The Frugality #4 I spy with my little eye a secret second storey reaching up to the sky.

[Banana Pyjamas]

After several months of painfully slow DIY (sorry, content), the tiling was finally finished, as Chris and Alex took the advice of tattlers who warned that the lack of grout and unfinished edges would surely cause the tiles to have to be ripped up again next Spring if they didn’t get a man in. They got a man in.

Chris was the in the bad books as a whizz round the house to show how they are keeping it real (ie surrounded by piles of crap) showed the secret upstairs extension. The secret extension appears to be being used as a playroom and space to store more crap.

Alex returned from maternity leave and showed us what a master content creator she is by starting a niche for herself - promoting the bravery of people who wear spectacles. She devised her own strap line (Frday, geddit?) and gave all her followers RSI by because of having to click through roughly 583,124 pictures of people wearing glasses to try to get to the tiling updates. Spec savers took the bait and Alex then nearly forgot to post her updates the following week. We pray that this niche has been exhausted now that the ad has been delivered.

Alex launched some more matches for people who have money to burn. She continued to live frugally by living on Cook meals and buying tat for the house. Chris still hasn’t got a haircut. Or a job.

 

[itsyagal]

Idk anyone who lives in London still go to pizza express. There are so many good pizza place now in London, who still go to pizza express?

Prince Andrew?

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Yeeessss.

I would think WTF if my child came home from birthday party with a secondhand book. It just screams virtual signalling. There’s a time and place for recycled items and I don’t feel gifts from party guests or favours to party guests is it.

I would, however, be very impressed if my child came home with a book that I could see was purchased from an independent book shop. (My local bookshop puts a sticker with their contact details on the back.)

There’s nothing better than a brand new book to encourage the joys of reading.

It’s difficult to write this comment because of the context of these two being weird as per - but ignoring them I’d disagree with this? I grew up poor af and only had new books when my Nan bought me them on the two or three occasions she came to England… I don’t think a book needs to be new for a child to engage with it or to encourage them to be an avid reader, and even though my child is growing up privileged we’ll still make use of our local library and second hand books (she already has a few) as it doesn’t matter at the end of the day it’s the #content and experiences kids engage with not price tags. I used to love looking at all the borrowed dates stamped on the front (doubt they still do this?) and as I got older requesting books in and feeling like a Queen when they came in it’s something I really look back on fondly despite a pretty shit childhood. Reading isn’t and should never be something that is limited to kids whose parents have a disposable income or are aware or willing to invest in books for them.

Where it’s made difficult is the context of this thread... Idk what these two are up to, they’re really bizarre MC born and raised rich kids who’ve grown into mediocre low achieving adults and are trying to adjust accordingly by looks of things? It’s all very bizarre to witness. He seems like dead weight idk why he’s not working?

 

[Exhaustednurse]

This and the rest of your comment is so, so true and why none of us should ever be #influenced. Women are entering IVAs at unprecedented rates and it’s because of shit like this - £2k hotels for a weekend city break being pitched as normal, being bombarded with constant “luxe” lifestyle imagery and inadequate disclaimers / explanations that they’ve not paid for it. Influencers performing frugality with tight meal plans so you think they’re in the same boat as us all trying to balance the books, all the while they’ve got a 30% LTV mortgage from mum and parents are saving for the kids and paying the school fees to boot.

Idk for ppl who actually have to pay for everything they have, who have kids and a mortgage, that £2k would probably go on things like saving for work done instead of holding your kitchen on a credit card balance??? Just a thought

I have spoke about this before especially re Alex and the impact it’s having on women, in particular those who will identify with her who have 2 small children.
I will say it again as I hope it provides some kind reality.
That period of your life is hard. Your money goes on mortgage and childcare and despite being utterly frazzled there is no spare money for anything that feels like a treat. It’s pretty relentless.
I remember it well.
It gets better. But please don’t let influencers like Alex make you believe that you aren’t doing it right because you are not fannying about on mini breaks, buying Dipytque candles and 7 pairs of glasses.
She should be ashamed of what she’s part off. It’s certainly not a feminist movement

 

[itsyagal]

‘We bought Sourdough as we don’t go out and this is a small luxury for us’ OH GET FUCKED HUN

 

[louderforthecheapseats]

Oh shut up you self righteous asshole Alex

She only travels less, because there’s been a pandemic and the freebie trips abroad dried up. Doors have literally just opened and she’s straight on that plane.
She needs to read the Greenpeace article of carbon offsetting….calling it a pointless exercise to make people feel better about travelling…she’s literally greenwashing her followers

 

[Dizzy]

Remember when she asked her readers to buy her and Chris a coffee? Still blows my mind.

