Our Month of Nothing Wrap-Up!

Wow, such an eye-opening month. So much so that we are making permanent several of the new things that we tried. And making more regular other experiments we tried as well. No we were not perfect; in fact, I was astounded by just how bad we were before. What? I know you think I’m all that and more, this hot, intensely farm-girl witty, dream chasing & catching chick that I am. But I’ve got some major issues to work on and I’m constantly finding new issues. That and I want to tackle my issues so my kids don’t have to grow up with the same ones that I fight.

So things we did well...

• 
  We cut our grocery bill almost 50% (not quite but almost) I think we saved over $575 on food and eating out over our regular month.
• 
  We cut our auto fuel bill by more than 50%. Many thanks to Prince Erik who only drove to work 5 days during September and they were all super good excuses like Dr. Appointments or off work-site meetings. The other days he cycled motorbike or rode the company bus.
• 
  I won’t know the difference in our monthly utilities until next month but I can only assume our water bill will be down.
• 
  Yes we decluttered a bit more, even took another load to the dump.
• 
  We made bread from scratch once or twice a week.
• 
  Cut our milk consumption from 9 gallons a week to 4.
• 
  And the kids took healthy homemade lunches to school every day.

Every one of those awesome changes I’m going to try my darndest to keep in place.

And through the whole month I had another FawnDear First. It’s not something I’m proud of. In fact I’m down right ashamed. It’s something I’ve known I’ve needed to do for more than a decade but haven’t quite figured out just how. I’ve given it the good old try several times over and nothing has worked. So what was that first??? For the first time that I can remember we spent less than we made. There I’ve said it. And it really stinks. Usually we spend and then rely on Tax Returns and work bonus’s to get us even or out of the money hole we constantly dig for ourselves and so far we’ve lucked out. But with a kid going to college in less than two years it won’t be as easy to walk that tightrope. I told you how budgets and I have a bad relationship. But I felt so good and felt some real power in the process of pondering true needs, I think this approach might be the one to take.

Things I still want to work on…

• 
  I’m still going to try and live by needs only. I quit our month of needs six hours early and took the kids out to a nice but inexpensive sit down restaurant and then asked them how badly they wanted to go to Disneyland? Then we talked about what it would take to get there. So sorry McDonalds but you didn’t fit into the equation. You won’t be seeing us anytime soon. The holidays will be much more frugal and thrifty as well. Christmas gifts will be more thought out and we’re skipping all the little knick-knacks that usually break one or two days after Christmas. The kids are on board and I’m determined to make this change permanent.
• 
  I still take too many little trips to the grocery store during the week. I think I averaged at least four times a week because I would run out of something. So I need to work on a more detailed menu and list.
• 
  I was so inspired by Owlhaven and all the canning she did this month and how her grocery bill budget was only $50 a week and she has 10 kids. Well she has inspired me to really give the large garden a good old honest try. I grew up with a huge garden so I know what I’m getting into. So we’ve started winter prepping our huge backyard so that come spring we can make our garden three times as big. I figure with the economy as wacked out as it is it really doesn’t hurt to acquire some new self-sufficient lifestyle habits.

I hope all you that played along had a great experience as well, and if things didn’t go as planned at least you’re more educated, and can have a better game plan on what worked and didn’t work for the next time you try.

My NOTHING Lesson.

Don’t ya just love eye-popping experiences? This month I’ve had a few.

But to explain my biggest lesson for the month I’ve got to take you back to Two words that always elicit failure for me. ALWAYS! They are… ‘Diet’ and ‘Budget’. Don’t you think it’s appropriate that the word Diet contains the word ‘Die’ to a T.? And I don’t know what it is about sticking to a Budget that makes it near impossible for me to do also. So I can never rely on those words. If I ever Diet or Try to Stick to a Budget I will fail. I’ve proved it over and over again for the last umpteen years.

How then do I lose weight and get healthy and how in the blazes do I control spending???
For me it’s all about reframing my thoughts or trying to view the situation with a new perspective. So I'm taking the game to a different level. For me I always have to gain control over the mental level as well. So far it's working.

