Nothing New/Mindful Spending Week 34

[Ginevra]

The "rules" of this challenge are self-defined. Anyone can join in at any time. The aim of the challenge (for me) is to combat consumerism, wastefulness, mindless buying, and overspending. It is meant to nurture creative problem solving, ecology, frugality, intentionalism, and resourcefulness. To support these goals, I seek to buy nothing new/unnecessary. I aim to use existing resources, borrow, hand-craft, and buy existing second-hand materials to the greatest extent possible. However, I recognize that life is unpredictable, and family life increases this factor exponentially, so I will buy new in the following cases, when a non-buying option does not present:

 

Food, health, and necessary household goods excluded.

Requirements for school, work, or health and well-being which cannot be obtained used.

Gifts, when a creative non-commercial option will not suffice.

Anything animal or gardening related that cannot be obtained used.

Fuel/energy sources.

 

Posts will appear each Saturday, referring to the week that is ending. Post your successes, creative solutions, relapses and weak moments. It doesn't matter if you have a weak moment! Just keep swimming!

So my big confession is this: I bought a new camera. Also a memory card and card reader. The good news is it is still a Nikon DSLR and will accept my old lenses. The bad news: well, that is an expensive camera and I didn't even try very hard to get one used. I justified this by saying, Hey, my old Nikon was new and I have used that sucker for 12 years. Also, 12 years ago, a comparably fine Nikon cost more than this one did and this one has many far superior features (24.2 mpx! Unheard of when I bought my D70s!) i was kind of impulsive about it because I wanted to have a new camera for the soccer tournament today and DD's college move-in tomorrow.

 

Other things I bought this week: a pair of athletic shorts for DD, but I returned two I had bought that were not the right thing, so I got a larger credit back than the shorts cost. The new ones were just $12 at Target. Granted, they were probably made in Bangledesh by someone who earned .20 for making them...:( This still bothers me.

 

I saw where Dish Network now has something called Flex Plan that is much cheaper than the insane amout of momey we are paying to Directv for TV service. anyone know anything about this? I want to look into it because I would certainly be too happy to pay $40/month and not $113. And if I could get rid of Cartoon Network in the meantime, I'm all ober that. (I cannot stand a single show on that network.)

 

Paid $10 for soccer socks. Paid $25 for the food the boys had in the tourny today. DH also bought other food and drinks. We did bring the big 5 gallon dispenser filled with water and ice from home for the players; I LOVE this for reducing all those darn water bottles and the guys used it constantly until there was no more water left. Oh! Also bought a dozen dunkin donuts, $9.

[SKL]

Wow, is it a new week already?  I guess our first week of school flew by!

 

We are back to trying to do horse riding weekly, and they upped their price a bit (actually this happened a long time ago but I pretended not to notice).  So $110/week for horse riding (2 kids) when we can do it.

 

I'm looking at an online literature program.  It's $200 for 12 weeks for 1 kid.  I think it would be good to encourage my eldest to read and get better at understanding that part of LA.  The other kid could listen in if she wants (I think she would).  They are already participating in a library book club thingy for free, but that is just once a month and they mostly just eat snacks and chat about other stuff, from what I gather.  :P 

 

I was looking at the science center and its programs, wondering if I should become a member again.  Funny thing, you can't find out the prices of the programs unless you are registered and have a kid that age.  They have some interesting-looking stuff for 6th graders and I wanted to check them out for future reference, but no dice.  (They also won't tell you what their scout programs cost unless you call them.)  I guess I will wait to consider membership until I see their summer camp offerings in Jan / Feb.

 

Tomorrow we are going to a multicultural thingy where we can sample food and watch dances etc. from many international communities in our city.  The watching is free.  The food, well, we will probably enjoy some from the stands of some of our favorite restaurants, so it will be worth whatever they charge (usually just a few bucks).  Sometimes they have free yoga and stuff like that.  I always like this, as long as the weather is reasonable.

 

I can't think of much else coming up this week that has anything to do with spending or saving.

[mommyoffive]

Took the kids to the kids museum today.  My family picked up the tab for admission and lunch.  they did have free kid tickets so that helped out.

