What didn't you buy?

[Jord]

I know there are a lot of members of the rebellion also trying to save money, but we don't always need a individual threads for support. I thought a simple idea to support each other would be to start a running thread of "things we didn't buy today". Items you wanted to buy, but didn't for the sake of saving money or simply being frugal. 

 

I would have put this in the other forum but it wouldn't get seen there as much. 

We all have individual reasons (paying off debt, saving up an emergency fund, saving for retirement or a vacation, etc) but what we all have in common is being a little more economical with our money.

 

 

I'll start. While sick with a cold I got in the habit of buying my daily coffee instead of drinking the free coffee at work (it doesn't taste as good). So today I made myself make a pot of coffee in the office instead. $$$$ Usually it is something bigger I'm talking myself out of, but this is a common one. 

 

[Guzzi]

I like this idea. I'm bad at letting money slip through my fingers so this sounds like a great idea.  

[Jord]

I'm back at the gym after being off for a couple of months and finding I have few long workout pants because I stocked up on a million capris during the summer. So right now I'm trying to see how long I can go without giving in to buying workout pants. And then when I do just getting 2 cheap store brand pairs.

 

19 hours ago, Guzzi said:

I like this idea. I'm bad at letting money slip through my fingers so this sounds like a great idea.  

 

Thanks! I should promote this thread elsewhere so people see it. (like in my challenge!) 

[Guzzi]

I have consciously stopped looking at the local "for sale" pages on facebook. It's amazing what you suddenly find you can't live without when it's for sale for 10 bucks by someone a couple of miles away. No thank you facebook! I've got enough crap already.  

[miss_marissa]

Oh man. I'm so in on this! My goals this year are definitely minimalist and $$ saving.

[Jord]

8 minutes ago, miss_marissa said:

Oh man. I'm so in on this! My goals this year are definitely minimalist and $$ saving.

 

Right?!?!

 

Yesterday's dilemma was that I went to a different grocery store than usual. (Same chain, different location.) This one is near campus and has a whole entire aisle of asian foods because of the population near by. (I had a meeting nearby with an hour break beforehand, so i went to get protein powder.)I had to resist buying so many fun things. Like baked spicy tofu!?!?!! But I had no recipe for it so i didn't buy it. I ended up only buying soy sauce and hot sesame oil, both of which I use regularly and was almost out of. 

 

And they had a whole gigantic section of cheeses, of which I wanted many. But I resigned myself to just buying one thing of smoked gouda that was $8/lb, not a ton more than regular store brand brick cheese which is about $6/lb when not on sale. 

[Juni0r83]

Nice idea. I generally also have to get better at being financially responsible (in October, the wife and I decided it was a good idea to spend upwards of $800 while on holiday buying tabletop games).

 

Maybe I'll drop in once in a while when I'm feeling particularly proud of myself.

 

[miss_marissa]

I managed to decline an invitation to go out for lunch today and eat the lunch that I packed and brought to work myself.

 

 

Yesterday at Target I managed to not buy and Harley Quinn toys. But my mom did buy me one as an early birthday present. Unfortunately my HQ wishlist got longer, but I think I may add them as rewards for successful challenges.

[Jord]

1 minute ago, miss_marissa said:

I managed to decline an invitation to go out for lunch today and eat the lunch that I packed and brought to work myself.

 

 

Yesterday at Target I managed to not buy and Harley Quinn toys. But my mom did buy me one as an early birthday present. Unfortunately my HQ wishlist got longer, but I think I may add them as rewards for successful challenges.

 

Way to stay strong!

 

I'm trying to do this tonight because we are low on groceries and going out to eat would be so much easier. I'm going to make tuna melts instead. 

 

I like your idea of adding them as rewards. That is what I am doing with work and workout pants I decided. I can't buy any clothes until I lose the holiday weight gain. Which actually makes sense because my size will go back to normal!

 

What is on the wishlist? 

[Rippleberry]

Man if this was a " what did you buy for no reason whatsoever!" forum, I would have many things to say. Accidentally bought an Audible.com sub today, I thought I had a free trial left. Ooops. Insta cancelled, least I have a book.

