Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Buy Nothing Sunday Confessional - Week 4

Buy Nothing Sunday ConfessionalForgive me people, for I have spent. This last week has been essentially a repeat of the previous week. A few days of going out to coffee and lunch and a night out for dinner. The dinner out was unplanned, but I was doing some taping for the makeover show's website and the kids and the hub were out late to give us some quiet. So, we ate out.

The only odd thing I bought was a book from Amazon to use as research for the makeover show. The rest of the books and movies we got were from the library. I'll try to continue to keep the spending down since July seemed to be a banner month in the credit card bill area.

Anyway, how did your week go? Now that the month is almost at an end, will you continue with the Buy Nothing thing or will you go back to spending as usual? Have you been paying attention to how much you've saved by consciously not spending this last month?

By the way, if you like this challenge, I have a real doozy coming up that I'll announce probably in the middle of September to give you enough time to prepare. I'm pretty excited about it and I hope that a lot of you end up participating!

14 comments:

Roz said...

Congratulations! You've won an award. See http://craftsonabudget.blogspot.com/2009/08/superior-scribbler-award.html for more details.

Thanks for the challenge - it has helped me to spend as little as possible in Aug, a month when we needed to economize more than ever due to our difficult financial circumstances.

Best wishes,

Roz

Farmer's Daughter said...

Since I go back to school tomorrow, I had to get some clothes that fit my expanding belly. I totally hate having to buy new clothes... if it wasn't for the baby I'd be all set with clothes for this year. Anyway, here my link to my awful maternity shopping experience. http://farmersdaughterct.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/why-i-did-not-enjoy-shopping-for-maternity-clothes/

FernWise said...

I spent. Oh, did I spend.

Got carry out for dinner one night. PLUS took my husband and son out for dinner for husband's birthday. AND bought leeks from the farmer's market - leeks are an indulgence, even if in the 'groceries' category.

Frondly, Fern

SusanB said...

This week we took two trips to Phily with a friend to do museums and art exhibits - we bought one dinner for our friend, paid for some parking, and I bought a $2 booklet about famous women written by HS students, the proceeds of which benefit schools for schools for girls in Afganistan. I spent $8.50 on 17 books at our town library booksale and another $1 to rent a DVD from the library. And I bought a pyrex measuring cup for my kitchen, more stuff for raised beds, and propane for the grill.
I'm not sure that this challenge had too much effect on my spending this August.

Radioactive Duck said...

I spent, oh boy did I spend on convince food. The previous weeks I was down to once a week hittng the drive thru. This week I hit the drive thru something like five or six times. I've come down with something and wasn't able to drag myself to the grocery store. I also treated myself to the movies last night after I gave up one of my cats.

Due to my current financial insecurity I will definately keep up with the Buy Nothing Challenge. I was able to curb all my impulse buys withtue exception of the drive thru (but I got a nasty experence this week that will help to curb it).

die Frau said...

I spent. [gusty sigh] I got groceries (but I tried to be really careful about not getting excess crap) and I bought a dress, but it is a dress for WINTER that is LINED and I live in BUFFALO, NY, so I felt somewhat justified. Trying to be both dressy and warm that doesn't involve scarves becomes trying. Oh, and I got coffee and a scone and lunchtime sushi. My hope is that I will become pregnant soon and not be able to eat sushi, so I considered it a sort of hopeful send-off. Plus I bought material for at-home sugaring (thanks, Green Goddess!) and the upcoming no-TP challenge. I can justify it, can't I???? [wince]

However, I did renew my library card and plan to use the library much more often. Plus I start back to work next week and I can walk, so that means less gas to buy.

The 4 Bushel Farmgal said...

Definitely not a good week for me. I bought out 1 lunch and 2 bagel breakfasts. Also, I spent $25 at Goodwill.
This challenge has shown me that I need to think about the money I spend.

Wendy said...

I didn't participate in this month's challenge, but I have participated in the "Buy Nothing" on numerous occasions in the past, and I wanted to say that the challenge, plus some other changes in my habits have resulted in a general "buy nothing" attitude.

So, what's funny is, the other day, my husband was paying some bills and balancing the checkbook, and he commented that he seemed to have a lot of money in his account. He wondered aloud, why, and I said, it was because I stopped buying stuff :).

The point is, for me, anyway, an overall change in the way I felt about my spending habit resulted in a bank account with more money that we expected. That's pretty cool!

