So January shouldn’t have been too much of a challenge at only 16 days (we started on the 15th, due to inspiration striking late.) It was and it wasn’t.

On January 15th, Kai threw my phone, and it hit the bathtub spigot screen first and then fell into the filling tub. It was toast. Toastier than toast. So on the first day of my buy nothing challenge I bought a new iPhone. FAIL.

The only other thing we bought that broke the rules was a the little metal piece that allows you to screw in a leg to a piece of furniture. I was sure we had the required four for the slowly evolving Kai’s Dream Kitchen Project (fridge is built, just needs paint and just needs paint and handles, the stove/sink is partially assembled), but after trashing the house and the garage we couldn’t find it. It needed to match the other three, and this project is slower than a snail already, so we just went out and bought it yesterday.

Things I bought which didn’t break the rules:

• Food
• Thrifting for some more fabric for Kai’s summer wardrobe. I found two par of cords that will make awesome shorts and bonnets.
• I also thrifted a cute little spice rack that will be perfect for Kai’s play kitchen.
• I used an Audible credit to buy the third Ann Leckie book, Ancillary Mercy, since we finished listening to the second one (love, love, love these books). The Audible link will get you two free audio books with a 30-Day free trial, we love Audible around here. It’s one of the best things to help wean everyone off all the screentime from the holidays.

Things I wanted to buy and didn’t:

• Knee socks for Kai. She has all sort of cute tights, but I hadn’t thought about cute tights not being a good idea while potty training. She has plain old boring socks though, so I didn’t buy them.
• Weck Jars. They are my favorite jars to keep food in and I never find them in thrift stores. I had some Ball Jars hanging around and I used them instead.
• This Shadow Box, I’m hoping something similar will pop up in a thrift store.
• A bunch of other little things that I’ve forgotten about. I should keep a list so that I have a better record.

I did feel like I should be shopping several times. I went to thrift stores twice, just because I felt the need to shop. By week two, I just took all but one block of errand time out of our schedule and replaced it with the park. Kai’s happy and I’m happy, and we’re both too distracted to think of shopping.

I bought 11 things just from Amazon last January, plus another 5 from Etsy, and that didn’t include any Christmas presents or anything that was purchased at Target or its ilk. So this is a pretty big improvement.

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