BlairWaldorf86
VIP Member
“Her trainers work harder than she does” for thread title!
- Notice
chinwag72
Member
We try and do one day shopping in actual shops as it's nice to be inspired, save on shipping and switch my brain off a little bit.
I tell Chris which day it will be and he walks beside me. We look at each other and smile.
We went in store and I treated myself to a knitted vest as I remembered we are embracing more cosy moments. Then I had to switch my brain back on a little bit, to think how to style it. I made a note of the time I bought the vest so I’ll know how old it is next week.
Now back home thinking of all the candles and leftover ribbon I could have bought for £29.50! Chris reminded me that I had been in the office one day this week and that I deserved a great festive knit for being indoors at Xmas. We smiled at each other in the kitchen and then I remembered the Ad. I arranged the Bahlsen biscuits in the green splatter ware bowl. They’re delicious on their own but everything tastes as good as it looks in my favourite bowl, no?
Chris thought it was his day for reading she pronouns but I said I’d been inspired enough in the actual shop and to give it a rest.
Happy weekend everyone!
I tell Chris which day it will be and he walks beside me. We look at each other and smile.
We went in store and I treated myself to a knitted vest as I remembered we are embracing more cosy moments. Then I had to switch my brain back on a little bit, to think how to style it. I made a note of the time I bought the vest so I’ll know how old it is next week.
Now back home thinking of all the candles and leftover ribbon I could have bought for £29.50! Chris reminded me that I had been in the office one day this week and that I deserved a great festive knit for being indoors at Xmas. We smiled at each other in the kitchen and then I remembered the Ad. I arranged the Bahlsen biscuits in the green splatter ware bowl. They’re delicious on their own but everything tastes as good as it looks in my favourite bowl, no?
Chris thought it was his day for reading she pronouns but I said I’d been inspired enough in the actual shop and to give it a rest.
Happy weekend everyone!
But then everything Alex does smacks of virtue signalling to me - this is the woman who buys her kids presents from charity shops (which is fine) and then tells us that staying at the Hoxton is frugal. Who charges a tenner for a box of matches and thinks wrapping £1 candle sticks in ribbon is a nice present. Who asks us to "buy her a coffee" in repayment for all the "great" free content she provides and then spends her days visiting museums and watching boxsets (but only if she can get away with not paying a subscription fee). This is a woman who lives in an £800k house and doesn't actually have a job but if we cut down on sourdough and buy handwash from Lidl we can have that too. It's all utter bollocks.
uberoblique
Chatty Member
All of this. My frustration with Alex is that she chooses the weirdest hills to die on, and when challenged, doubles down.
It’d be a hell of a lot more interesting and relatable for her to talk about why they chose a second story extension over a side return, or even a “this is how we manage our grocery budget and what is costs” rather than sort of pretending to be frugal by plucking imaginary grocery costs out of the air.
She’s so performatively cheap but if she just embraced her “cost conscious middle class” persona she’d actually have better and more authentic content for the type of people who follow her.
influencerbore
VIP Member
Did Alex’s sister get and ad with Flying Tiger and Alex didn’t!! Pahahahahhahahhahahah she must be fuming!!
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BlairWaldorf86
VIP Member
I find her fascinating if I’m honest. She lives in a huge house that’s been fully renovated (internally at least!), does not work (in the sense that anyone with a proper job would recognise), can afford to put both her kids in childcare, has lots of child free time, goes on nice weekends away and holidays. Possibly sends her child to private school. But insists she’s poor, spends all day watching tv then denying it, and eats beige student food. Goes out in fugly balaclavas while claiming to be a stylist.
How is it possible to have such little self awareness????
How is it possible to have such little self awareness????
I am STRUGGLING with Alex's candles. I kept thinking about how the posca pen ink would start melting and stink really badly (and as someone else pointed out would this be toxic?)
Also, I just bought a lovely hand-poured candle from a local market which I will likely gift to a family member. Not cheap at £20, but they're made by a small business sourcing local ingredients, the packaging was cardboard and the glass will be resuable/recyclable. The true cost of buying a £2 pack of synthetic candles made in China is not something I'd really like to be promoting as simply 'frugal'. I know this sounds really snotty as many people can only afford the cheapest option, but I do think it's possible to promote frugality without accidentally promoting mindless over-consumption.
