First real week

Thursday is shopping day and being out and about, dropping into charity shops, makes me susceptible to SPENDING! Today was my first real test. Necessary items such as food, cleaning materials and toiletries are not included.

In the last week I have spent £8.65 on two second hand books I got from BB on the Creative Living forum, which left me with £1.35 out of my weekly spending allowance. I did see a lot of things I wanted to buy, and usually I would have just snuck an extra tenner from the cash machine and tell myself that spending £20 a week wasn't really too bad. But not today. In Save the Children there was a beautiful notebook with a dragon pattern on the cover. I picked it up, sighed lovingly over it but put it back because at £2.50 it was too expensive. I also have many notebooks already; I do not need another one, no matter how pretty. In Iain Rennie there were two large Port Merion containers. Very useful items, but again they were about £4 for the two and besides we have plenty of glass jars that can be used instead. In fact, we have a slow but steady supply of Barleycup jars which are good for most things so we don't need to buy anything like that, charity shop or otherwise. I also saw some of those terracotta jars with cork lids. I think they were three for £5 but again I didn't have the money and even if I had we don't need them.

In the end I bought a Hospice Lottery Ticket and deposited the 35p I had left in the collecting box. So, all money gone this week. I'm one of those people who finds it hard to keep money in their purse!

I was telling the lovely ladies in my health food shop about my goal of buying less this year and my disappointment with the containers. One of them suggested I decorate my glass jars to make them look pretty. A brilliant idea!

I am planning to meet Hamster soon (Eating the Seasons), so will need to put by some money for the ticket which, if we meet in London, will be £15.50 for a day travelcard. I think I might try and put by a bit every week for that instead of it using up 1.5 weeks allowance all in one go. I also might see if there is a bus. I know there is a commuter one which leaves the village at 6.15am and takes two hours, but I think I would rather go by train later in the day if that's the only other option.

Talking of Hamster, I expressed an interest in a treadle sewing machine that she had seen on her local freecycle. Much as I would love this, I turned it down. We don't have our own car and borrow my mum's at a cost of 25p per mile when we need to. To pick up the sewing machine would have cost £20, I would have a horrible drive to a town I really hate driving to, I don't like driving anyway and it would be a 1hr 40 minute round trip. Also, we are moving soon and I am trying to get rid of things not invest in large items of heavy furniture. So, no machine.

One thing I did do this week was to hire a skip and get someone in to sort out the garden. But I've since decided not to include moving expenses here.

Total money spent this week: £10
New things bought: None
Unnecessary purchases: Books and a Hospice lottery ticket!