What I spent money on this week:
(it’s a long list this time)
- Tickets to a show. We have our first child-free weekend coming up (as long as my in-laws don’t call us after two hours and say we have to come back, which feels like a real possibility lately) and we really, really wanted to see some music. But something kind of low-key. And something not far from home. Fortunately a real dirtbag establishment we had a lot of fun at in our before life is having a show that weekend before – get this – closing forever. Perfect and devastating. Have we ever heard of the bands before? No. Do we know what kind of music it will be? No. Is there even the slightest chance we’ll be able to stay awake past the second band? Absolutely not. I can’t wait. $31.
- Remember my goal to not shop online this year? I should’ve included in my exceptions list that I had $200 in store credit at a favorite ethical and eco-conscious (supposedly, anyway) brand that I’ve been saving in case a specific dress ever came back in stock. Well it came back in stock, so I bought it. After store credit: $122.
- Short story submissions at nine literary magazines. $29.
- Preschool waitlist fee at one of the preschools we’re most interested in for next year, which we assume is to deter non-serious applicants from registering. $15.
- The Astros Orbit stuffie my husband found secondhand on Mercari and insisted I buy for our kid. An online purchase, but more my husband’s than mine. I’m just the one with the Mercari account. $19.
- Three grocery store trips for midweek fruit and vegetables and the buttermilk my husband needed for cornbread. It was a lot this week because the pickings were slim when we did our regular grocery shopping last weekend. $64.
- A peppermint tea at the cafe where I spent two hours submitting short stories while my kid was in preschool nearby. $4.50.
- A loaf of olive bread from the bakery, to go with the lentil soup we’ll be eating through the weekend. $10.50.
- A shirt, a set of four beautiful green bowls and a pirate ship from Goodwill. $31.
- One more online purchase, and another that I consider a justifiable exception, but that really starts to be a slippery slope. I bought a coat last November that turned out to be defective, so I attempted to exchange it but they had sold out in my color/size. So I returned it for a refund. The coat came back in stock so I ordered it. It was always my intention to re-purchase it. $123.
So, obviously a lot more this week than the past couple. Some room for improvement, perhaps. The dress and the coat definitely set fire to my intended budget for the month. I don’t have any more big exceptions lined up, so I’ll just call this week a blip in my otherwise perfectly-on-track low-buy year that we’re only three weeks into. I’m fine with all the other purchases. The green bowls will be perfect with the “nice” dishes we use when we have friends over for dinner, the shirt is a lightweight, 100% cotton floral-print button-down that I’ll wear a ton in the spring/summer, and the pirate ship is really fucking cool and a steal at $2.50.
What I wanted to buy but didn’t:
Nothing. Is that a victory, or did I just buy everything I wanted this week?
Frugal wins:
- We had a flight canceled in November and the airline we had to book a replacement flight with charged us for our bags. I finally got our original airline to process our reimbursement, and I also got them to refund me (in airline credit) for the money we had to spend on airport food when the restaurant vouchers they provided didn’t work.
- A couple years ago I bought a decent rain jacket that just never worked for my body. The arms were too tight but the body was weirdly big. By the time I accepted that I just couldn’t wear it, the return window had passed. I finally sold it this past week on Poshmark.
Denise Resting 
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