Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Lynplatinum

Evening all

firstly, my apologies candygirl LOL

Had a fab day today - my £10 Happy stash for the week is running v low (due to walkies and then ice creams or a bought cuppa on the way home - admittedly because I need the loo sometimes!).

So wanted my 4pm treat of HM cake (lower in fat and sugar than bought ones) and also wanted to see the sea (why I moved here) as I had been hard at work sorting stuff out!

I had a moment of genius - rather than break into another £10 and therefore break my resolution - why not take my tea (well hot water in flask + milk + cup + tea bag) to the sea side??? Did so and it was fab because the waves were really high - an onshore wind and high tide and there were surfers and kite surfers to watch as well as a paddle!!!

So proud of my NBI thinking!!!! :j

Night all

[Deleted User]

All you need now Lyn is a portaloo :):) and your are set for life :):) well done on NBI think, I sometimes look at the price of a cuppa and think £1.20 for a cup of hot water and a teabag and a dribble of milk ,wow someones making buckets of money.as for a coffee well that's just absurd I have my two cups of coffee per month when I am out at U3A coffee morning, and they are freebies with my loyalty card from Dobbies where we hold it.My card costs me £10.00 per year, and for that I get 24 cups of coffee per year at £2.95 a pop =£70.80 Makes my £10.00 per year subscription look super value doesn't it plus a 10% discount on plants as well.They also do special discount nights for holders only which are usually pretty good for buying stuff just before christmas (and you usually get a glass of wine and a mince pie chucked in as well.:):):) By the way Dobbies give our U3A group a spot sectioned of from the rest of the restaraunt for free to hold our coffee mornings Part of their 'help for the community' scheme.They know that its likely that memebers will probably buy something on their way in or out anyway as its a nice shop.Canny marketing but customers and shop are both happy win-win

Bathory

Downgrading to basic or supermarket own labels has been an ongoing thing as part of NBI for us. There are not many branded goods in our house anymore, not like there use to be. I still buy Fairy, Ariel powder, tetley tea and all of these are stockpiled when the offers are good.

I've inherited my late mums ration book from the early 50's. Looking through it is quite bewildering as I don't understand the codes/letters in it, but it brings me down to earth as to how lucky we are nowadays not to have such restrictions. She would often mention a wartime dish called panackelty that consisted of onion, bacon and potatoes. I'm going to make this sometime soon.

Tomorrow I'm off to the north east coast for a few days. I always take a pack-up as train trolley food is horrendously pricey and fish & chips by the sea will be on the menu as this is the only time I have a takeaway.

Primrose

My mum made a version of panalkety during the war which consisted of fried chopped bacon (and onions or leeks when you could get them which was rare) mixed into mashed potatoes and then flattened in a frying pan on both sides to make it crispy. Any fat from the fried bacon was used to mash and blend the potatoes as all fats were strictly rationed and couldn't be wasted.

i occasionally make a more luxurious version today which includes lots of tasty fried onions and a generous helping of mature cheddar cheese mixed in the mash. As comfort food it's delicious.

Other chopped cooked veg can be mixed in with the mashed potatoes so it's a good way of using up leftover peas, beans, etc. And of course leftover cabbage turns it into a version of Colcannon. The crispy fried outers of the flattened "pancakes" are always the favourite parts in our house ! The addition of a few herbs like oregano into the mixture also brightens it up.

[Deleted User]

a general sort of bubble and squeak with a few additions were always favourite in our house when I was little .Almost anything that could be used was thrown in and eaten up, and always tasted nicer chucked in the pan with a bit of dripping from my Mums beige dripping pot. Fat of any sort was saved and used, unlike today when fat is thought of as almost a forbiden food. But back then there were not the 'in-between ' snacks that are available today

It was three meals a day and very little in-between.
I can remember my Mum endevouring to fill her three permanantly hungry kids with a snack of cream crackers spread with a scrape of marg,some jam and some grated cheese on top.Two biscuits sandwiched together filled the most rumbelling tummy.

I think we were always feeling empty,not because we didn't have enough food ,but that unless it was raining, children were virtually always playing outside. An old bit of rope doubled as a long skipping rope for the girls and the boys if they got a chance swung from lampposts with it in makeshift swings. Toys, as you get today were difficult to get hold of after the war as they wern't considered to be an important thing to manufacture, people needed furniture and houses more than kids toys.

My eldest brother made me my first and only dolls house from an old orange box scavenged from the local market one Christmas and it was painted a dark green colour (I think the paint was' liberated' from a local council workman)

But I was thrilled to bits with it.He also found me a one-legged one armed dolly on a bomb site which I treasured (my Mum hated it ) but I would get end bits of wool from her to decently cover her lack of limbs with knitted leggings stuffed on one side with newspaper so she didn't look too odd it was certainly a make-do and mend sort of childhood but very happy none the less.

