Buy Nothing Challenge

Only three days left with the Buy Nothing Challenge and I have to admit that it wasn't very exceptional, uplifting, rewarding or thought provoking. This is mainly because I sometimes forgot about it and didn't take it very seriously. I don't buy very much as it is.
My non-food purchases for the entire month have been
-a used video game for my sister's bday present
-a new silver pillow for my sister's bday present
-a 50cent used book from the public library (I forgot to mention this one in previous posts)

I haven't felt deprived. I haven't sacrificed anything because there was nothing else I wanted during the month, and I "caved" in and bought those three items even though I was taking the challenge. When I bought the first two items I knew I was breaking the challenge but when I purchased the third item I had completely forgot about the challenge. I like to buy these mystery novels from the used section of the library when I travel so that once finished I can leave it there, i.e. my dept., a hotel, ect. So the purchase didn't require thought, it was just something I did.

As for this week the major non essential food purchase was five bottles of wine from a local winery. A) We didn't have any wine in the house B) it was a local winery and C) it was reasonably priced.
We drove about 45 mins west of our house on saturday with the only couple here we hang out with and went for a half day hike. We then hit up the local winery for some tastings. The wines were so unique it was hard to just pick one red and one white, we also needed some of the unique flavors, such as cranberry white, a port and a blackberry-blueberry wine.
After the winery we drove to the little two block downtown and looked at this organic shop. They gave us free cookies, since it was our first visit, and the man who gave us the cookies said his band was playing at the winery down the street. So, we walked to the winery shared two bottles of wine among four of us, plus three of these wine slurpies and enjoyed the sunshine and the cool music. The band did like a jam session and gave the audience (only a few other people besides us) drums and shakers to participate. It was so much fun! and we got really drunk.
We then walked across the street and ate at an Irish Pub* and had some more to drink.

What this challenge has gotten me to think about is my food purchases. I love food. I eat as a way to avoid working and to make me feel happy. I've been thinking that a good challenge for May would be to not purchase food products except for grocery visits. I will often walk to the grocery store and just purchase m&m's or ice cream. Or I will walk to the Dunking Donut for coffee and donuts. I always knew that most of my budget was spent on food but it never really bothered me before now. By creating a boycott against these purchases not only will I save money but I will also, hopefully, eat less calories. I still want to give this some thought and possible include some clauses because as you read above my fun includes eating and drinking. I thought maybe I would make an exception of once a week for eating out and that the event would have to include more than just myself and my husband (we rarely eat out together without company) and that I would put myself on a two drink minimum. But then this seems like it won't be much of a challenge but I guess one never knows until they challenge them self.


*On the menu of this pub was TURTLE. I was appalled and wanted to leave the pub but my friends didn't agree. Thankfully no one ordered the turtle. I later inquired to the waitress how popular it was. She said it wasn't but they had a special last week so everyone was ordering it. I guess it comes from a farm in a near by state. Very interesting. The waitress said she often tells customers that they are all out because she doesn't want to serve it. I tried to look up more about the farm but Google wasn't much help. How humane are these farms? I'm just curious.