Birthday Edition

We've been on a major spending cutback here in Gradgreenland. C and I have not bought anything other than food and a birthday gift for a kid birthday in the last few weeks.

So, then C's birthday came up. My students asked me what I got him for his birthday and I could tell they were shocked when my reaction was, "nothing".

Uh....

C and I pretty much agreed not to exchange gifts for the sake of exchanging gifts about 5 years ago. Not even birthday cards. He thinks they are a waste of money. I can see that. A handwritten note or even a romantic e-mail can get the point across. To tell the truth, better than any birthday card was the call he gave me a couple of weeks ago in the morning to check on me because I had been feeling bad. Sweet.

So, I didn't get my husband anything for his birthday. But he didn't want me to spend any money on anything. Instead, we'll be having one of his favorite dinners and I made him a cake. I even gave him a choice of flavors :)

I guess we're not a romantic couple -- but maybe we're just not into wasting money. I find it much more romantic to be friends with a man that I love and to do things together. We agree that we'd rather spend the money on a new couch or on a vacation than fritter it away on gifts that we don't really need.

That said, every now and then an awesome opportunity comes along. Great concert tickets, for example. And if that happens to fall near a birthday or Christmas, they get wrapped.

April Challenge from Crunchy!

Crunchy Chicken challenges us to make April buy nothing month. The rules are:
1. Buy nothing new, except
2. Food, gardening supplies, underwear, medicines

If you need anything else, buy it used, borrow, or make it.
I'm going to go for it! Anyone else want to join?

Blog organization
In other news, I am going to try to be a little more organized about my posts. On Wednesdays, I will do a driving (car divorce) update. On Thursdays, I will do an experiment (like my detergent experiment last week). I also plan to do a day of activism -- probably letter writing, and a day of getting rid of stuff (I'm thinking GROSS -- Get Rid of Stuff Saturday).