The Buy Nothing Challenge for August 2009

I have joined the Buy Nothing Challenge for August 2009 being hosted at Crunchy Chicken. The rules are to spend as little money as possible in August by not spending anything on:

* New clothes
* New gadgets
* New furniture or housewares
* Salon services
* Makeup
* Tools
* Whatever else people buy

I don't think that this will be too difficult as I've been trying to save as much money as possible for a few months now, as we knew that my husband's contract was coming to an end.

This week, as kind of a practice for the challenge, I tried to spend as little as possible. I did, however, do a little spending outside the rules above:

• I paid A$33 for haircuts for myself and my daughter - we both badly needed them and I went to the cheapest salon in town - it is also a very good salon and I'm very pleased with the results.
• On Monday, I took my daughter to the food court for lunch. It was the last day of the school holidays here in Australia, so I thought that we would have a little treat and I knew that it would be the last time we would eat lunch out for a while.
• Today, I have an appointment with the dentist for a check-up. Although I could have cancelled this appointment, I regard it as essential spending to avoid any small problem getting worse and requiring much more expensive and extensive treatment, leading to such dental dramas as happened to me earlier on this year. I just hope that I don't need any more treatment as I can't afford it at the moment.

Apart from that, all I have spent money on this week is food/groceries and bills. Why do the bills all seem to arrive at once? In the past week, we have had to pay the gas, electricity and water bills!

I think the most difficult times not to spend money will be the weekends. I'm trying to avoid going out and spending money by planning some activities to do at home. There are several craft projects that I have in mind, so watch this space.

Crafts are a great way to pass the time if you don't have much money...and, as I try to show, you don't have to spend much on materials. I'm feeling inspired already, but I must visit the dentist first!