All my married life I've had to watch the pennies. Low income and then our quest for a smallholding, 3 children and a mortgage all meant there was never a lot of spare money for anything. I like to think we managed well, the children didn't notice how little we were living on. Although the reason eldest daughter had wild hair when she was about 4 was probably because we couldn't afford to get her hair cut and when son reminded me of how swimming pool water used to make his eyes sore it was probably because we managed to afford the swimming but not the little bit extra to buy goggles!
All those years of just about managing has made it difficult for me to spend on the un-necessary. My brain won't compute spending on new things. I have no problem at car boot sales or charity shops - as you can tell from the number of posts about boot sale bargains! but even then almost everything is something for the grandchildren or things to save money later and most things are pence rather than pounds.
But when I go into shops that sell new things the mental wall goes up. If I see something nice I'm not able to buy it because I know whatever it is will appear sometime in a charity shop or car boot sale if I wait a while.
Clothes are the worst thing, apart from shoes, leggings and underwear almost everything I own is secondhand. New is so expensive and I know most was made by people being paid pennies and has travelled through Suffolk on the back of the hundreds of lorries, in containers that come in through Britain's biggest container port.
Anyway going back to the beginning of this post...........Sue's challenge to spend £10 in different shops gave me an idea for doing a challenge, now that penny pinching isn't such a huge necessity. I thought about traveling to different towns to spend in charity/antique shops on nice things that I would perhaps not have spent money on normally. OR to visit shops that I don't usually go in and give myself permission to buy whatever I fancy.
But so far I've not been able to do it!
So far all I've spent is £2 on these
Must try harder!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Please remember not to take everything I write too seriously!
That's £2 well spent, in my opinion, Sue. I always struggle to spend money on myself but for chocolate I will make an exception. X
ReplyDeleteI can't get to car boot sales like you and I find your hauls amazing! I found Sue's challenge really confusing and couldn't work out why she was doing it (except for the final day). There is no pound shop in my local town centre and I have to admit when I see one I sometimes go for a wander to see if there's anything I fancy and I forget my usual discipline of a list.
ReplyDeleteI find something similar. When I don't have the money, I see all sorts of stuff I'd like to get but when I go in with the intention of spending, I don't want it any more. It's very odd, this lure of the unobtainable.
ReplyDeleteDitto with clothes. When I was large (oh, OK, fat), there were so many lovely clothes around in normal sizes, but now I can wear them, where are they? Plenty of garments around, I knmow, but I don't fancy them now I can!
I suppose that if you (and I) worked on it for a while, it would get easier but I'm not sure I want it to get easier to be honest.
I did love reading about Sue's adventures in Spend-land though - it made me smile.
xx
Morning all!,Yes,I read Sues challenge last week and found it interesting.She got some great stuff.But like you,I find it difficult to splash out!!.When Sue was doing her war time rations,quite a while ago,I done it and kept to it to this day!!.Thank you Sue in North Wales,you have showed me how to make the pennies stretch further...I dont know if I could spend £10 a day though looking for stuff to buy.I must say that you chose your stuff well though and I admire the fact that you chose wisely and carefully.In fact I was looking forward to seeing your haul each day!..I reckon,that I have just turned into an old skinflint,lol,xx
ReplyDeleteGlad I was of some help, I really enjoyed the wartime rationing Challenge, it's hard to believe it was well over a year ago. But I learnt a lot from it.
DeleteI read Sue's post and while I enjoyed reading about the things she bought I myself couldn't do it. I couldn't justify spending money on things I didn't really need or want just for a challenge, but then we're all different.
ReplyDeleteI don't find it easy to spend money on myself, I suppose it partly was because I was born in 1938 and my sister came along in 1940 and then 2 boys by the end of the war so we never had much money but had lots of fun. My siblings still are very carefull how they spend there money. I am going to have a look a. Spend-land blog,
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend Sue, my daughter is taking me to one of my sisters for the weekend.
Hazel c uk
I am with the majority on this, I could not do it. I took a neighbour out last week. We did the tour of the charity shops and a fleamarket, she came home laden I bought a beautiful table cloth for a future project for the princely sum of £1, and I had to thunk about that. My "control" is the 1 in, 2 out rule it has saved me from many an impulse buy.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand the idea of having money each day to spend, it like you are looking for ways to waste money, like you I cherish my cash and like to keep it in my purse.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same, I buy from charity shops and car boots, I actually don't enjoy browsing shops anymore.
ReplyDeleteI felt physically sick walking down Oxford street in London. The price of goods in the shop windows filled me with horror. Give me a wander around a charity shop any day... and they are getting blimmin expensive... Scrooge DNA fills my body.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, if money weren't tight as it is right now, I would have NO trouble going out and spending £10, though spending that much a day just on me would not happen. I had to walk away from the magazines in the Supermarket this morning (mind you, I was feeling a bit down and my mind was telling me a magazine would cheer me up!) I am careful in most other ways though, and whilst I don't mind spending £12.50 on some jeans from Matalan, I would stay my hand over some costing £35 or £40 in a more up-market shop. Must go and see what t'other Sue bought. You were very disciplined, I have to say.
ReplyDeleteChanging the habits of a lifetime is not that easy. I base my spending on what I need, then if there is anything left over I might be able to afford what I want. I can't set out on a shopping trip with a set amount I must spend. I went to Poundland last week and came out with a pack of four toothbrushes and a pack of cooked chicken for the cats. That's all I needed. I go in Home Bargains and B & M for cat food only, and ignore everything else.
ReplyDeleteThose chocolate bars are lush-good buy!
