Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

GreyQueen

Afternoon, all.

Been up on my allotment for nearly three hours, digging and planting my £land fruit bushes. I was disgusted with a garden centre in the home town wanting £8.99 for things no bigger or better than these.

I've planted five gooseberry bushes today and gone back and got a sixth and two redcurrants. Which means I have 8 bushes and am still ahead by 99p over buying one of the garden centre ones.

Have also dug up one of my teenage blackcurrant bushes to give away. The parent bush was a gift to me, and these teenage bushes were created by sticking the pruned-off branches into the ground in early Dec 2014. Currants are very forgiving, and the process was as crude and careless as it sounds, and five out of the six branches grew into new fruit bushes, hence me begrudging paying £9-bar-a-penny for them.:D

Last night I went to use my glue-stick to put the accounts pages I'd created on the pooter into the freebie A4 diary, because I use these constantly and the freebie didn't have them (I normally spend £4.99 on a Hoxfam diary). Turned glue-stick up and realised that it was almost used up and there was no more gooey bit coming up to use.

Started to bin it, then thought better - I got a metal nail file and got the last 5 mm of stick out that way, which was enough to do the job.

Have been to my Magic Greengrocer and got a carrier-bagful of fruit and veg for £1 and went into a chazzer and was wildly overexcited to find a lot of books by an author whose backlist I'm reading. Instinct was to grab everything I'd not read, but I am organised and had a printed list of his books in my wallet, with notes of which I'd read and of the others, which were in the library system, and which I'd have to order from other branches.

If they'd been £1 each (or under) instead of £1.49 I would have brought more than the three I did have, but the others can be ordered from elsewhere in the county for 50p or are in my branch library. So I will enjoy the three I have bought, donate them to my favourite chazzer and get the others from the library.

Will be having a meal at home mainly featuring chili con carne (made with YS mince reduced to 30p just before Xmas and frozen) and then will be popping over to a pal who lives a few streets away for what we call our knit & natter, which is very relaxing and involves no spending at all.

All in all, very happy with my low-spending day and that I took two bagfuls to the chazzer as well.

pm2326

Have been shopping to aldi, first time since 28 December and spent £15.09 :T

Stayed away from the frozen aisle as still running current stocks down. Replaced a few tins and cleaning bits and have enough veg for at least a week, even bought a celeriac, never tried it before so thought it's about time I gave it a go.

Although I'm running stocks down I bought another 2 jars of mincemeat as they're reduced to 79p for 800g and I use it all year round. Even found a new recipe for mincemeat pancakes which I'm trying tomorrow for breakfast

mrs_motivated

Evening shipmates, we the weather has been awful here, its rained all day. ooh GreyQueen, I am so jealous of you having such a productive day on your allotment. I love gardening and growing things, although the weather hasn't been kind enough here to get out there.


I went to Aldi and Waitrose today to do the big monthly food shop, the only unplanned spend was some thermals for OH who works outside so they are needed and a shopping list / meal planner pad on sale in Aldi, which I am Hoping will keep me organised now I am back at work.


Other than that, I cleaned the house through (except DDS bathroom, which I shall tackle tomorrow) and emptied the ironing basket and changed the bedding, for snugly brushed cotton sets as it has forecast a cold spell next week, with possible snow showers.


Tonight's plan is to snuggle up on the sofa with a nice glass of wine.

Primrose

pm2326 wrote: »

Have been shopping to aldi, ........even bought a celeriac, never tried it before so thought it's about time I gave it a go.

Try making remoulade by grating the raw celeriac. it's a sort of celeriac coleslaw, mixed with mayonnaise or even a little horseradish sauce. Google will probably throw up lots of variations and it's very nice. It's also good thinly sliced in stir fries, and in thicker chunks in soups and caseroles. If yiu imagine the taste and texture of the bottom stump of a head of celery...it tastes just like that.

nursemaggie

3 hours GQ I don't think it has stopped raining for 3 minutes today!

It has been pretty heavy too would not have got much gardening done.

[Deleted User]

Battled my way around the M11 and M25 and now am back at home from taking DGS back to Uni.weather was dreadful torrential rain from Thetford right round to south of the Medway where I live.Glad to be indoors now, going to have a large cup of coffee and probably an omellette from odds and ends in the fridge
Keep warm and dry shipmates
jackieO xx
P.S. if you lived near me GQ you could have my old ghetto blaster Eldest DD bought me a posh digital radio for Christmas ,nothing wrong with the old one but she said she would treat me to an up to date wireless.I will probably donate it to the BHF shop next time I go to Maidstone as it works perfectly.

chirpycheap

Yesterday we managed to sell a length of worktop left over from when we had new worktops. It was a welcome £15 as it has been taking up room in the garage and it was too heavy for us to lift and take to the tip. We were highly amused by the very posh looking couple who turned up to buy it. They were expensively dressed and turned up in a brand new Mercedes. Either thrift had meant they could afford the finer things in life or they were in financial straits!

We went shopping today for my birthday gift (stuff from the Paperchase sale). I prefer to pick my own as DH is notorious for panic buying the strangest of gifts. We did treat ourselves to a coffee and had a wander round the charity shops. I managed to resist any impulse buys. I nearly bought three vintage avocado dishes, four mugs and a candle. All of which were a bargain but weren't needed.

My lovely husband suggested that we have lunch out to save me cooking but I declined. I had a meal planned and ready to go and to be honest I find the thought of a meal out always infinitely more exciting than the reality. We headed home for homemade Fajitas and a piece of Christmas Cake that my sister gave us as she is sick of the sight of it in her house.
Enjoying reading everyone's posts and finding them very interesting and motivating!

Primrose

I don't post on here very often but I enjoy sharing the day to day machinations of other peoples' lives. On grey days when the rain is streaming down, the skies are grey and somehow you can't always motivate yourself to "get up and go" it's both reassuring to read that some others are feeling same, but also motivational that others are getting their sleeves rolled up and getting useful stuff done. All of us plodding along on the same journey though!

Rainy-Days

Chirpycheap - it could be that they wanted it for the garage! In the last house I had the tumble dryer and an old cupboard so managed to get a length of unwanted - but new - worktop and we fitted it in over the unit and TD. Slotted in a treat and it looked really nice and tidy.

Old saying one mans junk is another mans treasure!

Anyway, this charity in Newcastle have my old junk soon to become their new treasures, which are my old bath sheets and towels. Over 12 years old and decided they needed to be parted with. Not excatly OS or even economising I guess, but a fab soft towel is a luxury in my book and the old ones had had a good innings!

Aril

Day 9/366 A NSD. Instead I've been on a lovely if rather muddy walk up on the Downs organised by the Sussex Wildlife Trust along with my OH and a friend. We took snacks with us and then had a late lunch back at the ranch rather than a pub meal. Visited a church with beautiful medieval paintings and took in some fantastic views.
Arilx