November NO BUY CHALLENGE Challenges
So last Saturday started the kick-off of our November Budget Adjustment Challenge…which includes bringing lunches, a wine budget, and the ebbing of the crap tide. Of course…by 7:19AM Saturday I noticed about 15 things that need to be replaced in the house….kitchen sink stopper is broken, baby’s gloves are too small, 3 door knobs are broken, the worms have really outgrown their bin, and there is a snag in my scarf from last year. Hard knocks life, no?
So how are we doing? Here is our 1st week’s report card. (Completely objective of course.)
Lunches…A+++…I made an extra big batch of rice and beans with chicken chorizo and CSA peppers to cover for any leftoverless days. This is going to be my strategy for the month…and hopefully long term. My husband almost always takes a lunch if there is one. Over the summer we had a lot of CSA dinner salads…which don’t translate well into leftovers…hence the creation of bad lunch buying habits. Hopefully the Cook a Big Pot o’ Something on Sunday Specifically for Lunches strategy will help fix this problem permanently.
Wine Budget…C-…We have decided that $100 should be an adequate amount to spend on wine in a month- this also includes beer and any other adult drinks. (It does not include what we spend when we go out or entertaining guests. My husband and I go out twice a month on dates and probably once or twice individually with friends. We haven’t really tackled that section of the budget yet. We went for YEARS without a sitter so we kind of feel like we deserve the debauchery of going where ever we want, drinking what we want and eating foods that make the children gag. It’s not cheap…but it keeps us sane.) 
Well, so far we have already blown the budget…sorta. We decided that buying a case at the beginning of the month would be the most cost effective and easiest to keep track of money wise. Of course the case cost $135. To justify the expense we calculated the average amount per bottle and decided that 1/2 of the bottles will go into next month’s kitty. Knowing us and our complete spinelessness this may backfire. We’ll see how it goes is the best I can offer you. Yes…I fully recognize the sadness in how much thought we have to put into this. Oh…and the bottle of Sancerre we had to celebrate Obama’s victory totally doesn’t count. Sancerre is lovely…but budget friendly it is not. Those damn French and their diabolical plans to undermine my budget with their deliciousness.
Crap Tide...A…So far we have made no purchases…This, however, is a little harder than I thought. We’re not big shoppers but we are used to just getting what we need when we need it…or think we need it. When I proposed the No Buy I was really thinking of all the crap that annoys me…mostly everyone else’s crap…not my own good stuff. Here’s how I’m tackling everything.
1. Clothes…mend & swap. I will ask around for my baby to see if anyone has any hand-me-down gloves and give the too small gloves to our favorite neighbor baby. (One pair out and one pair in is fair, no?)
2. The Worm Bin ….We may be able to create a new one from found stuff, as we did the first one. Or…we could simply split the worms up and find a new home for half. (I swear they must listen to Barry White round the clock because it is a regular worm humpfest in there.) We have been unable to process a lot of food scraps due to the space shortage so I would like to get this done sooner than later.
3. House Repairs…Things will NEED to be purchased in December for the DECEMBER FIX IT CHALLENGE. (Details to come about that.) Our doors are nonfunctional due to completely damaged knobs.(Go ahead …insert joke here.) Can’t really whittle new ones out of cheese. Plus we need to paint. So a few cans of Aura will need to be purchased. The stopper we will try to fix in our own sad pathetic way. Anyone have some old Hubba Bubba?
4. Kids’ Crap…Easy Peasy…They ain’t getting squat until x-mas.
Anyone else playing along, tinkering with their budget? Are you joining in on my fun for November? Come on, you can do it. As always, I set my standards so low that anyone can join. I’ll even let you write your own report card! Low standards…it’s a way of life.
Man… we just got off the tight budget part of life! In other words, I added up groceries as I went along in the store and when I got to my total I walked to the register. I don’t want to go back. We aren’t out of the woods yet but we don’t have to pay that careful of attention to money. I can spend an extra 20$ on groceries and still pay the rest of the bills. We aren’t spenders to begin with so we tend to buy almost nothing extra anyways.
All our extra out-of-budget money like the 5th pay cheque or overtime or bonus goes to our truck payment. We have been putting down what feels like a ton of money but have only managed to pay off an extra 10 payments. So easy to get into debt… so hard to get out.
Needle, be sure to check out Freecycle for things like the baby gloves. People give away baby stuff all the time there. Go to http://www.freecycle.org to sign up for your local list.