Buy Nothing Challenge October Update (a.k.a Monthly Expense Report and Food Pics)

Buy Nothing Challenge

With only November and December ahead of us, the Buy Nothing Challenge is two more months from being done. What a relief, right?

As a reminder, this challenge was started by The Happy Philosopher. Interestingly, he recently admitted to being done with the challenge.

I completely understand. It’s really tough to buy nothing at all even with having a list of caveats and exemptions. That’s one of the reasons why these updates have sort of transformed into a monthly expense report and an excuse to post pictures of food.

For my wife and I, the point of this challenge is to be more mindful of our spending. In general, we try not to buy anything that does not bring us sustained value and happiness. To achieve this, we justify purchases by using a our own guidelines.

In some months, we actually gave away more than we bought. However, October was a little bit different. We splurged a little bit.

Let’s see how we did…

 

Baby Stuff

Our baby girl is growing bigger and bigger each day. And if you recall, we included “baby stuff” in our list of exemptions.

We bought:

• 2 onesie outfits ($25) because she outgrew a few of her 3-6 month outfits.
• 2 wooden toys ($28) to help with teething pain.
• 1 hoodie jacket ($20) since it’s getting a bit chilly here. (Chilly in Southern California is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit.)

 

Gifts

We also included gifts in our list of exemptions. After all, we still want to be generous with others!

Here’s what we bought:

• NekTeck Shiatsu massage pillow ($45). This was a gift for my dad’s birthday. I think he appreciated the gift because he had been under a lot of stress last month.
• Nest thermostat ($182). This is a wedding gift for one of our good friends who is getting married in mid November.

 

Discretionary Spending

We bought three items that are not on the list of exemptions.

These purchases include:

• Glass electric kettle ($30). Before, we would boil water using a pot on the stovetop. It would take several minutes. With the kettle, it only takes a few seconds! My wife uses it every day so  we get a lot of value from it!
• Air filters ($80). We needed new filters for our Blue Air air purifier. We strive to create a clean and non-toxic environment in our home for our baby. Therefore, having purified clean air is important for us. The filters in our purifier were getting dirty and needed replacing.
• Glass steamer ($26). My wife bought this so that we can steam vegetables more efficiently. Because this helps keep us eating healthy, this purchase is totally justified. Plus we use it steam yummy dumplings!

 

Our Anniversary

My wife and I celebrated our three year anniversary in October!

What did we buy each other?

Nothing.

I know it sounds unromantic, but we really did buy each other nothing. There’s a specific reason for this.

For our first two anniversaries, we have always celebrated by taking a big trip and giving each other a traditional gift.

For instance, we went to Koh Samui in Thailand and gave each other a card (the traditional gift is paper) for our first anniversary. And on our second anniversary, we went to Spain and gave each other clothes (cotton).

This year was different.

We didn’t give each the traditional three year anniversary gift, which is leather. Since both my wife and I are vegan, buying each other animal products like leather is out of the question. Additionally, we didn’t take any trips. This is because now we have a baby girl. We did manage to go to Orlando with her, but I quickly learned that traveling with a baby ain’t easy.

While I did have vacation time off during our anniversary, we did not go anywhere. I asked my wife if she wanted to take a short trip or if she wanted gift for our anniversary. She said no. Essentially, she told me that the best gift I could give her is staying home to hang out with her and to help take care of the baby. So I did.

After helping her out, I can see why she asked for such a gift. Parenting can be really hard and tiring. I have a lot of newfound respect and admiration for stay at home parents.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t resent my daughter at all. I love her more than anything. It’s hard to resist her love when she’s always laughing and smiling when she sees me as if I’m her favorite person in the world. The only reason taking care of her is so tiring is because she’s so much fun and wants to play all the time!

That said, we did manage go out for our anniversary. We had a delicious brunch at one of our favorite local restaurants, Cafe Gratitude.

The vegan quiche was really good!

Housing

Housing is by far our largest expense. Living in a McMansion in Southern California ain’t cheap you know!

If you’re curious, we pay a little more than $5,000 a month for mortgage (principal and interest at 3.625%), insurance, and property taxes.

