four more days

it turns out I have to turn the modem back in to the comcast people for them to cancel the service (der, I didn't think of that--it makes sense) and since the billing period ends the 26th, I'll just wait until this friday or saturday to turn it in. So I have a few more days of blogging.

I have been doing some self-reflection and was surprised to find how quickly and easily I have turned into a consumer in the last few years. I always considered myself fairly frugal and careful with money, due to the great teaching I received from my parents (both by their example and by their teaching) and from brothers and sisters. But the last years I began to relax, and now it has caught up with me with a terrible vengeance.

Not that I really have gone to any extravagent measures to obtain expensive nice possessions. No, it's really been little trips to the grocery store and to wal-mart nearly everyday (when macey's, k-mart, and target are all within easy walking distance, well...) and buying expensive groceries, like organic milk and yogurt, or buying little toys and trinkets for Oliver on every trip. And not reducing my spending to match my reduced income. And using the car WAY too much.

So I started last week with a vow to live on our food "storage." I'm not really sure how long the food will last, but I haven't been to the store for a week (except to buy some eggs--the cheap kind, not the expensive organic kind I used to buy). The milk and yogurt are sorely missed, but we have powdered milk for a little while, and I bought some eggs with our penny jar. It's a good thing Oliver doesn't drink milk anyway, otherwise this might be even harder to do. And my new mode of transportation is my bike, or my own two feet. It's a good thing I only have Oliver, otherwise, I don't know what I would do about carting kids around. So I'm going to take advantage of this time when I only have one child and really learn to live on less. I want to get to a point where we can live within our means. Really do it this time, and stay that way. And maybe save. Because trying to save while racking up consumer debt is absolutely pointless--in my opinion. I don't know if anyone has proven that fact financially somewhere.

Drastic circumstances call for drastic measures. Or something like that. How does that saying go?

It's great when gas is so expensive, because now I can say I saved even more by not driving somewhere! Like, I didn't drive to Grandma Dee's last wednesday, I took Oliver on our bike. So I figure I saved $1.20 just that one trip! Of course, the bike seat cost me $30.00 last fall, and it could very well be argued that I shouldn't have purchased it, because we really didn't have the money for it then, even less now, and I'll have to use it at that distance 20 somewad more times to make it pay for itself, so I won't actually be saving money for a while, but hey, I'm not spending anymore, eh?

It's also pretty lucky that I have a child who enjoys being in the stroller or on the bike or in the wagon so much, who thinks that a walk over to Jiffy Lube to see their crazy-dancing-air-sock-man-thing (do you know what I'm talking about?) is the best thing that we do in a day.

So does anyone know someone who can give me a free haircut? Because I might just take matters into my own hands.