 

I will however, start my not buying business from Monday ( payday + saved enough to clear debt one ) 

 

I invented a game to clear debt one. I called it  "Zombies are outside". Which meant that I had to try and survive on what food I had already stockpiled in the house without going shopping. Within health reason of course. Had me eating a lot of those tins you end up buying but totally ignoring for tastier fridge options.

[miss_marissa]

7 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

Way to stay strong!

 

I'm trying to do this tonight because we are low on groceries and going out to eat would be so much easier. I'm going to make tuna melts instead. 

 

I like your idea of adding them as rewards. That is what I am doing with work and workout pants I decided. I can't buy any clothes until I lose the holiday weight gain. Which actually makes sense because my size will go back to normal!

 

What is on the wishlist? 

Nice!!! It's a strategy I started with that kind of fell off. It also helps too I found waiting 4+weeks for something. After 4 weeks I decided many times I either no longer wanted or needed my "reward" and I was in fact, just fine without it.

 

A few LEGO sets! Specifically these two:

http://www.target.com/p/lego-batman-movie-the-joker-notorious-lowrider-70906/-/A-51297298

http://www.target.com/p/lego-super-hero-girls-harley-quinn-to-the-rescue-41231/-/A-51210960

[Guzzi]

I too fought the "let's eat out" urge today. It's not often I get out of the house but I had the doctors today and we had to drive past that lovely new café that opened round the corner. And of course it was right at lunch time so it really was a temptation. 

[Mike Wazowski]

On 1/12/2017 at 1:43 PM, miss_marissa said:

Nice!!! It's a strategy I started with that kind of fell off. It also helps too I found waiting 4+weeks for something. After 4 weeks I decided many times I either no longer wanted or needed my "reward" and I was in fact, just fine without it.

 

A few LEGO sets! Specifically these two:

http://www.target.com/p/lego-batman-movie-the-joker-notorious-lowrider-70906/-/A-51297298

http://www.target.com/p/lego-super-hero-girls-harley-quinn-to-the-rescue-41231/-/A-51210960

 

I don't let myself go into the Lego section at target for fear that I'll buy everything Star Wars.

 

On the subject of not buying, I packed sufficient food for my trip to Houston for dance practice this weekend (partner lives in Houston, I'm in Dallas) that I didn't need to go out to a restaurant for a meal - estimating at least $20 saved over the course of the weekend!

[Jord]

On 1/12/2017 at 2:42 PM, Rippleberry said:

Man if this was a " what did you buy for no reason whatsoever!" forum, I would have many things to say. Accidentally bought an Audible.com sub today, I thought I had a free trial left. Ooops. Insta cancelled, least I have a book.

 

I will however, start my not buying business from Monday ( payday + saved enough to clear debt one ) 

 

I invented a game to clear debt one. I called it  "Zombies are outside". Which meant that I had to try and survive on what food I had already stockpiled in the house without going shopping. Within health reason of course. Had me eating a lot of those tins you end up buying but totally ignoring for tastier fridge options.

 

On 1/13/2017 at 3:56 PM, Guzzi said:

I too fought the "let's eat out" urge today. It's not often I get out of the house but I had the doctors today and we had to drive past that lovely new café that opened round the corner. And of course it was right at lunch time so it really was a temptation. 

(I tried to edit and add your quote, @MikeWazowski, but it wouldn't let me do it after I had already posted!)

 

I try to do this periodically. Especially when my freezer or fridge starts to stack up with crap. I think I'm going to do Taco Tuesday this week because I have frozen chicken breasts, cans of black beans, I think frozen corn tortillas, cheese, a giant container of rice, etc. 

 

I was successful at this today. I thought I was going to have buy lunch but I scrounged in the fridge and discovered I had restaurant leftovers from Saturday. And tuna salad leftovers from Friday. So I ended up bringing:

protein oatmeal bar (batch cooked these on Saturday)

yogurt & blueberries

tuna salad and crackers

italian restaurant leftovers (chicken thigh, pasta, veg, & sauce)

 

This is maybe a great idea for a mini-challenge, or a PvP challenge. Where people sign up to see how many meals that month they can make with ingredients the already have in the house? I may ponder this and create this for the next challenge. 

