Feeling Defeated (Already!?)

Not only did I spend money at drive thru breakfast ($6 & some change) on Saturday because I knew me & the girls would  be out for a long day of running errands before heading off to a birthday party (where I very much took advantage of the free food — & the birthday gift was purchased last year before Buy Nothing Year started; on clearance too!) — I dropped $20 & some change at Walgreen’s. Yes. I am sitting here with my head in my hands, still pissed off at myself.

We ran out of cat food that day. It wouldn’t of been so bad if my ShopKick app had worked on the day Best Buy  & Sports Authority had 200 bonus walk in kicks. I would of hit the threshold of $10 in a Target gift card to be able to buy the cats food, but it didn’t. So, I didn’t. ShopKick points or not – the cats needed food. Even worse, I had a friend text me before dinner was finished that he needed a ride to the 24 hour pharmacy as his girlfriend was in need of antibiotics for some nasty virus she had been battling for the last 2 weeks. One extra trip I wasn’t expecting to consume gas paired with skipping dinner (after a weak lunch that day)… I also grabbed a soda, some beef jerky & a couple packs of M&Ms. Dinner of champions. All total my “dinner” on the run along with the cat food was a $20 transaction at Walgreen’s. Ouch.

The only thing I can be proud of was that I walked away from the 70% off Christmas decorations & cosmetic gift sets, even the $1 stuff that would of been 30 cents. Still walked away.

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In other news, we also spent the last of the food budget on Monday.

I stopped at Fred Meyer to cash in some coupons I had received from BzzAgent for a campaign (Free bread loaf! Free yogurt! Woo!) but we also needed some additional items — & grabbed lunch as we were on our way to the hospital for Cthulhu’s appointment =( Looking back, I’m still kicking myself. It was an extra $8 out of the budget. $8 that is pretty mourned after having taken a look at our budget & our lack of fresh fruit or vegetables. We’re on the frozen produce diet for the rest of the month until the budget resets.

On top of that, *angry first shake*, Mr. Enders & I had signed up for Krispy Kreme’s email list as they were sending out coupons for free donuts! Unfortunately, two donuts for four people as a post-hospital treat doesn’t work out so well… We received 5 donuts & paid for 3. *sigh*

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So what have we learned in this past week?

Our pets are WAY more expensive than I ever realized. Factoring in their food & litter into our food budget didn’t happen – but needs to next month (No. I don’t believe in getting rid of a pet, no matter how it’ll add to our frugal ventures. We’ve had our oldest for 7 years before kids & our other for 5 years, right before Lego Girl arrived).

Those coupons for free items are because they intend on you buying more.(Well, duh. I already knew this. This wasn’t learned. But I still fell for it because I like donuts & hate the hospital)

I’m trying to let it go because it’s not worth the added stress & reflecting on it negatively… But it’s hard not to when they were stupid mistakes that could have been prevented.

One Week In: Challenges Thus Far

Who knew earlier when I had the Starbucks slip up, that wouldn’t be the worst of it?

Almost immediately after I hit submit, boom. I nearly got blind-sided by a TOMS clearance sale on Target.com (I mean, afterall, how often can I actually afford name brand shoes for my kids?) & then 88 cent cookie sheets at Walmart. Yep. I nearly slipped AGAIN & for what? Blasted 88 cent cookie sheets… Not to say that my cookie sheets are unusable – they’re just ugly from years of use. But they’re cookie sheets – do they really need to be pretty? Not really.

It got me thinking on what other issues are going to come up here pretty soon… Someone asked what my “parameters” for this little experiment are. And that is a very good question. The original inspiration behind our Buy Nothing Year involved a couple childless roommates. That means there was two incomes (but also two times the debt) but they could easily ride a bike or walk to where they needed to go. They only had to give up shopping & hair cuts for themselves. And food…. Oy the food. In their original experiment, they had planned on hitting a point mid-year where they would be forced to grow everything they would eat. Of course, this is extreme & didn’t even work out for just the two of them; let alone a family of four with two growing children which are more like the dictionary definition of “bottomless pit”. I hadn’t really thought out our parameters in their entirety. I know we spend too much on stuff we shouldn’t including eating out, clothes, impulse buys, junk food, gas spent on extra trips & what I’m realizing is going to be one of the harder areas of this year long challenge: birthdays, gifts & celebrations.

I’m notorious for gifting to everybody. I love the feeling I get from gifting to family & friends, especially ones who expect it the least. I take it as a personal challenge to find a gift that fits the receiver’s personality, so gift cards & cash are rarely given around these parts because I WILL find THE perfect gift EVERY time regardless of the stress it puts on me – or our budget.

