Day 25 Life is Busy, Mom is Tired!

I love the idea of blogging, getting all those thoughts down and sharing them with other people, but life can get so busy that before you know it, weeks have gone by and you haven't had a moment to yourself!  I'm proud to report that we are at day 25 and I've followed all of my own rules.  I haven't bought anything new with the exception of some very large sneakers for my very tall 14 year old son and a small backpack that he needed for band camp.

After almost a month of refraining from buying things, I'm starting to realize that this is who I am.  I don't like stuff.  I don't like having to clean stuff or put stuff away.  However, I need new clothes.  I have literally 3 shirts that fit well and that I like.  They are all black.  And long sleeved.  And it's summertime and I am hot!  I could go out and buy second hand clothes, which doesn't bother me at all, but I really don't want to spend the money or energy on all that jazz.  I hate shopping!  Maybe I can muster up the courage to buy some new short sleeved black shirts this week!  

In the meantime, the kids are keeping me busy, busy, busy!  I nearly passed out from exhaustion earlier this week.  Hopefully I can get a break soon!

Danika in a play...I made that skirt!

Nico volunteering at a fireworks stand, making money for the band!

Rocky babysitting, she loves it!

Nico and Danika paddleboarding.  They are so much better than their mom!

Warm summer nights with cute kids.  :)

Days 10 and 11-And The Work Week Begins Again!

Work work work!  Yuck!  I've been taking as much time off as I can during the summer because work is very slow and it's hot outside and mama wants to play!  I've been thinking about things I want to buy lately but if I get busy doing other stuff I forget I ever wanted anything.  On Monday and Tuesday before work, I spent time out in the yard trying to get it all pretty for the summer.  I love my yard, it's small, easy to take care of and lots of trees, so there's lots of shade.  It's easy to avoid buying new things on work days, there's not a lot of time to even get to a store.  Maybe I talk too much about not spending money, or maybe I just dream of a life where money isn't important.  I know money makes life easier in some ways, but I really don't think it brings happiness.  Unless money brings me to the beach, in that case, money does buy happiness!

Grand total of stuff bought today:  Nada!  I mean, I watered the yard, that's free, right?

Day 9-Last Minute Plans

We woke up this morning with no real plans, so I was excited when my friend invitied us to swim in his pool at the last minute. I packed up the kids, stopped at the store for snacks and headed over for a few hours of swimming.  Swimming is fun, unless you have kids that constantly bicker, which I do.  I won't say they ruined the fun, but they sure make it hard to have a good time when you have to yell STOP IT every five minutes.  If I figure out how to make them get along, I will be a rich woman, not in dollars, but in peace of mind!

Grand total of things bought today:  Snacks and costumes for a play at the thrift store.  Nothing New!

Day 8-Try new things! Also...What's the point of this blog?

Today, while Nico was off at band camp, Danika and I decided to try out stand up paddle boarding.  I've seen people do this before but I've never tried it myself, so we thought we'd give it a go.  They rent paddle boards at the lake for $5.00 a half hour, cheap summer entertainment!  At first I was very excited.  Being on the water is my favorite, and I just knew this was going to become a brand new hobby.  However, it didn't take long for me to realize that I might not be that good at this.  We paddled out a little ways, and I watched Danika hop right up onto the board, she made it look so easy, she was a pro, she is also like 70 pounds!  I tried once, fell in the water.  Tried again, fell in.  Again, splash!  Again!  Again!  Again!  I couldn't stand up. This was not stand up paddle boarding, this was fall in paddle boarding and I was getting annoyed!   Nonetheless, I was still having fun. That is, until I realized we had been out on the water for about an hour.  I looked back at the dock and we were quite a ways away and the wind was blowing us farther and farther away.  The rescue boat came by and asked if we needed help.  I crinkled up my nose and said nahhhh, we got this, we can make it back!  After about 45 more minutes I thought, wow, there's not a chance in hell we are going to be able to paddle back a quarter mile.  Danika was getting very frustrated and I was still pissed that I couldn't stand up on the damn thing when the rescue boat finally came back and we took them up on their offer.  It took about 7 minutes to tow us back to the dock on a motor boat, I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we'd had to paddle back!  Fun day for $10 bucks!

