Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

[Deleted User]

Good Morning chums ,went food shopping yesterday for the first time this month and only spent £14.83 so was very pleased with that two shops only, Lidls and Aldis, and have got enough in store now for well over a week, and a clear shopping list once more .

The only thing I forgot which I can adapt anyway was a couple of carrots and some veggie stock cubes, but they are not that important that it will tempt me near a supermarket just for them I will adapt something from my cupboards until next week. If I use chicken stock cubes instead of veggie ones I don't suppose it will matter in soup and a handful of red lentils will do as a substitute for a carrot or two when making a sheps pie. :):)Only two more days and then its half term and I shall be looking after my three DGS as usual so I shall be baking this weekend to fill up the cake tins as they have hollow legs :):)
Well done everyone on hanging on to your h'pennies :):)


JackieO xxx

Frugalsod

Morning shipmates. I have just discovered this thread even though I have been doing this since the beginning of the year. Last year I noticed that my credit card balance had not really dropped that much. So in the run up to the end of the year I decided to clear a get list on a dry wipe board. So I bought things ahead of target but the board was cleared. Since then I have limited the purchase to things that I need to replace and my shopping for January dropped from £1000 to less than £50. So my bank balance has shot up £500 and my credit card will have dropped a similar amount as well.

I know I have some big expenses coming up but now expect to be able to fund everything without needing to borrowing anything or go overdrawn.

wildthing01

well, my virus that has been lurking for a week or so has finally decided what it wants to be - a chest infection. Have been going to work and just about making it through the day but am pretty much dead by 5pm!

as a result have not done much shopping as I find it arduous at the best of times and with a virus, it's really hard. I have been to spend my £5 asda gift card, sent by customer services to apologise for their outrageous and blatant sexist pricing on identical stationery sets - got all the easter eggs for the nephews/nieces etc £1 each, all put away ready for easter - I know it's ridiculously early but I like to get things like that out of the way early so it's not hanging over me as a chore to do, and I don't forget and panic buy more expensively at the last minute.

Having said that though have completely not got to grips with valentine's day on Sunday - no card yet purchased and not sure when will have chance to do so before Sunday now. I don't really agree with valentine's, (I think people should be nice to their loved ones all the time, not just do it via buying naff rubbish once a year) and am not remotely romantic, but DH will be upset if I don't participate.

I will cook us a nice meal (we long ago gave up trying to go out on Valentine's, the restaurants charge an absolute fortune and are booked up months in advance) so I usually cook us something nice, but feel I ought to buy a card and a pressie too - but I hate all the cards (they feel really cheesy to me), and DH is really hard to buy for, so likely to end up being a box of chocs (that we can share!!) So now, I feel as though I am buying into the whole consumerism of Valentine's, and only participating because that's what's expected.

nursemaggie

Frugalsod that's brilliant if you stay on here you will have enough saved for a really good holiday by the end of the year or be able to do lots of things you don't usually do.

Other than normal bills and food, I don't manage to spend £1000 during the whole year. Haven't done my accounts yet due to the move but last year I spent about £300 on clothes and shoes, sales started about a week before I went away and got most things for my holiday in the sale. I took 300 euros for pocket money, gave DD 60 euros for DGS for Christmas, £12 in train fares, £5 for taxi back from station, and I came back with 100 euros. I went to DDs in Malta, she paid for flight and free keep for a week so very cheap.

Spent about £200 on Christmas presents, three pots of bulbs, two of which have flowered again, £6, three flowering plants that will flower again around christmas time £3. did not buy any other clothes so I make that about £520.

I spend about £50 a week on groceries, including toiletries and cleaning materials and I manage to keep myself in knitting wool within that too. Of course I have a bus pass and I walk quite a bit. I am retired so no lunches at work, nor any of the many collections and other incidentals you need when you work.

I do have an adult unemployed son so I have to clothe him but he won't have stuff till he is very desperate. He is on Work experience for the next 8 weeks so that is going to cost me all the work expenses. he had nothing last year.

wildthing01 Why not make DH a card or look for a funny one and buy him something for the garden?

I think you need to take some time off work with your virus. It is probably not resting that has given you a chest infection. I ended up in hospital after a cold I did not take time off with. One thing followed another each caused by the previous illness until I finally was so sick my doctor sent me into hospital. I got a good telling off for not taking a few days off with a bad cold. Of course I then ended with three weeks off work.