This last month has been the closest I’ve ever come to trying to stick to a budget, much to my husbands chagrin. I realized early in the month that if I focused on what I couldn’t get, well, it was much harder than focusing on what was truly a need.

It’s kind of the same principle I discovered when I realized that New Year’s Resolutions by themselves just don’t cut it and for the majority of people including me. They fail within the first two weeks of setting them.

So how can I make it really work? How can I achieve my health and finance goals without the failure that crops up when I view them as just goals.

For me Will-Power doesn’t cut it either. Never has - Never will. For me I can turn it all onto the simple Disney Phrase, ‘A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes' (My cell phone ring tone, remember). Wishing isn’t enough, and Sometimes Dreams aren’t enough especially if they lack the secret Ingredient – HEART! What does heart have that will-power doesn’t? For me 'heart' means physical, mental and most importantly spiritual.

Well if the dream of being healthy doesn’t originate in my heart or the very core of my being, my spirit, well, it’s just not going to happen.

But I do believe that it’s there in my heart. I may have set-backs like a couple of brownies at a party, or buying one or two non-needs this month. But in my heart I really want these things. These are dreams that will come true. And I want them bad.

For me, myself and I sometimes my heart needs a little help and in that I turn to my Heavenly Father. I usually can't do it alone. I need to be accountable to him.

This month I’ve been able to view finances with new eyes as well. Although, I’ve still a long road to hoe, I’m a teensy, tiny bit better at seeing the blessing of simplicity. For me it’s trying to view everything I have as a gift from God: my health, family, home, knowledge, possessions, etc. If I can be a better steward of my blessings and gifts then I won’t be as wasteful of the things that I have, and I’m better apt to taking care of them. Plus I’m not as inclined to spend money for that which is of no worth. Like I said before I’ve got a long ways to go but I know I’m headed in the right direction. The key is staying in tune with my heart and viewing my dreams through it.

I wasn’t perfect this last month but I think I did pretty darn good considering the many months before. I’ll try and break it down for you in the next few days. I’m excited to make focusing on needs and my stewardships a bigger priority in my life. We are going to try and see how long we can keep a lot of the things we’ve learned going.

Just glad that THIS old dog can still learn a few new tricks every now and then.

The Happy Food Nazi?

So it’s probably been about a month since I started the whole Accountability to the Max stuff with my friend Smiley. I’ve been food tracking, exercising myself into the ground and avoiding temptation to the nth degree. This last week I hit a minor rut. Minor because I know I’ll get over it but still a bit discouraging since I’ve been practically perfect. But yet, somehow, not.

With the whole month of nothing it seemed like I’ve been an extra food stickler on the whole family’s sugar intake. Never getting treats or even making them. Evo-man attended a party with ice cream sundaes and ate himself sick. I know if I withhold too much my kids are bound to do exactly that when they leave the nest. Hoard and consume the bad food because they never got treated to it at home. I did that when I went off on my own.

Then I noticed that since they’ve been off processed foods and sugar for a while when they do have it certain children of mine go off the deep –end, climb walls and essentially act like Hammy the Squirrel from ‘Over The Hedge’. My favorite scene (although not in this clip) from the movie is Hammy on Caffeine. That could so be Evo-man and Princess.

Don't you think the little critters hit the whole food, food, FOOD consumption thing right on the head. 'I Want my Cookie!'

This puts me in a pickle. Give them a little sugar – go a little (I mean a lot) nuts. Be a Food Nazi and they grow-up hoarding the sugar, bingeing and needing therapy. So I’m really trying to find the happy medium.

Yesterday I tried a Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip recipe that I found online and made some cookies with my kids. They were o.k. I think I’m going to keep looking for that perfectly healthy cookie recipe, if it even exsists. The taste of our homemade cookies was good but the grit took a little getting used to. So my princesses helped me in our baking experiment and I discovered yet another reason why I don’t have junk food in the house. If it’s there I’ll consume it.

Three cookies later I headed off to my Accountability Club and weighed in for the week. (Darn that Chocolate) I’m only down ½ lb since last week and I know it’s all those tempting little cookies fault. I have absolutely no will-power if they are in the house. after a long day of them sitting around, I finally pulled them out and made the kids finish them so I no longer have any around to tempt me. I do much better without temptation. UGH!

