Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

grunnie

Thanks for the choc cake recipe. I use almost the same recipe but I use SR flour. Will try your icing next as I just do marg and icing sugar cocoa and water. :j
I have even been known to cheat and use a Thorntons cake mix ;)which comes with the icing in the box when I see it for £1 in B&M stores but you need to add eggs and oil to it.

tatabubbly

Definitely NBI today! Been in a shopping center for two hours and I haven't bought a thing.. OH did buy me lunch but it was he who wanted me to come the whole way out to see him during his break at work.

Decided to wait the 3 hours for him to finish work so we could go home together in the car. Only another hour and half to go. I never realized how utterly boring shopping centers are if you have no intention of buying anything.

I didn't realise shops had started charging for catalogues. I went to get a catalogue to plan for a few baby related purchases for the year and the shop assistant wanted €1 for it. Eh, no thank you, I'll consult the Internet instead. Which is free when you use the centers wifi!

[Deleted User]

Hi all, I've been so busy with work that I haven;t been able to keep up with this thread!

My spending has been very good this month. Mostly only essentials and I've been doing my best to use up store cupboard and freezer supplies.

DH and I did have a spend last week as we went to Norfolk to see the Grey seals and their pups which meant booking a hotel, meals out, petrol and a couple of shopping trips! (I must say I fell in love with Home Bargains and went a bit wild as we don;t have them down here in Surrey!)

I hope everyone is managing to stay warm in this horrible weather, I'm currently in my thermals with a blanket around me!

Hugs to all that need them - I'm off to catch up on everyone's posts!

Aril

Day 20/366 Small spend incurred. Staggeringly I had run out of tinned toms:o I was so blase that I hadn't actually bothered to check and spag bol is a little tricky without 'em I find! I've got lots of leftover scraps of soap tucked away here. In the past I've made laundry gloop but it just doesn't work for me. A little bit of investigation says you can remelt them and mould them into new bars. Just need to add some essential oil which I've already got in. I feel a NBI experiment coming on. I gleaned this info from here http://www.instructables.com/ a mine of useful information!
Arilx

greengoblin

Aril wrote: »

A little bit of investigation says you can remelt them and mould them into new bars. Just need to add some essential oil which I've already got in. x

I do this with bits of candle wax, I just use a pringles tube (full or snack size) as the mould and then end up with really nice multicoloured pillar candles

candygirl

BirdNerdSophie wrote: »

Hi all, I've been so busy with work that I haven;t been able to keep up with this thread!

My spending has been very good this month. Mostly only essentials and I've been doing my best to use up store cupboard and freezer supplies.

DH and I did have a spend last week as we went to Norfolk to see the Grey seals and their pups which meant booking a hotel, meals out, petrol and a couple of shopping trips! (I must say I fell in love with Home Bargains and went a bit wild as we don;t have them down here in Surrey!)

I hope everyone is managing to stay warm in this horrible weather, I'm currently in my thermals with a blanket around me!

Hugs to all that need them - I'm off to catch up on everyone's posts!

The seals sound lovely, but no Home Bargains? :eek: I could't cope without ours

wildthing01

Lynplatinum - thanks for your advice/supportive words - I'm def more and more signed up to the idea that having a bit of me-time will be good for the whole family.

I had another afternoon off today as was owed some time back (which I'd forgotten about till looked at diary this am, so was very pleasantly surprised!) As I came out of work, I debated whether to walk into town where there is a rather good selection of up-market charity shops, but then I thought, well it's a bit cold for walking (was wearing smart work clothes/heels) and there's nothing I particularly want/need at the moment, plus, surely a more productive way to use my bonus me-time would be to go home and relax.

So I went home, spent a fruitless hour trying to light the blxxdy fire (just cannot do it, DH can do it instantly, but I just do not have the knack), then relaxed on settee snuggled in my fleecy dressing gown, with cheese and tomato on toast and watched Derren Brown on catch-up (the man is a genius). I did admittedly then clean the downstairs of the house, but I'm glad I did as I felt so much better afterwards, not having to look at the mess.

So, a NSD and am def feeling more in control of life. The less I fill my time with non-essentials (like shopping), the calmer I am and the more capacity I have to remember/keep up with the essential stuff, which in turn makes me feel calmer, and less in need of 'retail therapy'. It must be like when people give up sugar and so stop craving it. (I wouldn't know - there's not a chance I'm giving up sugar).

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Silly day today, very annoyed with everything and everyone and plan on having a very early night... Hope the world looks better tomorrow.

Small groceries round today, some dairy, a whole chicken and posh ice cream as I will have visitors on Saturday. Still sooo much money left in my January-groceries-budget, so I think I will be able to stick to that without problems. Only a small groceries round planned for Friday for the remaining stuff for next week.

I froze a pizza dough last week as I had some fresh yeast to use up. Worked a treat. Put it straigt into the freezer in a bag without letting it go, than took it out yesterday evening, out of the plastic bag, into a bowl with a lid on top and it rose just fine overnight.

Sophie, I envy you for the seal-watching. really fascinating animals, like them very much!

Tattabubbly, shopping centres are in fact quite uninteressting places :-) But when I see the people just wandering around there as if it was the most interessting place on earth I really wonder as all I ever do is getting in with my list and going to the two or three shops I have to go and then leave asap....

re yoghurt making... Read a recipe in a cookbook a couple of years ago and tried it out... All you had to do was boil the milk for x minutes, add the yoghurt and leave overnight... Was a failure and only after that I remembered my granny fiddling with the thermometer when making yoghurt herself, so knew that this recipe just coudln't work...

Thanks for posting the link to the chocolate cake, ended up searching for other 1£ cakes and found a lovely wwII ration recipe which will be our dessert on Saturday, but with posh icecream instead of faked whipped cream.

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there

:cool: Wildthing - a great combination - relaxing and clearing a chore out of the way so you can pat yourself on the back and relax somemore cos the chores are done! Nice one!

Sophie - I too snuggle down in a blankie of an evening - a very comforting thing to do as well as saving on heating bills

Well back aboard the good ship NBI today. An NSD and researched a trip to Cornwall soon - car vs bus vs train vs Spotted Red Hankie! Train fares are £115 single and £116 return???? Cannot figure this out! Split ticketing only reduces fare by £1 rediiicu-lous! (say it Donald Duck style!!!) V busy at mo + car going to garage @ weekend ergo considering a relaxing traintrip. Why am I goin? House i was gonna buy has been sold to someone else and **** Estate Agent didnt tell me!! So having to look at others!:mad:
Tho it will be great to stay with me mate again!:A
Nite all

nursemaggie

Lyn train fares are always only £1 or £2 more for return I resent it on a 5 or six mile journey. Try this one? I can get a single to Manchester Airport but not a return. How often does anyone go one way to an airport?

Wont you need the car to get around looking at houses?