Ginevra Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 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. 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! Oddly, I cannot find what should have been last Saturday's post. I'm pretty sure I posted one, but it doesn't come up in my content. So, this was a very busy week. I bought a lot of materials for the co-op Christmas Craft Day, which I will oversee this year. These materials are to make prototypes and the determine how feasible the different crafts are for our venue. So some of these expenses will be reimbursed, but not all; some of the crafts will not be a go. (I already think my Oh Holy Nightlight idea comes out as too expensive for this venue.) I bought a few finishing touches for DS' costume. It looks amazing, if I can say so myself! I bought a couple of cheapy clothes in a cat-covered print at Walmart, so I could be Crazy Cat Lady for our Halloween party. The pants were a fleece PJ bottom; only one remained in a size that was much too large, but I bought them and altered them to make them much smaller. So now I have a pair of soft, though goofy-looking, PJ pants, so my investment in them for Halloween is not wasted. :) We hosted the family for a Halloween party and birthday dinner, so there were expenses there, but I didn't really decorate beyond a few pumpkins and a new tablecloth. I'm not a big fan of Halloween décor, so I don't spend money on that beyond a couple of pumpkins. Now I am feeling a bit under the weather, so I hope that doesn't develop into anything too awful. DD came home from college for the party last night and we will probably spend some money on a nice steak dinner tomorrow. (Though she says the food is good at college, this is one thing she claims to miss - steak. There is obviously never steak in the student dining hall!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Yes, Quill, you did post last week, but I did not contribute. I now remember that note to self... We are working through several home improvement projects. It is perhaps no surprise how one thing leads to another unexpected expense. So, in the case of the new bathroom lighting, it turns out that we needed an electrician to install some sort of box that holds the wires. (Previous fixture was attached to wires out of the wall.) But what proved to be a totally squirrelly previous installation has led to the need for a dry wall patch. The electrician was here on Friday. He is coming back next week with the drywall guy. I let my husband off the hook on that one since the dear replaced the hood on my stove today. This after he participated in a community trash pick up with me. After working long hours this week... I gave myself a mini-challenge last week of staying away from grocery stores in order to use up some stuff in the pantry and freezer. I was succeeding until the lack of milk and other basics forced a shop--and then I did a big one, going to four different stores to stock up. There is an irony here. We have been eating out a lot lately. I'm still cooking, of course, but our restaurant spending has gotten a little Out of Hand. That said, I adored the duck confit that I ate before attending the symphony last weekend. Other than restaurants and a few books (sigh) the spending has been limited and mindful. The home improvements are long overdue and, in all honestly, I am glad that I waited on a few things. This has given me time to think about what makes sense for us--for example I did not have ceramic tile installed in the kitchen as I initially considered. I love my new plank vinyl! Happy Halloween all! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Ummm not much out of the ordinary, some school stuff (pocket dividers on clearance, picture frames, dry erase markers), an owl rug for my kitchen and owl salt and pepper shakers (I like fall, I'm finding all kinds of owl stuff :D), and space bag for blankets and sheets. Not sure if I'm missing anything else. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We had a really good week. I bought gas for my car, the first gas I've bought since October 2. Pretty happy about that, even though it's lower than usual gas consumption and won't be repeated in November. I did my end of month tally and our dining out expense is excellent! Dh and I had a work lunch with a woman from their California office and her expense account paid for the meal. And the kids and I ate lunch out one day when we did some shopping in a nearby town. So we paid to eat out ONCE in the entire month- that's discipline! Well, for us, anyway. I didn't buy Halloween candy to hand out to the 800+ trick or treaters we get on our street. We gave out candy every year our kids trick or treated so once they stopped, we stopped. Fair enough, I think. I needed a week like this- I know it's not going to last but a great week here or there does wonders for my motivation. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Halloween: bought three bags of candy and one costume---no decorations, and two costumes were from stuff around the house. The other two are going into our dress-up stash and will be getting lots of use. I filled up my tank for the second time since moving cross-country. I have gone from driving about 1000 miles a month to 200! Yay! I bought furniture yesterday. I have to buy new and leather because of allergies/asthma. I have mixed feelings about furniture buying but I ended up finding a pottery barn outlet that handles catalog order returns. I purchased a sofa and two matching chairs yesterday that had very little damage to them (my couch seems flawless--each chair has a small scratch) at a great discount to me and as a way of diverting them from landfill. Yay! I hope that they will wear well for many, many years! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I didn't do much this past week, as I was buried in a deadline. For Halloween, the kids used last year's costumes. They had a birthday/Halloween party Friday. At the last minute, I realized I had forgotten to buy anything. (I was planning to buy a couple of gift cards.) I had two $25 gift cards that someone gave my kids for Barnes & Noble. So I dug out a couple of old generic birthday cards and put the B&N gift cards in there. :P I will pay my kids back later. I ordered my kids a couple of timers to keep track of how long they practice their music. And a coat and boots and a few items of school clothing. Did I mention those last week? