No Buy Year

bouicca21

Fell off the no spend wagon by buying myself a cycling jersey.  I can’t pretend I needed it but it’s better  quality and much prettier than the cheap stuff I’ve already got, plus it was in the sale.

Rosa_Damascena

Katiehound said:

Going to add my twopennth here (without actually spending a penny!!)

This might help someone

Nearly two years ago my dishwasher went haywire,  gobbled a complete fill of salt distributing it all over the washed items so that I had to soak it off in a bucket of water & vinegar to remove the mess. Then repeated the action when I tried again.

Last week I finally got around to phoning a repair man (no call out charge)
When I explained the problem he said that the salt dispenser thingie is part of a larger unit and the whole thing would have to be replaced- not worth the cost of parts & labour as it is not an expensive machine.

His advice- use the machine. It doesn't need salt if you use a good quality  all-in-one tablet.

Result: No spend.
The machine works.
 I had some Fairy Platinum tablets already.
I'm ignoring the salt red light.
 No call out charge.
No expensive mend or new purchase, using up stocks of dishwasher tabs & rinse aid.
 Shiny crockery (no hand washing!) Win Win!! 

The repair man said he saw a lot of machines where the warning lights for salt & rinse aid were on but the dishes were clean.

Mine refuses to operate if there is insufficient salt or rinse aid.

Katiehound

Rosa_Damascena said:

Katiehound said:

Going to add my twopennth here (without actually spending a penny!!)

This might help someone

Nearly two years ago my dishwasher went haywire,  gobbled a complete fill of salt distributing it all over the washed items so that I had to soak it off in a bucket of water & vinegar to remove the mess. Then repeated the action when I tried again.

Last week I finally got around to phoning a repair man (no call out charge)
When I explained the problem he said that the salt dispenser thingie is part of a larger unit and the whole thing would have to be replaced- not worth the cost of parts & labour as it is not an expensive machine.

His advice- use the machine. It doesn't need salt if you use a good quality  all-in-one tablet.

Result: No spend.
The machine works.
 I had some Fairy Platinum tablets already.
I'm ignoring the salt red light.
 No call out charge.
No expensive mend or new purchase, using up stocks of dishwasher tabs & rinse aid.
 Shiny crockery (no hand washing!) Win Win!! 

The repair man said he saw a lot of machines where the warning lights for salt & rinse aid were on but the dishes were clean.

Mine refuses to operate if there is insufficient salt or rinse aid.

Luckily mine doesn't! but I assumed (wrongly) that would happen.
(Machine is now 4 years old- it was just over 2 when the problem started- talk about a throwaway society)

ArbitraryRandom

Watty1 said:

I also bought 5 Ikea blue bags yesterday.  I tried to source second hand on free sites for the last 4 weeks but failed.   I posted on a "hacks" group for horses and failed to get any free suggestions and so I took the plunge and purchased.

I've a horse that has to watch what he eats and this way I can weight out his hay for 5 days. If it is a success then I will buy a few more so I can do the same for all the horses and weight out their hay for the week ahead.  This will save time, possibly save hay and speed up my day.  So another spend but worthwhile. I'm keeping track of my spends. This year I allowed myself spends on essentials for the animals but only very mindful spends on me.

I have a couple that are incredibly useful for things like laundry and unloading the grocery shopping - I remember my nan had a couple of big bags that looked like the same material that she used for years from the market, but when I bought some that looked 'the same' they were awful poor quality things that didn't last one use. 

Katiehound said:

Nearly two years ago my dishwasher went haywire,  gobbled a complete fill of salt distributing it all over the washed items so that I had to soak it off in a bucket of water & vinegar to remove the mess. Then repeated the action when I tried again.

When I had mine installed about 4 years ago, I'd never had one before (I'd used one, but not in my home), so I pestered the installer with a ton of questions - one of the things he said was I didn't need to use salt because I'm not in a hard water area (apparently moderately soft), and that I probably didn't even need to bother with an all in one.

Sometimes though I get a white almost chalky residue on my silicon cookware... not sure if that's the water or not or if anyone else has the same issue (google has been inconclusive)? 

Katiehound

^^^  unfortunately I am in a very hard water area so I assumed that I really really needed the salt!  The engineer told me that if I used  good quality all-in-one tablets it should be fine.  I'll see what happens some months down the line..

I hand wash my silicone cookware.

When the salt went bezerk everything was covered in a cloudy white substance, so maybe it doesn't rinse off the silicone completely. (presume it's the powder/whatever in the tablet?)

Rosa_Damascena

I handwash silicone cookware and it always whitens. I am however satisfied that it is clean, even if it no longer looks brand new.

Watty1

Worlds_Worst_Superhero said:

@Watty1

Every year my son buys me a huge A5 page-a day planner/diary for Christmas. It has separate sections for budgeting, book lists and notes, and folders for important paperwork or receipts.
He knows it is something I will definitely use- and he said it's so much easier to order one online than trawl around the crowded shopping centres in the weeks before Christmas.

Every year I have to play the game "I wonder what this could possibly be!" as he gives me the familiar, book-shaped present 😆

I use it as a journal, diary for forthcoming events, financial records...everything! It's something of a family joke that we'd all be useless without it!

Like you, I also use coloured pens, as well as stickers and post-it notes. I also stick in newspaper articles, book reviews, pictures, photos etc. By the end of the year the planner looks like an explosion in WHSmiths!

But I love it ❤️

A woman after my own heart!  This is the first year I've been rid of the ex and I'm loving using my planner

Worlds_Worst_Superhero

Had my first "spend" of the year but I'm not sure if it counts as a frivolous purchase, or not.

It was an adjustable tap wrench for repairing a damaged bath tap. I already have a replacement set of taps, I just needed the right tool.
I asked on a local borrowing site, but had no response, so had to buy one.
A £5.99 purchase from my friendly neighbourhood hardware shop. It's a tiny, independent place- and the man who owns it even demonstrated exactly how to get the old taps off and replace them!
I'll let you know how I get on later- wish me luck!

Rosa_Damascena

Worlds_Worst_Superhero said:

Had my first "spend" of the year but I'm not sure if it counts as a frivolous purchase, or not.

It was an adjustable tap wrench for repairing a damaged bath tap. I already have a replacement set of taps, I just needed the right tool.
I asked on a local borrowing site, but had no response, so had to buy one.
A £5.99 purchase from my friendly neighbourhood hardware shop. It's a tiny, independent place- and the man who owns it even demonstrated exactly how to get the old taps off and replace them!
I'll let you know how I get on later- wish me luck!

A demonstration of exactly why we need to be supporting small business, you don't get the same service in national chains.

I'm always reluctant to lend my stuff out on the grounds that I take good care of my kit and things are rarely the same when they come back. Cake tins being an example.

Worlds_Worst_Superhero

Apologies for not checking in for ages.

Plumbing/ bathroom repairs turned out to be quite a big job.
Had a few quotes, includes a few chancers that tried to upsell me a whole bathroom refit for £3000. I knew I neither wanted not needed that.

Whilst I could do most of the work myself, I knew I would have to call in a plumber to replace some badly corroded pipework. 

To cut a long story short, I now have a fancy flush toilet, water-saving sink taps, water-saving bath taps with "powershower" attachment, new drainage and input pipework.

Total cost £275.

Definitely not a "No Spend", but entirely necessary.
And pretty chuffed that I resisted the temptation to splurge over £3000 on a "Dream Bathroom"