Two weeks low spend: Reflection

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It's the end of my two week low spend challenge. Here's how week two went:

Clothes: None

Coffee and cake: Coffee as a little weekend getaway - much needed at the time, I can tell you. Also ice cream on a trip to the seaside and a pint of cider for me and Mr CB on a long walk. Reflecting on these though I'm happy with this kind of unnecessary spending as it's something to share and savoutr.

Books: Four from a charity shop, totalling £2.50. As above a much needed crutch at the time and three of them were in a three for £1 charity shop book shop; how could I resist?!

Art supplies: None

Gifts: None

Entertainment: None

Home and garden: None

Groceries: One shop to last for the next two weeks that came in low priced (well, compared to how expensive grocery shopping usually is) as I planned meals around what we already have.

Charity shopping: Four books, as already confessed! Also a headscarf for £1 to hide my unruly hair which is at an awkward growing out stage, and a 50p cow butter dish. So, um, just the essentials.

Travel: None

Lazing with the daisies today after working on the downstairs loo after work, whilst Mr CB cooked dinner and cats played I felt like the luckiest woman alive


Other thrifty things

  • The downstairs toilet low-spend makeover is progressing. I've got one more coat of paint to finish then I'll paint the skirting boards. Instead of buying a mirror I'm painting an old one already have using the same paint as the skirting boards, and decorating it with sea glass.
  • Our two outside chairs have broken but today Mr CB spotted two solid metal garden chairs outside a neighbour's house to be taken by the scrap man. He knocked on and asked if we could take them and our neighbour was fine with that, so we got them home and used wire brushes to remove the flaking paint and rust. Next we'll paint them with some metal paint I used for the garden railing last year. It was fun working on the chairs outside together instead of watching TV inside, I like it when we can share a project.

I'm enjoying this re-set which has turned out to be more than financial. It has eked out the end of of month wages, but it's also reminded me of how satisfying it is to do hands on things. 

At work I'm on a computer all day, and when I ran a business I used a laptop for hours for that too, but now I've closed  my business I have to time to pick up hands on work again and I'm finding it so satisfying to do and make things for myself, even though that often means they take longer or are less convenient. We've been trained all our lives to rush and choose the time-saving option, but often there's more pleasure in the slow route, where you get to use your own hands and rest when you need to by rebelling against the expectation to rush and be ultra productive.