Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Well done ArthriticOT :beer: Also Sophie - sounds like an ideal day!

Thanks to all for your good wishes - procedure was not pleasant but done by an actually lovely female doc - one of the prettiest people I have ever met and so kind. Biopsy soon will tell all.

Cheats NBI here today! Pottered down the pub after work and got bought a pint by one friend and offered a second by someone else but I only had a half!!! So I didnt ACTUALLY spend anything....... :rotfl: Does it still count as NBI & NSD????
nite all

[Deleted User]

Good Morning everyone well almost the end of the month at last so spring will soon be here.I have daffs and hyacinths out in the garden I do hope we don't get and of the white stuff.

Today I am pottering around as its my day of doing not a lot until around 3.00 then I shall be driving down to my sis-in-laws in Faversham as we are going out to dinner tonight and having a bit of a catch-up.

We split the bill so it will come from my Happy Cash Stash.It think its a pub meal at a place called The Limes and it sound quite nice.We have a meal out about once every 6 months and a catch-up so it will be nice to get some smart clothes on and dress up a bit.As I will be driving its soft drinks for me and she rarely drinks much at all I have a bottle of vino to take down as a present so we'll probably pop that when we get home.

Definitely no shopping to buy at all and come Monday my left over cash will go into my holiday account and I draw my new monthly amount out for food and small regular monthly entertainment stuff.

I am using up a head of celery that's in the fridge today and will be making a big pot of celery soup for the coming weeks lunches.
Have a good NBI week chums
JackieO xx

Aril

Day 29/366 NSD as had already bought tickets for the touring cinema at the local village hall. Lovely evening with dear chum spent watching Suffragette.
Arilx

wildthing01

Hope your biopsy comes back ok Lyn.

Well, not an NBI day today, but feel the need to vent as am highly annoyed with asda (writing their name out properly as I hope they do do a search and find this post and read how annoyed I am with them!)

Was in there buying some party bag favours for DD's small birthday do tomorrow. She has some boys and some girls coming. Found a nice little stationery set clearly aimed at boys, blue/black packaging, trendy music motif on it, for £1 (yes am sure some girls would like it too, but these are 8 yr olds and based on my experience with children, I think most kids at that age tend to prefer stuff that is in the typical colour/design for their gender).

Put a couple in the trolley, and then found the girls' version - NB the EXACT SAME set, same contents, same packaging, clearly made in same factory with same moulds etc, but with pink colour and flowers motif instead of blue/black. Clearly aimed at girls. Took it all to till along with rest of groceries.

By the time I got to the checkout, was a bit stressed as was in a rush (v busy day and coming down with a bad cold, had frozen food I needed to get home to the freezer, plus the self-checkout I had originally queued and unloaded all my shopping at unaccountably broke down just as I was about to start my scanning (I swear I never touched it!), so I had to reload all my stuff back in trolley and go and find a normal checkout).

Anyway, when the SA scanned the girls' stationery sets, I noticed that they came up at £1.50 each, not £1 like the boys' sets. I queried this, since they were in all respects other than colour, the exact same product, and the SA just shrugged and said that the boys' stuff was often cheaper, it was just the way it was.

By that time, I really had to go so I just bought them, and am now really annoyed. Not just at the additional cost, but the fact that it seems to me to be a sexist pricing policy, (esp given the SA's comments) and that they think they can get more money out of females than males. I thought this kind of thing was illegal now, what with the Equality Act and the fact that they've had to bring car insurance prices for females in line with male prices.

I've emailed CS to complain, not sure what they'll have to say for themselves!

chirpycheap

Really pleased to find my DH a new belt for his trousers. His current one was looking like the dog had had it! He has been holding out for the best price in the size he required (xxxxxxxxl as he told the bemused young shop assistant in one shop). He's old school and his clothing generally falls apart before he'll consider getting rid of anything but at least he's cheap to run. £3.99 for a belt that will probably outlive him is pretty good going.

I handed in a watch to the police station last weekend and yesterday I got a knock at the door from a lady whose watch it was and who was absolutely thrilled to be reunited with it. It turned out that the watch was a gift from her brother who has since died so had great sentimental value. She arrived with a beautiful bouquet and a card and I was so thrilled with them but when I got in and opened the card there was a £60 voucher for the theatre inside. What a wonderful gift I was gobsmacked. We love the theatre but it is to expensive for us to attend regularly. We are now looking through the brochure to choose a show to watch. The watch was a very expensive one but I could never in all conscience have kept it so it does show that honesty pays.
I have finally got rid of my stinky cold. In terms of NBI I have had no inclination to visit the shops but on the flip side I haven't been as frugal with the cooking side of things and we got left with a lot of veggies at the end of the week. I have however not wasted any of them and they have been put into a giant stew and portioned off into pots for the freezer.
Have a good weekend everyone.