Although there were times when life was harder than today, I wouldn't swap my childhood for the things kids have nowadays.I think we were more inventive back then, as a neccesity more than anything else

Bathory

Primrose, your version with the cheese mixed in sounds very tasty.

My grandmother came from County Durham area so I think if I'm correct that's where the name panackelty may be from?

JackieO, I remember no snacks growing up as well. The one thing I did sometimes eat in between meals was a small piece of cheese and a cox orange pippin apple when the pips would rattle when you shook the apple. They don't taste as nice now.

I think my cat Matilda has sensed I'm not here tomorrow and has suddenly got very clingy following me around and now keeps trying to climb onto the keyboard. I best go and comfort her.

Primrose

Yes, kids today have a very soft childhood in many ways compared with the wartime and post war austerity years. I recall my mum making great roasting tins full of bread pudding which was basically bread soaked in milk I think with some dried fruit mixed in. It was a huge homogenous "wodge" of filling which would have almost puttied in window panes but filled a gap when we returned hungry from school.

And as Jackie says, we did get hungry because we were outside so much. And there were few dnacks in those days apart from Smiths crisps with the little blue bag of salt which was always damp ! Mostly our snacks were raw carrot sticks or an apple, with none of the fancy varieties available today. And in the school holidays, despite still being at junior school my younger brother and I would disappear off to the local woods with a packet of sandwiches and a fishng net to go fishing in the local lake. Nobody worried about our safety and we would come home at teatime dirty and ravenous with a jar of sticklebacks which my poor mum somehow had to dispose of discreetly. If you sent an 8 and 10 year old off unaccompanied like that today Social Services would soon be after you. I sometimes see a "walking bus" of juvenile kids all linked up with yellow tabards and holding ropes to keep them in line going to school and think "how sad!"

butterfly2507

Hello fellow ship mates :beer: Long time no see but I'm still here and reading. Some updates:

- My BF recently moved into a new flat and we've been trying to spend as less and we can.

- We just back from vacation and while the room was too expensive for what it actually was, I haven't spend more than 400 € in two weeks (including dinner, lunch and shopping). I know it might sound like a lot to some but given it was the only vacation for this year, I did quite well.

- I've decided to plant my own herbs / vegetables / fruits from now on. Can be a bit tricky since I don't really have a green thumb :T

Also, anyone here excited for fall and Christmas? Given the weather here is more like November!

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there!!

Climbing back on the NBI ship. Today was another NSD day leaving me with £1.70 out of my £20 allowance for the week (£10 food and cleaning £10 Happy Stash). That has been squirreled away into its various saving pots (dependent upon denomination of coin). New week (financially) begins tomorrow! So will shop in L!dils and look for their special offers

Only spending 400 was very good if you were paying for all three meals Butterfly - and hopefully you have lots of great memories and photos to treasure for the rest of the year. A colleague of mine passed on a great tip to me - when I would come back to work after my hols - book the next one now!! Put it into your diary/book the time off if you can! I also found another tip of hers really useful - book yourself an 'at home' holiday with your annual leave. Spend the morning getting rid of a chore and the afternoon do something fun - meet a friend for a walk - go for a coffee and cake - go to a Nat Trust property (as a a member you get in somewhere beautiful free! 3 properties a year = more than breakeven on membership cost!) - go and visit somewhere pretty or wild near you which you have always meant to do! This strategy means that you wont feel too deprived for the rest of the year

Have already booked a hols for next year - yep - back to Belgium again but a different part - organised by my kind friend again! This time includes visit to a chocolate maker as well as a brewery tour! Well worth my current frugality!
NBI today was easy because I didnt go near shops on my walkies (am trying to do an hour a day) - I am sure that this is key to money saving !
Nite all

[Deleted User]

I agree Lyn we book our following years holiday the week after we come home from this years one mainly because the IoW gets booked out so quickly and we all love going there so much.My late OH was an Island chap and my children and I spent amany summers there at my late ma-in-laws.My youngest DD adores the place and would, if there were work, move there tomorrow. Its a bit like going back in time as the pace is slower and the shops a bit less rushed (apart from Newport where the traffic can take you all of 10 minutes to get through town :):)) the scenery is gorgeous and the beaches clean.We have spent 11 of the past 13 years there, and no doubt will be off again next year Only one more week to go and my DGS are getting excited already
No spending for me this week as I have enough in the cupboards to do me foodwise.
Lyn you sound as if you have got you Nirvana at last I'm sure you will enjoy it and without the bustle and noise of the city life will slow down to a nice relaxed pace


JackieO xx