#nospendchallenge

When I as young I'd get books of rainy day activities from the library. As an adult I miss them. There's been a few storms here this week and it's probably going to rain tomorrow so here's my list of things you could do on a rainy day.

*Have an indoor picnic. YouTube some nature sounds, put the picnic blanket on the floor and relax

*Invite a friend over for an at home spa day

*Read a book

*Learn to make greetings cards

*Paint, draw or sketch

*Move furniture so your space feels new

*Listen to a guided meditation on youtube

*Play video games

*Do a jigsaw puzzle

*Sew an old item into something new. Pinterest has lots of ways to upcycle old clothes. I like embroidering constellations on the sleeves or pockets.

*Bake something. Cupcakes, bread, cookies yum.

*Make paper flowers (I learned how to make paper cherry blossom this week)

*Write a meal plan for the next week and do all the food preparation you can

*Have a film night with a theme and popcorn

*Make a youtube playlist of songs with lyrics and have a sing along with your friends/partner/family.

*Look online and see if anyone has a copy cat recipie for your favourite restaurant meal then make it.

*Do an excersise video online

Setting a spending challenge back in March has made me more aware of my spending and areas in which I could save. After reflecting on the experience during April and noticing in which categories I was tempted to dramatically increase spending after the self-imposed ban was lifted (GIFTS y’all!!!) I’ve decided to reinstate the following rules for May: 

1. No spending on sewing and embroidery supplies  In March I learned that working with what I have is honestly a fun creative challenge and very satisfying, so no sense in lifting this ban until I burn through a good amount of supplies. 

2. No spending on non-essential toiletries --> only replace what I know for certain we’ll use Toiletries is not really a problem area in my spending, except for when I occasionally try out a new product that I don’t end up liking and keep it in our bathroom cabinet without ever using it again until it expires and we throw it out. From now on, I’m going to try to limit spending to replacing products that I like and use regularly when they run out.

3. No spending on decorations or household items. This was the greatest help in preventing the house from becoming cluttered again and honestly I can’t imagine what we could POSSIBLY need that we don’t already have (or can borrow easily). 

4. Reduce spending on gifts --> make more gifts! I’m going to open up spending on gifts again but should probably set a budget.  Normally about 5% of my overall expenses are on gifts and donations to charity. Is that reasonable? I have no clue!! I’m going to try to limit spending in this category by giving more handmade gifts, which ties in nicely with rule #1.

I’m also introducing a new challenge this month, which is:

This week I started a patchwork project so I’ll see how that ends up.

I’ve listened to a few audio books and reorganised my pantry so I can see how much food I have (I never have enough tinned tomatoes).

I baked cookies and stuck to a meal plan which helped reduce costs. 

I like to enter online contests and won some cleaning stuff which is useful. 

I had a free pack of veg seeds and compost disc in the post from innocent smoothies.

I had to request copy of a MRI I had had done to take to a new Doctor and found out that the hospital no longer charges for that. Yey!

The garden is filling up with birds so I set up a bird watching area by the kitchen window, a pair of binoculars, old digital camera and pictures of the birds who frequent the garden. Spring is a time of truce between us and the birds before our cherry tree begins to fruit and they eat everything. This year we have a net to keep them from the fruit but I’m not sure how we’re going to get it over the tree. 

So that's 2 months without buying myself anything new.

I'm enjoying making the most of what I have, crafting and repairing things.

This week was mothers day and my boyfriend's birthday.

I baked my boyfriend a tub of cookies and made him a birthday card.

For a mothers day gift I made a new mouse. This one is a gardener so I raided the house for old pen lids and string to make her accessories with.

I'm learning to needle felt.

This is my mouse made out of some old pillow filling and scraps.

I love him but I do need to make him a waist coat.

At the beginning of March I set myself a financial challenge. I wanted to dramatically cut/eliminate spending in 6 categories. I think I did okay and definitely saved some money! Here´s how I did according to an independent judge (me):

1. No spending on sewing and embroidery supplies!  I did acquire fabric and trims for a dressing gown that a friend asked me to make for her, but she paid so technically I stuck to the rules! Not having the option to go out and buy stuff also helped me commit to finishing some existing projects. I finished four things  (placemats, embroidered blouse, small sewing pouch, pillowcase) and started one new one (embroidered jewelry pouch),  all without buying any supplies! 

2. No spending on non-essential toiletries.   Nailed it! Only bought some shampoo and toothpaste because we were running out, and bought them on sale.  

3. No new clothes.   Especially pleased with how this went. The only thing I bought was a pair of jeans at a thrift store to replace a pair that was worn out. I also looked for a summer jacket in both thrift and regular stores but haven’t been able to find one I liked, so ended up only spending €9,- out of my €30,- a month budget. 

4. No spending on decorations or household items.  This category is my decluttering kryptonite, but I didn’t give in to temptation. Yay for me! 

5. No eating out or buying food on the go.  I think the only thing I paid for this month was a drink after a lecture. It was nice to see that trying to avoid spending money on eating out didn’t affect my social life as I was still able to do plenty of fun things with friends and attend events. 

6. Reduce spending on gifts. This one took the most time/effort but was also so worthwhile! Tied in nicely with resolution 1 as well. I made a friend a pouch for his sewing supplies and finally finished embroidering the blouse and sewing the pillow that I promised to make my girlfriend for her birthday. Giving them something hand-made was much more special than buying something and cheaper too, so win win. 

No spend 2019/ simpler lifestyle 2019 is going OK. I made a card and some brownies for valentines day. A couple of months ago I got a safari holiday brochure in the post. I cut out the pictures of the animals and added have a good day animal puns (all terrible like “have a whale of a time today”). My partner leaves for work before wake up so I like to leave one stuck to the mirror for him each day. I had 40 but I’m now down to 8. I may need to go back to post its with silly jokes on them.

I planted some flower bulbs over the weekend, the blackbird that lives in one of our trees wasn’t happy with me spending so much time in the garden and cheeped loudly at me. I have a box of vegetable seeds I’ve misplaced so I’ll need to find those and I can plan my vegetable patch for this year. I’m in the UK so it’s cold but we have a conservatory where we can grow chillies.  

I made 10 portions of pulled pork in the slow cooker and put them in the freezer so there’s a quick meal I can defrost in a hurry.  I got my sewing box out and mended everything that needed mending. Wore my nicest pyjamas on Sunday for a change (they have acorns on them!) and immediately spilled a cup of coffee over them so that wasn’t great but I found the cookie recipe I’d lost when I was scrabbling for non scalding pyjamas.

Goals for the coming week: