Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves · 5 January 2019 at 7:16PM

Lol, 1LL...I'm right with you on lists. Love 'em! And the satisfaction of crossing things off is very motivating.

foxgloves · 5 January 2019 at 7:34PM

Very good grocery shop today. Came in smack on budget, even though we did pop a few extras in the trolley because they were on offer. Today's grocery bargain wasn't what I had planned. I was hoping to find a really big pork roasting joint from which to get several meals, including for the freezer. Only quite smallish ones available so although we bought one for the meals on next week's meal plans, it won't make heaps of extras. Never mind, the thrill is in the chase!
Today's stretchable bargain was a bowl of large mixed peppers from our local market - 5 really good sized ones for £1. I've prepped & frozen them for a stir-fry, some fajhitas, the cheesy butter bean thing that mr f makes with home made jacket wedges (yum) & a black-eyed bean chilli. I also sliced off all the tops first & chopped them up to fill 2 little pots ready for pizza making. I make most of our bread, so I make pizza quite often, at least twice a month usually & my little pots of chopped frozen peppers come in useful for this. Frozen sweetcorn is another good standby for chucking on. Basically, it's whatever I've got!
Oh well, time for some reading & relaxation. Enjoy your Saturday night, everyone.
F x

foxgloves · 6 January 2019 at 5:48PM

Greetings Debtbusters,
Hands up any ex-spenders on here who used to suffer from Gift Shop Temptation. Anyone who has read about my pre-LBM Spendy Decades will be unsurprised that BOTH my hands are up!
An outing never felt complete without buying something from that Drainer of Funds, the gift shop! There tends to be little in these establishments of an essential nature, so they were naturally a big temptation to me in the past.
This morning, we visited a local beauty spot/conservation area/historic site & I insisted on perusing the gift shop after our walk. I don't often buy anything these days & if I do, it's generally a card or a gift for somebody.
Today, I enjoyed looking round & identifying the things which would have tempted me in the past:
*Prehistoric soft toy (v cute but I've never been a cuddley toy person & all of those I've bought in adulthood have ended up at the charity shop).
*Fancy soap. I love nice bars of soap & at least this is a useful item, but I have just opened a bar at home & have further bars in my stash.
*A history book I've wanted to read for a while - I do buy books but I think I would only read this once so am better ordering it from the library.
*A selection of nostalgic 1970s-style sweets.......at decidedly UN-1970s prices.....plus the healthy eating resumes tomorrow.
*The cutest titchy pair of purple plastic binoculars (for elves).
*A bright pink squeezy chicken (Nope! Me neither, bit I guarantee you that if this purchasing opportunity had presented itself 10 or 15 years ago, there would now be a bright pink squeezy chicken sitting on my desk!
Oh, I could go on & on. Back in the day, I could & would have bought any of this stuff, because I seemed utterly incapable of leaving a gift shop empty-handed.....which I guess is the point of them!
Even though I've been a reformed character for a long time now, I still get a tiny zing of virtue when I don't succumb to temptation.
So that's today's thoughts & now I'm going to enjoy some knitting.
Cheers all - Oooh & I'm up for a blimming good frugal week this week as there are a couple of essential things I need to fund, hopefully without dipping into our emergency fund.
F xx

crazy_cat_lady · 6 January 2019 at 5:56PM

Oh my goodness, I LOVE gift shops. I could spend a fortune in them if I had a fortune to spend. I'm a bit of a sucker for pens and notepads... Although I'm better than I used to be.

DawnW · 6 January 2019 at 6:29PM

I find National Trust shops too much of a temptation!

foxgloves · 6 January 2019 at 7:25PM

Glad it's not just me!
Oh yes, NT shops really are expensive, aren't they? I did look at their festive sale items on a recent visit, but even the distinctly festive food items hadn't been sufficiently reduced to lure any pence from my purse. As I make my own jams, chutneys, lemon curd, fudge, fruit liqueurs, etc, & I love baking, I'm not often tempted by that sort of fare. It's home & garden stuff which I tend to be drawn to, really, but these days, apart from occasional gifts, the prices are usually more than I'm prepared to pay. Their plants are quite expensive too, compared with our village garden centre. I used to be massively tempted by plants, but I propagate a lot of stuff myself these days & have found so many packets of seeds while clearing out my parents' house that I could set up my own nursery!
F x

Onebrokelady · 6 January 2019 at 11:35PM

Oh yes the temptation of the gift shop is very familiar to me ,in fact I base my decisions on whether to visit anywhere on how good the gift shop is:D
The last one I went to was last year with my DGS and I did succumb to buying him a toy, he didn't ask for it because he was too young to even realise but I saw it and bought it,I also spent out on some peanut brittle which I love but it turned out to be not very nice at all,anyway when I got home and worked out what I had spent on a day out I was shocked and disappointed with myself and I like to think that I learned my lesson,so hopefully the next gift shop I visit won't be recieving any of my hard earned cash

foxgloves · 7 January 2019 at 8:50AM

I know that feeling, OBL. Even going right back to my childhood, I've bought things in gift shops which I haven't really wanted (not for longer than about 15 minutes, anyway), because the 'Gift Shop Experience' was always regarded by me as an integral part of the outing. So leaving without buying something would have felt like going against my expectations.
Agree about poshed up ranges of sweets though. Well presented & marketed but of very ordinary quality. I do think some of these shops must have reached a bit of a ceiling on what they can charge, because some of the prices are getting ridiculous.
Just gearing myself up to fill in my diet tracking book, bread to make & washing machine to empty, then it should be light enough to go outside & start clearing a garden border.
Wishing everyone a good start to the week.
F x

foxgloves · 7 January 2019 at 12:43PM

And now that we've had gift shop confessions, I feel I ought to gear up for a post about my expensive past relationship with antique/collector/flea fairs - oh dear, that will be another tale from the Spendy Years........
F

DawnW · 7 January 2019 at 3:25PM

I am a dealer Foxgloves, have been since before I took early retirement 5 years ago. I rent a unit in an antiqes arcade and sell online too, so go to antiques / flea markets / boot sales regularly. I am quite hard headed about it these days though - I don't pay much for anything (if it is more than I think I can make a small profit on, I don't buy) and rarely buy anything for myself these days - and if I do, something I already have has to go!

Having said that, I have squandered money on this stuff in the past

And I have my share the inevitable 'dealers mistakes' which haven't sold, in some cases from years back

Put away your purse & become debt-averse

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