Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

ThriftyJeans

Hi everyone! Is it too late to join the thread?
I've been lurking on and off MSE for a while now but have only just come across this thread, have spent the last couple of days reading all the previous posts (yes all 20 pages!) and picked up many great tips.
It's so nice to come across like minded people, that are rebelling against consumerism and the notion that we need to buy certain goods in order to keep up with society.

I like to think that I'm pretty canny when it comes to money, preferring to make or fix something before I look at buying a new one, and then shopping around for the best price when I do spend the money. However last year I found myself spending unnecessarily, the odd £10/£20 here and there without anything to really show for it. So this year I vowed to make a concerted effort to be aware of exactly what I'm spending and where, and to ask myself "do I really need that new workout top?" (Gym clothes are my weakness!). Also I'm saving up for a deposit in order to move out so any extra money that I can save is great, then I'll reach my goal sooner!

Anyway so far January has been good, pretty much everyday has been a NSD. I did have to fork out nearly £500 for a course I'm doing; I'm currently studying to become a personal trainer whilst working full time. My aim is to qualify and then do PT work alongside my full time job, in the evenings and weekends in order to earn some extra money. I love my current job, I work on a farm teaching horticulture and animal care to adults with learning difficulties, so it's definitely challenging enough, it's just there is no real career progression or chance of a pay rise. So if I want to get my own place I need to earn a bit more money.

Sorry for the essay and if I've bored you all!
Keep up the good work everyone and here's to NBI!

Lou ��

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there shipmates!

Welcome Thrifty - anyone can join anytime!! Similar minds are so reassuring I used to keep my somewhat vehement anti consumerist viewpoint to myself but on here at least I can let rip without anyone looking at me as if I've lost it! :beer:

I also write down NSD in my diary if that is the day I had so I can add em up at the end of most months! :)

Ok so today I spent the princely sum of £1.99. I went to the bank and pure instinct led me to a CS. In terms of NBI make myself have a mental list of what I might buy at the CS rather than filling my house with more stuff. But my white side plates currently on my list were not there - instead I found a pair of Per Una dusky purple jeans at size 16 (have just lost a little bit of weight and more inches because I ve been doing my exercises like the physio told me to do when I broke my leg in 2014). So yes, I spent money but the jeans I usually buy cost £20 so I saved £18. (I asked them to put the 1p in charity tin! :cool:

Also this supported people in care homes rather than some large corporation. however, we need them sometimes!
Nite all

WeeMidgie

Hello fellow matelots! Nothing to report for a while, but today I've saved some money by asking for a reduction from my phone & broadband suppliers - which was quick and saved me 26% and the hassle of having to change providers.

I also asked for a refund of a call I made to a friend on New Year's Day, which I mistakenly thought would count as a weekend rate and didn't. Only 47 mins long, and to a city only 40miles away, it cost £5.69!! :eek: More than I spent on posting my Christmas cards! :rotfl: Now rebated as a credit to my next monthly bill . Next year New Year's Day is a Sunday so will be free!

[Deleted User]

Well done everyone and welcome to the good ship NBI Thrifty, all are welcome and mutual suport is guaranteed on here

I went to my U3A coffee morning and coffee was free with my 'Dobbies voucher' but the best part is, I wore my fleece which I hadn't worn for ages, well before Christmas, and when I put my hand in my pocket I found a two pound coin I had forgotten all about so I am £2.00 up on this morning. If I remember I had put it in there in case I needed some cash when I was on a trip along the local riverside contry park with my DGS last October during half-term. :):)

Nice surprise, so I shall pop it into my 'holiday ice-cream tin' in the kitchen which I normally put my 'road-kill'cash into.

Then on top of that going back to the car park after coffee I found three five p pieces lying on the floor in the car park so todayI am better off than yesterday and haven't spent a penny ;these too will go into the tin.

Quiz night tonight so maybe it will be three in a row for luck :):)

Onwards and upwards everyone

JackieO xxx

eandjsmum

No spending today found £3.50 tiding my desk need some for car-parking on Thursday. Have done the shopping list and rearranged meal plan to make the most of what I already have. Just been paid so off to pay a very small cc bill. then the Ironing to do and a spot of de-cluttering.

wildthing01

Lynplatinum wrote: »

For example my DIL was delighted with her 'pressy voucher' - Martin's idea - to go shopping in Hobb!crafts at sale time in Jan rather than in December because she could get more for the money I could afford to give her However, several 'friends' thought I was being v mean! Luckily DIL and I are on the same page here!