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We bought a car!!!!! OK, calm down... We bought a very nice, cheap used car with cash that we saved up thanks to the wonders of YNAB, encouragement from this group (I don't post much, but read every week), and taming my spendthrift ways. Its been more than three years since we've had a second car and I am very excited. It will allow my husband to earn a bit more money (he's self-employed and sometimes has to leave a job early or refuse one to get the car back home for other commitments). I'm going to track how long it takes the car to pay for itself. Apart from insurance and rego, it shouldn't add to our expenses much if I don't go mad with the freedom of being able to go out whenever I like. And our other car has 222,000 miles on it and may not last much longer, so this is welcome safety net. D 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Deee, I celebrate your freedom! Being frugal and sharing a car is something I bring up to DH all the time. But when it gets down to it, I realize I really don't want to have to coordinate that kind of thing with him. And yet I put gas in my car only once or twice a month and it seems wasteful to register, insure, and maintain it. And yeah, with your other car getting up in miles, having a backup provides such peace of mind. Congrats! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hikin' Mama Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Deee, very excited for you about your car! :) Well, I did a not so mindful thing...I signed up for Stitch Fix. I haven't had anything delivered yet, but I'm already afraid that I'm not going to like it. And I think the prices are going to be more than I want to pay. But I would like to update my wardrobe a bit and I hate to shop, so I thought I would give it a go. I don't have to keep anything and I will cancel if I don't like the first couple of shipments. I also looked at thredup.com, which is an online source for used clothes. Prices are more my speed and I like buying used. I found some stuff I liked, but alas, none of the things I liked were in my size. There is a ton of stuff there, though, if you have the time to look. A lot of name brands too. Some of the items were listed as "new with tags on." If only they had been in my size. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Deee, very excited for you about your car! :) Well, I did a not so mindful thing...I signed up for Stitch Fix. I haven't had anything delivered yet, but I'm already afraid that I'm not going to like it. And I think the prices are going to be more than I want to pay. But I would like to update my wardrobe a bit and I hate to shop, so I thought I would give it a go. I don't have to keep anything and I will cancel if I don't like the first couple of shipments. I also looked at thredup.com, which is an online source for used clothes. Prices are more my speed and I like buying used. I found some stuff I liked, but alas, none of the things I liked were in my size. There is a ton of stuff there, though, if you have the time to look. A lot of name brands too. Some of the items were listed as "new with tags on." If only they had been in my size. I have bought at Thred up and would do it again. I don't care about brand names, but I have bought nice things that are White House Black Market, Limited, or J. crew from Thred up and that is quite unbeatable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 I should note that one benefit of cleaning out my basement was that I found an old Halloween decoration that had been buried and forgotten - a fiber optic thingy. Critters had eaten a big hole in the box, so I wasn't sure it would still work. Well, I tried it on Halloween and it worked like new. I'm not sure how old it is, maybe close to 20 years. :P I guess that almost counts as a freebie. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Yay, Deee! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharonM Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 My last 2 weeks have been better, I had an easy time not spending because I didn't have anything to spend. Wiped out the savings (it was pretty small :-( but it did its job)with badly needed new tires for kids car. This weekend I got paid and was able to help my brother and wife with extra money for groceries, ( they are paying daughters rent, till they can find jobs.) But we had a fun time on Halloween and good dinner. This month my goal is to not turn to my American express card. At all, all month. Can she do it? I use it for almost all my over the top spending. I want to break that habit. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Thank you! Tomorrow the nice man is coming to regas the airconditioner (its spring here, so its hot, humid and feral already, with 6 months to go). Seems the car stereo doesn't like my CDs (neither does my husband....), but listening to my own singing is a very small price to pay for freedom (IMHO) Wish we had threadup in Oz. What a great idea D 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 I want to sing the praises of Google. During an electrical storm a month or so ago, a friend lost a television set. (Power strips with surge protection are a wise investment.) My husband was helping our friend attach the various cables to her television and offered to cart the old one off for her. She told him what was wrong with it and said that if he could fix it and pass it along to someone, that would be great. Turns out that Google revealed a method (not in the manual) for returning to the manufacturer's presets. It took some fiddling but the TV is fixed and has been given to other friends who wanted to replace a really old television but didn't have the money. They now have a nice 40 inch LED television. My husband probably spent an hour or so figuring out what to do to repair this thing. One less device goes to the landfill. Google to the rescue! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 I want to sing the praises of Google. During an electrical storm a month or so ago, a friend lost a television set. (Power strips with surge protection are a wise investment.) My husband was helping our friend attach the various cables to her television and offered to cart the old one off for her. She told him what was wrong with it and said that if he could fix it and pass it along to someone, that would be great. Turns out that Google revealed a method (not in the manual) for returning to the manufacturer's presets. It took some fiddling but the TV is fixed and has been given to other friends who wanted to replace a really old television but didn't have the money. They now have a nice 40 inch LED television. My husband probably spent an hour or so figuring out what to do to repair this thing. One less device goes to the landfill. Google to the rescue! I love this! I have fixed my computer twice with tutorials I found on the web. It is a great feeling for multiple reasons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.