Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there landlubbers!!

An NSD for me today and have been v good by auditing the freezer and making meals from it!
Completed and photocopied all of the stuff from the Conveyancer and as a reward went out for a walk with my friend !! Beautiful day for it - where we went we had not been before and it was certainly a bit of a scrabble and v muddy and wet - ergo the title :rotfl: - I have defo been splashing about in water today!! (Including not jumping streams i.e. landing in the middle of them!! ) great fun and apart from a little petrol freeeeee! Hopefully it will help in the minimising of me project!!

Free tomorrow - another walk but by self this time down into town to do the banking! Not so pleasant but much better for the environment and my health and less mental stress than taking and trying to park the car!

Re baby clothes - folks have been incredibly generous to DIL and DS1 they have at least 3 bin bags full of ordinary everyday clothes and loads of 'cuddlies' :A I will be making a 'blue bun' it is a tiny toy make from t-shirt material which is small enough for the baby to have control of from an early age - eyes etc are embroidered on and so not dangerous. An elderly Scottish lady taught me how to make them when I was pregnant with DS1 - both my boys had one and they are still treasured possessions but they really dont need anymore!
Nite all
(maybe me walking boots will have dried out by tomorrow???)

Aril

Day 44/366 Some spending incurred today as I took a relation down to Brighton so train fare, lunch etc. Mind you we spent as much time drinking in the atmosphere and gazing at all the wall art in the North Laines. I did splash out on a lovely bottle of hippy perfume but then I would need more in due course anyway, a birthday card and two soaps for my gift box. Hardly wild though!

Arilx

mavvymoo

Morning all Still on board ship.

Yesterday a small spend as I managed to break the TV ariel cable (thingy) while dragging the TV out to clean behind it.
So nipped to the nearest DIY shop and got a longer one in the basic range. They did have one with 'Digital' on the packet for twice the price So I asked the man if I needed that one and he said they are the same.What a con the 'Digital' was Blue and the Basic one was White. But the same and as they arent on display who cares what colour they are

Did have a wander and a look at some lovely scented candles on offer but managed to leave them on the shelf for someone else to spend their money on

So £2.99 spent so far this week :rotfl:


Mav x

Aril

Day 45/366 Spent cash today in our local Co-op- went in for bananas....but everything else was yellow stickered and has been frozen. Some has already been incorporated into the meal plan for next week. Over the last few days we've made chips from the lurking potatoes, the small quantity of baked beans have gone into a veggie chilli and I mixed oil with the tandoori spice instead of splashing out on a tube of paste. Tomorrow I shall make mint tea to use up the fresh mint I needed for a recent new recipe I tried. Have decided that I'm going to take out a Co-op card so can earn points on my purchases. They are more expensive than the other bigger supermarkets but their reductions bring them in line cost wise and they are are good at supporting local suppliers.
Arilx

wildthing01

Hello All

Was back at work today after a couple days off and handily was in the office in the town that has 3 major supermarkets right next to each other which is great for shopping around to get best prices, so nipped round after work. Main shop at Aldi, took my kitchen whiteboard list on phone, but did remember a few extras we needed on way round - planning ahead for school starting again next week. On the plus side, I resolutely stayed away from the aisle of doom, on the minus side, I did forget the bl**dy washing up liquid despite it being on the list.

Also got a few little Easter hunt eggs - we don't give our kids big Easter eggs, we buy the tiny coloured ones in packs and they do a hunt round the garden, which is far more fun and gives them the 'magic' as they still believe the Easter Bunny leaves the eggs there!! I got the big eggs for the nieces/nephews last week, so that's Easter all done and it's not even March yet, hooray!

Also got £4 worth free health food from T's as part of their Orchard testing/review panel, very pleased with that (this current 'project' is all fruit/veggies/health food so am doing v nicely on my 5 a day today!!) Now just need to go via a S's at some point to get my random free box of chocs (they sent me a random voucher for Valentines!)

Am still being mindful when shopping and always asking myself do I need it or do I just want it,and if I want it, is it going to make my life better? It's getting easier and easier to walk away, and rather than trying to get that 'feel-good' factor from buying tons of little 'treats' (mostly sugar-filled), I'm getting it from a sense of pride that I'm controlling my spending and at the same time eating more healthily too! Today for example when getting my brunch cob from the kiosk at work, I Did Not Buy a slice of cake to go with it, which I always would have done before!