Once the month of nothing is over I’ve got to make it a point to take my family out for ice cream or a simple dessert and not bring the my hideous addiction back into the house for it to lay assault to my mental stability.

And right now I really want that $100 bucks from Smiley. So this week I’m just going to have to dig in and figure out the whole healthy lifestyle without sending my family members into therapy because of my self imposed, anti-sugar priggish self.

Yes & No!

I had some more eye opener's this week with the whole nothing thing. I was coming into today fairly confident that I had come in under the grocery spent total of $150. But no! When I added up the little shopping trips, here and there, to the grocery store it was $205. So this next week I’m going cash only for groceries to see it that helps me keep better tabs on it. I can honestly say that all food purchased was an absolute need or something to stock up on the food storage. I know $60 was spent on really good sales to cushion some of our food storage.

I was also able to get Evo-man two pair of pants for school at the local thrift store for less than $6 and they don’t even look used. Hopefully he won’t notice when I slip them into his closet.

My biggest light bulb (DING, DING, DING, DOOONNNG!!!) moment for the week was when Prince Erik installed some more security stuff on the computer so that we could better track how much time the whole family was spending plugged in and what they were doing. Well zap me with a lightning bolt! The worst computer time sucker was me. I didn’t see that one coming.

For example my pirate day - last Thursday. I thought I was up and doing stuff. Like canning that Pear Butter that took 3 ½ hours, changing laundry, driving to Value Village, picking up kids from school, etc. Sure every now and then I’d run check email, or look up pirate lingo. But at the end of the day when you added all my hours on computer, the time added up to was over six hours. That was a reality check. Kind of like running into a light pole you didn’t see standing there. Running not walking. Enough to ram some sense back into your head banging. Before - I couldn’t understand why I felt I was working so hard and getting so little done. I had this secret time zapper sucking me dry and I didn’t see it. UGH!

I guess I'm offically addicted to spending time on the computer. Why can't I be addicted to something productive like cleaning or exercising? Or not addicted to anything at all. Why do my passions get the better of me?

So this weekend I was reading about Trenadolls trip to her last organization class and I was disappointed it didn’t tell me to throw out half my knick-knacks, clean the light fixtures, or organize the spices. Instead it said.

4. "Anytime you say 'yes' to something, you automatically say 'no' to something else." Translation = Don't fool yourself; there's always a trade-off. Bonus related quote: Say 'No' to say 'Yes'!

So I took that advice and made myself a challenge. Sooooooo, judging by the unequal time I’ve been giving the passion of my dreams and the computer I’m switching it around now. I’m saying NO to the computer between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and saying YES to my dreams of decluttering, losing weight and having a stress free Christmas. And I’ve got proof that it works.

Thursday’s kitchen time…

Saturday’s kitchen time…

Hooray - The Canning is Done!!! Now I can get rid of those pesky fruit flies.

And bonus… more clutter for the Thrift Store.

I noticed that Busy Mama did the same thing a week ago and has had marvelous results.

I’ll still get to see my blogging friends but not during the day when I should be spending time with my family.

I’m hoping for an amazing week.

Nothing but Still TRI-ing Week 2

Our second week of nothing but needs was nothing short of another eye-popping, awakening experience. I almost felt a giddy-high every time I walked into a store – grabbed the tiny shopping basket and walked out with Needs only. ‘Ha,’ I would think to myself, ‘you didn’t get an extra red cent out of me today – you big advertising junkie.’

There are so many things right about this week – T-rev helped me hang some clothes-line rope from our deck to a cedar tree in the back yard and so I’ve been trying to use the dryer less often. The tiny ropes, the chairs in the dining room and front room, have been draped with drying clothes all week. I try to use the chairs and couches only as drying racks over night or in the early morning when I don’t think company will be coming. I think it might drive P.E. nuts if it was a constant though. So I’m trying to figure out what else I can do to hang-dry clothes.

