May we please have a moratorium on the moratorium? I want to buy garden stuff like plants and bricks and mulch and plants and did I say plants? Darn moratorium keeping us from buying fun stuff but allowing us to buy non-fun stuff like tires. Darn states that require annual vehicle inspections that make us buy new tires. Safety-smafety. I want plants!

Non-essential spending:

– Eating out to preserve our sanity: $8.39
– Super-cheap chocolate on clearance: $35.00 (see note about sanity above)

Raisin update: name-brand raisins were on sale for only twenty cents more than the generic, so I bought some name brand. WOOT!

So, we’ve been doing this moratorium thing for a month now, and I’d like to say that we’ve saved a bunch of money and paid a nice chunk of that credit card off. Nope. I’m not quite sure how this whole thing works that we seem to be spending less but in reality are spending about the same as before. Would someone please explain that to me?

Oh well. We got some free rocks yesterday and will get more today. A family moved into a new house last fall and wants to turn a shady spot under their deck into a turtle habitat. The previous owners had put down a ton (or three) of river rock stuff. The new owners took about half of it out and put it somewhere else, but they didn’t want the rest of it. So, we went over yesterday and shoveled about half of what was left into the truck. Andy will go get the rest today. Not sure where it will all go, but some will go into a shady flower bed under our deck.

It’s interesting how much we spend each week on things we really do need. This week we had to buy all three types of cat food: Sana’s prescription food, canned food for the toothless cats, and dry food for the rest. That was half of what we spent this week. The rest was regular stuff like gas. Andy did break the Moratorium once. He and Anya went to town to get some things while I was at a MG meeting, and they went to Wendy’s. The worst part of it was that Anya hid bits of chicken nugget all over the back seat.

Non-essential spending:

– Wendy’s: $4.73

There is a an update on the raisins. I think maybe I got a bad batch before because this container I have now has very few twigs in it. Or maybe this is just a really, really good batch. I wish raisins didn’t look so much like engorged ticks.

One weird thing about this moratorium is people keep trying to (and sometimes succeeding) buy me things. Like lunch (thanks P!) and green rice krispie treats (thanks S!). It’s sort of like when someone goes on a diet and everyone tries to get them to eat a piece of birthday cake.

We went to HD today because we were in town and Andy wanted to. We walked out empty handed, but it was hard. I wanted to buy plants and paint, Andy wanted to buy a clearance fountain, and Anya wanted to buy a digital rain gauge. Nothing we needed, though. We already have lots.

While Anya was napping this afternoon, I folded some laundry and went to put mine away. All my clothes really should fit in the dresser, so I pulled a few things out that I never wear. Then I went up to put Anya’s clothes away, and all her stuff didn’t really fit either. I took everything out and sorted into three drawers: what she’s wearing now, what she’ll be wearing spring/summer, and what’ll be for winter or next year. I also pulled out a pile of things that were too small. And then I sorted a heap of clothes on her bed that were in the trunk. I probably sorted out two large bags of things we don’t wear or need.

We’ve not only got plenty of stuff, we’ve got lots of stuff we don’t need. We don’t need to be buying more. (Well, except maybe toys for Anya, and that paint for her room, and plants and turtles and rocket ships and bagels!)

This week we spent ten times what we spent last week, but we spent less on non-essentials. No, the “new” dryer didn’t go kaput. We had to pay the registration for the car, and we also decided to buy a CSA share from Good Food, Good People. It isn’t one farm like I’m used to seeing for CSAs; it’s a group of local farms pooling together. We bought a vegetable share and a fruit share. So, while there is a big upfront cost, we won’t have to buy any produce for a long time.

Here’s our non-necessary spending for the week:

– $0.65 for a coke at work because Andy couldn’t stay awake
– $5.72 for stuff for the bake sale at work (green krispie treats!!)

That’s it. Yay!

It was hard not to agree to go out to lunch with coworkers on Friday. In the end, we all just ate the lunches we brought. When I think of the blogs I was reading a few weeks ago before we started this, our moratorium seems sort of lame. These folks were used to buying books and magazines and clothes and lattes and meals out all the time. Me? I’m all “Yay! I didn’t go to Wendy’s one day!”

