Update on my "No shopping challenge"

 I didn't get an update done on Monday for my No shopping challenge but we are still merrily going on our way of using what we have and not buying stuff.

 We did buy a dining room set which Ken teased me about (wondering if it was allowable with my challenge that I had going) but I assured him it was fine because IF the Ingalls had been in the market for a dining room set and IF they would have had a neighbor selling one then they could have bought one too even though there weren't any trains coming.

 We did also make one other purchase that I had tried to avoid but it didn't end up working out. The case was this- on Friday we went skiing. We were there in the evening over the supper hour. I knew we would want to eat and it would have been so easy to just go ahead and buy food at the chalet but I figured out a warm and packable supper and we brought that along. We also brought along hot chocolate in a carafe. Well the carafe broke (the glass inside) which caused it to leak all over and there was no hot chocolate to drink. I hadn't brought anything else to drink and so Ken purchased beverages for everybody. That was our splurge of the week.

  Other than that I haven't been spending and I haven't been in any stores at all. I am happy about that.

Here are some things I have been doing to avoid needing to shop:

• My mop handle broke (it had rusted through), I thought about just doing my mopping on my hands and knees but I quickly dismissed that idea! I decided I had better figure out a way to fix it. I found some little metal rods (saved from an arch that was broken)  that I had and I put one inside the handle and the other next to it and with some duck tape I taped the handle back together again. It might not be the most beautiful mop in the world but it works fine and I like it because instead of throwing it and buying new - I was able to fix it!
• Making sprouts. Making sprouts is so easy to do (and cheap!) and it provides fresh food any time of year. Great in salads, sandwiches and more. I have been making radish, alfalfa and wheat sprouts. Some of my sprouting seeds were old as I haven't made these as often as I should so this has been a great time to use them up!
• Finding nice ways to stretch eggs. Ken really likes to have eggs for breakfast (and we would be having to buy these along with our milk except my parents graciously give us some from their chickens) but we ran low last week. I made us scrambled eggs last week using only 3 eggs for all of us and we all had plenty. I stretched them by adding a bit of squash (it makes it look nice and yellow like there is cheese in it), a chopped up baked potato, hummus (a good protein addition that we didn't notice the taste of), a bit of dry milk and water and salsa. It was good! Another time I added grated zucchini, green pepper, squash and potato. That also was good. I am also learning that eggs aren't necessarily needed in baking/cooking. I have successfully made pancakes, breads and cakes with far less eggs then are called for.
• I have been trying to use more herbs and kelp powder and less salt. That hasn't always been wonderfully successful and I will need to buy salt soon! :-)