Buy Nothing Challenge December Update

Buy Nothing Challenge December Update

2018 is in the rear view mirror and our buy nothing challenge has officially ended.

Yippee! Horray!

What. A. Relief.

I’m not saying that my wife and I were totally depriving ourselves the whole year. We weren’t.

But I have to admit, I was getting tired of tracking every purchase month after month. Especially since I was trying to account for all the little things we bought.

That’s why I tried to spice up these monthly posts with something new, an interesting update on our daughter, and various food porn pictures of dishes we made that month. It made the posts much more fun to write and hopefully more interesting to read.

Overall, my wife and I didn’t buy a whole lot. The buy nothing challenge wasn’t particularly hard for us.

For me, frugality and saving money is sort of fun. My wife feels the same way. We take pride in being conscious with our spending while still being able to enjoy life. Having systems in place allows us to consciously spend on only the things that provide lasting value in our lives.

Cutting to the chase, we ended up spending a good amount in December. And I’m totally fine with that.

Most of our purchases for the month were gifts, things for the baby, and eating out with family.

 

Gifts – $371

As mentioned in my previous posts, we gave several unconventional gifts this Christmas. But we also gave some conventional gifts too.

These included:

• Elgato video capture VHS to Mac / PC converter – $61
  • We bought this for my parents because they have a lot of VHS tapes of home videos of us when we were kids. It’s a great way to convert these precious memories into digital form before VHS players becomes unrepairable and totally obsolete.
• Wireless Bluetooth camera remote control – $51
  • We bought this of my parents to make taking family photos easier. With a push of a button, we can snap a picture. This is a lot safer than setting a timer on the camera then running to pose with the rest of the family without the risk of tripping over something.
• Xenvo Pro Lens kit for iPhone – $40
  • We bought this for my sister to provide a wide angle lens for her camera phone.
• Visa prepaid gift card – $200
  • We gave this to my wife’s sister because she regularly visits and helps take care of our baby. Plus I have a ton of these lying around because I buy them in bulk whenever there is a promotion with an opportunity to manufacture spend.
• Sephora cosmetic kit – $20
  • My wife’s family has been doing a “secret Santa” gift exchange for the past few years. The intention is to only buy one gift for another person, hence reducing the cost and stress of the gift giving process. The agreement is that the gift purchase should not exceed $20. My secret Santa gift recipient ended up being one of my wife’s female cousins. Since I’m not that great in figuring out gifts for people, my wife helped me by buying her a cosmetic kit.

Baby Stuff – $74

We don’t buy a whole lot of stuff for our baby.

In December, here’s what we bought:

• Baltic amber teething necklace – $18
  • We bought another amber necklace to help with teething pain. The first one that we had was given to my wife’s friend because her baby was experiencing tweeting pain too.
• Microfiber hardwood floor dust mop – $14
  • This counts as a baby-related purchase because we are trying to keep our hardwood floors very clean. Our baby crawls everywhere now!
• Bumkins sleeved bib – $13
  • We bought a sleeved bib for her because she is very messy when eating solid foods. What do you expect from a baby?
• Hevea place mat – $29
  • We bought a portable natural rubber place mat for baby so that she can have a clean place to eat whoever we go out to eat.

That’s all.

We didn’t buy any more cloth diapers. And we certainly didn’t buy any disposable diapers.

Additionally, we don’t buy prepackaged baby food. In addition to breastfeeding, our daughter eats whole food plants just like we do. To be specific, she eats blueberries, cherries, broccoli, chickpeas, coconut yogurt, cashew yogurt, avocados, green beans, black beans, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, cauliflower, oranges, bananas, and tangerines.

By far, her favorite food is broccoli. She loves it! Interesting, right?

 

Transportation – $160

I spent around $40 to fill up the gasoline tank of my old Mercedes C-Class.

Because the Tesla is by far our primary vehicle, the Mercedes doesn’t get driven very much. And because of this, the battery got drained. I spent $120 to replace it. The battery was over fiver years old, so it lived it’s lifespan anyway.

 

Food – $836

We spent a lot on food this month because we went out to eat a lot more.

At $303, our grocery spending was pretty typical. Nothing too fancy, just our usual whole food plant grocery haul. We did buy a little more than usual to prepare for a hot pot dinner at my parent’s house on Christmas day. Also, my wife and I prepared a brunch for my mom on her birthday.

We spent $533 at restaurants in December.

My wife and I went out to eat nine times together.

We went to this one sushi place near our house two times. One time just us two, and another time to take out my best friend who was visiting.

To add to the restaurant bill, we also treated my mom to a large family dinner on her birthday.

 

Conclusion

Overall, I think we did well in the buy nothing challenge for the entire year. It was a great exercise in getting us to be even more conscious of our spending.

Besides the exempted purchases we had planned to already make (new car, new bed, and baby stuff), we didn’t buy a whole lot.

My wife and I never really felt deprived during the challenge. However, I’ll admit that there were a few things that we delayed and put off for 2019.

My wife is planning to buy a cast iron skillet pan and a food processor.

Meanwhile, I’m planning to buy a new pair of running shoes. My current shoes are pretty worn down and I would like to get back into running to get into better shape.

We will probably buy many more things in 2019. Just don’t count on me tracking every single purchase ;).

 

Featured image is a photo of the beach near my house at sunset.