mid-month update:

my “no-buy” month has so far turned out well. i have had to take a “get out of no-buy april” free card twice….for beer. but otherwise, ive done pretty well.

stepping away from a consumer society for a whole 16 days so far has been an interesting experience. i dont think you really realize just how much crap you buy on a daily basis until you put a freeze on your bank account. the most surprising thing so far? its not really all that bad. occasionally its a bit annoying, but im certainly not suffering in any way. on the contrary, its actually kind of refreshing. and it also helps to remind myself that im saving for a reason – so i dont find myself spending the rest of my life living out of my friends basement.

the house shopping has been…special. i actually got off to a really rocky start, showing up to meet my real estate agent at the first property just in time to see the cops cleaning up a shooting scene at the end of the street. needless to say, i didnt stop to view the house.

for the most part, the majority of what ive seen is old houses that need a lot of work. some more than others. none have really thrilled me. any that ive liked enough to even seriously consider have had major downsides, enough so that i passed. but thats about it on the house hunting. limited funds really make the whole process a pain. most places i can afford are in areas i shouldnt even be driving through. part of me says to just stop looking and rent for another year to try to build up some funds, but then the realist in me knows that rent is outrageous right now and im not really going to be able to save much at all. couple that with the fact that housing prices will just continue to rise and i think that a year from now i’ll just be back in the same position. so…i press on.

spring. not my favorite season. but definitely welcome nonetheless.

this blog has been getting spammed like no ones business recently. i absolutely hate blog spam. what perplexes me most about this is that i have comments set to automatically turn off on older entries. none of these should be getting spammed. and yet….they are. if anyone has any suggestions or explanations, id be more than willing to entertain them.

in other news, the housing search goes slowly. turns out im actually quite poverty-stricken and i didnt even know it. ive begun to reconsider renting for another year. buying a house seems like more stress than its really worth.

and going along with my newly discovered state of poverty, im participating in no-buy month for the month of april. basically im buying nothing new except necessities (groceries, gas, important things like that…i tried to justify new shoes as a necessity but was unsucessful). im not buying any clothes, iTunes, meals out, latte’s, liquor, or any of those hundred and five items i didnt even know i needed but somehow always end up with anytime i go to target….gasp, i know, it sounds awful….but i gave it a test run in february by not buying breakfast or lunch out for the whole month and it turned out pretty well. i didnt really suffer and i saved a lot of money. ok, so i did pick the shortest month of the year and there was a tiny bit of suffering, but only because breakfast sandwiches are REALLY hard to give up for 28 straight days. but i got over it. if i can pull off this april no-buy, i will have successfully lived on 50% of my income for the whole month. wish me luck. i’ll keep you updated on the progress.

and someone send me threatening emails reminding me that i need to post some of my most recent pictures up here. i have a whole bunch i just havent taken the time to download off the D50 yet. maybe i’ll so that tonight while i watch the horror that is american idol this season.