This evening I had a couple minutes of down time, waiting for my kids to get out of youth group. I grabbed my checkbook, thinking I’d enter recent checks into the register. Short task–two in the past week.
Curious, I counted. I’ve written six checks so far in September. Six checks in 17 days.
More curious, I counted checks written in August.
Forty.
Obviously I do a fair bit of discretionary spending. That doesn’t even count my beloved Achilles heel, Amazon.
So. No checks today, at least.
Today we had granola for breakfast. I’ll need to make more soon–I think I’ll use dried apples as part of the ‘goodies’ in the recipe.
For lunch we ate the last hamburger patties, the last of the potatoes. The coffee creamer is almost gone. The sugar is getting low. Essentials?
I’m trying to decide. Though I have a hunch hubby will make the creamer decision for me. Messing with the morning coffee routine is serious.
Dinner — 4 Pizza Hut pizzas–sounds like a huge extravagance, but actually came compliments of Grandma as a thank you for cat-sitting for her this week. (And, oh, that pizza was yummy.)
Tomorrow we are going to attempt making our own clay pots. Pictures coming.
Oh, and one final note: Bluebird Blogs is having a contest where you can enter a drawing to win a free blog redesign. Check it out!
owlhaven.wordpress.com 
It’s funny how good things like Pizza Hut can taste after a long while of not having any. I lived in Taiwan for a while, and McDonalds has NEVER tasted as good as it did there. I don’t even like McDonalds! But a Big Mac tasted like home. Food evokes powerful memories, doesn’t it?
I have a suggestion….what if you went a day or two without electricity? Just an idea…
I can’t wait to see the clay pots come out….sounds like something my boys would like to do…but I’ll wait and learn from your experience!!!
I just had to share that today my husband and I started our first step into looking at adoption…a long long way to go but at least he is now with me and interested!
I have been catching up on the 30 days, I’ve not visited in a while. I’m suddenly feeling quite poor. The way you describe your spending this month is pretty much my life, almost always, always has been. People often think we are vegetarian becasue we don’t eat much meat, and we joke that it’s not by choice, just economy. (THe hubby has been in the middle of a masters forever, though we get breathers from time to time when he takes a year off to work.) Fortunately beans and rice and lentils are good for you, and can be cooked dozens of different tasty ways. I have never had to eat 30 cent boxes of kraft dinner because of budget, because even that is a waste of money since there is no nutrient value in it. But I rarely spend money on anything. It takes me months to justify spending more than $40 on something not neccessary. I shop at thrift stores, for everything including furniture. I paint and recover old things. Most of my furniture was either free or less than $30. Except our mattress, we will spend money on a decent mattress, for us and our kids, because sleep matters. I go years without buying new clothes, except to replace things that are essential and worn out. My birthday gifts from my mother in law are usually shopping money, and then I take full advantages of the clearance racks at Target and Kohls to make it go as far as possible. We do still have enough to send to places that need it more. We sponsor a child, we send money to an orphanage in Kenya and another in THailand, we just consider that part of the budget. Anyway, much of this is conscious on my part, and out of my desire to be a better steward, and out of a new understanding of what it is to live justly, based on a word study of the OT. (THat’s an entire post though.) But a lot of it is also because I just can’t afford it. So I’ve enjoyed reading, but there’s this other part of my head that’ s like what? you mean other people don’t have to do this every day, and I feel a but jealous, even though I know that I am beyond blessed compared to the rest of the world.
And I really miss Pacific Northwest apples, right off the tree.
The clay pots sound really cool, I’ll be back to see pics.
Sounds like you guys are doing excellent so far!!
I have really enjoyed you sharing your 30 days of nothing. It has given me much food for thought.
i also enjoy reading about the 30 days of nothing; it helps me re-examine my spending habits.
also, i vote sugar is a necessity.
i can’t imagine how good that pizza tasted after a few weeks of no eating out. 🙂
You are a tough and amazing woman.
Mary, I have just loved reading your 30 days of nothing posts. You are absolutely inspiring.
There have been times when our checking balance has been very low, but I have gone ahead and just bought the creamer, it is TOTALLY essential. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this with us.
I have noticed a significant drop in the # of checks I have written this month too! I didn’t realize that I spent so much time and money at Walmart before deciding to avoid it for a month!
Yeah, if Walmart experiences a drop in 3rd-quarter earnings, it will totally be our fault!