All I was out was gas.

 

 

Going to return a bunch of stuff i bought on dc tomorrow. 

 

Saved 400 bucks rebooking our rental car and one hotel stay since rates dropped!!  Awesome.

Now I just need the weather to improve.

 

Exterminator is coming this week.  Should only be 100.

 

 

 

Not much else that I know of.

[hjffkj]

Aside from gas and grocrriez I spent $20 buying baby clothes off of a consignment site. That will get me through the first few months when the new baby comes in Jan. We ate out twice this week, once to celebrate the kids' successful kung fu tests and once tonight because I was too hot to heat the house up even more.

 

That was it spending wise for us. This week will be a no spend week until Friday because we are going to the beach for the weekend. That is when we'll spend nicely to enjoy a vacation

[Jane in NC]

With this heat, there is not a lot coming from local farms. I loaded my basket with eggplant, peppers, squash, tomatoes and melon and then made the most of it. The result was a week of great eating with minimal animal protein.

I made Shakshuka, a tomato/egg dish, served with crusty bread for sopping.

We enjoyed an eggplant/chickpea curry served over rice.

A Vegetarian Times recipe for a tomato squash "crumble" that was in my to-be-tried stack proved to be yummy. I reversed the squash to tomato ratio because it was what I had on hand.

Once a month my husband's colleagues and their families get together for a game night. This is usually held in the club house of a subdivision but some brave souls have hosted the gathering. Participants bring games, snacks and beverages; those who want pizza toss some money into the kitty. The event is proving to be very popular. People with young children tend to arrive earliest since they also leave early. It provides a way of test driving a game before someone invests. And it is just an economical way of socializing. It is not my cup of tea (too noisy for my liking) but my husband has a blast. Our adult son makes a point of attending when he is around.

So DH went off to play games Friday, leaving me to my own devices. I made a cocktail :D and nibbled on bruschetta. Then came the chocolate cravings so I made brownies--eating only one!

I enrolled in another session of a basket making class. I also paid the class fees for a friend as a birthday present although I must confess this gesture was totally selfish. The class insures that we get to spend time together which doesn't always happen with busy lives.

The only shopping I did outside of food was at the Columbia outlet, a bit of a drive that I periodically make with my husband. We had breakfast out beforehand. I was looking for some waterproof or water resistant pants and lucked out. Looking forward to some hiking adventures down the road!

[Baseball mom]

Quill -- Yay for new camera!!

 

Spending this week:

Small bottle of apple juice

1/2 price fan

 

Ds had his wisdom teeth out this week.  I had to go get his meds.  While at Walgreens waiting on meds, I picked up some apple juice for him to drink on way home (he was asking for some) and also a clearance fan.  I have been wanting one for the bathroom but it needed to be a certain size and I just didn't have the money.  Walgreens had one like I had been wanting for 1/2 price.  Decided I would splurge and get it.  The bathroom is so hot and it would help with the humidity.

 

I did take a pork loin from the freezer and cooked 1/2 of it for supper one night to go with veggies.  Then cooked the other 1/2 using another recipe.  Sliced it really thin to use as lunch/sandwich meat. 

 

 

 

 

[Annie G]

Doc visit for me this week as I arrived home from our trip with a sore spot on my leg that quickly became infected. The doc thinks it was a spider bite. Antibiotic was 81 cents.  Don't know yet how much the doc visit will cost me. 

 

Bought plane tickets so dh and I can go visit the grandkids in October. I'm going to be able to put toes in the sand on both the gulf side and Atlantic side of Florida...I'm super happy about that. 

 

Bought tickets for a bbq festival next weekend.  Really we're going because youngest dd has loved Hanson since she was about 6 years old and they're playing. Plus, bbq. 

 

Other than that, I bought a few things I needed for this week's home renovation projects but I have a rebate check from our local home improvement store so no out of pocket expense. Yay for that! 

 

Upcoming this week: THREE trips to a town 45 minutes away, so gas will add up. One for a funeral, one dinner with girlfriends, and then the festival.  And in between that I'll drive into Chicago to pick dd up at the airport.