Selfsufficientish.com

As I've said - I don't want a telly. I just don't even if I'm a deprived child.

I don't want an iPhone (never mind a new and updated one to keep up with the Joneses) - I've enough trouble having to have a phone at all. For some reason the world thinks I need a phone so that it can speak to me. And most of the calls I get are spam anyway. As for mobile phones that take pictures - have camera which doesn't ring at me which I consider to be a great bonus.

I don't want a tablet type computer to take everywhere with me. I spend enough time on the desktop when I'm home never mind having one that I can use on someone's free wi fi (do I want to sit drinking coffee in a coffee chain using a computer when I'm out? Nope it can wait till I get home). Or I can nip into the local library if things go wrong at home until I get things better.

And for the same reason I don't want a laptop - I've the old desktop from when I worked set up in a corner along with the gubbins that I used for working from home - it's still going and will go on going for some time to come. Why do I want something that follows me round like...?

I don't want a Kindle so that I can read on the bus - there's people to talk to and things to see out of the windows. Books come free from the library and if I don't like them well they can go back but on a Kindle you've quite often paid for something on spec!

And no I don't want an iPod - it's years since I bought CDs or downloaded music.

Neither do I want another holiday brochure that offers me a cruise or special rates for 4 people sharing - there's me and myself. I hate going on holiday and sharing rooms with others now that I'm single again for whatever reason.

The fact that I own a digital bridge camera and a smaller lightweight but quite high spec camera is another matter This does mean that I need a computer to download the pictures and the facility to back them up elsewhere and space to put some of them on the web. Think that's the main reason for having the computer at present.

See why I want to have a rebel in the name?

This could almost have been written by me...

Except - I do have a laptop, but only because last year I briefly returned to uni and needed something that was a bit more powerful than my old PC (which I got free second hand years ago when my then place of work upgraded...). I do have a digital camera, but I only bought that when I needed photos to prove something to my then employers... Haven't really used it since then.

I now have a part time job in a very oldfashioned shop - hooray! Most things still done by hand and brain rather than electronics. The son's business is laying carpets etc, and customers often don't believe me when I tell them that no, he does not have a mobile phone, they'll have to leave a message with me if they want to speak to him! Works perfectly well, and he doesn't constantly get bothered and interrupted when he is working. My own mobile lives in my rucksack and only gets used in emergencies. It does sometimes come in handy if the car breaks down. And I spent a long time looking for one that does nothing else but phonecalls - however, that is of course impossible to find, so this one does texts (only I don't do them) and it has a radio, too. Actually, the landline phone is used in almost the same way. I tend not to answer it (unless I am expecting a call), because at least 9 out of 10 are unsolicited calls; I just check to messages on a daily basis. And anything else I prefer to do by email - at least you do have some kind of proof of what has been said.

Oh, I don't have a fridge or freezer, either - that's another thing people always want to help me to... But why, oh why? I bet I waste far less than the average person!

And there simply are no holidays for single people, are there! At least for singles who don't earn much and cannot pay what other people pay for a group of 4...

Better stop the rant!

Oh dear, I think you should have called this the Grumpy Old Women thread (it was a TV programme a while back, Flo).

We have lots of gadgets and mod cons in this house. But, apart from my laptop, I find myself using some of it less and less. For example I have a food processor. At one time I would have used it every time I needed to grate, mix or slice something. Now I reach for a grater, bowl and spoon or knife - unless it's a fairly long list of ingredients all needing the same thing - something like a veggie burger, which needs different things shredding, mashing and mixing, and which I tend to make in largish batches to freeze. I used to use it pretty much daily, now I use it once a week, maybe a little less. My mixer sits under a side gathering dust, but I can't bear to part with it. These days the only time we use it is to make sausages (it has an attachment). But I dream of the days I'll be thin enough to make a cake with it without feeling guilty.

My OH is the only person who uses the microwave these days. I would happily chuck it but keep getting overruled.

We definitely need a fridge and a freezer (actually we have two). We buy raw milk, from England, that is delivered once a month. Plus, we buy half each of a pig, a goat and a lamb each year, which all need storing. And I need room for my broths made from the bones of the aforementioned. And freezing leftovers to stop us eating them as seconds.

Funnily enough OH and I were discussing our laptops only last week. I spend far too much time on it and have come to the conclusion that when this one is knackered I'm going back to a desktop which can sit happily on my desk and encourage me to get on with some work! He agreed with me (he already has a desktop for his work) although he often does that to stop me nagging, in the hopes I'll forget (30 years and he never learns)

We seem to mostly be rebelling against things which don't add to the sum of our efforts to be self sufficient don't we?

rebel without applause

Very clever doofaloofa

Applause coming now

I have a laptop because I only have solar power and it uses less of it
Only a mobile as I live in a field with no landline. It's not even got a camera, cos it's a cheap one about 10 years old !!
Do have a digi camera though, as I'm quite into photography, but that's about 10 years old too!
No fridge or freezer (see above)
No TV
And - definitely never been on facebook

ina wrote: And there simply are no holidays for single people, are there! At least for singles who don't earn much and cannot pay what other people pay for a group of 4...

Gosh now I wondered why I hadn't been on holiday now you come to mention it. It's more a case of living in a tourist area and using the bus pass to go where others pay to come mind. But I have a dream of going places ....

Flo wrote:

ina wrote: And there simply are no holidays for single people, are there! At least for singles who don't earn much and cannot pay what other people pay for a group of 4...

Gosh now I wondered why I hadn't been on holiday now you come to mention it. It's more a case of living in a tourist area and using the bus pass to go where others pay to come mind. But I have a dream of going places ....

I'm looking forward to the bus pass - another almost 4 years - just hope we'll still get it then! But I am planning this year's holiday: the cheap off-season train ticket for over 55s (£19 return anywhere in Scotland), and a couple of nights in a hostel. Not really my thing, sharing a large dorm with various (mostly) youngsters, but it's the only way I can get a break.

I have a mobile,which is several years old.My OH insisted I buy one when I got my drivers license,incase I broke down.I rarely use it tbh.I do have a laptop,but could easily go without it if it broke down.

Major update - the microwave and the food processor have gone (although I do have a better blender) - both died and haven't been replaced.

Erm Maggie, you said you OH over ruled throwing out the microwave a bit back. Have you thrown him out too ..... Or have you told him it's out of his pocket money to replace it? There has to be a story here!

No, Flo, he's still here. Its demise coincided with us revamping the kitchen - he doesn't seem to have noticed my design had no room for a replacement.

Green Aura wrote:he doesn't seem to have noticed my design had no room for a replacement.

You should be careful Maggie - he might have designs on your design

As long as it keeps producing food, Flo, he'll cope.

I'm looking for an old second hand microwave.
I have a bag of bought seed compost that has some horrible fungi type of spores in it (probably my fault for watering it with rain water when the bag dried out)
Anyway, microwaving small quantities of compost is an efficient way of sterilising.

If I bought a new one, do you think the salesman in Currys would tell me what quantities of soil that particular model could cook ?