Prince Erik has been having fun making bread nearly every night in our bread-maker, looking up new recipes on the internet, some work other’s don’t. Give him a new cooking assignment and he’s a kid in the candy-store. How did I luck out with a cooking man? He’s also made some amazingly yummy homemade granola, whole wheat pancakes & waffles. Oh, it’s so good. The only downside is that grains and carbs are my total weakness. So this week I probably just maintained my earlier weight-loss. I’ve been super good at avoiding 99% of the baked goodness but the temptation is driving me bonkers. Fresh, still warm, homemade wheat bread with a giant slab of butter – my stomach is growling just thinking about that slice of heaven I keep denying myself.

We also wanted to get one more Sprint Triathlon in before the cold liquid sunshine comes back for the winter. Last year we did one and we were going to repeat for this year. Only problem was the entry fees were $70 a person and we really wanted our teenage boys to get their first Try and a Tri. But I wasn’t about to spend $280 for four of us to do it. So I did the next best thing.
This is where you get a glimpse into my manic exercise self. I organized a sprint Triathlon for members of my Sisters of Strength group, family and friends. I made and hung directional signs, begged Mrs. Candyman to host the event at her little private community park.

And Ya know we pulled it off with about two weeks notice. I didn’t participate in the race because I ran it, kept times, cheered and tried to make sure none of the little munchkins fell in the lake while parents were participating. We had B – bring her kayak and offer swim support, and L.C. an amazing local, professional sports photographer surprised us by showing up to capture our event. You can see some of his amazing pic’s here.

The best part was – for the cost of maybe one of us entering a real Triathlon – Abner, T-rev and Prince Erik got to do the race. And it was Abner’s and T-rev’s 1st One. They were awesome. However our distances weren’t quite at the Sprint Tri Level. I’m guesstimating the swim was 450-500 meters (more than a sprint). And they're Off!

The water was warmer than it looks, it was the air that was a bit nippy.

Here's Abner completing the Bike portion of about 11.6 miles. Poor kid did it on a big old heavy mountain bike and the course did include some good hill climbs.

T-rev powers through the end of the 2.1 mile run. (both bike and run were short but still a realistic tri).

And our winners of the 'Over-The-Hill' Tri were Mrs. Candyman (homefield advantage) and Mr. BigBE.

But we had the most perfect and beautiful September morning I can remember in a long time.

So I added up the money this morning and sadly it was around 309.60 which I was flabbergasted at seeing. But we did have to buy some more basic’s like yeast, sugar and gluten because of all the cooking we’ve been doing, stuff for our Private Tri, I purchased four more boxes of fruit to can, and the odd and ends like light bulbs, wipes etc. I was really hoping for a smaller number, but I realize that it isn’t as bad as it sounds. This coming week I really want to keep it under $100 though.

Prince Erik did have to take the car to work twice this last week because of off campus meetings but I would give him errands to run for me so I wouldn’t have to go anywhere. But can I say he’s done marvelous at taking the company bus.

Well that’s my ubber-long week summary – I’m still feeling great about the whole month of needs and really want to try and improve what isn’t working as well as continue what is.

Bonus from blogging. My kind neighbor gave me a pair of hair clippers that she was going to sell in her garage sale so now I can go attack some more head of bushy hair.

Nothing but a WOW Week 1

Our first week of Nothing but Needs is over and how did we do? I think I can honestly say that we spent money on needs only.

Before we started, our average WEEKLY grocery bill (including eating out) was…

Beware it’s very, very scary. Not a pleasant amount. Enough to shock the socks off anyone…

But keep in mind we are a family of eight with three teenage sons, and sadly no garden of which to brag about this year. – NEXT YEAR it will be awesome.

Sorry for beating the bush leafless but back to the total.

$347.00 per week. Scary right? I’ve had weeks where it’s over $400.

So this week – our total was

Drum roll please:

$110.45

And of this $110 at least $28 was those canning supplies and another $16 was dog food for Itchy. Yes Itchy’s food comes out of our grocery budget. I figure that if the world ends and we eat through our food storage then we can always eat Itchy’s food – before we start consuming the bugs. Anyway it’s on our list.

So if you take those two off we spent $66.05 on actual food.

That my friends, is quite remarkable – for me at least.

I don’t think we will be down as low this coming week because I can see some things like laundry detergent, diapers and such that we will need to get next week.

