NBJ—Half way through in Musings

Well I’m halfway through my No Buy July. I really want to document this just to see what I learn if I want to repeat it.

The hardest part has definitely been not thrifting. But I knew that. It’s what I do for ~me~. It’s a stress release and endorphin rush and I’m definitely not giving it up for good. I mostly thrift for clothes though and this break has given me space to look at my wardrobe and what I actually* wear and where the gaps are. I’m compiling a list of things to look for come August.

*The second hardest thing is that when the girls are squirrelly I like to walk with them to the dollar store (we live within walking distance to Walmart, Dollar Tree, Ross and a few other stores) and get a few little things and walk home and play with them. Instead this week I took them to the park where they played for a while and there’s also a free little book barn where you can just take and leave books. We scored 4 really good ones. So that was a pretty great free activity. Other than that though I have been struggling to come up with things to do but have been pretty proud we haven’t bought anything for the girls (besides gifts for their up coming birthdays

*The first week the only time we ate out or spent money on entertainment was on the 4th and then Nathan went to a Magic the Gathering tournament which he did have to pay for but he did so well he ended up getting back the equivalent of what he spent on new cards.

*The second week we did have a date night that we counted as our “family fun activity” for the week because honestly we needed it. The girls hung out with his parents and we went to a new pizza place in town and got ice cream. We also rented a movie when we got home.

*We did buy Alex’s tricycle and one gift for Leah’s birthday. My grandma was in town and she gave the girls money for their birthdays so I will probably take them to Target and let them pick something later this week.

*Overall I’m pretty impressed and happy with the fact that this has been pretty easy and I think for the most part we will continue to incorporate some of this stuff into our daily lives. I haven’t been as tempted to just get little things at the store or throw things in the Amazon cart like I thought I would. Like I said, I do miss thrifting but since breaking the habit of going so often I don’t feel as “addicted” as I once did.

I’ll update again at the end of the month. I’m not sure anyone but me cares about this but here it is anyway :)

Last updated July 15, 2019