What I bought in May

Im definitely struggling with only "just" buying what we need...

Kobe has had a growth spurt so I bought some preloved school shorts and 2 new school tshirts (I could not find any size 10 shirts on the secondhand uniforms shop rack and not even the "Facebook uniform buy and sell" page). I also went to the annual massive Bindaring op shop sale and scored this haul plus the clothes above (mainly t-shirts, a dress and a pair of jeans and a top and shorts for Kobe), more preloved activity books (they were 5 for $1 and perfect for the 5 hour car rides with the boys on our recent roadtrip). There was only a couple that Kobe could do as the rest were too easy and Dylan is too small to write yet so I basically read them to Dylan like a storybook. Thankfully he loves any books with numbers or the alphabet (and can even count to 10 and knows the alphabet at 2 and a half years old:)). More preloved goodies include a Sooty DVD, fabric and a maths timetable chart (for Kobe).

What I bought new; Kobe's school uniform shirts, Peppermint sustainable magazine for me:), Dr Bronner's soap and lip balm, reusable yoghurt pouches (I miss yoghurt that I think I will attempt to make it), seeds, gloves and a "no junk sign" (for the mailbox).

Here's to more restraint next month #minimalistgoals.

Happy Sunday friends!
Grace

What I bought in March

Again books dominated my purchases in March, I succumbed to 3 fashion magazines (not available at my library so I will look into getting a digital subscription), Easter books (gifted to my boys in previous post),  preloved books about saving energy /saving water / recycling to educate Dylan, Hey Warrior book about anxiety for Kobe, preloved copy of Minimalism (this was an awesome find), preloved stainless bento trays (2 for $2!!) and some Birkenstock sandals for Dylan as his handmedown shoes are way too big.

I managed to avoid buying preloved activity books this month by using the magna doodle to do games with Dylan (he loves guessing what number or shape I drew) & verbally doing quizzes for Kobe (he is loving being tested on maths equations at the moment). Plus we utilise our library on a weekly basis. I will be spring cleaning the kids bookshelf in April as there are at least 20% that no longer get read & I only want to keep stuff that we use (and I feel so guilty about how many books I have bought over the last 2 months).

The only gifts we bought for Easter is the photo above as we thought all the cousins doing an egg hunt was enough. We ended up only buying Lukes sisters new bub an easter gift which was something useful (bibs) & an Easter book. Kobe wanted to gift Luke's parents some chocolate from local chocolatier Decadence C  (the chocolate pretzels was the only stuff we bought in plastic packaging in March & the plastic hooks on the bibs, dang it!).

Kobe spent his pocket money on discounted Easter chocolate ($1.60) as he was angry that the Easter bunny missed our house (I did warn him that he wasn't visiting our house this year but again he is at that age when he compares what he gets to what his friends get & he always ends up getting the least but Im trying to teach him to be grateful for what he does have as there is always someone out there with less). 

I fantasized about buying a kids outdoor setting new but instead I will hope that I find one preloved or on the verge. And we were blessed to be given hand me down clothes for both boys (thank you Michelle, Sam, Kaysey & Melissa) so hopefully I won't have to buy much if anything for Winter for them.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Grace

What I bought in February

After attending ”The minimalists” show a few weeks back, I thought I would document what I bought every month & hopefully only keep things that had a purpose & add value to my life.

After auditing what I bought in February, I definitely bought too many preloved activity books for the kids. This is definitely a weakness of mine. It keeps them from asking for tv when we are home. A therapeutic colouring book for Kobe. A preloved wetsuit for Dylan. A preloved striped shirt ($3) for me (I really want to downsize my wardrobe & have a capsule wardrobe of timeless pieces I like as opposed to hanging on to outdated clothes until they are threadbare out of guilt. Saying that I'm only letting myself buy 10 fashion items this year). Fabric to sew curtains for my bedroom, this has been a long time project of mine after waiting almost 5 years to find the perfect colour fabric secondhand to complete this project. I also invested in an Onya bread bag which you can also freeze bread in (I still use my cloth bag too to buy bread).

Kobe helped to choose a birthday gift for a friend so naturally he chose a skylander & books.

And from his pocket money he brought a preloved book from an op shop for 50 cents. Kobe earns $1 a week for doing chores around the house like loading the washing machine, tidying toys up & sweeping the front of leaves.


Going forward I definitely need to limit preloved activity books. But I did well not buying toys for the boys. And I'm happy Kobe chose to buy a book with his pocket money.

Happy Saturday friends!
Grace