Tock!

[j4]

Time passes. More stuff gets done.

Supermarket success: one bag of Taste the Difference Jersey new potatoes for only 60p in the end-bin, which will do nicely for lunches; a sweetheart cabbage (also reduced) and some bacon for dinner (a cabbage, bacon & cheese bake which we ended up combining with the leftover pasta, and very nice it was too if I do say so myself); and some little pears (reduced -- spot the pattern) as snack-food for work. Didn't impulse-buy anything unless you count the pears, and that's really to save me buying less healthy and more expensive things later.

I've been slipping a little on the not-spending-money front: bought two summer tops on the market (8 quid for the two of them) and henna from Lush (and some shampoo, but I need to wash my hair with something, and the Lush solid shampoos last longer). Also bought a "Saint" book on eBay, but that was only 99p (+p&p). However I still think I'm doing a bit better than I was before, and now I've transferred the cc balance to an interest-free one that's another 10 quid a month or so that I'm saving.

Started reading one of the books on my immediate to-read pile, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and decided that it's not really worth finishing -- feels like DWJ on autopilot, perhaps it's just intended for a younger audience? Or perhaps it's that I find DWJ less convincing when she's writing about wholly/mostly 'fantasy' universes, and at her best when she's writing more explicitly about the points where the lines blur between fantasy and the 'real' world. (See: Fire and Hemlock, Witch Week, Homeward Bounders -- in a way they're all stories about the power of myth/story, which is something that appeals to me a lot.)

I must convince myself that I really don't have to read everything in the world, or even everything in the house.

Having said that I did get through most of the first chapter of The Muse in the Machine: computers and creative thought by David Gelernter. It's interesting, but a lot of it seems quite obvious to me.

I also made progress on my dress for Glastonbury.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

(The trick, of course, is to think that whilst *at the same time* firmly reminding oneself that whilst slipping once in a while is OK, this does not mean that slipping *all* the time is OK.... :-) )

Oh, yes, indeed. :-) Will not slip all the time. But I find it much more constructive to think "Hm, probably didn't need that really, will think harder before spending next time" or "okay, I bought that stuff I didn't need, that means I really can't buy any more lunches in town this week so I will just have to get up and make lunch before going even if I feel tired and lazy" rather than "STUPID! STUPID! You will die miserably in poverty while everybody else you know becomes happy, successful and rich beyond your wildest dreams!"

I wish I could have made it to PANIC, but I really do think it would have been dangerous trying to do the driving. Though in the end I didn't get to sleep till after 2am anyway, again, and now am utterly knackered. :-(

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

And also, tbqh, you have bought a bargain. Minimalist, low cost living isn't about not spending all the time, it's about spending within your limits. And part of spending within in your limits is sometimes saving money by spending it. ie buying six tubes of toothpaste when a three for two offer is on. You spend eight quid on two tops. That's not disastrous. Next time you see a top you want, you won't buy it, because you've just bought two tops. But you bought those two tops cheaply, ifswim.