Selfsufficientish.com

Hubby & I have decided that the Oxfam ideal; "live simply that others can simply live" will be ours from now on.

To this end we're spending the festive break sorting out all the stuff we don't need/want/doesn't fit/can't remember why the heck we aquired it in the first place! It will all be taken to charity shops, put on freecycle or sold on ebay.

A tip my Gran gave me (but I've ignored for the first 47 years of my life )

If you see a "bargain", go home. Ask your other half/ or a friend if they agree it's a bargain, if they do then & ONLY THEN go back & buy it!

Will let you know how we are doing.

MuddyWitch

Every time I try and sort stuff out to put on ebay or freecycle I end up finding stuff I haven't seen for ages and the using it or reading it again

I end up just moving stuff from one place to another and not actually getting rid

bugger

mamos

Mamos

rofl...that's exactly what I do normally...I'll let you know if we do any better this time. I'm hoping that telling you all that it's going to happen means it will!(need a fingers crossed smiley)

MW

In terms of clothes, you don't even have to BUY second hand any more... I am totally addicted to a website called www.whatsmineisyours.com where you can go online and swap things you don't wear/use with other people ... I've had some tremendous swaps and go on almost every day! I'm not trying to push it or anything, but it's worth a look.

One man's rubbish is another man's treasure

Going great guns until today.

Before christmas my mother left her walking stick in Manchester. I've just been back down and forgot to bring it back - so amidst much grumbling from aforementioned old bat I ordered her a new one online. Unfortunately, they had a sale on walking poles, which I've been hanging my nose over since moving up here. So I've treated myself!

I'm participating in this this year. Just blogged about it in fact so I'll just copy and paste what I typed over there to over here.


Items not included in this challenge are as follows:
Food
Loo roll and cleaning/toiletry products
Medicine
Anything that would jeopardize the health and safety of me and my family if I didn't buy new
Certain people's birthday and anniversary gifts (though all cards will be handmade)
Tobacco

I had started this on 1st January but I have failed dismally already so I am re-starting this again.
Why did I fail?
Because the gym I've just joined informed me that DM's are not suitable footwear for their gymnasium!!
The cheek!
I had put up a request on my local Freecycle group requesting for a pair of trainers any style, any colour, didn't matter if they were for men or women so long as they were size 6.
I got zero replies so was forced to go out and buy a pair of shoes suitable. Trust me, I have come up with a garzillion excuses NOT to join my local gym, I really didn't need any help in this matter - but I was determined to join and get this aging body of mine back to a reasonable state of fitness. So suitable foot wear was kind of an emergency.
Kinda.
Loathed as I was to buy new anything, I was even more loathed to buy traniers, which I NEVER wear. So I managed to pick up a pair of black baseball boots for under ten euro and left the shoe shop feeling reasonably pleased with myself. At least baseball boots I will wear outside of the gym as well.
Just to elaborate further, buying second hand is OK. Whether it be from ebay, Freecycle or charity shops and boot sales.

Hippy Chick - that is an awesome site! Thanks for the link.

Failed again - just going into making own bread and cakes - no tins so must go buy. Rarely if ever see any cooking utensils in charity shops and never on freecycle or the local papers free ads section. Last time I looked on eBay what I wanted was nearly as expensive as new.

Tis a sad life being a vegan who just fancies a cake that's full of heaven knows what and some decent bread.

Am I let off as it will reduce lots of waste packaging by not buying bread and will allow me to eat a bit of what I fancy? When the kids were at home there used to be loads of baking tins - no idea where they went but as they all left home about 18 years and three or four houses ago there's no real telling.

On the other hand - the bread maker being delivered tonight comes off freecycle ...

The only other new has been to replace shoes (specialist) and daughter's 15 year old, worn out bedding as nothing king size in charity shops

So at least the shopping is very much cut down.

I thought I'd been doing fairly well thus far - although I have had to buy a couple of new things, they've been things to get my shop ready - wood, fabric etc, - most of my purchases this year have been secondhand from ebay, or swapped with neighbours, and I've questioned everything and talked myself out of many purchases.

However my first major fall from grace has just crept up on me and I didn't even think about it! Birthday pressies for OH - 2 bottles of single malt (on sale so I got 2 cheaper ones instead of one more expensive one) and a japanese handsaw.