But guess what Buy Nothing Year means? I’m buying nothing… which is going to make all these upcoming birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, summer BBQs awkward…

I’m still watching our toilet paper stockpile like a hawk. But I let something else slip: shampoo. I have one stashed underneath the bathroom sink from my former couponing days, but the kids were down to one shampoo left. Whoops. We popped into Walmart because Grandma Leatherface was working, so we were killing time before an appointment today. CLEARANCE! MY ARCHNEMISIS! (or rather best friend, so… clearance is more like a frienemy) I was so fortunately in luck that I had $5 worth of Walmart giftcard available on Jingit. I scored a giant size bottle of Kid’s Aussie for $2 (regularly $5.98), a bottle for myself for $1 (usually $1.98) & even managed to pick up a small something to stash for gifts ($1.50). All total it was $4.91, just enough to be covered by my gift card. Whew!

I know! Didn’t I *JUST* say that I was going to have to cut back on the gifts this year?? Looking back, I’m wondering if it was the brightest of ideas. I mean, $1.50 could definitely cover something else — like a roll or two of toilet paper.. Time will only tell if this decision comes back to bite my in the rump.

Oh! & Girl Scout Cookies!! I wasn’t aware the season was upon us until a friend posted on Facebook her daughter is taking preorders for her first year in the scouts. Ouch. I forgot how buying nothing is going to hit me in the charity until it hurts. Not only will the girl scouts not get any money out of me for their overpriced yet oh so delicious even if not entirely healthful cookies, I’ve had to walk past so many clearance toys lately that would of been fantastic to add to our annual toy drive we’ve done the last two years for Seattle Children’s Hospital that treated Princess Cthulhu.

As Dave would say, live like no one else – so later I can live *AND GIVE* like no one else

The First Buy Something Slip Up

It happened. I knew it was going to. I tried to deny it would, but I knew deep down I couldn’t keep up Buy Nothing Year for an ENTIRE year! And so today was the day. January 5th, 2015: the day I bought something for the first time in 2015. Only 5 days into our challenge – but frankly, I’m surprised it took that long.

The thing about doing any kind of challenge is you should expect one thing & one thing only out of it:

PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION

And guess what? There was definitely progress so far, so what more can I ask for (besides the $10 I spent to magically make its way back into my wallet).

So what happened?

Long story short; we stayed out way later than we had hoped at Game Night with my aunt & uncle’s family. Little Cthulhu had an appointment this morning, going over one of the absolute worst freeways in existence in the state of Washingtonland: I-405. It involved long traffic, being cut off & of course, down pouring rain (because what other kind of weather do we ever have in this state, right?)

I was tired. My half a muffin breakfast didn’t fill my gut. And I needed something to lift my spirits knowing that it was going to be a long wait (without a radio) in the car until we got to her appointment. Really, only one thing fills my soul like that: music. But when music isn’t available: coffee.

So, here is why I’m not beating myself mercilessly over my first, very conscience slip up of our Buy Nothing Year.

• It opened up dialogue: I not only talked to Mr. Ender about the decision to splurge on Starbucks, I talked to myself — a lot. Like internally while I was grabbing everything we’d need from every corner of the apartment, while I was buckling the kids in the car, while I was exiting the complex, all the way up the road, all the way up the other road & finally before approaching Ender with the idea. Even as we entered the parking lot, I still felt the guilt in my gut that $10 for coffee wasn’t worth my financial freedom. It made me hyper aware though & made me think through the consequence of spending that money, something that doesn’t typically  happen when I swipe my card. One of the worst things couples fight about is money. Could it be that there isn’t enough talk, talk, talking about it & enough joint decision making on what it’s spend on?
• It made me consider all alternatives & look for solutions to not allow the same mistake twice: We have an additional appointment this week & one next week. Next week’s is at the hospital & we ALWAYS get coffee at the hospital because they have three Starbucks on campus, not to mention the countless ones on the way there. We agreed it would be in our best interest to cough up the money from our grocery budget to buy some K-Cups & have to eat leftovers a couple days for dinner to make up for it. As for alternatives? I could of gotten cheaper coffee at McDonald’s. I could of asked a friend on the property to brew some up if they had some. Worst of all: I could of stopped at our apartment office which has a Keurig available for a free cup (BUT they do not have decaff & my anxiety does not allow me regular caffeine anymore) but none of these would of amounted to…
• I got a free coffee for next time: OK, so you could totally twist this that I did NOT get a free coffee. I paid for this coffee quite a few times because you need purchase 12 drinks with the Starbucks Rewards program before your 13th is free (not including the 30 in a calendar year you need to purchase before you qualify for your 13th free after every 12 drink purchases). But I previously hit Sbux 11 time prior, resulting in today’s purchase adding up to my 13th being on the house. I’m saving this bad boy for a rainy day. Or Cthulhu’s next exam to make sure she is still cancer free.