Robj98168 said...

I have bought, Boughten. Did buy.Whatever. OK.I bought a new shower curtain. I really needed one and got a PVC free one at Ikea. For 3.50 tax included. The old one, holes and all, will be used as a tarp to cover my load when hauling to the dump or bringing building supplies home. Other than that nothing except for muffins and coffee at the espresso shop, a bagel and cream cheese and some chip for lunch on Monday, and a can of chili on Wednesday. Oh yeah a hot dog and chips at the Farmers’ Market on Thursday. Oh and paid my fines to the King county library system and became an upstanding card carrying member and can now enjoy the free services of the library!

Mama Bean said...

No spending this week - we were just too busy to buy things!

I think that the challenge did help me curb some of my impulse food purchases, but they were pretty small to begin with. Other than that, we seem to live the no-spend lifestyle already (or at least the carefully-considered-minimal-spending lifestyle). So, yes, I believe we'll continue!

Looking forward to the next challenges!

knutty knitter said...

Paid for a three day retreat (patchwork heaven!) and one take away half dinner (chips because I was out of potatoes). I cooked the rest myself.

Nothing else I can think of.

viv in nz

Billie said...

I think I finally managed to spend absolutely nothing!!! Oh wait... I went to the therapist. Does that count? My mental sanity is just as important as food isn't it?

I did go to the thrift store which saved me from buying at least one new thing.

I will not be going spend free for another month. Starting today, I will be spending money. I need a haircut! Wednesday, I am heading to IKEA to get some shelving to get my sewing machines off the bedroom floor. I have been waiting months to do this and haven't changed my mind on how badly I want to accomplish this.

I am happy with just mindful spending. As long as I don't look back to a purchase and say... "Hmmm... that was impulsive" I am pretty happy.

Anonymous said...

I've been doing the Buy Nothing Challenge, and apologize for not stopping in for the weekly confessionals, so this is my confessional for the whole month.

Before I get down to the nitty-gritty, wanted to reiterate what Wendy said: we too have a bunch of extra money in the account at the end of this month, and I credit it (ha ha) to having bought so little in August! Thanks Crunchy for helping me feel confident about becoming a single-income family!

As I said, I did spend. In August I bought:
- a chest freezer. This was the biggie of the month. I got it so I could start preparing food for Tiny Baby's arrival at the end of September, and it has been such a pleasure to fill it up with quick meals to enjoy during the frantic first weeks.
- zip-lock baggies for freezer
- coffee shop stuff at my weekly stitch 'n' bitch
- lunch stuff at the farmer's market when I was not organized enough to prep ahead
- replacement batteries for my kitchen scale (the first of which lasted 6 years of heavy use!)
- a new sippy cup for my 2 1/2 year old . . . this was an ill-advised desperate attempt to wean her off the boob onto the bottle at night (yes, she's 2 1/2) so I could get a bit more sleep. Tried it once, didn't work, gave up. Stupid $10 sippy cup.
- I got one take-out lunch
- We bought a museum membership as a gift for some friends' kids' birthdays. Also paid these friends for a bunch of diapers and baby clothes they passed along to us. No "things" purchased, at least not new, but still money spent (though HUGE savings even over prices at second-hand shops!).

There could have been other things but in general I feel I've been pretty good! Though we need a few more things for the baby, and I too desperately need a haircut, I will be staying on the spending diet until it becomes a permanent lifestyle change!

Though I think a trip to Ikea is in the cards for this week . . .

Allie said...

I'm really late on posting this one, as I've been drowning in physics homework.

Anyway, I bought the allowables (food, smokes, gasoline), and seasonal allowables (TI-89, textbooks, other school supplies).

My boyfriend has been feeding me some take-out and restaurant meals. But since I said at the beginning of the challenge that I would not resist any attempts he made to feed me stuff I hadn't cooked, I don't count that.

In addition, I've been gathering together some household items to give away. So that's good.

I can't realistically say that this challenge has changed my spending habits, as I usually only spend money if it's an absolute essential. I also don't see any real likelihood that I'll spend more money now that this challenge is over, either. I already got my refund check and the only thing I've spent any portion on it for are monthly bills.

I do, however, need new glasses and a couple new articles of clothing. I'll probably hold out on those until I can't see anymore and my clothes are falling apart, as per usual.