I know we could probably go lower if we decided to eat purely from our food storage but I look at this whole month as a stepping stone to living a more needful, less materialistic overall life. So if I get a good sale to add to my food storage to replace something I used then, by golly, I’ll do it.

Other money I saved from getting sucked out of our account this week – Abner permitted me to cut his hair. Because I did it with scissors, don’t have any hair clippers anymore, it took a while. Probably a good hour fifteen minutes or at least we almost made it through the whole Napoleon Dynamite movie while I was feverously snipping. He was too mortified to have me take a picture (Not because it looked awful) but because he’s a teenager and that would be too embarrassing. And if he thought it was yuck he was kind enough not to tell me. I think it looks o.k. and I know several people at church said it looked good. I’m not comfortable cutting hair and it takes so long but I figure if I can round up some nice clippers and practice a bit then this could be a viable thing to do- permitting my boys keep allowing me to experiment.

This week I’m going to attempt something I’ve never in my life done before. I haven’t told Prince Erik about it yet because I don’t know if would scare the be-geebers out of him to know I was trying it. But I want to try it. May make a huge mess and wonder what in the blazes I was thinking but I’m going to give it the old college try and… get this… change the cruddy oil filter on the family tank. I think with it’s monster truck tires I should be able to wedge my rapidly shrinking body under it long enough to do the job.

The liquid sunshine is also supposed to hold off this week so I’m going to see if I can’t string up some line out back to hang dry some clothes as well. So wishing I had a clothesline still.

Right now I’m sure we are still in the honeymoon stage of seeing everything that we can do for ourselves. And I can see how making homemade bread can get tedious but until then I’m really beginning to enjoy seeing how little I can spend.

And if this month works well maybe I can encourage my kiddos’ to try it for yet another month and another, and just maybe we might be able to afford to take the Family to CA for a last big family trip to Disneyland before Abner leaves the nest.

Drooling with Envy

My little Lea just called to tell me Daddy has started his race. And guess who he's burning bike rubber with on the mountain today? 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Kirsten Armstrong. Oh, My, HONK!!! I'm so wishing I now would have gone. I was hoping that she was there, being that she's an Idaho girl herself. But still.

Someone by the name of Lance Armstrong also entered the race but I have no idea if he is in fact THE Lance Armstrong.

I'm so enviously living the experiance vicariously right now through my 9 year old on the phone, it's making me dizzy.

Yesterday I spent $0 (A Big Fat ZERO)! I love this whole nothing thing.

As soon as I know Prince Erik has finished the race and not had a heart attack or made anyone famous crash and die I'll probably go pick some FREE blackberries and let my kids swim in a FREE lake. Until then I'm wearing out my phone with FREE Minutes to my kid.

Nothing but Pears and Hair.

Only nerves of steel kept me from my emotional eating rut yesterday. I could have really lost it. But no amount of emotional food pampering is worth that $100 bucks - Yet.

The only money I spent today after starting on our month of nothing was for rings and lids for my canning bottles and some Fruit Fresh. Why? Because I have two whole boxes of pears that were ripe and needed to be taken care of. It wasn’t much but it added up to $28 bucks. I’m sure the prices were jacked up because I bought them at our small town – high priced store. But I figured that if I had to travel to a cheaper location I’d spend the difference in gas.

So I purchased my goodies, came home, whipped out my rusty Hot Water Bath Canner and went to work. I had no idea I was such a slow and messy canner. I succeeded in making the kitchen a sticky hazard you can’t help but cringe as you walk through. It was too messy to take pictures of and I only made it through one box of pears. So when I finish destroying my kitchen on saturday I'll show you my first attempt at canning pears.

Hope managed to mess up the rest of the house as I was occupied with the fruits. Most of the time she was right with me… But - every now and then she would wander off and I would leave her be because my hands were covered in goo. But as soon as I found a minute to pause I’d herd her back into the rooms by me. I must have had my blinders on because I never really paid attention to what she was doing; I was so occupied with getting back to my sticky chore.

Long story short (when do I do anything quickly) Hope had found some scissors and no amount of curl spring could cover the fact that one side of her head of hair was a good 3-4 inches shorter than the other side. Sooo….

