Anyone following Austerity Mum blog story?

[Jane7]

It's really quite hilarious. Rich lady writes blog about how to cut back eg take fewer helicopter rides. Now it's revealed that she's the wife of boss at Price Waterhouse Cooper. Has anyone been following her blog? Sounds hilarious, in sort of tasteless 'how the other lives' kind of way

I wonder if she is a Mumsnetter?

Yes I wonder, although I should think her concerns are out of synch with most mumsnetters if dropping the odd helicopter ride is her biggest cut back!

I read this thinking it might be something to help me with my own austerity campaign but this woman is not on the same wavelength as me at all!

I am buying no clothes/shoes/make-up in 2011 and am cutting back in all aspects of life.

I'm looking for hints and tips but taking fewer helicopter rides doesn't help me.

Is it done in humour or is she serious?

That's what I want to know Oopsadaisy. If it's a joke, then it's not really that funny, except maybe to her and her rich friends who can snigger at the thought of actually having to travel economy etc
Good luck with buying new clothes - are you allowed to raid charity shops? If not, why not organize a clothes swap with friends. you might get some good stuff.

Hey there Jane7

No charity shops/car boots either.

Only exceptions are clothes/shoes that dcs actually need (rather than want).

I am doing this with a few friends so we are allowed to swap and share. (Not knickers though!)

We are doing it for social reasons too - we feel quite strongly about being too materialistic and living in a world dominated by debt and buying new stuff. It's experimenting in living how we think we should.

I hope this woman in the blog is not doing it to be patronising. Some people in this country are really on the most arse-clenching budget.

I suppose she's shopping at Selfridges instead of Harrods. I (and most of the country) find the prices in Asda terrifying.

Oopsadaisy - I am a real austerity mum too!

We are also only buying essentials for the children and using hand-me-downs as much as possible.

We are lucky in that we have a real fireplace. We can save on heating bills by collecting stuff to put in the fire to burn. I take the children to the park and they collect pinecones and twigs/sticks while I get small branches, etc. The children's contributions are usually great for kindling the fire.

At the supermarket we don't get any extras like crisps or biscuits or even nice cheeses and hardly any brand name stuff.

We also walk as much as possible to save on travelling costs. DH leaves the car at home and walks about a mile to get the bus to work. I walk the children to school (about 30 mins, so 1 hour there and back).

It goes without saying that nothing is left on standby, everything gets turned off when not in use!

There are all sorts of ways we've cut back. And just for the record, I've never been near a helicopter, let alone inside one!

Good on you alexpolis mum, especially for that walk to school. Real life austerity mums should be celebrated!

are there any links to her blog?

How many kids does she have?

It's not remotely funny, Austerity Mum's blog is deeply offensive. I know the woman and know that she did not make any of this up - it is her life and her ugly thoughts. She's truly deluded. She was warned by her 'friends' (I doubt she has many left now) that it was offensive but she obviously liked the attention and carried on with it regardless.

Just thought I'd join in on the 'not buying clothes' thing - I gave up clothes shopping from the start of October (did buy new underwear, plus was given a couple of bits for Christmas / birthday, but I think that's fair enough), and have got through four months without any difficulty at all. In fact, I've found it bizarrely relaxing not to look at clothes or spend time clothes shopping. So best of luck to Oopsadaisy and Alexpolismum during 2011.

any links, tried to find it a while ago

Think it's been taken down now at her husband's request/insistence! Can't imagine PwC partners being hugely impressed by it.

An extract - Mrs Lisa Unwin didn't get it taken down quickly enough - I saved an extract of her shite to remind myself that there are some people truly living in a bubble during this recession.

(note that her husband, Ashley Unwin writes about austerity for clients himself as part of his job i think - see blogs.ft.com/management/2010/03/12/stirrings-in-th e-consultancy-world/?infernofullcomment=1&SID=google )

BTW, this blog post is genuine, she refers to Ashley Unwin as Chief Spending Officer in what i can only describe as a serious tone throughout the blog posts - most of them are gob smackingly ignorant but this is one of the more ones:

I mentioned the handmade shirts earlier. Not only is this a problem for our austerity measures, it's not particularly good for the environment. Aforementioned husband - let's call him chief spending officer - has to have his shirts handmade. Not even Prada is good enough anymore. Can't recall why. And naturally the way I wash and the way our cleaner (still there at the moment, though watch this space given austerity measures) irons these shirts is unacceptable.

So .... twice a week a lovely lady drives her van around to our house, rings the bell and collects a (plastic) bag full of dirty shirts. On the second visit she drives her van back to the house, with clean shirts in a (new plastic) bag, each shirt duly washed, folded (around a new cardboard frame), and with little (plastic) hooks to keep it in place. And each placed in a celophone bag to protect it from the (often severe in East London) elements. (Monday to Friday one of these bags, along with hooks and cardboard appears by the front door ready for me to put in the recycling bin).