So, there you have it. I screwed up today, but I’m back on the Buying Nothing wagon & I can’t say the knowledge gained wasn’t worth the $10 spent.

I’m happy to report we stopped at the library for free entertainment, used the leftover ham from Christmas (frozen) in our dinner quiche & dropped off 10 ink cartridges to Staples (x$3 each credit)  amounting to $30 to use later for toilet paper. (You will soon discover my biggest fear in this challenge is not having money for toilet paper)

Food Waste is Money Waste – Opal Apple Review

One awesome way I save my family money is by participating in websites like House Party & BzzAgent. I receive awesome free products to try & to share with family & friends. Recently I was chosen for a #BzzCampaign by #BzzAgent to try Opal brand apples for free.

Being a Washingtonian through & through (Go Hawks! Go Starbucks! Go Nature!), apples are one thing I know. Afterall, Washington is the top producer of apples for the country. True story! And in knowing apples, there is one other thing I know about them — they grow. Easily. Quickly. And it’s UG-A-LY!

Sure. Since the invention of Pinterest & old wives’ tales, we’ve since learned acid can mute the natural occurrence of browning that happens. But then your apples taste rather lemon-y, dontcha think? Insert the Opal apple.

Opal has used cross pollination to create a non-browning apple. I remember reading about this months ago on a health website, but they were insistent it was a GMO apple. NOT SO!! Opal is even Non-GMO Project verified! That’s a pretty prestigious title in the health food communities.

Two days! I nibbled an apple, decided I wasn’t as hungry as I thought & stored it in the fridge for two days. Guess what?? No browning. The skin was still the lovely yellow of a Golden Delicious & the flesh, still it’s muted cream-white color. Definitely, absolutely not brown. Took a bite & it was still as crunchy & tasty as the first time I tried it.

How does this add into our Buy Nothing year? Picky eaters might as well be a term synonymous with children. If it’s slightly  misshaped, if it’s taste is a little off or if it’s browning from oxidation – forget it. They won’t touch it. Many a party trays have I created in which baby carrots that were a little dried out stayed put & celery that delivered less than an absolute crunchy comparable to a potato chip were left untouched. The same is true for apple slices.

You can find Opal apples at your local Kroger affiliate store from November thru March. As for us, we’ll definitely be adding them to our fruit rotation to help stop the food waste & thus stop the money waste.

Preparing is Hard

So yesterday we popped into Target. We were out & about when I remembered we are low on the kids’ primary food groups: fruits & vegetables. I knew I had $10 in gift cards & the Husband also had $10 at least in gift cards from ShopKick (actually, he had $15 worth. Go, Enders!) So that gave us $25 to work with to get some fruit, veg & toilet paper. Lego Girl has sensory processing disorder, that means she has issues with things like standing in the frozen food section without a public display that it’s too cold because it feels like a full blown ninja ice attack on her nerves. So, while I stood around debating if $3.49 for 3 lbs of pesticide-soaked granny smiths paired with 5% off on Target’s Cartwheel coupon app was a good deal… I coaxed Mr. into taking the girls to check out the Christmas clearance.

WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!

I do remember clearance is my kryptonite that brings me (as well as my wallet) weeping to my knees. Candy had finally gone from 30% off to 50% & there was cute Santa print footie jammies that were a 2 pack in Cthulhu’s size for $8.49 (so basically $4.25 a pair). & wouldn’t you believe it, Lego Girl found a Baymax ornament! I went to Target the day after Christmas specifically for that stupid ornament & couldn’t find one. Apparently some embarrassed parent threw him into the $5 stocking stuffer bins after their brat broke his hand. Yes. I was on the verge of buying a broken 50% ornament of a plushie white robot. It was actually physically painful to have to walk away from him, knowing the employees will find him, realize he’s broken & just throw him in the trash. But I still did it.

The thing I almost didn’t walk away from: $2.50 worth of 52 count super hero themed glow sticks.

I tried to reason that I could put some in the Easter baskets in the next couple months. I tried reasoning there was blue & red ones which would work out swell for the 4th of July. I had this crazy notion that I would save them once we are able to save up to go back to Disneyland because glowsticks on clearance at Target are soooo much cheaper than the flashy, blinky light toys at the resort. The glow sticks even made it as far as into my shopping basket.

And then I walked four steps, stopped & put them back on the shelf.

We did end up spending over our $25 in gift cards, because toilet paper is one necessity I won’t give up although I will push for everyone to use less. The cats needed cat litter (but I informed Mr. that if we are spending on the scoopable, he better actually SCOOP it to conserve it). And we got enough fruits & vegetables to last until payday when the REAL challenge starts.

