My progress of lack thereof through the Fall

September
...was not a stellar month. I am taking a Spanish class and there were no used textbooks available so the choice was either buy the books or don't take the class. I guess I can count that as a necessary expenditure. The more serious failing of the month was buying a new battery charger for my camera having, apparently, lost the old one. I can't really claim it was necessary as I could always borrow a camera, but I eventually persuaded myself that it was ridiculous to let a perfectly good camera sit unused. Though before buying I tried to borrow and I looked on Craig's list and ebay for used ones. No one had my kind of charger. The real lesson here may be, though, only buy cameras with standard size batteries.

On the plus side, I went through my desk diary, changed all the dates and erased all the pencil entries; except for a small number of ink-ridden days. Iit is almost as good as a new one. I plan this year to write only in pencil so that I can use it again next year. Who needs a PDA; a pencil, eraser and notebook do almost as well!

I made real progress on the present side. I discovered the second-hand kids store where I got a book and toy for my great niece's birthday. I also had great fun finding a present for my niece's 21st birthday. She had Mexican theme so I gave her two sombreros that I bought years ago in Mexico, a Mexican trinket that I also bought years ago, a few leftover pesos, some Mexican coffee and a bottle of Baja Rosa--and one of the birthday cards from my birthday--the one with the choice of ages (which she later sent on to her uncle). I had enormous fun thinking about it all. Who knows, this may restore my faith in gift giving. In other years I would have given her a book and some money, but I decided that money is out since it pretty much counts as indirect buying of stuff. I also managed to regift something to a 5 year old (don't ask). Seriously this present thing might turn out as a bonus to be a way of getting a few things out of my house guilt-free.

October
...has come close to the perfect month. Aside from food, alcohol and cigarettes, I bought a bottle of dish detergent ( in lieu of the refillable), a bottle of shower daily shower cleaner ( in lieu of vinegar and water) and bottle of hand soap (also in lieu of refilling) and my toilet paper although it is labelled 100% recycled also says only 80% post-consumer material. I'm not completely sure what pre-consumer recycled material is, so I can't quite figure out if that is a bad thing. I also was required to wear a T-shirt for some recruitment event, but I managed to kind of drape it over myself and then sneak it back into the box of unused t-shirts to be saved for the next event. So, pretty damned good, I'd say. I didn't even buy anything second-hand!

November starts tomorrow and I will aim for perfection. Of course I always aim for perfection, its just that vices get in the way. The buying non-refillables is really a matter of laziness as in not getting to the natural foods store before it closes and falling back on buying at Safeway.