Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

greengoblin

Thanks Lyn I will. I'm quite excited as it means I get to move out of the city (countryside girl for 25 years!) and either back into the Styx or a smaller, nicer market town in the Broads. I moved into a city and got a job in a village - typical haha - so I don't need to stay here if I don't want - result!
Have a lovely (if windy) BH monday everyone. Perfect weather for lots of tea and a good chuck out

wildthing01

Hello All and Happy Belated Easter

The uni stories are reminding me of the many years I shared houses - I think I got off lightly with the tidiness/cleanliness as luckily all my housemates were quite tidy/clean. My worst problem was being frequently locked out of one house all night. I used to work late at the Union Bar and one of my housemates used to bolt the door at 10 pm sharp (it had a yale lock, but she was super security conscious and bought a deadbolt to put on the door too). Whenever I forgot to tell her I was working late, I'd come home in the staff taxi at 2 am to find the house completely inaccessible. You weren't allowed to knock and wake her up either as she had major insomnia and would never let you forget it, so I would often have to walk through the city on my own at 2 am to go to my boyfriend's house to spend the rest of the night. Now he lived with 4 other boys and their house was the definition of minging - truly vile, and they nicked all my food from the fridge too, however, towards the end of the year, I preferred to stay there than go home and live with the stress and arguments caused by my housemate (who had a whole host of weird and wonderful rules and, I suspect, many psychological problems). Despite the house being hideously filthy, the lads were all lovely and very welcoming. I refused to do their washing up though!

Am still trying to NBI despite not having posted for a while. We are going to a wedding this week, and although DH's 10 yr old suit is still in excellent condition, sadly he himself is not, and so he needs a larger size! We have therefore spent quite a bit on a new suit, but went for the sensible option that will also do for interviews and funerals, rather than the much more expensive but far sexier option! Luckily I still fit into one of my occasion dresses (the others will have to go to the CS) and just need to jazz it up with a new cardi, that I will purchase using the retail group vouchers I failed to spend recently.

Also have had a fit of house renovation impetus and have stripped half the living room ceiling of nasty yellow lining paper. We still have a lot of expensive work to do in there, inc replacing the dodgy and probably illegal staircase, so need to get saving. But, DH is getting a lot of work at the moment and, has applied for an actual job!!, so hopefully more pennies coming in soon...

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Well, it would have been another NSD day for me today but I needed milk! Making these clafulti puddings , is cheap, nutritious, and using up my out of date ground rice but it does use a lot of milk! While I was in the Co!p (on way back from walkies zone) I spotted some YS hummus - down to 62 p so that was snaffled too! Looking forward to wraps with hummus and chicken for tomorrow's lunch. (Nom nom nom - no, I do not look like that Beagle on that advert - Im not that pretty :rotfl:

As I returned from my 'free' walkies with my friend today (free is in inverted commas as I drove their but only a 10 min drive so I view the petrol as coming out of my going to work petrol allowance each week - if I am low on petrol then we go somewhere nearby) -having had lovely walk in the cold, bright sunshine in a marvelously designed area :j by one of the many balancing lakes in Milton Keynes - I wondered, other than walking, what other NBI hobbies folks on here have that cost very little or nothing at all???

Be interesting to 'borrow' ideas :A
Nite all

Lindlou

Bumping.... its only March and this has fallen to page 3......
Walking is our favourite free pastime. Never get bored. Trouble is most country walks seem to end in a country pub!:rotfl:

WeeMidgie

NBI pastimes...mine apart from walking, are mostly low cost rather than no cost. U3A Scrabble and mah jong groups... we each pay 50p to the host to cover heat, light, tea/coffee and biscs. There is a book swap bookcase in the building where I work.

Tomorrow my car needs a service, and I've opted to stay in the garage's very comfy heated reception area reading their magazines and there is free coffee... A couple of hours relaxation - and the coffee's good too. The icing on the cake, the car gets a clean inside and out, the whole deal is cheaper than their competitors for a better experience. And I'll be NBI and chilled out!