In other news, Anya has become a bit of a cleaning freak. I blame daycare lady. Anya will grab a towel or sock or whatever and start “cleaning” the stairs or her step stool or the bathtub. Nothing wrong with that (even if it is weird), but she also gets upset if she spills something and can’t clean it up that very second. She loves to help empty the dishwasher and puts the silverware away on her own. Yesterday she helped me vacuum, and she carries dirty clothes to the hamper. I foresee a day soon when she can start to earn her keep!

This moratorium thing is mostly okay, but it sucks when everyone else in the office goes out to lunch.

The snow finally melted, and we finally made it out of the house. We did have to spend some unplanned money this first week in addition to the normal groceries and gas type stuff:

– $10.00 the insurance company didn’t cover for the tow truck.
– $0.50 for the pay phone to call daycare lady so she’d know when to meet us at the end of her street because their driveway was so bad only 4WD could get through.
– $2.00 for a parking permit at work because we forgot to take my permit out of the car when we took the truck to work on Thursday (actually, I still owe my coworker for that).
– $10.00 for lunch on Friday because I packed Andy a spoiled lunch, and I really had to get out of the office.

Not so bad. Definitely could have been worse. We almost had to buy a dryer because ours conked out on Wednesday (what a week), but daycare lady just got a new washer and dryer Friday, and she gave us their old one. We picked it up today, and yeah it’s old, but it works!

We also picked up an armoire to serve as our (mostly Andy’s) closet since our bedroom doesn’t have a closet. It’s really an entertainment-type armoire, but we got it for fairly cheap from my boss. Andy put a pole in, and it works just fine. Now he doesn’t have to keep his clothes in Anya’s room anymore, and I get his dresser drawers for my stuff. Yay! (I’d paid for it two weeks ago so no moratorium violation.)

And finally, we picked up Anya’s new bed frame Friday. It’s an early birthday gift from Andy’s mom (so no moratorium violation), and Anya really likes it. It’s not put together yet, but when it is we’ll put up a picture. It has drawers!

Again, what a week!

One of the neat things about this adventure is that we’ve been trying to use what we have in the freezer and pantry. I made an apple pie today from some apples I canned when we first moved here. Or maybe even before? Hm. Andy made some chili with a bunch of the beans, and I made cornbread to go with it. Yum!

So that ends week 1. It wasn’t too hard not to buy stuff, and it’s definitely fun to say, “Moratorium!”

We are still trapped by the snow. Andy made a valiant attempt to escape this morning, but he had to abandon the truck down by the pond. The electricity is going strong so far, and we have water, but I am concerned about the level of the propane tank. Will the cookies finish baking before the propane runs out? My biggest worry, though, is what we will do when Anya starts asking for her beloved “nana” tomorrow morning since she ate the last one today. Perhaps I can distract her with an icicle.

See, it’s true!

Yeah, um, we haven’t had time yet to get new plates for the car. Um. Yeah. Or it could be that for the first time in the three years we’ve been living in VA, we got more than an inch of snow. More like ten inches.

Too bad we don’t have a tractor, or 15 kids with big arm muscles, or a flamethrower. (Oooo, wait I do have a flamethrower!! I wonder where it is.) We are trapped in the house right now, and we may be trapped tomorrow. Temperatures aren’t expected to be over freezing until Wednesday. Andy tried to get the truck out of the parking spot and into the driveway this morning. Two hours later, and it was not happening. He said he may try again tomorrow.

I’d like to say that being trapped at home was helpful for Day 2 of the Moratorium, but it gave Andy the chance to finally load about 200 photos to the printing website. Now I want to order about 200 prints. Blergle!

Also? Anya does not like snow.

Today is the first day of our Spending Moratorium. So far, we are doing very well. Of course, it’s not yet 10am, and we are all still in our pajamies. Yesterday we went out and visited our favorite stores to say good-bye: Target, Home Depot, and Lowes. We also made a stop at the chinese buffet for our last meal out. Andy was very sad because he did not find anything to buy. I did. I got a few more plants for work and some stuff to rebuild the bunny cage. Oh wait! Andy got some fabric bins/cubes to go into the armoire we bought from a coworker last week. Happy day!

Moratorium! Moratorium! Moratorium!