We also try to pay an extra $4,000 every month toward the principal in order to pay off our house faster, within ten years. This is outlined in my investor policy statement.

 

Transportation

We paid nothing ($0) for gas in the month of October.

Again, this is because my primary vehicle is a Tesla.

We do have an old car that runs on gasoline. But we didn’t drive it enough in October where we needed to fuel it up.

You might be wondering: But what about the cost of electricity to fuel the Tesla?

Well, it is essentially free for us because we have solar panels that overproduce electricity. This excess solar energy makes a profit of about $60 a month. It’s not a bad source of passive income if you ask me. The sunshine is one of the many perks of living in Southern California.

The only cost related to transportation is the $30 I paid to have my car washed and detailed. It is well worth the money because the guy who washes my car does a fantastic job.

 

Clothes

While we bought new clothes for the baby, we haven’t bought any new clothes for ourselves at all this year.

My wife and I have more clothes than we need.

However, both of us can probably think of a few things that we could potentially buy later.

For me, I’ll probably buy new running shoes and athletic socks. As of now, I just lift weights and maintain a healthy diet. At some point I would like to get back in to running and other aerobic activities.

I’m sure my wife has several things in mind she’d like to buy in the future too.

 

Entertainment

We haven’t spent a whole lot on entertainment this year.

In October, the only entertainment expense we had was our cable bill. And a few days ago, we finally cut the cord on that!

 

Food

Our food expenses were on the high side for the month of October.

This is primarily because we went out to eat quite a bit.

Restaurants – $408

My wife and I ate out a total of eight times. Three of those times were spent celebrating our anniversary.

On one of those occasions, we some fancy vegan donuts with kombucha along with a hearty breakfast. The donuts were delicious and simply divine.

In addiiton, we treated my wife’s father to dinner for his birthday. Both of our fathers have birthdays in October.

I’m also including a fancy meal that I had at a retirement party. Five physicians in our anesthesia department are retiring at the end of the year. So we had a party for them at a high-end country club. It was pretty steep at $100 per person. I only went because children were not invited.

Here’s the dish that I had.

Groceries – $367

Our grocery expenses went up a little bit too.

We decided to have a little more fun with our cooking.

We try to eat as healthy as possible. Here’s a high protein, high fiber dish that was very tasty. It’s vegan and gluten-free too.

We also made some Asian-inspired food such as this mushroom and tofu dish.

Bok choy is surprisingly easy to cook and beautiful to present.

Living in California, we are inspired to make all kinds of food. In addition to our usual Italian and Asian dishes, we also make Mexican-inspired food such as this Southwest tofu scramble with potatoes, salsa, and homemade guacamole.

We also made some spicy garlic eggplant with tofu. It’s one of my favorite dishes to make!

Yakisoba noodles stir-fried with vegetables is a quick and easy meal to prepare.

Here’s a dish that is vegan, gluten-free, semi low carb, and paleo friendly. Spaghetti squash “noodles” with high protein lentil marinara sauce.

Now that fall is in full swing, pumpkin spice is everywhere. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin spice lattes. What about pumpkin spice oatmeal?

Here’s my oatmeal with apple slices, banana, almond butter, chia seeds (high in the good fat omega-3 fatty acids), maca root powder (hormone regulator and natural testosterone booster), amla powder (extremely high in antioxidant properties), walnuts, a touch of maple syrup, and pumpkin spices (cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg). A healthy and delicious treat!

We also handcrafted some homemade vegan pizza too! We added zucchini, mushrooms, and Miyoko’s mozzarella style vegan “cheese” as toppings. And yes, that is really the centerpiece on our dining table right now.

As you can see, we eat pretty well.

More Food

We certainly don’t mind splurging on healthy, delicious vegan food.

One reason why we are able to keep our food costs so low is because I practice intermittent fasting. Basically, I don’t eat breakfast. It’s a great way for me to stay lean and relatively fit.

My first meal is usually between eleven and twelve o’clock during my lunch break at work. My work place provides a free catered lunch for me, which also allows us to keep our food expenses low.

Some of you might be wondering what I typically eat at work. Of course I try to eat healthy at work too. Here’s what my typical lunch looks like.

Over To You?

Did you spend a lot in October? What do you think of all the food pictures?