Sounds lovely doesn't it? All is not perfect at present because the people who operate whatever cleaning equipment they have keep putting the wrong size bits of (plastic) straighteners into the wing collars. Chief spending officer goes mad. "Leees (that's me) ... I must have told them a thousand times (he is prone to exaggerate a little) .... can you tell them about these Bl&y wing collars!

Now you might think that for both green and economic reasons this might be the first thing to go as I review our weekly budget. Not on your life. You don't know how important a well pressed shirt is to the smooth running of our lives - which is extremely dependent on keeping chief spending officer happy.

That's a legit quote. WTF is this woman on?

btw you won't find copies of her blog posts on the net - Lisa Unwin and Ashley Unwin have problably hired PR advisors on hiring IT consultants to scrub this stuff from the net - literally i saw this story, bookmarked the site, and now when you google it, there's been a massive whitewash operation going on, and the direct URL only loads a "you need a password to view this blog" page.

silly woman, silly actions, really.

She sounds to me like a woman who's pretty pissed off with her husband, tbh...

Passsages which were published in the newspapers probably could still be accessed by someone determined enough.

The Telegraph the other week printed a picture of the house they are having done up.

The cache is still available <a class="break-all" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qFk_5ecIkNYJ:austeritymum.blogspot.com/2010/09/october-spending-review.html+austeritymum.blogspot.com/&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

"Also up for grabs have to be subscriptions to the national lottery (too depressing, we never win the thousands we so desperately need), Cycling magazine, Runners World and, I am afraid to say, Vogue, Grazia and anything that has mentioned aviator jacket in its last edition. Done. Gone. The subscription to Shoreditch House has to stay of course, no point living in the East End and not having that."

Oh lordy, thanks for the link Super, that's genuinely made me laugh out loud - "we never win the thousands we so desperately need".

I thinking my definition of need and hers differ...

"Those summer holiday day trips are so expensive - entrance fees bad enough but getting through the inevitable gift shop that blocks the only way out is quite another thing...

Step one - cancel half term holiday in the Maldives (cost well into 5 figures, can't say how much in case my mum reads this but well well well into 5 figures) and replace with trip to our apartment in France. Cost of return Eurotunnel £146, accommodation free. Saving - £XX,854. And the saving doesn't stop there.

Maldives = new bikinis (and in September the only place you can buy them is Heidi Klein, at great expense), severe waxing, pedicure, manicure, a dozen new reading books and 8 bottles of very expensive sun screen (for some reason Chief Spending Officer insists on Dermalogica factor 30 spray, which he sprays liberally around his body, meaning that one bottle lasts just two days. And of course this is not suitable for his face so we also have to buy the face cream, and the lip salve).

...Even better, the only thing that's de rigeur in Val d'Isere is a Moncler jacket (expensive but extremely stylish and incredibly warm). And thanks to our previous unfettered spending regime, the kids have one each, I have two (three if you count my raincoat) and Chief Spending Officer has 6 to choose from! So being profligate in an earlier life has its benefits! We can now do our October holiday for a total of £146. Even the accommodation is paid for, due to a tactical decision by me 5 years ago to buy the apartment in the first place.

Mmmmmm. Now that I think about it, maybe the purchase of the ski apartment and all those Monclers may have something to do with the penury we now face. Oh well, they are sunk costs as any accountant worth his salt would tell you, so no point worrying about that now.

Off to have my nails done for a very posh do this evening - 40th anniversary of Saatchi and Saatchi. But before you reprimand me, I am going to Sensational Nails on the Roman Road... "

cache was available <a class="break-all" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CFGlB6wCLT4J:austeritymum.blogspot.com/2010/09/phew-i-can-now-get-going.html+austeritymum.blogspot.com/2010/09&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.co.uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

Also a good bit:

"I am also a little afraid that the lack of clothes shopping is going to mean we lose some friends. We have already had Fred from Pollyanna, the nice Italian guy who runs Yohji and one of the girls from Start ring or email us to say they are so sorry not to have seen us for a while and ask if everything is OK with the family. So kind ...."

cache was from <a class="break-all" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qFk_5ecIkNYJ:austeritymum.blogspot.com/2010/09/october-spending-review.html+austeritymum.blogspot.com/&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

I am really proud of how my friends and I are changing out ways for our own Austerity Campaign.

I am proud that none of us are like this woman. Our heads are on our necks not inserted in our bottoms.

In that first extract it's her DH who comes off really badly I think.

Yes, I agree ISNT, but wouldn't you be just too embarrassed to record his behaviour if he was your partner?

She must be of the opinion that he is an average bloke.

Personally I'd have left years ago, but if his way of life is also her natural state then she is as bad. She writes as if it is mildly amusing and quaint.

It's not.

Oh yes I agree that it's all terribly extravagent and teh blog is very tactless etc.

But still I saw a little bit about this in the paper slagging her off for her spending when on that extract it looks as if her DH is the worse one.

The Austerity Mum article is insensitive particularly in the present economic climate. Somehow it seems almost obscene that someone can spend so much money on luxuries. Brings out the socialist in people IYSWIM. Not sure what to say about her.I feel ashamed of wasting time reading her trivial thoughts. There are people out there surviving on what she spends on daftness.