RicardaRacoon

Evening all

Had a small spend today, foundation (which I forgot to buy on MOnday) and breadsticks. Note to self, never go shopping when hungry, not even into the pharmacy... My foundation is a cheap drugstore brand one, so isn't breaking the bank.

Have my mealplan for the rest of the month done and once I have everything I need I have about 10£ left for fruit, sweets and maybe a stock up on some things. So I would say that worked very well, although I will not manage again next month with Eastern and having visitors and chocolate and and and.

Lyn, like the idea with the small toy. we lately had a chat at work about things like that and a coworker said that his wife made little worms out of different fabric and the kids took them everywhere as they were little enough for them to hold. they had them in all sorts of colours and patterns and even took a spare worm with them when they travelled after one of the kids once wanted a train to stop after the worm had fallen out of the window...

Aril, I'm sure you had a lovely day in Brighton! I think Brighton is my favourite place in the whole world, beside my hometown of course.

So, I'm off to bed, very tired... Just need to motivate myself to clean the kitchen before going to bed...

[Deleted User]

Coming home from Hastings the chap behind whacked my car ,so not very happy,but insurance company were brilliant and its going for repair tomorrow .Basically I stopped when an animal ran across the road in front of me , and he didn't No one was hurt and my car was probably better off than his as its a 7 seater Vauxhall and his Mondeo looked decidedly worse for wear.
Nuisance really but I shan't be going far at all for a day or so,I will get a courtesy car at least, well done LV brilliant customer service and very nice chap on the phone at 7.00 tonight, very polite and helpful.

No food shopping to get until Friday, then only a small amount

JackieO xx

DawnW

JackieO wrote: »

Coming home from Hastings the chap behind whacked my car ,so not very happy,but insurance company were brilliant and its going for repair tomorrow .Basically I stopped when an animal ran across the road in front of me , and he didn't No one was hurt and my car was probably better off than his as its a 7 seater Vauxhall and his Mondeo looked decidedly worse for wear.
Nuisance really but I shan't be going far at all for a day or so,I will get a courtesy car at least, well done LV brilliant customer service and very nice chap on the phone at 7.00 tonight, very polite and helpful.

Sorry to hear this Jackie. I am with LV too, and have found them similarly helpful (my car was hit by a bus while stationery in a queue of traffic :eek: The bus drove off without stopping :mad:).

LV are also very reasonably priced, and so long as they remain so, I shan't worry if they are not the absolute cheapest, as good customer service is in itself valuable to me.

[Deleted User]

DawnW I soo agree, their customer care service is the best I have ever known. The chap on the phone was very helpful and couldn't have been more considerate and took me through the forms at a pace I liked ,no rushing and getting every detail sorted including aranging for my car to be picked up and my replacement elivered asap.No wandering around looking for estimates from garages.OK they are not the cheapest but when you are on your own with no chap to sort things out you need someone at the other end to make sure all the right forms are filled in.I shall write to the company and commend the advisor for his patience in helping me.He didn't rush me although it was probably past his knocking off time . So nice to be treated well and not spoken to as though you were some doddery old dear :):).

So definitely NBI today as I will be waiting in for the garage to pick my slightly battered car up :):) Looks like feet up and a bit of knitting this morning :):)
Have a good day chums
JackieO xxx

yorpington

Hi shipmates Jackie I am glad you were not hurt!

Spent Tuesday and Wednesday travelling to and back from London, for the graduation ceremony from my MA degree, and managed to do it in NBI style :j

The degree itself I got half price :rotfl: due to a merit scholarship at the beginning and an excellence award at the end <toots own horn>. DM kindly drove us to and from London, and she also paid for my gown hire and photography. I wore a dress I got 75% off in the sale which is also doing me for the four (!) weddings I'm going to this year. We stayed with family on the Tuesday night, and I used JustP@rk to get us a parking space right by the uni for just £3.80 for the whole day All DH and I paid for was lunch, and we went to the local pub instead of a fancy place.

Tonight we are going out for a meal with family to celebrate, and it will all be covered with Mr.T vouchers :beer:

Only fail was that I came home to a PCN for £60 :mad: I made a wrong turn last month and ended up in a bus lane very briefly. I don't dispute that I did it, but it was a genuine mistake that lasted seconds! I got 50% off by paying it straight away, but ugh! I've never had so much as a parking ticket before. Sigh!