[Deleted User]

I too enjoy walking and although I'm not brilliantly quick its lovely to sometimes just amble along.I am walking my daily morning mile in training already for my July 10k Race for Life (in my case more of a hobble than a race :)) and I 'clocked' an exact mile round trip walk from my house with my car and its nice to see how peoples front gardens are getting better now the weather is perking up a bit.

I too am a keen U3A member and think that my £15.00 a year membership is worth every penny.There is so much to do and I could be out every day if I had the time. As it is I go to the monthly meetings plus coffee mornings,sociology,book club,knitting group,quiz night (that does cost me £2.00 a week but we get a cooked supper thrown in as well) so good value, plus we won this week and got another two bottles of wine for the stash when we have 8 bottle we all have a share out
There is also a social afternoon once a month that is great fun and we have either board games or a quiz plus free tea or coffee and a biscuit or two
I do pay for my English Heritage once a year ticket but my DGS are also on it, so we get a nice freebie day out for the cost of a picnic lunch from home and the diesel for my car

I use the library quite a bit and on Monday morning there is a Healthy living walk run by our local council which we get a free tea or coffee afterwards. There is so much out there to do if you just look for it . I have a pretty busy life even though I also look after three of my DGS after school and during the holidays .yesterday after school I took them up to Dobbies to use up some of my free hot drinks vouchers before they run out and the boys all had hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows :0 they thought it was brilliant and I still have a few left for next week when they are on holiday from school.The vouchers run out on the 8th April so I have enough for a couple more visits.

We go to the local country park in the summer holidays and also our local swimming pool as I get it for nothing as I am a pensioner and the boys under 16 also get in for nothing with our local Medway City cards.

DDs children have been brought up knowing Mu hasn't a great deal of spare cash so a day on the beach at Westgate means crabbing and a HM picnic with bottle of squash and a flask for her and I.

Museums are usually free as well and living in the medway area we are not that far from the sea or the country side and kent has umpteen ruins and castles to look around

rainy days in the holidays mean a game of cards or scrabble or a DVD from the library if there isn't much on TV.The boys like to help me forage for blackberries and they are pretty good at helping me fill my freezer in season. The youngest boy loves to cook so we will have a 'cook a cake' day which goes down pretty well with them eating what we have made

HOWMUCH

I was offered a small under the counter size freezer by my friend she only purchased it at the end if June and feels it's too small for her needs. I gladly took it off her hands for £30 which she asked for it. She paid £139.99 for it she was glad I said yes rather than sell it to someone she didn't know and I collected it the following day.

[Deleted User]

Howmuch what a bargain, think of all the savings you will make with Y/S stuff and batch cooking .Worth every penny I would think, well done and money well spent

JackieO xx

milasavesmoney

Wow Howmuch what a great offer from your friend for you!! Score!!

My daughter ordered a undercounter drink fridge for her kitchen remodel. It came in with the door corner scrunched up a bit (probably from shipping), so she when contacted the company, they sent her a new one and told her to keep the damaged fridge. She's taking it to work to put in her office. It's just an aesthetic problem, nothing wrong with it. She just didn't want it in her new kitchen. She is really pleased with this outcome.

[Deleted User]

Fantastic milasavesmoney I love it when someone gets a bargain like that, my DD is an estate agent and often when she is acting for a landlord they will say can you get rid of this or that for me and she has a washing machine at home which she had three years ago when one of her landlords wanted it cleared from the house as he was doing a refit of the kitchen It works perfectly and her old one was on its last legs so she took it off his hands for free She has also had a dining table given to her as she has a tribe of four boys and a girl their house can be a bit chaotic at times so furniture gets well used She says she is looking forward to the time when the boys are all grown and she can get 'things' for her house instead of just odds and ends .I know what she means her elder sisters children are all grow up now and she has lots of gorgeous stuff like vases .Her vases don't cost a lot as she says if they get broken its not too much of a problem but if they cost a lot she might get upset about it. Matching crockery is something she longs for as most of hers is a bit ...shabby chic to say the least :):) but to her her children being happy is more important than possessions right now. :):)