[miss_marissa]

Yesterday I went to the mall and exchanged the things I needed to exchange and didn't buy anything else. Including a coffee. 

[Guzzi]

 

3 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

This is maybe a great idea for a mini-challenge, or a PvP challenge. Where people sign up to see how many meals that month they can make with ingredients the already have in the house? I may ponder this and create this for the next challenge. 

 

This sounds like a great idea!

[Thrima]

Count me in for the challenge! I have a weak spot on books, but I recently started to visit library more often instead of buying every book I want to read, and its plenty, believe me.

I'm also struggling with amount of toys I buy for my dog, Yaron. I mean... I do need a variety of them for our training, but I'm slowly running out of space to store them. But so far I have no been very successful with resisting that temptation. But seriously, have you seen all this amazing toys?!

[Guzzi]

@Thrima I have a similar problem with rat toys and hammocks.  So. Many. Toys!

[Guzzi]

 

Double post boogie!

[Thrima]

25 minutes ago, Guzzi said:

@Thrima I have a similar problem with rat toys and hammocks.  So. Many. Toys!  

 

I never had any experience with rats, but I just googled rat hammocks. Oh dear... I'm so glad that my dog will not fit into any of those. Budget saved!

Can you maybe share some photos of your little companions and their awesome, tiny equipment?

[Guzzi]

12 hours ago, Thrima said:

 

I never had any experience with rats, but I just googled rat hammocks. Oh dear... I'm so glad that my dog will not fit into any of those. Budget saved!

 

I know, right!

 

Quote

Can you maybe share some photos of your little companions and their awesome, tiny equipment?

 

The trouble with rats is that half the time the chew/destroy all the lovely things you buy for them so they just look tatty in all the photos.

 

Here's something that I made myself to save some pennies.

This must have been before I made the cushion to go inside, which was the same blue fluffy material as the inside.

 

This is an old pic. The little buggers chewed an escape hole in the base of this cage. I found one of the girls sitting on top of the cage one morning. It was a real WTF??? moment.

 

This is in the big metal cage that we bought so that the little feckers couldn't escape, lol! The cage is a double decker style and cost about £200? I don't waste money on rats, honest!

[Thrima]

Well done, now I want to be tiny and live with your rats! 

You did a great work with this hammock, it looks so cosy and I like the pattern, with all those little lions and cars. If they will chew on it that mean your rats have good taste.

I also have a solid, metal crate for my dog. And one fabric, for travels... But it's never waste of money when you spend them on making your pet happy, right? Right? 

 

 

[Jord]

Rats, so adorbs! If I had pets I would have the same problem. As it is I constantly want all the gym gear all the time. 

 

Here's the things I'm currently resisting buying, but waiting until I get paid on Friday and then probably just going to select one of them until the end of that pay period. So that way I make sure I have enough money for things like, I don't know, groceries?  

 

fractional plates for lifting (I really don't need these for another 3 weeks) 

pea protein powder (I want this because I'm going to do 2 weeks no dairy, but do I really need it? I just use protein powder for baking and I can live without for a couple of weeks.)

new purse (I use mine till they fall apart and it's starting to look shabby)

food saver device for sealing food for the freezer 

 

I also have a book I need to return to GameStop. It came in a bundle with my Nintendo NES Classic, that'll score me $45 back to my credit card. 

[Jord]

17 hours ago, Thrima said:

Count me in for the challenge! I have a weak spot on books, but I recently started to visit library more often instead of buying every book I want to read, and its plenty, believe me.

I'm also struggling with amount of toys I buy for my dog, Yaron. I mean... I do need a variety of them for our training, but I'm slowly running out of space to store them. But so far I have no been very successful with resisting that temptation. But seriously, have you seen all this amazing toys?!

 

And also, I need to rejoin my local book club! Thank you for reminding me to stop at the library tonight. 

[Juni0r83]

Didn't buy a level belt for my wife today... We're going to, just need to be a little more sensible about it, especially seeing as we both want to compete in May, and that'll be quite the financial investment for us.