Let me tell you: this will be a short one. Not because I don’t have time or ideas, but because my Low Buy May was more of a No Buy than a Low Buy — and I’m loving it! 🙂
Apart from a few birthdays, I didn’t spend any money except for groceries, toiletries, and three budget-friendly ebooks. But let’s take a closer look at this month.
Celebrating loved ones
My dad, my gran, one of my closest friends, and Wonderguy are (or rather were) May babies. So usually, May is a rather expensive month — which is fine and would have been fine this time as well. Nonetheless, I found some wonderful gifts and still had some money left for my future self. Apart from buying three low-priced ebooks, I didn’t even use my book budget. So this month was all about necessities and gifts.
Wonderguy and I are huge fans of gifting something useful — and a book 🙂
This time I flat-out asked him to send me a book wishlist so I can get him something he really wants. It’s not that easy to find the right book for him, as we share our love for reading, but prefer different styles and authors, mostly. The second part of my gift was a simple rice cooker. Nothing fancy or romantic, but highly practical for someone who loves to eat rice but can’t cook it. I do my best to live and shop sustainably, so in the beginning, I was looking for some alternative to the classic electrical appliance but I couldn’t find anything that would be as convenient. Thus I simply bought a Wonderguy-friendly rice cooker he can handle without problems and cook rice with whenever he wants.
Guess I will get rice with veggies regularly in the foreseeable future — and that’s fine with me 🙂
Stay frugal, stay happy
While it was (relatively) easy for me to not shop before the lockdown, it got even easier now after the restrictions ease more and more. During lockdown I found so much stuff to do at home — sewing, decluttering, rearranging, reading, writing, working, painting, to just mention a few — that now I have no urge to go outside apart from getting to and from work and taking walks. I go to the shops if I need anything. We get groceries once or twice a week, and that’s it.
Before the lockdown, I went to bookstores from time to time or accompanied friends on their shopping trips. Now, I avoid crowds even more than before. Kids unnerve me because they run around and yell. People unnerve me because they are everywhere, not keeping their distance. I know I’m overly sensitive right now and I need to desensitize, so I’m not constantly stressed out when out and about. But I also think it’s just fine to not enjoy hitting the shops anymore.
Anyway, I plan on keeping things frugal for as long as I can. We got pretty good at shopping for groceries just once a week, which in the end saves us tons of money. Having to stay at home most of the time taught us how to calculate and estimate what we need for a week. Wonderguy gets out frequently to get some small stuff, but he’s also still enjoying the privilege of working from home, so for him getting some milk, veggies, or pasta is a way to get some fresh air. I, on the other hand, had to go back to the office already (with no additional safety measures, but hey, stop being hysteric, profit over people, haha) and have to be outside 4 times a week, so I feel no need to be around people any more than I have to.
Thus, the lockdown made it even easier for me to live frugally and save some additional money. And I will do my best to keep it that way 🙂
So May was a fantastic Low Buy month. I remember writing in my last Low Buy update that I hope to have a no-buy month finally, saving as much money as possible. Well, I’m heading in the right direction and I’ll do my best to stay on track.
Hope you’re all doing well. Thanks for passing by — stay safe & take care! 🙂