HOWMUCH

Well I sold my chest freezer and used the money to purchase an upright tall version, so I've got the fridge freezer my DD gave to me and this. It's much easier to see what I have and better with the drawers. So far this month other than bills I've only spent £19.26 on food for the 2 of us and we're almost half way into the month.

wildthing01

NurseMaggie, excellent idea re something for the garden - we are starting to do our garden up this year - it's been low on the priority list in our (not so new now) house, as we needed boring stuff like windows and radiators, but DH does love the garden and a lovely tree or shrub will be a long-lasting item rather than quickly consumed chocs etc (if I were the romantic type, I'd say a plant/tree was a more fitting symbol of our love, since we've been together 20 yrs!) Will get one on Saturday.

Re the virus, as luck would have it, I do have a few days of leave from tomorrow so will be resting. I hate taking time off sick as my job is such that the work/emails just build up while I'm off and make it worse when you do go back, so ideally I try to work from home when ill and take it a bit slower, but you're right - many years ago now I did exactly the same, didn't have time off, kept getting virus after virus after virus and ended up with post-viral fatigue syndrome and 3 weeks off (which Occupational Health made me take in the end), and do not want that again, it was hideous, I couldn't even walk up the stairs, had to crawl up on hands and knees. So I will heed your advice and definitely rest during my leave!

Happytravelling

Thanks chirpycheap, its easy to swing from extreme frugality to going on a big blow out. This time of year is always testing because I get fed up of being cold all the time. However, my dwarf daffodils have sprung in my little window box and cheer me up when I leave the house and get home The food inventory is something I've not drummed up the motivation for, not yet anyway... Watch this space!

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there

Am back from Cornwall and have found a house to buy and offer has been accepted. This move will clear my mortgage so am well pleased - if comes off as I now enter shark filled waters of surveyors; solicitors; Estate Agents etc

Am NBI ing as need to make up for the spending getting to and fro to Cornwall. Spent this morning ringing banks etc and they simply did not believe my figures for fuel (£67) + water (£10) and food etc (£40) all per month. Am gonna have to send Bank Statements to prove same I also intend to send em photocopies of receipts for the laugh!!

hope all of you not well folks start to TAKE IT EASY and give yourselves the time to heal!! Stop rushing around!

NBI today consisted of a free concert at the OU here in Milton Keynes + a walk with my friend - again free (poor chap is out of work again as the firm decided that they could move staff around to cover the job he was doing! What a pain for him!) + treat of a coffee out. Thurs night I did not go out for a meal nor to a pub crawl I was invited on - thus saving my Happy Stash for treating him and me to a coffee and cake today!! :j
Its all about priorities!!

Happytravelling - we all fall overboard sometimes - hang on to the lifeboat - how about homemaking cards and looking for cheaper, thriftier presents where the kids learn a skill or craft?? Or, if they have dolls a 'dolls clothes making' afternoon? (Uses scraps of material etc)
Nite all

Seraph123

Hi to everyone .
Im a long time lurker too and have been working my way through all the back pages which have been brilliant. After some really hard times with a marriage break-up in my forties that left me literally with two bin bags and a suitcase(and the cat ) I started on a long road to recovering my life. Id been very foolish in early years and hadn't made any provisions for finance for retirement etc and had no savings of my own and started off feeling very sorry for myself and spending any spare bits of cash i earned on making myself feel better. That was just plain stupid as i was having to work a full and a part time job just to survive so any spare cash I had I should have saved. Eventually the penny dropped and I spent the next 12 months surviving on the cash in hand from my part time job and using my full time salary to pay off my debts and start to save. It was really hard but I learned some valuable lessons. I gave up my part time job and have gradually worked my way into a better salary, I also have a wonderful partner and we are very happy. What, you my ask yourselves, does this have to do with NSI? Well I'm 60 now and would dearly love to able to retire early at 62. I applied for early retirement (I work in local government) and they said yes, then no, then maybe, so I not sure what will happen, so I'm back to saving every penny, cutting every corner, squirrelling some savings away and spending as little as possible while still trying to keep us comfy, content and not deprived of some little treats. OH is the easiest going person I know, bless him, so if Im happy, he's happy. Reading all your posts have given me inspiration and made me smile so thanks to all of you and I hope to be part of your cruise for a long time to come .

Aril

Hello I've clambered back on board after my short holiday. We spent money on reasonably priced food and enjoying ourselves. Much of what we did though was free entry or donation. More importantly I bought 4 bags of homemade fudge for presents the proceeds of which went to help an African charity beyond that nothing came home with me:j

Day 42/366 [yesterday basically] £3 spent on a rather splendid lampshade from the local independent CS to go with the standard lampbase we got there a few days ago. It helps local causes within our community and is within walking distance of home
Arilx