I decided it was time for Hope to have her first official hair-cut. Even though she’s had her bangs trimmed and she’s wacked at it some 20 odd times. Now I was going to do my best to even things out. My only problem was her hair is so curly it was really hard to straighten it to the point of even-ing it out, and I’m no hair dresser. My idea of hair management is a ponytail. But I tried and tried and tried some more and this is what she looks like now...

And the bathroom counter looks like…

Still a curly top but I’m really going to miss those long ringlets.

Everyone in the family is supporting the whole month of needs except for my O.D.D. child and he just likes to whine about everything anyway. But he’s been having a lot harder time the past few days. It could be that his school started as well and his girlfriend is going out with someone else. But it’s been a bear to deal with. I’m thinking about taking the rest of the kids on evening walks after he gets home from school just so we can get out of the house while he cools down.

Today, Prince Erik is leaving for ID so he can ride the Idiot Uphill, I mean Bogus Basin Bike Race. Lea is the lucky kid that get’s to join him. In fitting with our month of needs he is skipping the hotel and is going to sleep on an air mattress on Fancy’s parent’s floor. They kindly agreed to host total strangers. Wow! People can be so nice. It helps, I think, that Fancy’s Dad is a bike dude himself. Prince Erik’s also packing his own food so there will be no eating out. I so wish I was going with him but there is, as always, a lot going on here at home. Next year. And maybe I’ll shock him and beat him up the mountain.

Dream On - Accountability

Well we survived our first two days of nothing but needs and did pretty darn well. The only thing I did that I probably I could have done differently was maybe rode a bike around the neighborhood to look for the dog instead of taking the car. But my legs were in no shape to pedal(see why below) so I took the car.

So here are my accountability dreams in a rather large nutshell.

Nothing but Needs? – Good – Everything I did purchase over the past two days came from a list and were definitely needs.

Dream Make-Over? - Don’t tell Smiley but that $100 wager is all mine. Don’t hate me because I’m so awesome. You always lose the most weight the very first week your on a program. I’m tactically consuming between 1300 and 1500 calories per day. Meal tracking, well I didn’t miss a single meal. So all is good there.

And I was rocking the exercises too. Monday I attempted my bogus Bogus. Prince Erik and I went on a 30 plus mile bike ride...

through some gorgeous country and bike climbed a pretty good hill (the big-ish one in the background). So about 6 miles of the 30 was, for me, serious climbing on a bike, of course. This is me on the climb thinking about what a stupid thing it is to ride a bike uphill.

Even though I think I could complete the Bogus Basin Bike race this Saturday in ID (14.5 miles all uphill). I would rather wait until I’ve trained a bit more for it and am 25 lbs lighter. So I’ll do it next year when I’m super skinny and a real fast mama. Prince Erik is still going to go and do it though and I’m sure he’ll have a super speedy time.

And for the Dream-On Clutter crusade – well we made another go at the old laundry room.

We tried to tackle it last spring but never turned it into the mud room we wanted it to be. So Monday Prince Erik found the boards I bought last spring, cut them, splashed some stain on them and slapped them on the wall.

And Ta-Da! We have a mudroom folks. For the first time in the 12 years my kiddos have been going to school, their backpacks now have a home. It’s probably going to take some getting used to because those backpacks still have floor magnets attached to them. I had to remind the kids about four times that their backpacks now have a really swell spot to call home and they better find it fast. It may take a few days to become a habit but I’m excited. Of course I plan on adding more shelves but I’m good for now.

So my three dreams of losing weight, de-cluttering and needs only had a great couple of days.
And I did while dealing with Hope bringing home a new friend….

And we had to deal with Itchy taking a three day vacation from our family. That there almost drove me to my emotional eating self. But every time I spied a overly tempting candy bar I thought which would I rather have? That mouthful of comfort or $100? The money won.

Hope let Itchy out of the house over the weekend. Because it was the weekend there was no one to talk to at the local found pet shelters to see if she had been turned in. Here’s where my needs took a backseat as I drove around the neighborhood searching for the rascally mutt. Fortunately a Good Samaritan apprehended Itchy after seeing her play chicken with some cars on local busy road. They finally saw the flyers the girls and I smacked up around the neighborhood and gave us a ring.

