Not Buying It- A Consumer Holiday 2016

Primrose

The new £5 notes atart coming into circulation next month.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/polymer/Pages/default.aspx

Siebrie

Thanks for the info Primrose. I work in an international head office in Brussels, and have not yet been informed. I'll forward the link to our Head of Accounting.

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Am quite happy with how today went, I decided that it was time to deep clean and tidy my flat on Thursday and put the plan into action straight away. It was not really messy but the cabinets and drawers had reached quite a state and I had more books on my nightstand than on the bookshelf and there was knitting all over the place...
So dealt with living room, bedroom and bathroom on Thurday and with kitchen and spare room yesterday. Today I hovered and wiped all the floors and descaled the bathroom.
I now have a lovely and clean flat and all there is to do for tomorrow is cleaning the oven and somewhen next week I will have to clean the kitchen windows. Did the other windows a few weeks ago, ran out of time and then completely forgot about the kitchen windows.

Once everything was done I went into town and treated myself to lunch out followed by tea, cake and knitting at a caf!. Went to buy a present for my sister, saw a cute pillow a while ago but was on the way to the cinema so didn't wanted to carry the pillow there which was good as it is now half price. Stocked up on shampoo and face cream and ended up with some bathbombs as well.... Oups...

Tomorrow I will go swimming with my sister, clean the oven, deal with 2.5 kg of plums I got from my Mum and turn the plums that I still have in the freezer from last year into plum and apple jam. And if i feel very motivated there is also the darning basket...

determinednewms, welcome! It really gets easier after a while. When I first decided to not buy so much stuff (for me it is less Not Buying It but Not Buying So Much) I set myself a target of not more than one item of cosmetics a month (plus my basics which are foundation, concealer, powder and mascara). I was constanly going into shops to see what I could buy this month. Eventually I lost interest in it and nowdays it is not one piece a month but one every about six months...

Have a nice evening everyone!

blackcatsx2

Wow Ricardo, your flat sounds lovely and tidy and clean. It is such a nice feeling isn't it.
I've been trying to downshift my grocery shopping and its been quite successful. However I tried to go down a brand with the cat food and guess what? 8 out of 10 cats might prefer Whisk*s but I've got the 2/10 that flounce away from their bowls in disgust!

angela110660

Out of lurkdom today but still keeping up with all you good people. I have a wedding to attend in September and in Debenhams found a gorgeous dress in Monsoon reduced to £39. Thrilled with that - originally priced at £139.
Today been to do weekly food shop at Sainsbobs and have discovered that the Almond milk I am giving a go for health at the mo is 20p dearer in the fridge than on the longlife milk aisle. As I scan my shopping I just deleted the dearer one and rescanned a cheaper one! Every 20p helps. LOL

Happytravelling

Hi everyone,

I'm still on board with NBI, just haven't had much time to post recently.

Keep looking at the clock wondering if its too late to have a nap- I think it is- as my in laws have visited over the weekend, so hectic days, late nights and hosting have left me worn out. On the bright side, we don't need to cook as we have enough left overs for tonight (even though the combination might be a bit peculiar).

We went out for the day yesterday... We did spend £10 each on entry to gardens, but hubby's family usually suggest things like Alton Towers, the zoo, etc, so visits can end up costing a LOT. We'd got some cheaper alternatives lined up but the weather was too questionable so we opted for somewhere with a bit better shelter, which turned into the right decision.

It was a super day though, we strolled through the beautiful gardens, played hide and seek in a maze (adults outnumbered children by some distance :rotfl:), went on a mammal trail with the wildlife trust and found a bank vole, a field vole, 2 types of mice, a shrew and some toads, which turned into a private tour for our group when the other 2 families got fed up!

We spent more than usual on food, but avoided takeaways and I always like to make sure there's a big, tasty fry up to set everyone up for the drive home.

Its nice to be able to have the money saved for these things by not buying unnecessarily, and as its a treat for us, feels more special than it would if we went to these kind of places all the time.

RicardaRacoon

Evening all

Spent two hours in the kitchen this afternoon, dealing with a lot of plums. Froze some, made plum and apple jam, plum and apple sauce und some plum and cinnamon muffins. Unfortunatelly two of the glasses didn't sealed properly... One had one of these new and fancy easy to open lids, maybe they don't work properly... Anyway, I'm sure they will be put to good use before they go off, one glass will go over to my parents and will be gone in no time.

Blackcats, it is a lovely feeling indeed although it is not recommended to cook jam the day after thoroughly cleaning the kitchen...

Angela, well done on getting a nice dress! Mons00n has such lovely things and the quality is amazing. I have a jersey dress which I wore almost each week for the past three years, all the seams are still ok, only have a few small holes in it but that is from being caught somewhere.

Happytravelling, sounds like money well spent on a lovely day out!

Evening plan is knitting and watching "Victoria Wood as seen on TV" and maybe I will try a muffin later on. Am quite impressed with myself for not having munched one so far.

Have a nice evening everyone

Kerry_Woman

Was supposed to have finished my temp contract in July, but was asked back to work for September. Had no other temp work during the Summer break. So did not buy a weekly bus pass, just put money on the oyster card. That restricted me going out shopping which was a good thing as I did not want to keep topping up the card. Must be strong when I start the temp job again next week.


I also have been walking to places that were close to me, eg library and 2 shops. So free exercise.


Still decluttering. Am trying to get a few things sorted out in flat, just trying to sort things out with contacting people to do the work. Am hoping to get the work done by the end of the year. Then will hopefully finish the rest of the work that is needed next year.

atypicalblonde

Good morning all,

Please can I join you? I was really active on the 2014 thread, but have lost my way somewhat recently. I am a SAHM to two lovely children aged 4 and 2. DD starts reception next week, and I really need to focus on cutting my spending. I don't seem to buy a lot, but never seem to have any money!

So I've dusted off my spending diary and am going to re-focus. If we keep spending as we are I'll need to go back to work full time which I really really don't want to do - it would be logistically horrific as DH works away in the week and we have no family local to help with kiddies.

Please get me back on track!

Much love, ATB xx

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone

Just came home from a sock knitting lesson with D, a 87yo family friend and have finished my first ever sock! Spent such a lovely evening with her and it is always such good fun and I can learn tons about knitting and about life from her.
I think we have to establish a teeny-tiny knitting group at her place consisting of only the two of us as she kept asking when I will come over next time. Not that she is an old lady sitting at home alone all day, her diary is very full and she is always on her way to or from somewhere...

My yarn delivery arrived today, very un-NBI with 900 g of sock yarn... Ok, only 3 balls are for me, four are a present for my Mum and another two are for charity knitting. But I really have to stop buying yarn for the time being... Will go on holiday with my sister soon and should we find a yarn shop I will have to make sure that I only buy a ball of yarn to knit a scarf for my Mum but nothing for myself. Plenty of knitting to do to de-stash...

Will do my groceries round tomorrow, need a look into my fridge to see what is still in there... I don't think I will need masses of things, only some veg really and flour as I wanted to bake some cookies on Monday evenig when I used the oven anways and found that I have about 50 g left...

Atypicalblond, I think a spending diary is a very good idea, so you can see where your money really goes and decide where you can cut down without much of an effort and then you can tackle the more difficult things later on if needed.

Have a nice evening everyone!