So it’s been almost a week now since I swore off buying things for a month in order to save money and also quit acquiring things.

I have bought some things — I had to buy a replacement toilet handle lever thingie because the little lever that opens the flappy bit in the tank broke, and that’s a $7 expense that’s not really optional. I mean, I could have hacked together some solution, probably involving paperclips and a chopstick, but let’s not be silly. I did pick up some stuff on iTunes — Glasvegas’ self-titled and The Baseball Project, Vol 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails — but I had had credit remaining from a previous gift card so those were “free,” not to mention they weren’t “stuff” since they’re just downloads (and part of the reason behind this was to not acquire any more “stuff”), so I don’t count them. And of course I had a stated exemption for Opening Day at the ballpark, so I did buy a couple beers for me and a friend today at the game but those were totally permitted; don’t judge me.

Grocery shopping yesterday was interesting though. I had a $20 budget, and I went in with a list, which I prepared based on needs (milk, “fruit and veg”) and the weekly sale flyer. I came out slightly over budget, at $21.05, which I blame on the fact that I didn’t actually know how much a head of lettuce or milk was ($3.69 for half a gallon? Really?) and also, I grabbed an impulse purchase of $3 worth of baby carrots. Actually, I hadn’t really paid a lot of attention to how much anything was before this trip, which probably explains why I was always shocked by how I could spend $150 just by stepping foot in the Jewel. I think the $20 budget is a great exercise. It’s not practical for every trip, obviously, since just buying one thing of chicken breasts would set you back a third of that and you still need veggie accessories before you can turn that into, you know, food, but that was actually sort of eye-opening. I am going to have to noodle a bit over turning on a real ongoing grocery budget — I like the idea of having less stuff in my fridge and cabinets just as much as I like the idea of having less non-foody stuff elsewhere in my apartment, not just because if I have little food around, I’m less likely to waste it. (I read somewhere that an average American wastes like half a pound of food a day. Stuff we throw out because it goes bad before we can eat it, or because we make too much food, etc. Isn’t that ridiculous? It seems stupid to be so wealthy in goods just in order to pitch it out for no good reason. So I’m thinking about how to lessen food waste and maximize food usage, with possible portion size attitude side benefits, and that ties in to the budget as well.)

I have not bought a few things, though. Obviously there’s a ton and a half of coffee (welll… probably like 5 coffees) I haven’t bought, or any muffins or bananas or lunches at work. Tons of yarn has gone on sale (YARN SALE) which I have not bought any of. I did not subscribe to a for-pay advice for American expats web site, despite the fact that I’m really wanting clarification on this whole taxation thing (…waitaminute here, you mean I have to pay income taxes to both nations simultaneously? THAT BLOWS). And today I wanted to buy some lanolin for my poor sad dry-skinned hands, since I’m apparently out, but I didn’t. Actually there’s been a couple things I’ve passed up on, though I can’t recall what all they were, which says a lot for how badly I wanted them, I suppose. I’d be sad except I’m really not. I might actually even make some serious inroads into my spinning fiber stash since I am not going to replace any of the stuff I’ve done. No real danger of that same benefit for my yarn stash, at the rate I knit, but hey. It’s sort of liberating to just sort of ignore my RSS ‘Shopping’ sales feeds, too — though poor Amazon must be in danger of having to close up shop without me going “oooo” weekly. So I have basically shut off for-fun purchases, and it’s more or less working out all right for me.

So, anyways, here goes another week! Wish me luck!