Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

girlybags

I would love to join this thread. I started following last year but got sidetracked by the Kondo thread and didn't get chance to catch up! Anyway I've been reading since before Christmas, starting with the 2015 thread (only about another 80 pages left to read :rotfl:) and have been loving reading about everyone's NBI victories.

Anyhoo, I've been getting better at NBI since following (lurking ) and have so far managed to put a surprising amount of around £600 into my savings this year, which is very pleasing to me. There's just me and my son, who's 10, in the GB household so I do have most of the control over the finances, which helps a lot I think. I do tend to waste a lot of cash on bits and bobs, mostly from the pound shop ('ooh, that's good for a pound, I'll get 3 of those'... £15 at the checkout later... :mad:) so I've been very mindful of this lately.

Right, I'll leave it at that for now, just wanted to delurk and say hello to all on the thread :wave:

MyHappinessProject

JackieO wrote: »

butterfly2507 isn't it great when you get a little bonus of 'road-kill' i.e. cash found on the road I have a tin in the kitchen that I put odd coins in and every year we use it on holiday for my DGS ice-creams The boys also join in and often when they come home from school I come home with 5ps and coppers that they have found.one year I had almost £80 odd in the tin.One of my DGS Henry has hawkeyes and is always looking out for pennies for the holiday tin :):)
Good Idea too about 'fining yourselves' Anything that makes you focuss on where your cash goes to is good .So far this month I haven't been near to a food shop so my food purse is intact with my £60.00 budget for February.I thought I will hang on until next Wednesday when the Lidls offers finish, and go then I still have enough fruit and veg to last out until then.
Cleaning and baking is on the menu this morning as I want the house to look a bit shinier tomorrow as both of my DDs and some of the grandchildren are visiting as its my birthday. So JackieO's Towers must look smart and shiny for once :):),plus I really want to get a start on spring cleaning.Because I don't go to the shops so often, it means I have more time indoors to catch-up on things.
This afternoon it will be feet up and a bit of knitting and I may start to watch the War and Peace thing that I have recorded on my TiVo box as its the last episode tomorrow night

Hope you all have a good NBI day and hang on to your ha'pennys :):)

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY for tomorrow JackieO...I hope you and your lovely, loved family have a smashing day! I love reading your posts.

HOWMUCH

Chirpycheap my rule of thumb with BOGOF is do I use it enough? Has it got a good use by date? Then it goes into he trolly. I operate on a monthly basis it keeps me away from the shops, so I normally buy in 2 or 4 depending what we use over a month. I check the dates and put the latest to the back so I'm rotating my stock. I do a monthly stock over the winter months because we've been snowed in from food shopping a couple of times over the last few years. Our village even made it on the local news because the roads where closed for so long. We opened the local chapel to stranded drivers so they had some where to sleep and eat etc.

Bathory

Happy birthday for tomorrow JackieO. Hope you have a wonderful day.

I did ok for NBI January but fell overboard a bit in the first week of February. I should slap myself on the fingers there and then if I pick something up I don't need. I was very good all last year and don't want to have bad habits, especially little spends, coming back as it does mount up.

I had a weekend break recently along the North East coast and also visited York. I discovered this soap shop that sold hand made items in the shape of huge glittery gateaux slices and cup cakes. Really nice but managed to resist buying, half of the soap you cannot use as its decoration only. Mr Bathory didn't come due to work so it was cat sitting duties for him. One of my cats Matilda proved to be very difficult as she sulked, wouldn't eat and managed to break her food bowl - all in protest at her regular servant not being there. Cats eh?

So, apart from replacement cat dish, there should be not that much to buy for the rest of this month.

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

I almost had a massive NBI fail yesterday... Decided that I finally want to make my bedroom a little bit more cosy (2.5 years after moving in...) and buy a carpet and curtains. Had a look online and went into a certain Swedish furniture store knowing what I wanted and with a budget set at 30£. Got sidetracked by the most wonderful, old fashioned curtains with red and grey flowers, costing 35£... Problem was that they didn't matched more than one of my beddings, so decided that I needed new beddings as well plus a new plaid and and and... Wasn't feeling too good about giving away perfectly well bedding "cause it isn't matching the curtains" - just how extravagant is that? - but hey ho, I thought I deserved to spoil myself... Long past the textile department my common sense came back in the lighting department and I realized that the cutrains will look out of space next to all my seascapes I hung in my bedroom and which I will never take down (charity shop finds plus two my mum bought 30odd years ago)
So back to the textiles, putting bedding and curtains back, chosing more sensible curtains and off I went, having spent a little less than 30 £ on curtains, hooks, a carpet and one of these anti-slip-matts for underneed it. Not even visited the restaurant as it was soo stuffed, so got dinner on the way home.

Lazy day today, had a lay in and a nap and not really feeling up to doing anything but it is fine as two busy weekends ahead. Went to the shops today, slightly more expensive than it was these last weeks as I needed a lot of dairy products. Tried out a vegetarian version of one of my favourite dishes which is a polenta bake with chicken, tomatos, peaches and a mustard sauce (is much better than it sounds!) and substituted the chicken with chickpeas and it was lush.
The only productive thing I did today was shortening the curtains which was actually quite a quick thing once I got the sewing machine working properly...

It is my grannys 91. birhtday tomorrow, so family gattering ahead, will see how that goes since my fathers family is a bit complicated. Not that my mothers side isn't though :-)

re stock keeping, I think it is quite handy to have absolute basics in the house like pasta, rice, flour and sugar and once you run down to a certain level or it goes on offer you stock up. Like that you are very unlikely to run out of flour in the middle of baking. But the more things you have in the more complex it gets to keep track and you have to have a very good system to keep it working.

tattabubbly, hope you will feel better soon, let OH pamper you a bit!

girlybags, welcome on board! I think you deserve an award for reading the whole tread!

howmuch, sounds like you're living far out of civilisation :-)

Bathory, my cats are always especially nice when I'm not around. Probably the think that Mummy has left them for good and they now have to be nice to their new servant so that it isn't happening again... They are always happy to have me back and I almost don't get any sleep the first time home as I'm burried under two cats...

Have a nice evening everyone!

Aril

Day 36/366 and 37/366 Beyond the weekly shop not a groat spent. We have been enjoying the bottle of wine we received as a Christmas present over the last couple of evenings. Have had friends here for lunch today and Mr GBT made a pie with the chicken leftovers from a recent roast. Sussed that much the same cheesecake fresh is twice the price but but certainly nowhere near twice the size as its near frozen equivalent in Mr T. We often make our desserts but not today
Arilx

girlybags

RicardaRacoon wrote: »

girlybags, welcome on board! I think you deserve an award for reading the whole tread

Thank you! It has taken a while but I'm actually really enjoying reading it
Well done on resisting those curtains and sticking to your budget :T

Just noticed that it's JackieO's birthday tomorrow so wishing you a lovely day :j

boultdj

Happy Birthday JackieO.

carolbee

Happy birthday JackieO

Kerry_Woman

JackieO - Wishing you a Happy birthday.

RicardaRacoon - Wishing your gran a Happy Birthday.