can get back in the saddle another day celebrate your success and any achievement in fact. Depression is an illness not a sign of weakness- nothing to be ashamed of. Hand on heart some of the people I know with it are also some of the bravest I know.
Arilx

wildthing01

mavvymoo wrote: »

I am finding 'The not buying it' challenge very liberating in a strange way. It really is quite odd I am no longer looking for that 'perfect' thing no matter if I needed it or not.

I am just not buying it unless its something I really need.Still have my weekly spends in my purse intact

Its like some kind of pressure has been taken off me How weird.

Long may it continue !

Mav x

Me too! I feel all sort of floaty and light!

Firesidemaid - I too visited a charity shop yesterday, one I'd not been in before - was on way home from work and needed to nip into SM to get milk (this is where I didn't buy a pizza as per my last post!), charity shop next door, went in and gathered a few things that I vaguely liked and sort of needed (pair of work trousers for example - refuse to spend big money on clothes I am solely going to wear for work!), and then had that liberating moment where I thought: none of these items spark joy, and/or I don't really need them. So put them back (bit of a pain, trailing back round the shop replacing them all on the correct colour-coded rails!) and left empty-handed.

Also today at lunch, bought the cheaper and healthier soup option from canteen instead of much more expensive, less healthy option. Soup was delicious. Feeling quite smug now! (not sure how long this will last though - I do have a tendency to buy things to cheer myself up when the drudgery of daily life as a full-time working mum catches up!)

wildthing01

oh dear - sofas! we do need a new one (partly as re-building/decorating living room in our new house) and partly as the kids and cats have trashed the cheap ones we bought, and they really don't spark joy as they are a right pain in the bum to keep clean (too many nooks and crannies for kids to push smarties etc into). So, have vaguely been looking on Gumtree/eBay etc and have been faintly horrified at the number of people saying they're selling almost new sofas that cost x amount of thousands because they don't like them or are changing their decor.

Mav - really sad that the old sofas couldn't have been donated to a local furniture project or charity - we have one near us that takes furniture for families that have not even beds for their kids (refugees etc).

I know someone whose OH worked for a waste management company who used to tell terrible stories of brand new stuff from company warehouses, inc expensive electronics, still boxed, that had to be sent to landfill because they were part of a consignment of goods that had perhaps been caught in a flood - maybe the bottom layer of pallets had been water damaged, but the upper layers were fine, yet whole lot had to go in bin. Made me really angry, really, that the inflated cost of such goods must then include a certain amount to account for wastage. Another reason to Not Buy It!

wildthing01

Larumbelle wrote: »

Tooties, huge hugs :grouphug: I have depression too, and it does not make anything easier. And it makes you hard on yourself too! I know it is all so easy to say don't be, so I won't

What I found helped me get back on track with my house, which I let slide so horrendously it seriously looked like it belonged on one of those ghastly reality shows, was to make a note of every tiny little victory. Don't make any record of anything negative, just focus on the positive. So for me, I have a note book that literally has entries like

01/01/16 - 2 bin bags of rubbish
02/01/16 - gave bag of clothes to charity shop
03/01/16 - did three loads of washing

Utterly ridiculous to anyone not recovering their home after not cleaning for a year after they had a breakdown! But useful and helpful to me, and not a mention of the six hours I spent procrastinating whether I could clean up, or the fact that I only gave one bag of clothes to the charity shop when I probably could have sorted out six if I had been more brutal!

So apply the same principle to NBI. Remember the positive, forget the negative, and remember that every tiny victory helps and matters!!! Hope that helps xxx

Larumbelle, this is not ridiculous at all. I have luckily never had depression, but this is pretty much how I approach my life. As a mum to young children, who has to work full time, life can feel overwhelming at times, and I have learned to take every little thing as a positive. Did i get the kids to school with all the relevant bags etc, on time, with minimal shouting? Or did i manage to put a wash on AND remember to take it out again before it started to smell? Did I eat something proper for tea (i.e. not a choc bar and crisps?) Each one of these is a little victory. Life can be hard, we need to be easy on ourselves.

117pauline

Larumbelle, please try the "list of accomplishments" rather than a "to do" list. The latter will only make you feel a failure whereas the former will show you that you are managing to do something.

I would also encourage you to treat yourself as kindly as you would do a friend in a similar position. Your worst critic will be yourself. When you feel that coming on, pop in to see us here on the thread.

Having just spent four hours at the local hospital, I spent quite a bit of time thinking of the good rather than the bad side of life. This too makes me feel more part of the world.

So today I also re-organised the freezer so I could list all the items as well as put the same together. We definitely have sufficent meat for six weeks at least. I have the turkey etc all ready for our Christmas meal when step son returns from the Falklands. I got some really great food bargains over the holiday period.

Just off for my 4th swim of the year. I joined the local Leisure Centre after working out which was the most cost effective. This way I can swim little and often whenever I like. I just didn't want to spend £2.60 on swimming 8 lengths.

My resolution is to take more care of my health so that I can feel the best I can. We were lucky enough to get ballot tickets for the Centenary Commemorations at the Thiepval Memorial for the Missing of the Somme in July. We went last year and were overcome with the sense of peace there. It would be great if I could feel better in myself when we go as it will be a very busy five days.

Keep sailing on shipmates,
Pauline