Also, I just bought a lovely hand-poured candle from a local market which I will likely gift to a family member. Not cheap at £20, but they're made by a small business sourcing local ingredients, the packaging was cardboard and the glass will be resuable/recyclable. The true cost of buying a £2 pack of synthetic candles made in China is not something I'd really like to be promoting as simply 'frugal'. I know this sounds really snotty as many people can only afford the cheapest option, but I do think it's possible to promote frugality without accidentally promoting mindless over-consumption.
AllTheGinJoints
VIP Member
“The mega Tory whose shoes work harder than she does”?Oh please some clever include that in the next title
heretoreaditall2019
VIP Member
Tbh I don’t think there’s any way to pivot to being a good or happy influencer when the whole thing is so inherently clapped. The exception being if you moved over to sustainable / slow living with more of a focus on education which then becomes economically unviable so is it even influencing as we know it? Unless you got a mega eBay partnership like that girl off love island I suppose? And is that even okay? Or went more into journalism and media?
Idk for me I don’t want lifestyle advice from ppl living an elongated childhood provided by their hard working parents. I’m not motivated to buy anything pushed to me by ppl that couldn’t do what we’ve done and I’m grateful for having the conviction of self to not feel
such a level of status anxiety that would be necessary to compel me to buy into whatever hallmarks of a MC lifestyle are being pushed to us by ppl that don’t and could never pay for it themselves. Like I don’t find hoarding 5 ceramic teaspoon holders remotely aspirational and I couldn’t give a fuck about what soap is cool to have in the guest bathroom this season because I’m a financially independent adult with our own financial future to manage. We have nice things we’ve bought because we needed or loved them, but we consume sustainably for this earth and for a family that are building a life for ourselves and intergenerational wealth for our little one. Like surely this style of middle class on a shoestring content is just for other feeble objectively unsuccessful adult children absolutely ignorant to the world?
Idk suspect maybe we’d all be happier if we considered why class markers matter to us and what are we really spending for? It might be liberating to escape that never ending consumption cycle that only truly benefits big business.
+ This level of consumption is ghastly and increasingly passé imo, a recession will be awful for many reasons but I hope it encourages excessive consumers to reconsider their relationship with acquiring tat and adopt a more mindful approach.
Idk for me I don’t want lifestyle advice from ppl living an elongated childhood provided by their hard working parents. I’m not motivated to buy anything pushed to me by ppl that couldn’t do what we’ve done and I’m grateful for having the conviction of self to not feel
such a level of status anxiety that would be necessary to compel me to buy into whatever hallmarks of a MC lifestyle are being pushed to us by ppl that don’t and could never pay for it themselves. Like I don’t find hoarding 5 ceramic teaspoon holders remotely aspirational and I couldn’t give a fuck about what soap is cool to have in the guest bathroom this season because I’m a financially independent adult with our own financial future to manage. We have nice things we’ve bought because we needed or loved them, but we consume sustainably for this earth and for a family that are building a life for ourselves and intergenerational wealth for our little one. Like surely this style of middle class on a shoestring content is just for other feeble objectively unsuccessful adult children absolutely ignorant to the world?
Idk suspect maybe we’d all be happier if we considered why class markers matter to us and what are we really spending for? It might be liberating to escape that never ending consumption cycle that only truly benefits big business.+ This level of consumption is ghastly and increasingly passé imo, a recession will be awful for many reasons but I hope it encourages excessive consumers to reconsider their relationship with acquiring tat and adopt a more mindful approach.
WhyYouCry?
Chatty Member
Hello!! Came across these threads yesterday and spent a few hours reading them all.
I’ve been following Alex for years and used to think she had some vaguely interesting content. Started to get a bit
when she kept going on about how hard it is juggling young kids with work when from what I could tell, her ‘work’ was putting matches into boxes. Noticed some dubious financial advice that seemed weird coming from someone who styles themselves as ‘frugal’. Finally realised she was an absolute muppet when she posted a recent receipt of a £57(ish) food shop and when I looked at the receipt it didn’t seem to make a single decent meal. So here I am!
I’ve been following Alex for years and used to think she had some vaguely interesting content. Started to get a bit
when she kept going on about how hard it is juggling young kids with work when from what I could tell, her ‘work’ was putting matches into boxes. Noticed some dubious financial advice that seemed weird coming from someone who styles themselves as ‘frugal’. Finally realised she was an absolute muppet when she posted a recent receipt of a £57(ish) food shop and when I looked at the receipt it didn’t seem to make a single decent meal. So here I am!