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Hope everyone who had a cold will soon be better!

Lyn, fingers are crossed that the results come back clear!

Was quite a busy day round here, went swimming in the morning, did some household stuff and spent the afternoon at my parents with my knitting. My mum and I are our very own, personal knitting group :-) Tomorrow I'll go to my real knitting group and already look forward to it. Really enjoy these Sunday mornings and miss them when I can't attend for a couple of weeks due to other things going on. Can't believe that it is already three years since I joined.

Did my finances for January, did really well and put a lot money aside for some bigger spendings later in the year. I like to have a financial headstart into the year. Especially proud on groceries costs, budgeted £100 but only spent 86 which I think is quite ok for the fact that I live in a very YS-unfriendly area where you're lucky to get 40% off something...

I finished knitting a hat as a birthday present for my aunt. Very little money plus some time spent and I know she will like it as I knitted a hat for my sister for christmas and she pretended to steal it and told me 10 times that her bday is in February and her favourite colour is orange... So I guess she'll like an orange hat. Will pack it in a cardboard box from dog food to wind her up ;-)

Just took very lush chocolate-peanutbutter cookies out of the oven which cost less than a pound for the load to make. It is just 100 g butter and 2 heaped tablespoons peanut butter melted together and mixed with 130g flour, 50 g sugar und 3 tablespoons cocoa powder. Rolled into 20 balls and baked for 10 min on 180°C. Could smell the peanut butter all around the flat now.

A good friend just told me this week that she has a new job... sales assistant in our very favourite shop which sells a lot of knickknack... Will have to resist the temptation to visit her there too often...

chirpycheap, wow, that is lovely with the voucher! I guess she must have been really happy to get the watch bag!

tattabubbly I like it that you plan talking finances like you plan a datenight.

Wildthing, I'm not surprised to read that... Apparently they think they can make money with women...

Have a nice evening everyone, I'll go on knittting a kids had for charity while munching my hm cookies....

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there y'all

chirpycheap - how lovely to have your good dead rewarded! Fantastic! :j

I rang up my DIL today to ask a questin and she asked me over for a meal tomorrow and said' doesnt matter what time you get here - you know you are always welcome here even if DS isn't around!' Wasn't that nice :-)

Thanks to all for good wishes re biopsy - will let you know but its lookin hopeful!

NSD for me today filled my day with a walkies with my friend; food from stock; realy good film called 'Now you See me!' on the TV where 4 magicians give lots of money back to people who have been cheated by big business - its also a bit of an action movie but well worth a couple of hours escapism!
Their philosophy reminds me of some folks I know who arent too keen on big business either :rotfl:

Totally agree re female prices - did you see the new article about razors - something shocking like 5 x the price of male ones. As for me - I have worn fellas t-shirts and jumpers for years!! Due to have very muscular arms ladies stuff rarely fits me!!! It was years in catering and swimming in school competitions that did it!!
Nite All

Aril

Day 30/366 Planned weekly shop done. Once home we headed off into town to return some library books, set up another savings account and take in another small free exhibition at our museum. I've started to note down some of the freebie events I spot in the diary so that if I'm at a loose end I can be reminded. A cuppa and a piece of yummy apple shortbread in an independent cafe [it's my way of supporting local businesses] rounded it off. Spent afty with very good chum catchin up and an evening supping homemade wine whilst stitching.
Arilx

tatabubbly

Good morning all!

NSD here for us - OH is at work and I'm catching up on some housework. Planning on selling our big super king size bed this week as our bedroom isn't big enough for it and a cot. I have 3 bedroom house with 3 double beds so we were planning on getting rid of one anyways so we could have child's room.

Budgeting went well - now to wait till Oh gets paid, it's the first pay cheque from his new company so not 100% on what days it hits the bank account. Will be looking forward to putting our envelope system back in place, went a bit haywire over last 2 months.

Other than that, b/l/dinner will be from stores

savingpennies

Ahoy there, can I jump on board? I know it's a bit late but I only found the thread a couple of days ago and having read all the way through, think this is for me.
As I've mentioned on another thread, I'm off work ill at the moment and not planning to return as I hope to retire in April. OH is already retired. This means that our income will drop, which won't be too painful as we have never been spendthrifts and as I have been off work 4 months now, I've seen myself as a pensioner in training.
Being off has allowed us to stop and think and talk about how we want to spend our retirement. We have lots of accumulated stuff, which at the end the day does nothing but sit there and doesn't really give me any joy at all, so it has to go. Our youngest DD is an ebay fan so has promised to help us sell some or our stuff on there and we are planning to do a couple of car boots.
I was listening to someone on the radio the other day who said that he and his wife had drastically decluttered and minimalized and now wanted to spend their money on experiences: meeting friends for lunch, going to the cinema/theatre, holidays, etc, which all sounds good to me. Now where do I sign on?