My last post in the Consumer Chronicles series I focused on our purchases specifically related to eating dinner out of the house. You can catch up on that confession here. The good news is our resolve to go two weeks without eating dinner at a restaurant didn’t waiver, we made it! My husband and children were on board with the idea, which helped tremendously. We are now on our second ‘two week’ goal to eat dinner at home.
A resource that helped increase our chances significantly of making this work, is Jules Clancy’s site, TheStonesoup. I love it. I’ve been subscribed to her emails and using her free eCookbook for almost a year, and finally decided to try her meal planning subscription. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Jules’ focus is on whole ingredients and meals that usually take 5 ingredients or less, and average around 15 minutes to make from start to finish. Just what I need! Not to mention, they are delicious!
I won’t dwell on our eating purchases for this post though, I’d like to give you an update on other spending and non-spending I’ve done the past two weeks. Check out my results below-
Week 8 February 16th -February 23rd
Wanted: Food. (I went grocery shopping hungry!)
Outcome: Well, you probably have a pretty good idea of this outcome. We all know shopping while hungry is a bad idea. I came home with several extra items like Buffalo cheddar cheese, crackers, strawberries, pretzels and Halfpops (half-popped popcorn).
Wanted: Sally Hansen’s Gel Polish
Outcome: I’m a little bit of a girly girl, I do like my nails painted, and have had the gel put on at the salon in the past, but I don’t like being tied down to the two week commitment of having them redone or soaked off. So, I’ve started doing them myself. However, I’ve found myself checking for new colors every time I run to the store, and this time was no different, other than the fact that I didn’t buy anything! There was a beautiful light blue, but I decided I already have enough colors at this point. Win!
Week 9 February 24th –March 3rd
Wanted: Shirts & Shoes
Outcome: Ever since I hurt my back, I’ve been slowly switching out my shoes from flats to shoes that have some type of support. This week I purchased some shoes specifically for everyday walking. With the temps also rising to the 70’s last week, I realized I was in need of a few new short sleeve shirts. Last year, my wardrobe consisted of mainly hand wash items, which I realized are just not realistic for me right now. Using the one in, one out rule, I replaced several of my hand wash shirts with ‘washing machine friendly’ summer shirts.
AMAZON.COM PURCHASES
Wanted: Chopsticks
Outcome: I did purchase 5 sets of bamboo chopsticks. My Dad recently sent me all his monkey pod dishes he purchased when he was living in the Philippines almost 40 years ago. I washed them up and oiled them using some walnut oil, and they are gorgeous (proof below). Anyhow, I think they are perfect for my Asian style dishes, hence the chopsticks.
The past couple of weeks I’ve done fairly well at curbing my wants and fulfilling only those that would be useful and beneficial to our lives. I am especially excited that we made progress with our goal of eating healthier dinners at home.
How about you? How are things going with your own goals for purchases this year?