Sunday, October 22, 2006

Two for the price of one


So, anyway, to come back to this frugality thing... I've been thinking about it a lot, and here's what I discovered so far (Alice and I were wondering the other day whether it is possible to discover something that is not new. We decided it is, as long as it's new to the discoverer):

- I can double my wardrobe at no cost at all by wearing my summer shirts over my winter shirts. In fact, doing so exponentially increases the number of possible outfits. What's more, as illustrated above, I can now even sport never-worn-yet-because-too-skimpy-too-hot-too-cold-too-something summer shirts.

- The author of Happy Things had a blog on frugality for a while (it's on a break now), and she gave herself this challenge, a whole month of spending NOTHING (well, apart from groceries that is). It's such a fantastic idea, I've decided to do it too. November 2006 will be a NoSpeMo as well as a NoWriMo. A perfect combination: since I'll be writing all day I won't have time to go to any stores, and last year during NaNoWriMo I lived exclusively on dried mango strips anyway, and if I do need to buy something I'll have to be creative instead, and obviously my creative juices will be overflowing all month long (well, maybe not ALL month long, I seem to remember there was an unpleasant second week dip...). What a way to reset all systems before the end-of-year craze!

Anyone want to join me in a 31-day-writing-and-keeping-the-purse-strings-tight marathon?

- On the theme of 'ask and you shall be given', it has occured to me that I often buy something only to find out someone I know had one all along that they didn't need anymore, but of course they didn't know I wanted it, etc... . What I figured is, this here blog is as good a place as any to post such general queries (of course, if there is anything that YOU might need and that I might have, you need only ask...).

For instance, right now, we really need a small hourglass.

(Maybe a word of explanation: Isabelle has been brushing her teeth (and having them brushed) for a while now, but she doesn't manage to keep it up for the two full minutes required by her teeth-doctor. Marc had the idea that if we attach an hourglass routine to the teeth-brushing routine, she might end up brushing long enough AND learning about time AND learning about sand AND learning about glass AND... ).

So, if any of you have one that you are not using at present, let me know.

So much for frugality. I'm off to watch Foyle's War. And eat Taai-Taai.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

frugality - a nice idea indeed, but shouldn't it be a constant in one's life, and not just a one-month thing, such as those extreme, brutal diets?

yet, the idea of a month of writing and not spending is indeed attractive ....