Accountability
I am so bad at this not buying anything new! I think I’ll post purchases here… at least that way I’m forced to face it.
Yesterday I bought a replacement bird feeder. The other one I had was kind of icky and didn’t come apart for cleaning. It could probably have waited until next month, but the birds have been spending a lot of time at the feeders lately, and I don’t want them to get sick! The feeder was $34 or so + tax.
Today, I ordered a hard drive enclosure so I can try to get all the data off the hard drive before I ditch the ol’ desktop. It’s definitely dead… I don’t know what, exactly, is wrong with it, but I’m tired of messing around with it. Total cost, including shipping, was $39.
I think I’m done for the week… if I can avoid leaving the house, I might be able to keep from spending any more money. Maybe.
January fail
Oops. I forgot to post yesterday. You know, I’m not going to beat myself up about it – I mostly participate in the non-official months because the accountability for posting is helpful, so it’s not really a big deal that I missed one measly little day.
I was thinking earlier this week about my resolution to be more financially responsible, and I kind of decided that for this month, that would mean not buying anything new. I hadn’t really put it into practice, and now I’ve blown it. After a bloody nose every morning this week thanks to the dry, winter air, I broke down and bought a humidifier. It was on sale for $29.99, and it came with three additional filters, so it was a pretty good deal. I could have ordered replacement filters for the ancient humidifier I have in the closet, but I’m not sure it would still hold water since it’s been several years since I last used it. Not to mention that it would cost more for shipping than it would for the filters, and I just can’t deal with that! I figure I’ll either sell it in a garage sale this spring or donate it to Goodwill.
On top of the humidifier, my toaster died this week. I don’t eat a lot of toast, but I need it frequently enough that I needed to replace it pretty quickly. Hey, I have a whole package of english muffins languishing uneaten in the cabinet! I can’t let those go bad, can I? I didn’t buy a fancy-schmancy model… I don’t need more than 2 slices at a time, and I don’t toast a lot of frozen items, so I didn’t need anything with multiple settings.
In addition to those things, I bought a new planner for my purse, and these really cool new Post-It Pockets. I always get the urge to get organized at the beginning of the year, and I’m sure these will work for a while, but eventually I’ll neglect them entirely. I figured I could at least stuff receipts in one of them – I’ve got to keep better track of what I spend on the foster bunnies this year. I almost always have a pile of things that need to be filed, and I can use one of the others for that. The third… I don’t know yet what I’ll use it for, but for now it’s stuck to the side of the kitchen cabinet.
I think I’m done… maybe I’ll just start not buying anything new on Monday? I’m just so tempted… Target has a bunch of new home decor stuff, I’d like to buy some more Wild Thangs, and I’m really wishing for some new houseplants. But for the sake of financial stability and home improvement, I’ll suck it up.
Day 2 – Almost forgot…
Two days in and I’m already writing a late-night post. Whew.
Mom asked me this week what I’d like to have for Christmas. I keep wishlists on Amazon.com, Kaboodle, and I have a ton of favorites on Etsy, but I haven’t kept them up to date lately. With the economy what it is, buying Christmas presents is just not what I’m thinking about. I’ve always preferred the giving – don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to open presents and be surprised (don’t you dare ruin the surprise), but the thing I really love about Christmas is seeing the joy on someone else’s face when they get something really good, maybe even something they didn’t know they wanted. I’m looking forward to the holidays, as always, but this year will be leaner than in the past. To me, that just means making the gifts I do find for others count…
