Last week I decided to have a low-spend two weeks for the end of May. Here how it's going:
Clothes: None
Books: None
Coffee and cake: Coffee once but no cake
Art supplies: None
Gifts: None
Entertainment: None
Home and garden: I did buy a pepper, chilli and sweet pea plant from the market as I wanted some in June anyway and they looked like good ones. Also a tube of filler for some DIY.
Groceries: Fresh veg, cat food, minimum top up of essentials.
Charity shopping: None, although I did have a look in them with my Mum so I didn't really spend any will power here, there was just nothing I wanted!
Travel: Two lots of train fare as expected
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| The river in Otley on a Summer-like day in May |
Other thrifty things
- I'm giving our downstairs toilet an almost free makeover. I had spare paint from when I decorated our bedroom so am using that, leftover wood paint for a shelf and bought a tube of filler for the cracks in the wall. I'll be looking out for a mirror in a charity shop to replace the tarnished mirror tiles, and need an off cut of vinyl for the floor.
- We're eating through our freezer supplies and enjoying some nice bits stashed away at the bottom of it after Christmas. At The weekend when my Mum visited I defrosted a huge pork shoulder that was originally £8 but we bought for £1.97 after Christmas, and we got two dinners and sandwiches out of it for three of us.
- I've managed three groups of 2 days without spending anything, so that's a step in the right direction, away from slavishly wanting more, more, more.
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| One of the pepper plants |
Overall the last week has felt like a straightforward reigning in of buying things, I'm glad to say. I do lots of these mini resets every year and they help me to find the usefulness in what I already have.
This week I read the suggestion that in order to help our planet and ourselves we need to do less, not more. We need less action and less productivity. We need to make less and consume less, and in order to do that we must learn to want less. These resets remind me to want less, because what I have is already more than I once dreamed of ever having. Such riches compared to the days of scraping by! Now it's time for me to enjoy and appreciate all that I have, stepping rebelliously off the treadmill of wanting more.