Snow Cones, you temptation of the devil!

So of course I did good on Sunday by not spending any money, but let me say that I did go to Costco on Saturday, but just got some milk, more berries, and a rotisserie chicken -- I'm pretty sure it's a law that you have to pick up a delicious roasted bird every time you go in there. I usually avoid stores on Saturdays, but we were out of milk and I've heard so much about their wonderful free samples on the weekend. Well, I must've gone on a bad day because there was hardly anything (unless you count the Culligan guy giving out samples of water -- really? Free water?).

On Monday I spent a long day working and sleeping. No spending there.

Today I'm doing pretty good, but just let it be known that the new Snow Cone stand that they set up on my block (literally just feet away from my home) is killing me! Oh, icy goodness, fruity syrupy wonder, you freezing delight, how I long to embrace you.

I did buy gas today. This was something I was dreading because I was hoping to do a lot more walking and not have to buy any gas this month. But the extreme heat, my laziness, and having to drive my children 6,000 different places a day kind of put an end to that idea. I am hoping to buy a lot less gas, though. We'll see how it works out.

Pride Goes Before the Fall

I think that I got a little too proud of myself for not spending any money in downtown on Friday night. Today I got off of work early, so I decided to go to the Farmer's Market. Big mistake. I just can't resist a Farmer's Market.

What Frances and Alice-Grace couldn't resist were some belly-dancing skirts at one of the booths. I'll admit it, I used to take belly-dancing classes, so my children are genetically predisposed to love anything with jingly coins on it. I had promised them skirts last year at the Farmer's Market, but I didn't have my purse at the time and the booth never came back to the park. My girls totally remembered this and begged for the skirts. What could I say? It may not be there again in August. So I caved in and bought the skirts. They have been wearing them non-stop, much to the chagrin of our poor cats who are scared to death of the noise.

I was good and didn't buy any snow cones (they didn't have cotton candy).

Free Friday Downtown

Tonight I did really well. We went to the art gallery stroll downtown and didn't spend any money (it helps that they have free food). We also participated in a "Dance Walk" where a group of people dance while walking down the streets of downtown. It was really fun for me and Nigel, horrendously embarrassing for Jeffrey and Alice-Grace. They begged for us to stop and go home. And they aren't even teenagers yet!

All in all, another successful spend-free day.

Service is the new Shopping

So I've realized that I spend most of my money out of boredom. I go out to eat, I take the kids places, I buy things -- all because I'm bored.

So what have I been doing instead since I'm not spending any money this month? Amazingly enough -- service.

The other day I blogged about helping a family move.

I'm in charge of a community garden and I've noticed that quite a few of our gardeners have not planted anything this year and have let their plots go to seed. I called them up and asked permission to weed. So I've been spending my free time pulling weeds and cleaning up the garden. I'm out in the fresh air, getting exercise, helping out my neighbors and best of all, not spending any money. Win-win-win-win!

A Frugal Fourth

Well, I managed to celebrate Independence Day without spending any money.

It helped that I worked in the morning and then took a nap in the afternoon.

Then Jeffrey wanted me to take him and his friend to the store to buy fireworks. I reminded him that I wasn't spending any money this month. They managed to finagle some money from the friend's mom, found a quarter on the ground, and with a nickel from the nice cashier,* they scrounged together $1.75. With that, they were able to buy one box of snaps, six smoke bombs, and four flowers. Pretty good if you ask me.

Then we went to a local park to set off the fireworks. We stayed at the park and watched everyone else set off their fireworks. It was quite a show -- better than the shows you have to pay for!

Then we hung out with some neighbors as they had a family party watching the professional fireworks display out in the distance.

I think that we all had just as much fun as when we spend a ton of money on fireworks and food. So all in all, a very successful, and frugal, Fourth of July.

*I reminded Jeffrey that since the cashier gave him a nickel, he is now obligated to help someone else out if they're short on money.

Grocery Shopping

So I just got back from grocery shopping.

I went to Target and got a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi. With the coupon it was free, so no money there! Of course, it meant that I had to buy Pepsi, so I guess my husband and daughters will have it (my son and I don't drink cola).

Now the lady who wrote the book "Not Buying It" said that she didn't buy anything that was processed during her year-long experiment.

As I was shopping at Costco, it suddenly dawned on me, what exactly does "processed" mean?

I bought milk, heavy cream (so we could make our own ice-cream), ground beef, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and lemon juice.

I was torn on the lemon juice. Should I have bought fresh lemons instead and juiced them myself? Is lemon juice "processed"? If it is, was the cream also "processed"? Should I have gotten a steak and ground it myself?

So confusing. Anyway, the good news is that my Costco bill was about half of what it usually is!

Rules

So what are the rules to my "Not Buying It" experiment?

I think that I'm making them up as I go along.

It's amazing how much money I spend with no effort of my own. Most of my bills are automatically taken out of my checking account or billed to my credit card: mortgage, various insurances, condo fee, most of my utility bills, etc. In fact, the only bill I have to pay myself is my natural gas bill -- why? I guess because they're the only ones so far that haven't pressured me to go automatic.

I'll be spending money on all my usual stuff, but I'm trying not to buy anything extra: clothes, activities, toys, fast food, junk food, entertainment, etc.

Also, this only applies to me. My kids can buy whatever they want (they never have any money anyway) and my husband can use his money (that doesn't really count because he's the type of guy that can have the same $10 bill in his pocket for seriously two years).

We'll see how it goes!

Bored

So Monday was my first official day of "not buying it."

I was OK as long as I was at work, but then I went home. It's amazing how much I wanted to spend money just to alleviate my boredom (you know, finding reasons to NOT clean my house).

There's lots of stuff going on downtown to celebrate Independence Day, but I knew I would just end up spending money on snow cones and cotton candy, so I didn't go.

What did I do instead? Help a neighbor move. I didn't even know this neighbor. They were moving, I was bored, so I just started picking up boxes. It took quite a few hours because they lived on the third floor. After that I was so exhausted that I went to sleep.

So I didn't spend any money, helped a neighbor, got lots of exercise. Win-win-win!

Not Buying It

A while ago I read the book "Not Buying It" about a woman who goes a whole year without buying anything (she set up her own guidelines -- since she couldn't go without purchasing some food items and paying her utility bills). I've always wanted to try this little experiment (I love me some stunt journalism), so I'm going to try to go the month of July not buying anything and then blogging about it.

I'm sure that I'll fail miserably, but that's half the fun!

Good news -- I didn't buy ANYTHING on Sunday, July 1st.

Of course, that's an easy one since my religion frowns on going to stores or purchasing items on the Sabbath, but I'll take any victory I can.

Closed Captioning Foibles

I love watching TV with the closed captioning on. I'm not quite sure what machines those people are using while they're typing out a live news broadcast, but they have some interesting shortcuts that I don't think they should be using.

In one news broadcast (I think I've already blogged about this), every time the reporter said "Barack Obama," the trascriber typed in "Backyard Habitat."

Today, every time the news anchor said "Mexico," the transcriber put in "Mechanical Psycho." What? That's so much longer than just typing the word "Mexico"!

I really hope that hearing-impaired people are getting their news from newspapers, and NOT television.