I've had a few people ask what the point of this blog is.  It's not necessarily a blog about saving money or being frugal, which are two things I really try to do.  It's more about changing the way me and my kids think about "stuff."  We have everything we need...a house, cars, food, clothes, all of that stuff is taken care of.  I saw an interesting challenge online where people buy nothing new for a year.  It seems impossible, and I think it probably is.  At some point you will need something new, but what if you tried really hard to live without the thing you think you need or if you have to have it, make it yourself or find it used or even borrow it?  Would you really be that worse off?  Probably not.  That's the point of this blog for me.  I'd rather spend my precious time and hard earned money on experiencing life, not on collections, piles of DVD's, fancy purses, jewelry, or any number of things I just don't care about.  I already live this way for the most part, I'm just being a bit more extreme for this year.  So far, so good!

Grand total of things bought today: $10 for stand up/fall off paddleboarding...no new stuff, and a really fun time!

Day 7-BBQ With Friends

Today was a lazy day, dropped one kid off at band camp and made cookies for a BBQ with the one stuck at home.  I am starting to feel like we have too much stuff.  Of course a minimalist would say that!  We've been spending a lot of time out of the house with friends and doing fun things and I'm really enjoying being on the go.  When I come home and the house is messy, I feel so claustrophobic, like the stuff is just caving in on me. We truly don't have much stuff, but I think we can live with less, so we will be focusing on paring down over the summer.  

Grand total of stuff bought today:  Gas for the van and some gatorade for a dehydrated tuba player!  Sticking to the plan?  Yes I am!

Danika borrowed our friend's hat at the BBQ for this pic.  She makes everything look cute.

Nico loves being in the tuba section, he doesn't even complain about how big that thing is!

Danika made a cookie monster cookie.  We love cookie monster!  C is for cookie!

Day 6-DIY Poodle Skirt

It was a fun day despite the fact that my very un-crafty self had to sew.  Nico came home from his first ever band camp with hundreds of stories and Danika came home from her play rehearsal with a costume list about a mile long.  As I read over the list I saw that she needed a poodle skirt and this task was going to fall to me.  I hate sewing, I hate crafts and most of all, I'm not good at any of it.  However, I am the mom, so this is totally my job, so Danika and I set out to work on it.

We bought the materials and spent about 30 minutes watching a you tube video and turned this....

Into this...

We still need to add the poodle that I ordered from the internet, and it's a bit short, but that's the way she wanted it.  I'm pretty impressed with us.  As soon as we cut out the material and realized this was really going to work, we were jumping for joy and hugging and super excited! 

Also, I have a feeling for weeks to come, every story from this kid is going to start off, "This one time, at band camp..."

Grand total of things bought today: Poodle skirt supplies.  Still sticking to my rules, but starting to want a new kayak.  Sigh.

Day 5-A New Level of Cheapness

Day 5 and I'm still not really wanting to go out and buy anything new.  There's not much time for that anyway on a work day when you wake up at 10am and have to be at work at 2pm.

I decided this week I would make distilled water because the antifreeze/coolant I bought needs to be mixed with distilled water.  I have learned that this is a very tedious process and sometimes you shouldn't be so stubborn about doing something yourself and just go buy the damn gallon of distilled water for 88 cents for the love of all that's holy!  Over the course of 3 days, I've make a quarter of a gallon of distilled water, I should be so proud!  

Click here to learn how to make distilled water with me:  How to Make Distilled Water

Grand total of things bought today: ZERO!

Day 4-Groceries & Errands...Nobody's Favorite!

I got to buy stuff today...groceries and gas!  How exciting!  I also learned that I am a very smart girl for hiding keys outside my house, since my garage door opener decided today was the day its battery would die.  Who knew they had batteries?  Well now you do!  You're welcome!

