Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Happytravelling

Thanks for that article chirpycheap… good to see more people become more conscious consumers. I like to spend money and time on experiences rather than things, but I don’t need grand experiences. That said, I would love to see the northern lights one year. (We were in an area of really good visibility for a meteor shower last year. It was 10.30pm on a work night, was already in my PJs, but put on a long coat and hopped in the car to drive just out of town and away from the lights and counted shooting stars- that will do me until we eventually get to Iceland or Norway)

Aril- I love that story, great message!

I have a monthly budget for charitable giving. Its not a huge amount and I normally come in under budget, but if I didn’t budget for it, I’d try to avoid giving money away just to save a few extra pounds a month. One way I give is through a microfinance site called lendwithcare, you lend an amount (from £15) to an entrepreneur in a developing country, and they pay back over a period of 6 to 24 months. Then you can have your loan back or lend it again, so the same amount can help lots of people several times over, if you so wish… There could be times when they can’t repay, the only time that’s happened to me was when Philippines experienced those tornadoes, but its good for those people that they don’t have banks chasing for money when their whole life has been blown away.

Anyway, just popped in to say I’ve been to Ald! For some cleaning and toiletries stuff I need, and even compared to the offer price of branded items, I’ve spent £4.65 and saved £4.50- almost 50% :j

grunnie

Happytravelling I have seen the northern lights about a dozen times at least this winter from my back garden. You just need a trip to the Moray Firth in Scotland. There are loads of groups on facebook that can alert you when and where to go to see the lights at their best. I have also seen nacreous( sp) clouds which are supposed to be very rare loads of times this winter. Also had loads of snow:rotfl:Could send you some for free if you want:D

[Deleted User]

1 litre of butternut and red pepper soup made, plus 2 litres of leek and potato soup so I have plenty to give me hot drinks for the next week.All portioned up in two tupperware jars and one screw topped plastic tub and a large jug with some in which I will have shortly as I had a big salad at lunchtime .
DGS Danny is taking me out to dinner tomorrow at Maidstone with his G/F so not a lot of cooking required this weekend:)

My eldest DD has gone down to their caravan in Deal as its the first weekend of the season I think she's barking myself ,the thought of sleeping in a caravan tonight brrr not for me.She has left me a couple of gifts in the sitting room which I will open up on Sunday and I will facetime her as well first thing on Sunday morning (that's if she doesn't come home before then :))

Very chilly at the moment and I have just put the heating on to warm the house up as I have been out since lunchtime.
Hope those who are suffering with the snow are keeping as warm as they can.I keep thinking roll on the summer and get rid of this looong winter
Have a good evening chums
JackieO xxx

HOWMUCH

We have snow today, I went food shopping yesterday after the forecast of snow. Spend £15.78 I have enough food to last me until next weekend. DD has invited us to lunch on Sunday weather permitting.

Happytravelling

excellent point grunnie, one of the thing that puts me off going to Norway or similar is the potential to spend a fortune and not see them. But it would be much cheaper to suss them out in the UK and easier to visit multiple times if they alluded us the first time. Thanks for the tip

You can keep your snow though, I have more than enough where I am! (If anyone has dazzling sunshine, I'm always more than happy to accept that...)

GrannyKate

Missed the Northern Lights when we went to Iceland. Too tired the first night and then it was too cloudy the rest of our trip.

Have managed not to spend anything for a few days by having a bug. Not recommended but money saving. I did a small shop today. £100 cheque from a competition arrived which was nice.

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there!

NBI sailing well today - an NSD and all food from stocks also had good Tilly Tidies this week! Happy Stash = £3.91 and grocery etc +£3.51!!

I too love the Starfish Story - it kinda mirrors a wise saying of the Dali Lama (I think its him or the Buddha) 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step' Little steps folks all add up! :j

Have posted off my train voucher (gained as a result of complaining ) to DS2 as he is coming to see me - it says they can be used on any station so he is willing to give em a try! We shall see but it will save us the £50 on the train fare. Will let you all know how it goes!

Not given in to desire for a milky coffee to soothe sore throat today - came home and made me own
Nite all

yorpington

Thanks for the tip on lendwithcare Happy - I'm going to check them out!

And thanks for linking that great story Aril

Today I think DH and I are going to drive around some of the areas where we'd like to live, and try to narrow it down a bit, and properly take into consideration commute times, etc. Otherwise, I'm planning to potter in the house. Hope everyone has a bonny day!

chirpycheap

Well yesterday was a bit mixed In the money saving journey. We had to pick my son up from the station yesterday evening. As I had a £7 off £50 voucher for Tesco and it is on the way to the station we decided to do a smart stock up shop and use my voucher before picking ds up.

All was going well. Hubby had the calculator and I was comparing prices before popping in some well considered purchases. Four bottles of Mum unscented deodorant, some wrapping paper on sale at 50p a roll. I'd just got to £37 pound and the phone rang and ds rang me to say that he had caught an early train and was now at the station.

Did I tell him to hold on we'd be along once we'd finished our carefully considered shop? No, of course not I'm one of those 'helicopter' parents! I couldn't leave him on a snowy night on a cold and draughty station platform! So in five minutes flat I had spent the remaining £13 needed for my £50 shop. Not really considered purchases I ended up buying some yoghurt, three quorn products for £5 and a huge block of cheese for a fiver (I'll grate it and put in the freezer). Not what I planned to buy. Not sure whether it would be better to have not tried to make the £50 and just paid for what I'd purchased up until the phone call.
Never mind. I did my best and my son is home for mother's day so I'm very lucky!

dND

Ahoy shipmates, permission to get back on board as I have been AWOL in a very big way :eek:

I've had a really big spending spree but in my defence it was a considered one - I've just spent nearly 2 weeks in sunny California attending the wedding of one of my sons.

In truth the consideration was minimal as due to his visa limitations it was all arranged very quickly but I reasoned if I was going to go that far for a wedding I was also going to spend at least a little time there too. So emergency fund has been well and truly assaulted but I feel no guilt. I also did a lot of research as to what I would buy craft-wise over there and in the end didn't spend that much at all.

Now all I have to do is get over the jet lag and make sure I spend as close to nothing as possible :rotfl:

I've cut my spending by 2/3 over the last year or so - mainly NBI and using up or finishing off the items (mainly work in progress for the house and farm) and not starting anything else. I also started a calorie controlled diet last December and that has cut my food spend dramatically. Until I logged what I ate, I obviously snacked my way through a small mountain as I now have to buy so much less, (I was pretty good with cooking from scratch and using things up before anyway).

So it's now back to work with trying to get the house sold and an awful lot of NBI.

I hope all is well with everyone, congrats where appropriate, hugs where needed, as I was too exhausted to keep up with posts over the last couple of weeks - I drove about 2000 miles over the 10 days I was in the USA - it's a big place - and I loved it, so somewhere along the line I'm going to have to find a way to earn some money so I can return