I'm slightly worried now that I've not been doing as well as I thought - what other purchases have crept by me . None that I can think of but..........

Well despite the cooking utensils and daughter's bedding, I've settled into the spend nothing routine quite well. I was tempted by a new kitchen scale the other day but decided that it was no easier to use than the one I was given for Christmas a couple of years ago. So then I wasn't tempted.

Daughter is collecting some kilner jars for preserving tonight from an ad on freecycle on her way home from work. Every little helps when it comes to preserving stuff off the allotment.

In fact this not going shopping thing is definitely good for the budget.

This is such a good idea to try this. I've certainly started to be much more thoughtful about what I do and don't buy over the last year. OH, however, is terrible, and will go to the supermarket and come back with a ton of rubbish, particularly if his daughter is with him (weekend dad, guilt syndrome). Given the habits that my family are in already, I think it would be hard to do a year straight up, so I'm starting with next month being 'No Supermarket Month'. I hate the places anyway and will do anything to avoid them, being a sufferer of panic attacks I find them tough places to be. For the remaining months of the year I'm going to do different 'challenges' to try and get OH and SD a bit more into it and seeing actually how easy it is.

I've had another little slip.

Well - we've got several gallons of wine that needs bottling, so I had to buy some corks. But then I noticed this very nifty floor-standing corking thingy. Life will, I'm sure, be much easier with one of these...... Yes, OK, I'm feeling guilty again.

I don't think I'm doing too badly though - apart from the above, OHs malt whisky (which obviously comes in the food category ) and japanese handsaw (birthday pressies) and the wood and fabric for my shop (which is now looking very cute) - I don't think I've bought anything else new. I've just looked back through prevoius posts - forgot my walking poles!

I've still got to get the sink and flooring for the kitchen, though we are looking at reclaimed timber (but it's sooo expensive). We're also looking to get an old belfast sink - unfortunately we need a small one (18" rather than the more usual 24") and they're not easy to come by.

being it that ive only just admitted to myself and hubby that i have a bit of a shopping problem, i am resolved to try and curb this.
not buying anything new for a year is too big a target to set for myself, so im going to try a month! excited but also a bit anxious that i will fail. needs must though, i dont actually have an income as my SMP has just ended!

i am going to try to spend as much time as possible at the allotment with the baby rather than moping around the shopping centre zombified. ive already spent out on the outlay of most bits (plastic for polytunnel, seeds etc) so will challenge myself to finding scrap wood for free for the rest of the raised beds im planning on making.

i am going to get hubby to do the food shopping or both of us together so he can slap my wrists.

i am not going to buy any new clothes for myself. this means i will have to do some serious digging on the allotment to fit into my summer clothes as im no longer the svelte size 8 i was pre-baby!

i am not going to buy baby anything new and wont feel guilty for doing this as shes already got tons of toys and clothes as gifts.

i will make as much of my toiletries as possible like i used too and stop buying things cos they 'smell nice'.

i will not enter past the gates of doom that are tkmax. the worst shop to go in when you have no money, cos there is always something nice to buy in there!

i think putting this all down in writing really helps! have been having a bit of a crisis about this in my head recently as i feel like i have lost my ishness since becoming a mum. i feel like a real changed person and it upsets me cos i used to be so passionate about the cause.

well, i dont know if anyone read my previous post but hey hey... its been a week and i have bought nothing except for the food shopping! it may seem like nothing to some of you, but is a massive step for me!
today was a big challege too, my mum in law took me and baby out to a massive john lewis for lunch and browsing and i just looked. was tempted but strong!
i feel now that i've done a week a month will be easy, then two, then three... i actually feel quite revitalised and have got quite a lot done on the allotment, thanks to the spurts of sunshine we have had this week! ive been trying to freecycle some tarpaulin to cover up some more weedy bits, if anyone has got any spare it would be much appreciated, but i suspect its the kind of thing gardeners dont ever 'not need'!!
heres to another week!

and on another note of triumph, i now fit into a couple of lovely hemp 'komodo' tops i bought whilst pregnant thinking i would be back to normal in weeks! very happy as for a while i thought i was gonna have to get a whole new wardrobe. down to 2-3 breast feeds a day, so thats probably why!

Sounds like you're doing really well UA

I'm not doing so brilliantly, but I'm sticking with it. I'm sure that trying and having the odd slip up is better than not trying at all.