Week Four - stress!

What a week. I've been out twice this week, the first time on Monday. Mum and I went to the nearby town so that I could pick up some more boxes and get some parcel tape. There was a strange man at the health food shop who told me I couldn't have any boxes, so we ended up with just the tape. I popped into the charity shops since we were there and, lo and behold, in Oxfam they were having the tail end of a fabric fortnight. Oodles of fabric stacked on the shelves. The temptation! I stood there for what seemed an age, picking bits up, putting them down, fondling a nice piece of tweedy material, all the while my brain whirring around and wondering whether or not to buy something.

The trouble was that there was so much choice I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted (I'm not a big fan of choice, we have too much of it I think and it clutters up our brains when we could be getting on with more important things, but that's another subject.) Also, since boxes and packing were so fresh in my mind, I suddenly became overwhelmed with the thought that I would be buying cloth then putting it immediately in a box for some future date after the move. So, I resisted.

By Thursday, our usual shopping day, I had had three days of the fabric shelves drifting through my mind and had decided that, whether it was being packed away or not, I would have another look and perhaps buy something after all. Fortunately or unfortunately I was in a real old grump when we set off to town. I think it might have been the strong wind that was blowing, that kind of weather always disorientates me a little.

I popped in a couple of other charity shops and had got myself all worked up about my year without buying challenge. I saw quite a lot of pretty things that I might otherwise have bought - including a lovely picture which for many weeks has been £10, now down to £2.50. Every time I have gone in the shop I have told myself that it was too expensive, and if it was cheaper... And then there it was! Temptation in front of me! I walked away in a bit of a smoulder determined not to succumb. By the time I got to Oxfam I had got myself into a right old tizz, asking myself what the point of all this was and why couldn't I just buy whatever I wanted, what did it all matter anyway?

Many a time I have criticized Oxfam for their exorbitant prices, but this week I had them to thank for keeping me from straying away from my goal. I was searching through that demon pile of fabric once again when I spotted some cross stitch kits in a basket on the floor. I stopped my search and knelt down to have a perusal. !! One kit, which not only had it been opened but was part done (!) was £6.99!! It wasn't a massive kit and I would guess if you were buying it brand new it would have cost something in the region of £10 - £12. Ridiculous. I then decided that if they were charging this kind of price for kits, then the fabric was probably a good price as well. Gone was my desire to spend and I left empty handed. So, hurrah, another week gone by and I spent nothing this time!

Finally, a little update on the clock I bought last time around. Since I preferred my old clock I decided to swap the mechanisms over and re-use the nicer clock. Alas, I started to do this whilst 1. The table was a mess and 2. I was in the middle of something else. Cue disaster and I am now the owner of two very broken clocks. *sigh* Until next week.

Oh, but before I forget! I was in Waitrose picking up a couple of grocery items and I wandered past their jar and container display. What caught my eye were some large, glass jars, tall and square edged much like three I bought a few weeks ago in a charity shop for 50p each. The retail price new? £9.50. Yes, that is EACH! Who would dream of paying such a ridiculous amount for a jar? Even if I had a no holds barred buying policy I wouldn't pay that price!

Total money spent this week: Nothing! My first week of not buying! Hurrah!
New things bought: None
Unnecessary purchases: None