April Buy Nothing Challenge

Now that April is over, it's time to give a short synopsis of my experience with the "Buy Nothing" challenge. A group of bloggers challenged each other to try to buy nothing unnecessary for the entire month of April. Their reasons for joining the challenge varied widely, with some coming at it as a path to debt reduction, some as a way of making a break with mindless consumerism, and some just purely as an environmental effort, seeing wastefulness as a contributing factor in environmental degradation.

For me, it was just a good chance to practice the discipline of frugality, and get a picture of where I am most tempted to spend mindlessly. I didn't have the"stick it to the man" or "boycott Target because I can't stop myself from spending there" thing going on. We try pretty hard to live within our means, and for me, I just wanted a little check-up. Also, as some of you know, I have kind of a thing about tossing things in the landfill, so that also was something I wanted to look at; how much flimsy disposable stuff are we bringing into the house?

For April, we averaged $65.00/weekly for food. The only non-food items we bought were all essential, and the total was about $25.00. We spent another $65.00 for gas. We bought tickets to a couple of concerts our daughter was performing in. That's it. We couldn't keep this up indefinitely, but we didn't feel uncomfortable forgoing anything.

The good news is, we have pretty good habits. We've never been big spenders. A year or so ago, we noticed, when we scrutinized our spending while creating our budget, that we tend to overspend on books and eating out. We've pretty much solved the book thing. I think we've only bought three or four since July, so that's all good. The key is to stay out of bookstores and to use the library religiously. We used to go spend a Friday evening browsing and eating fun food in the little cafe each store now seems to have, which is our idea of a wild weekend night, but we can surely come up with something else equally exciting! If we can't we're a sorry pair of losers, and there's nothing to be done with us.

Where we still need to work on changing habits is the area of eating out. We don't go anyplace expensive at all, but for several reasons, we have fallen into this habit. For one, after cooking for a large family, most of whom were distance runners, I really have hard time thinking about cooking for just two people. It seems like such a puny affair, and we have leftovers that don't always get used up before they morf into science experiments in the back of the fridge. For another, it's nice to get out of the house, and possibly bump into friends at Panera or the Courier Cafe, so it's a social thing. I don't mind cooking, but it's not a form of self-expression for me like it is for some people, so I can take it or leave it. And I've been leaving it, a lot! Time to discipline myself, and get back in the kitchen more.

So that's the summary. We can live contentedly on little, which is good to know. As the Bible says, "Godliness, with contentment, is great gain." (1 Timothy 6:6-8). Now, if only there was a "Godliness" challenge!

Challenge Number 2

I've been involved this month in a challenge with some other bloggers to attempt to purchase nothing unnecessary for the month of April, and I did really well until today. Then, in an attempt to find a book to read for a reading challenge, I made the mistake of entering Pages For All Ages Bookstore. Really, a judge should issue a restraining order to prevent me from going in that place. I simply cannot leave without buying something. All I can say in my own defense is that this time it really was only one book!

Anyway, the book I purchased was, as I said, for another challenge for the month of May. Participants are supposed to read a book related to environmental issues. I was looking for "Serve God, Save the Planet" by Matthew Sleeth, but they were out of it and will be ordering it for me. My thinking was that if I bought that book, read it myself, passed it around the family, and then donated it to the church library, it would be a worthwhile purchase. But, since they were out of it I just had to look around.....and buy a different book.

I'm glad I did though. The book I wound up with is "Living Downstream-A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment" by Sandra Steingraber. Steingraber is a Central Illinoisan and biologist/environmentalist, as well as being a cancer survivor. She writes beautifully about this part of the world and the environmental degradation that has led to clusters of cancer diagnoses, carefully tracing back, back, back to the origins of those carcinogens. Naturally, buying the book caused me to scrap any practical use of my time today and dive right into reading. After several chapters, I can tell you I am completely hooked and would highly recommend this book to anyone.

I do hope to also read Sleeth's book this month. It's been on my "To Read" list for a while. I'll review that one as well when I get to it. If you are interested in getting involved in the reading challenge, look on my blog roll and go to Green Bean's blog. And I promise to learn to hyperlink soon!!

Buy Nothing New In April-Week 3

Just a quick update:
We still haven't bought anything that was not food. However, we have eaten out a little. We also had to buy gas for both cars, which isn't surprising, considering we started off with only a half tank in each car. We made it on that for 18 days!

