Buy Nothing Check In

So here we are 6 days into our Buy Nothing challenge and so far so good. We did have some close calls however for me. Visiting the grocery store is clearly my weakest point and I need to be more aware of not only if I truly need those groceries or not. I think I treat going to the grocery store like those who go to the mall. I might believe in my head that shopping at the mall is the most evil place when it comes to shopping sustainably but clearly the grocery store isn't any different.
Poo.
Big test was yesterday we went to the mall because Hubby had to visit radio shack because a charger he bought there won't work anymore. Being at the mall wasn't too bad. We didn't' go into any stores and really jut walked around because it was raining outside.

Here is what we bought so far on our "allowed" list of items:

• Food which included a block of cheese and milk. The money I used for this and the 2 items below came from a reimbursement from work so really it was like free $$. Ok thats a stretch
• Dish soap (Seventh Generation) which thankfully I had a coupon for
• Tissue for Noah's classroom that I technically got for free because the coupon I had for the dishsoap got me $1.50 off of 2 items. The tissue was $1.26 so that made it free! Well sort of..
• My prescription. Can't avoid this one. At least its generic and cheap
• A light bulb for my car. Didn't want to get pulled over for a burnt out tail light
• Gas for the cars both mine and hubby's

And I think that is it. Thats pretty good for a week worth of not spending!

Challenge today was we went to the beach about 2.5 hrs from here and I really debated on getting something to eat there rather then eat the stuff we packed. BUT I overcame my desire to cheat (there was $5 burning a hole in my wallet!!) and we finished up the stuff I packed and ate here at home.

Here is some stuff I've done during this challenge to keep us busy and some stuff I've done to help further our goal in this challenge:

• The Library. OH library we LOVE you. Even hubby got a book and has ready at least 3 chapters. That is a miracle!
• Cooking. I think I've made 5 loaves of banana bread recently and 3 batches of cookies.
• Trading. We are now trading coffee with a lady down the street. We give her coffee and she now will gives us food. Like this week she went crazy and gave us 2 jars of spaghetti sauce and 3 pouches of Bertolli spaghetti/pasta sauce. Score! She's one of those coupon crazy ladies who does the whole "double the coupon" thing that I can never master and get stuff for dirt. Works for me. I get the coffee for free anyway!
• I closed my American Excess Card and while I transferred the money from a line of credit thru my bank it felt good to stick it to AMEX. They recently raised my rates just because so I decided I would rather have the $$ from my finance charges go somewhere local then AMEX. So into my credit union that amount went. now I can monitor it closer and make sure I'm staying up on making a dent. Its easier to make a dent when you can see the amount.
• I recently found a bunch of free puzzles we are trying to master. There were no boxes so its been interesting! ;)

How is your buy nothing challenge going anyway?

Cool pic from here.