Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Aril

Evening all! Time for a quick update from me. Mr GBT has worked really hard on the redesign of the back garden. We no longer have a lawn so the lawn mower was freecycled yesterday. The new raised beds will be planted up with veg next year but I've grown a few poppies from seed for this year. We did buy a wheelbarrow as Mr GBT has done all the hard graft himself and that's being borrowed by my parents for barrowing compost! Sharing is part of the NBI mantra in my world.
Lots of birthdays and other celebrations going on here. We took my parents out for a delicious breakfast at a locally run restaurant last week for their Golden Wedding. Thought it made a change from a dinner and they loved it. My Mum has her 70th birthday next month and I've just bought us a joint spa day for half price as a present. We both agreed that neither of us need more things! I was lucky to win a cantilevered sewing box on freecycle last week and have just spent the last couple of evenings finally making some net bags for loose fruit and veg from the sm with some old net curtains my Mum gave me. Arilx

Happytravelling

Lyn- I spied on another thread that you'd bought a house, that's great news :j You have been so optomistic throughout, I am sure your friends have found it a joy to have you (otherwise you might have gotten "Marie-kondoed" )

Aril- Good point re sharing, and its easy to forget its another way we NBI. I love to pass books on to people who I think will enjoy them, as well as DVD swaps with friends. I have lost count of the times I have said to my Dad "Are you using your strimmer/ hedge trimmer/ <insert name of other tools here> this week

Lynplatinum

Hiya

Am currently staying with my friend in Cornwall - next week the house purchase should complete!! (Cross fingers folks )

My friend has a wonderful system going for reading material it goes thus:

Her Mum buys Woman's Weekly; each week my friend takes Mum shopping and picks up last week's WW; my friend reads it; I read it; it gets passed on to her SIL (who is not terribly well off); her daughter reads it and finally passes it on to the old dears that she is a home help for! In return they pass back up the line books they have read which, if my friend or her Mum have already read them or dont fancy reading them they go to the church Book and Bake (which happens once a month and supports the maintenance of the church building - a beautiful old building).. The Book and Bake is where some folks contribute a cake/scones/saffron cake and others contribute books :A and the village comes along a pays very little for cakes and tea and books to keep a village resource going - this and the plant sale each month also form a meeting up activity for the village. :T

All very old style and very NBI!
Nite all

FairyMum

Is it OK if i join please for the 2nd half of the year? I am a very long term lurker on the forums but never posted.
I am not a big consumer at all, I hate waste and shopping in equal measure.

Happytravelling

Of course FairyMum- the more the merrier

[Deleted User]

No food shopping to buy ,but I am off to a small church fete shortly as I want to see if they have any plants to fill up a spare spot in my garden Plus I keep a keen eye out for odds and ends for my Xmas pressie box. I take around £5.00 from my happy cash stash to spend and no more if I see something worth having then its a bonus ,but if not then the cash goes back into the stash I found a super book for my DDs pa-in-law at one a few weeks ago which was brand new and only cost me £1.00.It was a Michael Palin travel book and I know its one he hasn't got. Nice pressie for very little .

Lynplatinum

Evening All

Will go to bed in a minuite - honest!!

Welcome Fairy Mum!!

Living with my friend is a strange experience. Love her to bits and she has been so kind and generous to let me stay but her main hobby (along with her Mum) seems to be shopping!!

Lorks is it difficult not to be suckered into parting with my cash when each week her and her Mum and me go out to lunch and to get Mum's shopping for the week (Mum is 80 - doesn't drive and had a stroke a couple of years ago and so is registered disabled but has loads of spark about her ) I have v little to buy because I am living in someone else's house. Although I am cooking for two or so nights a week and when she is away at the weekend I try to do the washing and cleaning for her!

But I am catching myself wanting to buy - so am spending my time round these places looking at and analyzing the clever layout which makes you buy more. So for example the R*nge today has narrow isles and the isles are off set so that in order just to walk around the store you cannot avoid looking at the goods on the shelves. Then the tills are surrounded by impluse buy material - food suffs (folks are often peckish at the end of a shop - going home for lunch for example!) or things that children waiting in the queue might ask/pester for. Very clever!

I bought two cards - both of which I actually needed!

So the message to the NBI folks is - if you feel tempted to buy ask yourself why - what techniques have the store used to lure you into parting with cash????? Let me know how that tactic works for you folks! :A
Nite all

[Deleted User]

well I parted company with 50p today as the local junk shop is closing and they had a nice Greens blue and white striped cream jug which I really liked and the lady said you can have it for 50p reduced from a fiver :):) my kind of gal I think I was looking for a smaller milk/cream jug and this fits the bill beautifully.The money came from my Happy Cash stash and 50p is my treat for the week :):) I'm easily pleased

Bathory

Something that I find stores often use to tempt people is when they have taste promotions in supermarkets. I was once won over by a new fruit cider as the store was handing out testers of it in little plastic cups. They do the same with cheese, biscuits, chocolates etc so I try to avoid it. I know its nice to try something before buying it but if I'm peckish I might be more tempted anyway.

We have been advised that the fortnightly bin collections are soon to change to every 3 weeks. There's only 2 of us in this house so no big deal but I think it may get difficult for large households. A lot of bins are stuffed full to bursting point after just 1 week and some people simply throw rubbish out in the backyards and alleyways attracting vermin. NBI sprang to mind with regards to food in over-packaged plastic, something I've been trying my best to cut down so there's less to go in the bin.

Crochet_Flower

FairyMum wrote: »

Is it OK if i join please for the 2nd half of the year? I am a very long term lurker on the forums but never posted.
I am not a big consumer at all, I hate waste and shopping in equal measure.

ditto...:T