So Itchy is back home and under house arrest. And I'm psyched about following my dreams.

Nothing but Needs

Well ,here we are at Day #1 of our Nothing but Needs, Back to the Basics, Simply Simple living month. Believe it or not I'm dang excited but scared silly all at the same time. The only thing is I'm a wee bit afraid of the whining I’m going to have to deal with when we tell the kids sorry but no McDonalds or snacks or DVD rentals or something they feel entitled to, but isn't really a need. We’ve sat down with them and explained the whole concept and they were fine with it until we got into details. So the devils in the details.

Even though I expect a little moaning from the munchkins I’m excited and very hopeful about the whole thing. But I’ve really been thinking about how many changes we are going to have to make that I've taken for granted.

For instance – my gym membership. Which my husband considers an investment but I am still going to try and go the month and work out totally at home and outside. Please pray it doesn’t rain everyday.

My husband is giving up driving his car to work for the entire month. On good days he will either ride his bicycle or his motorbike and on crummy weather days he will take his works free shuttle-bus.

The Kids are going to give up baths in our huge master bathtub. It’s large enough to be a swimming pool but I’ve made them promise to take quick showers.

Last night Evo-man told me that he needed a haircut. The boys are quite shaggy and I've been begging them all summer to get a trim. But no - wait until school starts and then ask. but guess what - I'm not taking them to the hair salon when I can cut it myself. When I told them this they were horrified. Mom... cut our hair... get out! Trouble is I haven't cut their hair for 10 years. I was tired of all the buzz clippers we killed because their hair is so freaking thick. So not only do I have to cut their hair but I have to do it with nothing but scissors. How's that for a back to basic. Maybe they will want to go shaggy for another month now.

There are so many other little details to living on needs only that I’m sure we will run into, and have to make decisions on, as we get started on this adventure. But I’m dang excited about the whole experience. We’ll see how I feel after a few days.

I know it seems like I've been commiting to doing a whole bunch of changes like over-coming the dreaded clutter monster, and losing weight. But this whole nothing but needs idea dovetails right into the other two. So I feel it' not going to be a strain to accomplish all three.

A few of you want to play along. I'll see if I can't then figure out about posting links to those people so you can see some of the different changes some other families are having to make. If you decide to join this challenge let me know and I'll add your link.

A Whole Lot of Nothing...

So I was checking out my friend Mother Owl Haven the other day and got tipped onto a great idea.

So our family has decided to play along. Nothing but Absolute Needs, and simple goodness for the entire month of September, and I can’t wait. I’ll be updating you on my progress every week. Can I handle taming my shopaholic tendencies? We’ll see?

I’m really motivated to get this going after writing out a check to the high school for around $200 for school class fees, student body cards, etc. And that was basically for only one of my six kids. So much for the money I was planning to spend on buying new back to school clothes.

I’ve got a couple of weeks to figure out how we are going to do it. So far the fast food, candy, movies, rentals, and stuff like that will be totally out of the picture. I’ll have to reach in my dusty bag of creative tricks to keep the family entertained on a budget of nothing. But I like challenges! Especially ones that result in more money staying in my pocket.

I was talking to Prince Erik and he wondered if he would have to give up the Bogus Basin Bike race he’s been training for all year. I told him I thought it would still be o.k. to do but we are rethinking how he will do it. Maybe we’ll have to find a friend near Boise that he could stay with so he doesn’t have to rent a hotel room. Pack his own food instead of eating out. Etc.

I’ve been tempted to stock pile a bunch of goodies to get ready for September but I think that would defeat the purpose of the challenge so I’m trying to live as close to normal up until day 1. In the next few days I’m also going to add up our averages to see how much we spend on utilities, groceries, gas etc. I’ll try and break them down so that I can really see how much we save by trying to stick to the whole nothing goal.

It might be similar to our No-Technology month of February. Dang hard to deal with at the beginning but easier and more fun near the end.

Anyway let me know if you want to play along. You can email me for the button’s code that you see above or check out Owl Haven’s blog to see her information on the whole wild and crazy idea. September can’t come soon enough for my bank balance – how bout yours.