I had a laptop I was very fond of. I'd had it for 5 years now and it served me faithfully. I did notice though, in recent months, that it just wasn't keeping up. I was making more and more demands on it just to keep it running normally. Well, in the end it just couldn't cope any longer.

I had to get a new one. Five years ago, I bought my laptop for £700 and it was top of the line. Now, it won't even cope with running iTunes. Off I went to find a new one. £400 later I found a fab laptop and got it all set up. Installed iTunes and it raced trhough my CD collection! Then it stopped. When I swtiched it on it wouldn't start. Since it was only 2 weeks old, I took it back to the shop I bought it from. No, they said. It's a software issue, nothing to do with us.

I got it home again and it was completely dead. I managed to actually catch a startup screen on sunday and gave in to the reinstall. I lost my entire iTunes library but I had the day free so I happily set it loading again while I was busy around the house.

Monday I got home from work, switched on my laptop to listen to some music and check my emails. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing.This time I was mad.

I'd got home from work about 7pm but the shop was open until 8. I bundled everything up and drove back. I told them what was said on saturday. They tried again. Nothing to do with us, they said, it's a software issue. Try reinstalling again, they said.

I'm not proud of it. But I threw a hissy fit. Less than 2 minutes later I had a manager agreeing to exchange the laptop. They didn't even open the box this time.

And guess what, this one actually loads. Now I get to upload my CD collection for the second time in 2 days.

Sirvinya

I love pizza, kebabs, chips, chinese food, indian food. All delicious. I allowed myself one a week but now I'm on my no-buy. I have decided that I can have a takeaway on payday. And that is it. It'll be saving me £10 a week at least. On a wednesday lunch I walk down to the cafe near work and get pie and chips. I won't be doing that any more. I've got some salad in for tomorrow. On a friday we all order lunch in from a local sandwich shop. It's £2.50 but I won't be ordering every week. I'm not going to deny myself tasty treats completely but I won't be having them every week as before. So, not this week for friday lunch. But I will order next week. And I'll have jacket potato with cheese and beans rather than a sandwich. I should really be reducing my wheat intake and I've been eating far too much of it lately.

Sirvinya

Yes, you did read that right. I bought 2 new tops today. I'm well within my no-buy rules though.

I'm busy clearing my wardrobe and pulling out my summer stuff. In the summer I live in vest tops. They're just so easy for when it's too hot to care about much. Two of mine from a couple of years ago really aren't going to be good for this summer. So I had to throw them away. I got 2 replacement ones from Tesco today. They should have been £6 for them both but with various sales they ended up being £3.80 total. Now, that's a bargain! Normally I would have gone back and bought several more but today I only replaced the ones I threw out this morning.

Sirvinya

I think I'm going to extend the no-buy into as many other areas of my life as possible.

That means not buying the new limited edition lime Lamy Safari F nib pen I've been drooling over recently. I got one of last year's limited edition pens and I'm using it constantly so I've deleted the link I have for the lime one. Also, no new inks until I empty a bottle. That could take years. Same for journals. I'm not buying a new journal until I've filled the empty ones I've already got.

I've sold my sewing machine and overlocker, I just wasn't using them. I'm taking them to their new owner on monday. I'm also going to sort through my fabric stash. Some for ebay and some up on the local classified site. All the money I get for that will be going into savings.

I don't need any more clothes, just the occassional top or pair of trousers for work. My job tends to be hard on clothes. It doesn't matter if I spend £15 on a pair of trousers or £50. They'll get destroyed in the same amount of time anyway. I'm not really a big shoe shopper so that's not something I'm too bothered about. I have safety shoes for work which I don't pay for so shoes for work isn't an issue at all.

I'm cancelling my magazines. I only ever read them once anyway and stick them in for recycling. I've got a few books to read which will keep me busy. I'll let myself buy a new book, one at a time, when I've read the few I haven't got through yet.

I've not done a complete no-buy before so I have no idea how I'm going to find it. That's one of the reasons why I'm not setting an actual date to finish.

Sirvinya

I've had to have a long think about the amount of money I spend on makeup so it's time I stopped buying stuff for a while. The usual rules apply:

-Mascara can be replaced every 3 months
-Skincare can be replaced when it's used up

The no-buy is for as much beauty stuff as possible. I have loads of shower stuff, body lotions and shampoos, etc. I need to get all that used up as well.

I do have one exception. I've just sent off a pigment sample to be copied. I haven't paid for that yet but it was arranged last week, before this was all decided.

I haven't set an end date yet, I'm just going to see how long I can manage this for! Hopefully I'll hit the 3 month mark, and then the 6 month mark which would be absolutely fantastic!

Of course, stuff I get for free due to my Youtube videos doesn't count since I'm not actually paying for any of that.

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it!

Sirvinya