Week 2 of the "Buy Nothing New In April" Challenge

Okay, all you bean-counters, here's the lowdown on our spending for this past week:

$3.86-primer and spray paint for Mike's frame for the art show

$67.33-food

That's it. We could have done better on food, but we ordered pizza one night, and Mike also attended a good-bye party for some workmates at Jupiter's. I have no remorse about either of those; I think they just count as food.

So far, we still haven't had to buy gas. We had good biking weather at the beginning of the week, so the car stayed home from Sunday noon until Wednesday night. Then the weather got stormy and I drove, though Mike took the bus on those days.

We've had slight little temptations here and there, but nothing too troubling. Mike saw some sale items at the hardware store he said he might have picked up were it not for the challenge. I just didn't go into any stores except the grocery store. The pizza is sort of a fun tradition on Saturday night, and then there are leftovers from it for Sunday lunch.

P.S.-For those of you who have no idea why I'm posting this on my blog about worship, I've agreed to participate in a "challenge" with some other bloggers. We're challenging ourselves to try not to buy anything non-essential for a whole month. I wanted to do this (and Mike is doing it too) so that I can remind myself of what is essential and what is not. And the cool thing is, we're saving a ton of money!

Weekly "Buy Nothing" Update

I kind of hate to admit it, but the "Buy Nothing in April" challenge has been....easy. That's what thirty years of practice will do for you.

Here's the run-down:
$37.80 for groceries
$26.74 for non-food items:
batteries for my bike-light: $4.25
paper lawn bags: $5.50
download of tax program: $16.99
Total: $64.54

All were necessities. And, obviously, we continue to use our basic utilities as usual.

Where I think we were really pleased was in the area of transportation. Three different days last week, the car didn't leave the garage. Of course, this requires some cooperation from the weather, but we are going to see how long that 1/2 tank of gas we started the challenge with will last.

Okay, enough with the boring bean-counting. Let's go have a fun day!

P.S.-I'm not sure what all the hate towards Target is about. I like Target! It's not their fault if you spend too much when you go in there!

Day 3 of the "Buy Nothing Challenge"

This has all been interesting...very interesting.

I went into this challenge a little cavalierly, and I really wasn't sure if Mike would come along for the ride. However, Mike, after some initial hesitation because of the need to buy some art supplies, has actually had one of the more interesting things happen. He mentioned to some workmates that I was doing this, and why he was supportive yet reluctant, and someone apparently asked him what exactly he needed. He mentioned that, in preparing to display some of his paintings at a showing in a restaurant downtown, he was framing one, and needed some black spray paint to finish the frame he was making. He had a tiny bit left in a can here, but he knew it wouldn't be enough to complete the job. His workmate suggested that she had some she would be glad to give him, and that if anything else came up he should just send out an all-office e-mail and see what turned up. So, one day into the challenge he was feeling much better about it-in fact, he was almost gloating!

As for me, my thinking had been that it would be somewhat like other fasts I have done, in the sense that it would help me see where my areas of temptation lay, and teach me discipline in resisting those temptations. Always a healthy thing, I think. And I was fine until last night when I was riding my bike home from choir practice and my bike-light batteries gave up the ghost about half-way home. Well, shoot. Now I had to decide: new batteries so I can ride even at night? wait until the month is up, since I don't ride at night very often? I just hate paying such high prices for gas, so I decided to buy the batteries.

That's fine, but that means going into a store, where all the temptations await! Gardening magazines and snack food were the things I had to avert my eyes from as I walked through the aisles. I didn't look, but I sure heard them calling to me! So there you go; now you know some of my main downfalls. But I was a good girl, and got out of there with only what was on my list-a few food items and the batteries.

The other place I notice I'm somewhat tempted is the sale flyers for home-improvement places that come in the newspaper. I started to give them a glance, then realized I needed to just get them out the garage for recycling. Many pats on the back for that, Joyce!! You're so disciplined!!

So, I spent $4.99 on a non-food item, and it's only day three. But it's instructive, very instructive.

April "Buy Nothing New" Challenge

Well, I've committed to participating in a challenge to buy nothing new for the entire month of April. Basically, participants agree to buy only food and medication, and I suppose gas for the car. I think it will be interesting to see how we do. We're pretty frugal, but I know giving up eating out will be hard, because we've fallen into that habit since the kids have grown up.

Wish me luck! I'll keep you updated on how we do.