 

[Fofoca]

Can’t quote for some reason - @Author123 have you considered buying a notepad from Slurpy Chops and doing some meal planning? All the money saved can then support you in your old age. Buying some overpriced matches should also help you be more frugal.
(I’m not a qualified finance professional but I do occasionally wear glasses.)

 

[louderforthecheapseats]

I also despair a bit at these events. I wish they’d just put the money back into the charity rather then entertaining a bunch of privileged influencers who’ll never need their services. We have one local to us and I’ve donated a fair few bits to them, however I may have to rethink that if this is their strategy, dolling out freebies to these dossers who can’t even be arsed to explain what the charity is about and just want a free feed

 

[Exhaustednurse]

Alex is a gaslighter. Her mode of operation is to convince women of the same age and social set up as her to buy things. She has built this around a fabricated concept that she is skint and only has nice things through saving hard and cutting back in areas of their lives such as their weekly shop.
They have disposable income than the majority of her peers. Because she fails to be fully transparent about:

family help
Gifted items
Gifted food or events out to eat
Gifted holidays

she may put a tiny ‘PR discount’ on a post, but she has never spoken in any detail that how, together, these privilege’s allow for a very luxurious life.

 

[Dizzy]

It'll be to review a new hotel and do a city guide. Obviously the stay will be #PR/gifted and she'll do a write up of all the places nearby but won't actually visit any of them herself because she's too tight to put her hand in her pocket and pay to eat/visit anywhere that isn't a freebie. They'll have fish and chips in their room, Chris will take pictures of her in a few "all old" outfits and then she'll film them as they walk back to the train station.

 

[knickerbocker glory]

Why not just use proper grout? And it would have given them content for the next 18 months if Chris had done it.

 

[Poppy30]

I don't understand what she's saying either - that she has 3 jobs?! what are they exactly??

1. Packing up matches/meal planners
2. Walking along the street silently filming herself
3. Searching the internet for pictures of people wearing glasses

Life is so hard isn’t it get in the bin you waste of oxygen
*edited to add No 4 - dropping off both kids 5 days a week at nursery*

 

[Libertine]

When I grow up I aspire to a job where I can identify gaps in the market for attractive nail polish remover.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Eating cheap white bread whilst spending on cheap tats isn’t savvy. If she do an audit on all her spending, she will realise that 10% of her money goes to food while 50% of them goes to tiger or prints that she doesn’t need.

 

[CornedBeefHashtag]

Seems like the ‘frugal’ option here is to not buy the bloody pot in the first place.

In fact the frugal option in all instances is not to buy something just because an influencer is advertising it.

And that’s the paradox of Alex’s Insta life/career really - how can she genuinely promote a frugal approach to consumption, whilst she’s simultaneously shilling whatever brand will send her a paycheque?

 

[MeWithTheHair]

wtf does she do that means she's working until midnight every night Although they seem to class everything as 'work' (cooking dinner, going for a stroll, shopping trip, mini breaks etc) her and Chris just fanny about all day and yeah are both their kids at nursery full time? So far removed from reality it's almost like a kind of parody account now!

The mini break thing is a big valid as hell point here. The build up to that trip to Liverpool was v “we are going away for work” - but the work was… just about going away. I thought maybe she was doing something specific there, and also taking the opportunity to film their trip or whatever it is she thinks people find interesting about their ‘travels’ - but no. That was it. That was the whole trip. The trip was the “work”. It’s absolutely baffling that this A: is classed as work and B: is considered by her as hard or tiring work.

 

[BlairWaldorf86]

Frugality #5 Weeks and months to file a floor, we love to cosplay being poor!

 

[CornedBeefHashtag]

Me again. But I feel compelled to come back as that sourdough post has really pissed me off.

She’s playing at being poor. Does she fuck have to make decisions about going out or buying sourdough.

It does not even compare to the heating v eating debate. She is a fraud and has no clue what life is like for those truly having to make difficult financial decisions on a daily basis.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Both the £2 and £40 flower will be handmade though - the £2 flower will just be made by a woman in a developing country getting paid pennies per unit versus a regional sales manager’s wife making them for £40 a pop.

Why is she so willfully ignorant at the human (and environmental!) cost of her hyper consumption, especially of cheap shit?