ReplyDeleteI was brought up on a frugal budget and I'm sure it's why I'm so good with money now. Our kids are being brought up on a small budget also but they don't seem to know to be honest!
ReplyDeleteI'm right in there with you. Single mother, 4 children of my own plus a foster child. Never much for anything beyond necessities. Now the kids are gone and I'm doing fairly well. For decades my books were stored on any thrift store shelf I could find. Finally got the courage to go to Ikea and buy a whole wall of matching bookcases for my study. Really traumatic to spend that much all in one shot, but I love seeing at least some of my books properly stored. I don't know if I could do it again, though.
ReplyDeleteGreat chocolates. I think a great many of us have trouble spending money on ourselves for something new. Though I did manage to spend a bit today online. I bought another knife and some pens for my Christmas gift (Cricut). Perhaps now I will make my own cards...
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I usually pay full price for footwear and underwear but everything else comes from charity shops. I love the unpredictability of the search and finding good quality well made clothes.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I buy my shoes new the second last pair were a charity shop purchase and the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned.
You can't go wrong with chocolate!
ReplyDeleteI don't see penny pinching frugality as a virtue. I prefer to buy well and make things last, as I sit here typing in a 15 year old but beautiful cashmere sweater [that was actually a gift].At $150.oo for fifteen years, it is 10.oo a year, say 20 wearings per winter, is 50 cents per use. Not wildly extrav', in my opinion.//// Someone has to buy new or you charity shops would be empty. There is great joy in looking/ shopping/ buying, I believe. Are you [all] not worthy of a warm soft beautifully blue sweater?
ReplyDeletelizzy
Hi Lizzy,I was very very lucky and managed to find 2 cashmere v neck sweaters in a charity shop,One is pale blue and the other pink.Ive had them for about 5 years so I dont know how old they are with them being secondhand.But they always wash and wear beautifully.I really couldnt understand why someone could part with these!.I only paid £1 for each of them.Bargain!!xx
DeleteDebi Great find! I was buying thrifted cashmeres to make a warm blanket but they , the sweaters, cost so much here at the thrift shops, I gave up that idea. About 15.oo each. When they wear out I cut off the sleeves for legwarmers and someday I'll make Mo the Pug a little sweater of his own,lol.
DeleteThats a good idea there Lizzy making leg warmers out of the sleeves!.Ive got a couple of old sweaters,that Ive had for years...one since I was 14..Im 64 next month,lol.But I just could not part with them because my mam bought them for me ....but the idea of leg warmers gives them a new life!!So thank you for the idea!,xx
DeleteDebi- You're welcome! Legwarmers are such a warm comfort when cold winds blow across drafty floors, or when out walking.
DeleteOh yummy chocolate. We have that brand in USA too! I try to buy all things on sale. Shop at outlet mall for clothes. Other stores...sale. Bought a coat for $15 with my birthday discount and veteran discount and sale price! I've thought about going to second hand store in a ritzy town to see what's there.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard job spending money. Today will be difficult as I have to purchase the 'plane tickets to fly to England. I practically stop breathing just thinking about it. Old habits are hard to break but 10 pounds fun money sounds like a nice way to do it.
ReplyDeleteHaha, love this.
ReplyDeleteI bet if I gave you £10 and pushed you into a bookshop you'd find something to read while you eat that chocolate. 🙂
I loved doing the Challenge, it was totally opposite to what I usually do and therefore really good fun. Something some of our readers don't seem to grasp is that although, yes, I splurged for one week ... virtually everything I bought was either needed for immediate use in my new life or will be used as soon as what they are replacing runs out.
The only thing that was a bad buy was the pack of 30 pencils from Poundland, I've sharpened one half away just to get a point on it ... bad investment. I guess I can always use them as kindling to get the log burner going, so all is not lost 😁
It would have to be a second-hand bookshop! :-)
DeleteBought some "washable" marker pens from Poundland yesterday for grandchildren and found a problem after Jacob had written on his hands - they are NOT washable off hands without a lot of hard work!
Oh, no!!!
Deletexx
Well you have made a good start there Sue - I could just eat one right now.
ReplyDeleteChocolate is a good thing to spend £2 on and won't take up any space in your home once eaten so you won't need to declutter it in the future either. Pretty good buy I would say.
ReplyDeleteThose are really good! I like the ones that have caramel in them lol. I couldn't see myself doing that challenge, just to spend money for the sake of it. I think I've been doing really well not buying useless stuff lol
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh. It is hard to break the habit of frugality.
ReplyDeleteBut still you picked something good ;)
ReplyDeleteHowever hard I try I can’t spend just for the sake of it even though my finances are a lot healthier now than when I was bringing the family up. I sometimes spend £1 on myself when I go for the weekly big shop, this week it was on a bar of Pears soap, I love soap.
ReplyDeleteRecently I went into a certain high street store beginning with P. that everyone seems to rave over, had a quick look round then thought I will stick with my good old charity shop buys. Like you Sue, apart from shoes and underwear most of my clothing comes from the charity shops.
I smiled at this post Sue, where I live I don't have any struggle as to spend or not there aren't any shops. In town there is only one clothes shop along with several gifts shops. It makes a nice treat to go to the mainland for a shopping trip.
ReplyDeleteA treat of nice chocolate is always money well spent! I know what you mean about clothes shopping and I always take a look on ebay before any clothes shop major purchase.
ReplyDeletethis made me chuckle , the kids have born the brunt of some of the worst haircuts in history , its took twenty odd years to become proficient ..lol and this month i had a whole £10 left in my purse , told to spend it on myself , i ended up in the M&S foodhall spending it on little foodie treats...
ReplyDelete