Grand total of things bought today: Groceries and a 9 volt battery!  Still on track, woo hoo!

Day 3-Hanging Out With Friends, More Fun For (Almost) Free!

After a long boring night shift and a little sleep, I took a friend and her daughters kayaking for the first time.  I love my boats and will jump at the chance to share them with anyone that wants to get out on the water with me.  I got the girls all set up in their boats and pushed them out to sea while I tried to balance my boat and get myself in.  My foot got stuck in the mud, I lost my balance, tipped over and before I knew it my self inflating life vest blew up with a bang!  It was loud, sounded like a gunshot, and that thing wrapped around my neck like a python.  I looked over to my friend, Kate, and she was doubled over in laughter and said she didn't care what else happened today, watching me fall in the water and the vest explode totally made her day!  We had a great time checking out the ducks and relaxing in the sun, and it only cost $5.00 for the park pass, and maybe a new CO2 cartridge for my vest.  Happy Day!

Grand total of things bought today:  5 dollar park pass...totally worth it!  

Day 2-Going to Work Makes it Hard to Spend Money

When you spend 10 hours trapped in a room at work, it makes it hard to buy new things.  This is a good thing!

Grand total of things bought today: ZERO!

Day 1 Free Entertainment Leads To Exhaustion

Saturday started out very exciting!  Nico was at a birthday party and sleepover and Danika and I decided to ride to the state park for National Learn How to Row Day.  We rode our bikes about 1.5 miles to the state park and kept riding and riding and riding until we finally found the boats!  It ended up being a 5 mile ride one way and we were tired!  Luckily we brought some snacks in our backpacks because we had to wait almost an hour and a half to try out the boats.  Long story short, we did not like rowing, not one bit, but it was a free chance to try out an expensive hobby.  It takes a lot of coordination to get 4 people to do the same thing at the same time in a tiny narrow boat.  We decided we'd stick to our kayaks for water adventures.

Grand total of things bought today: ZERO!

I'm not going to buy anything new for 365 days...or am I?

I don't like stuff all that much.  Buying "things" doesn't really bring me any happiness, so I've decided to get crazy and buy nothing new for the next 365 days.  I'm curious to see if I'll really be able to pull this off!

Any money saved during the course of this project will go to my emergency fund, because Lord knows I always find myself right in the middle of an emergency!

The Rules
1.  Stuff that breaks (and stuff WILL break!)-If something breaks I'll try to fix it myself, if I can't fix it, I'll replace it unless I can live without it for the next year.

2.  What I CAN Buy-Groceries, gas, medicine, cleaning supplies, basically anything that can be consumed over the course of a year.

3.  What I CAN'T Buy-New clothes, movies, electronics, toys, basically anything tangible that can't be consumed.

4.  Exceptions-SHOES, SOCKS and UNDERWEAR!  I can't stomach the idea of wearing used shoes, or making my kids with gigantic growing feet go without new shoes for a whole year!  SOCKS and UNDERWEAR-need I explain?

5. Gifts-All gifts will either be homemade or be gifts of experience.  The kids don't know it yet, but they will be receiving intangible gifts this Christmas as well.  Merry Christmas!

6.  Entertainment-Entertainment should be free whenever possible, such as bike rides, basketball, walks to the park, netflix movies, yard work, playing with the dog, swimming, board games, barbecues, and visiting friends and family.  Because we are spending nothing on new "things" we can occasionally pay for entertainment such as road trips, amusement parks, movies, etc.

7.  Kids-Anything the kids need as far as school fees, activity fees, etc will be paid for.  Since this project is not only about decreasing the amount of stuff in our lives but also money saving, I will attempt to use fund raising to pay for these fees as much as possible.

8.  Restaurants-Our family loves eating out, but we do it too much, so I am budgeting $100.00 per month for restaurants.  We will try to eat at home every day and save this money for special occasions.  This might be the hardest category for us to stick to!