I would have been delighted with the voucher too! (not hobbycraft, but the general concept) My MIL used to buy us each, for xmas, a clothing item from a particular shop we love that has a branch in her town. Then on Boxing Day, we'd go visit her and use the opportunity to go and have a look in said shop's Boxing Day sale. Then we realised it would make more sense if she gave us vouchers for said shop for xmas, instead of the clothes, so that we could take those to spend in the sale instead. It worked out much better as we got to choose our own stuff, and got more twice as much for the money. She also got my DD's birthday present (birthday tomorrow) in that sale too, which was great as now DD has a fab new outfit that she would only have had half of otherwise!

wildthing01

I have managed 2 NSDs on the trot (unusual for me) - yesterday was working from home so apart from school run, did not leave the house. Today, I've felt a bit under the weather (coming down with a cold I think) and usually I would pop into the SM or local shop for a little treat or posh lunch to make myself feel better, but today I came straight home and had cheese and tomatoes on toast instead. DH has made a fire and we've sat as a family together in front of it tonight (ok, so it's a 2016 family, so the kids were on the PS, DH was on the laptop and I was on the kindle and smartphone, but still, we were together!)

I'm really needing some inspiration about upping my fruit and veg intake - I know I did a long post a bit ago about YS fruit/veg etc, and while I'm great at using this to cook evening meals for myself and DH (when I'm not too exhausted) and getting it into the kids, I'm a bit rubbish at eating it myself, and rarely manage more than 1 or 2 a day, and that is whatever is in the evening meal (usually pasta/rice based with veggies added) and/or a glass of orange juice. I hate most fruit. When I'm in the office, and buying lunch from canteen (it's subsidised and making my own is just a step too far for my busy life!), I always choose the veggie-full options, but on days like today and yesterday where I'm lunching at home, I struggle.

When asda were doing their post-xmas 10p a bag YS fruit and veggie sale, I did stock up a bit and made myself some broccoli pasta to freeze in portions, and cut up a 10p melon into slices in tupperware in fridge, and had a slice a day (melon is the only fruit I like). Feel slightly resentful though re spending the full amounts on these items (I've never seen melon in the YS section at any other time), and am struggling for interesting ideas. Otherwise, it tends to be a pot of low-fat humous and pepper slices or mange-tout, which works out quite expensive.

On another note, I looked up 'pizza maths' the other day, and realised that the fresh pizzas I buy for DH as emergency too-knackered-to-cook food, 2 x 10" pizzas for £4, (DH would at a whole one of these per meal) were probably worse value than buying 1x 14" pizza for £3.50 (I'm sure someone with better maths skills than me will work it out properly!). So I now buy these, and cut them into thirds before freezing, thereby saving a bit of money, and a few calories since DH will be eating a bit less pizza per meal.

Aril

Day 26/366 A nsd. I've been out photographing a couple of bits that caught my eye in the village where I worked this morning. We have had egg fried rice made at home for the first time ever- only ever bought it from the takeway before!
Arilx

Siebrie

I did not buy any lunch today, even though I forgot to bring mine. I always have a sachet of instant soup in my desk drawer, the fruit basket at Reception yielded an apple, my boss had brought a dieting colleague a tub of mascarpone (to eat with fruit instead of birthday cake) that she did not eat, free coffee/tea/hot chocolate, someone had ordered soup and did not eat the two slices of accompanying bread, there were some breadsticks and cucumber sticks left over from a work lunch.

Btw: I cooked the apple in the microwave with some sugar and butter in the core, and ate it with the whipped mascarpone; yummie!

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there

Not an NSD for me but using the big supermarkets against themselves!! Where I work on a Tues is near to a Morr!sons and I got a-hunting the YS bargains!! Today I got a 'pumpernickel' loaf ( I would never have bought one normally - but they are v yum!!! I just tried a piece) for 9p; a museli loaf (again would not have normally risked the expense) for 9p; 2 cinnamon whirls for 35p and a single portion steak and ale pie for 56p. Also they had wholemeal pasta on offer for 2 packs for a pound - bargain!

WeeMidgie - which telecoms person are you with?? Am thinking of engaging B!T in battle as I am fed up of the amount I pay - what tactics did you use? BTW well done! :T

Wildthing - may I commend to you grated carrot?? Put it into sandwiches - into cuscus (it kinda cooks itself) - into potato cakes - in with grated cheese (on toast or on its own). Its a great way to get more veg. Also any stew type thing add carrot or as many veg as you possibly can!! hope this helps!

Am gonna NBI in another way. Was watching the Ha!ry B!kers dieting series on repeat - and the prof on there said that 4 hours steady gardening is better at loosing weight than a game of squash and then sitting on the arras all day. Another stated that her weight loss had been down to doing housework more vigorously - so am aiming to combine these ideas - and started today by really going for it when cleaning house stretching up to dust and down to skirting boards and moving hoover quickly. Tomorrow am aiming to walk the long way round to the bank v fast! (And back - obviously

Why is this NBI ?? Because I am not joining the gym or paying to go swimming (which is how I lost 2 stone last time) . all of which are run by huge great mega companies - I would like to think one can loose weight without giving into the HUGE global 'diet and slimming' industries! Am gonna go for it all over Feb. Will let you know how I do!
Nite all