AllTheGinJoints
VIP Member
Let’s be fair, the trainers are no doubt working harder than Alex does.
heretoreaditall2019
VIP Member
This is definitely a thingTM and there’s a lot of classism dressed up as environmental concern happening. And surprise surprise big bizTM wins from this narrative! Like low waged people and tbh working class/ppl from less capitalistic consumeristic communities have made garments last for YEARS and never purchased the sheer volume that those with greater disposable incomes can, yet are now being cruelly burdened with shame for shopping in Primark etc when that’s all that is easily accessible to them - whilst those disposable income and influencer huns trade up from excessively buying 70+ items a year from Primark/ASOS/Shein/whatever to excessively buying 35 items a year from Arket/madewell/wherever else has greenwashed their proposition well enough yet will pay out aff fees or do partnerships. The “good players” can then raise their prices and people pay more because expensive = better for the planet, right? And on top of that have moronic influencers make positive enviro claims that the brand couldn’t because of the literal law, such claims that could never pass the HIGHLY rigorous clearance process for tv advertising that the ASA impose whilst they remain total ghost town about influencers with reach > most tv shows nowadays making any old claim to these audiences!
Fundamentally we all know what needs doing - make items last longer, repair things, buy less volume, buy second hand if you must buy something, prioritise natural fibres where possible, etc etc but there’s not money to be made in that messaging so we just see dumb and tbh v alienating messaging flogged by hypocritical hyper consumers on Insta.
Just watching it all
VIP Member
Someone used the phrase big Tory energy to describe her a while back over the bbc tv license and I use it all the time now 
PineappleQueen19
VIP Member
It goes to show how little Alex has to actually worry about - your biggest problem is your biggest problem after all.
And ok lots of people hate her glasses and her beige food but really who cares. Bottom line is if she didn’t push an exploitative faux frugality agenda, didn’t lie about her grocery shopping bill, didn’t encourage cancelling the licence fee (while shilling for Sky) and declared ads properly this thread would be dead.
In the nice to have column - a bit of honesty about inherited wealth and how even a small amount of it drastically changes the direction of your life wouldn’t go astray. Not to mention how just having the safety net of comfortable parents helps with mental health even if you never take up the offer of help.
Even the secret second story extension - there’s no problem with not revealing every detail but in that case don’t go on and on about how tight your reno budget is, that you can’t stretch to a side return etc. It feels disingenuous because it is.
And ok lots of people hate her glasses and her beige food but really who cares. Bottom line is if she didn’t push an exploitative faux frugality agenda, didn’t lie about her grocery shopping bill, didn’t encourage cancelling the licence fee (while shilling for Sky) and declared ads properly this thread would be dead.
In the nice to have column - a bit of honesty about inherited wealth and how even a small amount of it drastically changes the direction of your life wouldn’t go astray. Not to mention how just having the safety net of comfortable parents helps with mental health even if you never take up the offer of help.
Even the secret second story extension - there’s no problem with not revealing every detail but in that case don’t go on and on about how tight your reno budget is, that you can’t stretch to a side return etc. It feels disingenuous because it is.
heretoreaditall2019
VIP Member
I know honestly if I’d been gifted such a blessed rich girl life by my parents ppl on the internet couldn’t tell me shit. I’d be sat there in my 30% LTV home chilling tf out eating my way through 12 bagels cut in half browsing the Tiger website not paying it any mind.
AllTheGinJoints
VIP Member
She did Virtue Signalling Friday instead.
Exhaustednurse
VIP Member
Exactly. What makes Alex’s selling worse is that she has created a whole pretence about their financial position which is gaslighting women into thinking they are somehow inferior as they can’t seem to match their lifestyle.
She pretends to a specific female audience (30’s, just back from mat leave) that by shopping in Aldi you can afford expensive renovations and multiple holidays.
So many women left feeling inadequate, in a period of life that is so hard, in which those treats and luxuries are few and far between despite working hard. All your money goes on childcare and bills.
She pretends to a specific female audience (30’s, just back from mat leave) that by shopping in Aldi you can afford expensive renovations and multiple holidays.
So many women left feeling inadequate, in a period of life that is so hard, in which those treats and luxuries are few and far between despite working hard. All your money goes on childcare and bills.
That clearly says something about it being a British thing to be (embarrassed?) about your achievements.
What, exactly, has Alex achieved? Other than using aff links to make money, like the Avon ladies used to? All that expensive education and all she does it watch telly and fanny about multitasking doing several types of fuck all.
What, exactly, has Alex achieved? Other than using aff links to make money, like the Avon ladies used to? All that expensive education and all she does it watch telly and fanny about multitasking doing several types of fuck all.