More than half-way on the No-Shopping challenge.

Let's just say the no-shopping year challenge hasn't been the primary thing on my mind of late. But I haven't posted about it since the end of April, so I'll just do a quick update. In May, in advance of the mastectomy, I bought some of the things I was told I'd need for recovery - a wedge pillow, straws, soft pj's the open in the front. The things I would need to sleep propped up and navigate with extremely limited arm range. I came home and dutifully colored in that date's square in pink to show I'd shopped. Then my husband stepped in. Those were not discretionary items, he insisted, those were medical expenses. And he was right. And I was even temperate about those expenditures - one thing I bought was an old school zip-front house dress for $7. I cut holes in the pockets from the insides to put the bulbs of my drains tubes into. That thing was flat ugly, but cheap and practical. I tell you though, when I wore it I felt like I was a cigarette and a glass of sherry away from being my Gangeen.

EXPENDITURES
   May - July         Year to Date      Category                              
      $0                       $0                    Clothing                                                   
      $0                       $0                    Shoes                             
      $0                       $0                    Accessories                                       
      $0                       $0                    Cosmetics         
      $0                       $0                    Kitchen items                 
      $0                       $0                    Gadgets/electronics 
      $0                       $0                    Furnishings
      $0                       $0                    Books 
      $0                       $0                    Shrubs/trees
      $0                       $0                    Non-necessary household goods 

We're almost to the end of July, so I'm including it since I feel confidant that I won't be shopping in the next couple of days. For gardening, I'd only included shrubs and trees and had planned to buy some annuals for a couple of pots out front the way I do every year. And then decided that even that wasn't necessary.

For the pot that I usually put mums or other seasonal flowers into, I dug up a patch of mystery plants that weren't a good fit for where I'd originally put them. At the point that I stuck them in the pot they'd not yet bloomed, so I was very pleasantly surprised when these beauties emerged.

I had one other empty pot on the front porch and I decided to make a topiary-like thing. I had a set of three pieces of bamboo wired at the top that had come with some other plant. I cut some ivy from the back yard and twined it up the bamboo poles. It's grown quite a bit and adds a little height to the plantings. And all free!

Food was never part of the no-shopping year and while we mostly eat at home, yesterday we'd spent all day working on various projects and decided to pick up some catfish and onion rings at the neighborhood diner. Apparently the fish was so hot that it melted right through the container. My husband said, "What are the chances that none of that styrofoam is melted into our fish?" I just shrugged and said, "I don't know. Maybe it will give me cancer."