It all adds up

 Week 2

My second week of 'buy nothing new for 6 months' has presented me with some interesting challenges. I thought it would be an worthwhile exercise to keep total of what I would've spent and what alternatives I've come up with. Let's start with the garden.

Challenge 1

About this time every year we prepare our veggie patch for planting of the summer produce. We would spend upwards of $100 (at least!) buying plants and seedlings for the garden. Our favourite place to buy our plants is at the monthly Berry Country Fair. The produce is always fantastic and lovingly grown to sell to gardeners of all types. I could probably have justified buying the plants as they were for food but it would mean bringing more plastic containers into the house, and I already had seedling trays from previous years' purchases. Light bulb moment - I'll grow my own from seeds! We had stacks of seeds from Eliza's time working in the Auburn Friendship Garden  so I set up seedling trays and pots to grow (hopefully) our summer crop. This will certainly test my green thumb!

Challenge 2 

One of my favourite pastimes is to spend a few hours in a book store and choose a few titles to be going on with. Not now! It will be borrowing books and visiting the library or re-reading old favourites. This week I borrowed the classic Around the World in Eighty Day from my son Zac. Awesome read 😃 and a saving of about $30.

Challenge 3

Birthday presents...

This week I attended my godson's 10th birthday party and for this I required a present. I wanted to get Tom something cool that he would like but without purchasing an object. So I had to put my thinking cap on. An activity or experience would be good. Skateboarding lessons won out! Nil cost advantage as buying a tangible object vs. an experience cost about the same.

 

Challenge 4

We have recently moved in to an apartment. There was no microwave and I thought we could manage without one. However it soon became apparent that we missed this convenience. We had two old ones at our coast house so I brought the smaller one (about 7 years old) back to the apartment and dug the 30 year old monster out of the garage for the coast house (wedding present). Works perfectly!! Which goes to show you don't need to throw things out because they are unfashionable. If they still work - keep using it. Saving here anywhere between $50 - $300 depending on the type of microwave purchased.

Savings for the week - around $200. Good job JB! 😌