Not buy anything new 2014

[ina]

For whatever reason, people tend to send me Christmas decorations. I never decorate for Christmas. Maybe they are trying to tell me I should - but why? Christmas is bad enough without baubles all over the place... I could (almost) start a shop with the stuff I've collected. Well, I've been passing some things on. This year, I mark everything I've got (not that it is that much) with the name of the giver. That way I can recycle gifts... Apart from that I get a lot of edibles - which would be fine if they were the kind of thing I want to eat. But since I am fat, everybody thinks "oh, she must absolutely love sweeties, so lets give her more of that". Would you give alcohol to an alcoholic? No? I thought not. But no matter how often I've told people I want nothing with sugar in it, I still get the stuff. And it's not usually the kind of thing you could give to the foodbank, either.

Rant over.

The best present I gave this year (I think) was a pretty plate (one of those you can put on the wall, or use as a plate for biscuits etc), which cost me nothing (got from a house clearing I did); with a matching former biscuit tin (right size, same motif), plus a box of shortbread for around £1.50. Postage to Germany for all that £9.50...

[Flo]

Yep it's the postage that kills. As above, £10 for the Lego and £44 to post abroad.

[Green Aura]

I'm going to try and get more organised in the coming year. We will have to buy quite a lot of new stuff by way of building materials etc but as that will eat up a lot of our finances it should encourage us to do better elsewhere.

Still, I don't think we've done too badly this year - we built a boiler room (about 3x2.5m) from the old airing cupboard which cost a couple of hundred quid (I dread to think what a builder would have charged) and we re-used most of the original materials, the only bits we couldn't re-use were the plasterboard, mainly because it had been nailed on, and all the nails. The wooden shelf slats have thus far produced a vegetable crate for in the kitchen and shelves for the single wardrobe which is my new (old) linen cupboard. There are several left for future projects.

Now if only the electrician would come and fit a new ring for the hob we could get this room finished. I'm guessing that will be for 2015 now.

[Flo]

We have a problem with second hand in some ways up here. There's a firm called cash4clothes that buys good quality second hand clothes, bedding, towels, curtains and has expanded into books/toys. So of course there is a dearth of good quality stuff going into the charity/second hand shops because people would rather have cash in hand with life being hard with the lack of decently paid jobs.

I've been round the sales and topped up with things that I wear at a price I can afford so that I have no reason to buy anything except a pair of shoes and a pair of slippers this year unless there is an emergency. I suppose that counts as self sufficient if not in the spirit of not buying anything new.

The home is fine unless something blows up (cooker, washing machine, fridge, freezer, computer, kettle, toaster, phone, radios). No outstanding repairs but place could do with a can of paint around it.

Will have to replace part of the hose pipe on the allotment as one length has sprung a leak. But as I inherited it second hand in February 2007 it has done well considering the use it has had. How I replace it is an interesting conundrum but it's not urgent at this end of the season and we will see what comes along.