Oh, yes. We haven’t even STARTED yet & I’m already struggling with things like wanting to go out to eat with friends & glowsticks for the kids.

Let this blog stand as my own personal accountability log. I was so excited about this until I realized just how insane & difficult this is with children & a husband & with someone who shops like I do… Pretty much the whole thing & everyone involved in it.

Buying Nothing in 2015

We had a pleasant holiday. We were blessed by not one but two Secret Santa friends who wanted the Spawnies to have the largest Christmas they’ve experienced to date. The problem is: I deliberately keep their present count down to three on the most overly commercialized holiday of the year to keep them from being materialistic little shits & my house from being overran with China made plastic crap that adds zero value to their lives beyond keeping them out of my hair for long enough to post a blog & then forget about a week later.

After Cthulhu’s cancer diagnosis last year, our budget pretty much got thrown out the window. Gas was being consumed out an outrageous rate to get us to the hospital regularly for appointments & blood draws conveniently always around lunch time which meant hitting the drive thru or the hospital cafeteria on top of Mr. Ender missing work 11 times out of 10. That quadrupled when Mr. Enders quit his job this year to pursue a lucrative deal that ended up being nothing more than smoke & mirrors while simultaneously removing his app code from his ownership & sucking us dry of all our savings (including the girls’ Disney fund to keep our rent paid)… So what had started off as a successful venture to get our debt paid off in 2011 via the Debt Snowball approach turned into being pushed 10 steps backwards in 2013 & well into 2014. I kind of had a gut feeling that if we don’t do something drastic, 2015 will be a lot more of the same. Insert the Buy Nothing Year.

I read this article about a couple of roommates who saved a ton of cash by doing one simple thing: buy. nothing.

While they clearly went to the furthest extreme since they were a household of two working adults whereas we are clearly one working adult, one maid/chef/chauffer/receptionist/personal shopper/etc/etc & two small demonic children who either destroy or consume everything in their path… clearly we can’t go to the extremes the original experimenters went to in which they rode bikes or walked everywhere — or attempting to grow all of our own food (which they were not successful at but “A” for effort).

Our rules for the next year will be a little more lenient while still keeping us just miserable enough to be successful in getting our debt obligations caught up & who knows, maybe even a little into savings…

+ There’s an allotted $450 for food & toiletries. And that’s it. Once the money is gone for the month, it’s gone. If that means having to barter for a roll of toilet paper from the neighbor, fine. If it means we’re having eggs for breakfast, lunch & dinner it’s a good thing I know how to scramble, devil & quiche eggs then. That definitely means I’m going to have to learn to compromise more on the organic meat & organic produce department. I’m hoping to put us on a modified paleo diet so that’ll at least exnay cheese & milk & most premade overpriced snack food type items.

+ There’s $200 allotted to gas. And that’s it. If it means we’re walking to the store… I guess we better bundle up. If it means there’s going to be an appointment at the hospital, we’ll have to plan to cut back on driving later on in the week. I’d really like to see that go down to even less… like $75-$100.

+ Do we need it? Yes. I mean, REALLY need it? Like is it a true “we will die without this food/shelter/water” situation? Probably not. We will not die if I don’t buy my aunt a birthday present or throw an enormous party for the kids’ birthdays. This means I better unsubscribe to my daily deal site emails & stop lingering around Target just to get some time alone.

+ No clothes purchases because we have what we need. If an emergency comes up (because littles grow at insane rates), it’ll have to come out of the allotted money for food – or even better, reaching out to family/friends/friends of friends/Buy Nothing community members to see if anybody has their sizes they’d like to hand down.

+ No eating out/fast food: This one will be a troublesome area. As much as I’m into the organic scene, I also have a very real & very well known love affair with Starbucks. I’m a gold member until April 2016 for crying out loud (It’s only 2014… I’m gold member status in their rewards program for nearly another 2 years! You have to visit 30 times to renew for one year… You do the math there)

+ No movie theaters, no shopping malls, no book stores, no thrift stores, no restaurants, no memberships, no zoo trips, no ferry rides to visit far off neighboring friends (unless I wanna take it out of the gas budget & short change ourselves later).

+ And lastly, any additional money made from app ad revenue or babysitting or selling something or what have you, will go to the debt. Because we can’t move out from our current crappy spot until the debt is gone.

…. I’m starting to have some doubts reading over this list again knowing how often I frequent Target or enjoy half price appetizers with friends or have the family shower their guilt upon me when I don’t spend to show I care for their birthdays and/or the holiday season….

which is why I’ll blog the experience to poor my guilt out to & maybe be able to laugh about this later…. in my own house… with a car paid for with cash… & some savings in the bank.

January 1st, 2015… The Year We’ll Buy Nothing