Or what has turned into a Non-Essential-Spending challenge.
I have managed to avoid buying any books this week (the advice of not going into charity shops is hard to follow but definitely the best course of acton). Since I tend to divert my spending, I decided to forbid ALL non essential spending and am pleased to announce that I have not bought any clothes or DVDs this week either. It has been hard to avoid Amazon when I use it at work but I have stayed strong.
I did have a misfortune and lost my mobile phone at the weekend; although I got it back the screen was damaged and it has had to be replaced, though I'm hopeful of claiming on house insurance for it. I have also booked two ballet trips, but one is our Christmas present to my partner's nieces and the other will be my Christmas present from my Gran. I shall be blogging about those in due course (12th Dec and 2nd Jan) as both ballets are based on books!
We're about to apply the same policy to our groceries for the next month, so I shall be compiling an inventory of all of my baking ingredients and working out what I can make with them rather than buying whatever I need to create the bake that takes my fancy each week.
It has been difficult, but I am feeling pleased with my progress!
A Pre-Election Reading Update
19 hours ago
I love the ballet! :) My mom and I might be going to see Don Quixote in a couple of months; I saw it when I lived in Russia and loved it, so I really hope I can see it again! (And it's a Russian ballet corps.)
ReplyDeleteVery curious about which ones you're going to see.
Congratulations! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI love making a "pantry" dinner--cleaning up what is still fresh in the fridge, adding some things from the pantry, a little magic, and there is dinner. Since the cost of the ingredients went on the books previously, it feels like a free meal.
ReplyDeleteThomas - In our house we call that 'Town and Country Night' after a popular buffet restaurant! It's not around any longer, boo hoo.
ReplyDeleteVerity, Going to the ballet will be so wonderful, I would gladly forgo some spending on other things for that. Congrats on staying out of the charity shops!
I think I am doing well guys! In fact, I bought a third pair of ballet tickets yesterday so it is definitely good that I am not spending money on books. I shall be seeing The snowman, Tales of Beatrix Potter/Les Patineurs and Romeo and Juliet. All in London. And we already had tickets for Giselle and the Nutcracker in Oxford.
ReplyDeleteFree meals are definitely good; I shall be assessing my cupboards this weekend as the food buying cutdown starts today... We have loads of tins of different sorts of pulses languishing so lots of bean soup I think!
Thats incredibly impressive, I was chuffed with myself yesterday when I walked past thre charity shops without stopping, it was difficult but I managed. However I am off to wimbledon tomorrow to have my broken phone (jinx) sent off for repairs and must avoid all the lovely charity shops there too!
ReplyDeleteGood luck Simon!
ReplyDeleteYou will all be pleased to know that I visited Blackwells earlier and merely came out with a list of books that I would like to read :) I then went a bit mad in the library :):)