31 Days of Living Well Spending Zero – Day 31

 
Today was the last day of the challenge and in some ways it was the easiest days. I mean it’s Halloween and my husband’s birthday so it was a day full of fun and celebration!
We were up in the morning to make coffee (we pulled out our real pot since Ben loves coffee but when we ran out of Keurig cups a few mornings ago he started just going without), I knew that would be a treat. Sadly it required a good cleaning before I used it, made me think about going back to it in general. But Ben got to stay in Bed with Cashel our three year old while I cleaned the pot and got a waffle and coffee breakfast going.
Then after making my more carb/protein balanced option I headed out on a walk with my “littlest pumpkin” in tow!
and Ben carved pumpkins with our boys. 
Such a sweet thing, and they saved every seed to roast. They roasted spaghetti squash earlier this month if you remember and LOVED them. So the boys were super excited.
When I got home we tided up a bit, made our card/gift for a wee friend for his birthday and got ready for a day filled with treats and costumes. First stop was his birthday party, with an awesome Star Wars theme. The games were so fun, so age appropriate, and right up Cashel’s alley. He loved it all but his favorite part was the “Jedi Training School” where they got to hit the dad’s light saber with their own (3 times) and then hit 3 balloons that were hanging from the ceiling. 
When they did it they were dubbed “Jedi Masters.” Just darling. Noah is one of Cashel’s only friends that are boys and really in fact the only one that is wired similarly to him so it’s really fun to see him interact with Noah. Great snacks for the kids and dessert too! The piñata was fun and really got Cashel thinking about “treats.” 
At this point we headed out to meet up with some friends and family in our small downtown shopping area where the store fronts provide candy at each door. Camper fell asleep in the car so we were able to leave him sleeping with my folks. The live music, treats, and a free scoop
 

Then our evening took an unexpected but fun turn. My parents treated us to pizza for Ben’s birthday and we just had a low key evening at their house. It was so fun!

Here’s the deal… if I’ve learned anything this month I’d sum it up in this phrase…
“It’s the little things”

I’ll write more about that in tomorrow’s summary of the month but let me tell you that statement has run through my brain all month and our life is changed by it.

What I did spend on…1. NOTHING

What I did not spend on…1. It would have been an expenditure but I had though ahead on costumes and bought most of what we needed at the end of September. (Just got the boys suits and my shell at goodwill or second hand) and then the other things we needed we borrowed or were gifted like my red sweater, Ben’s vest and hat. The net and waders and boots for all of us we already had!
2. We were treated to so much by friends (the party) and the trick or treating and free ice cream and music (our community) it really was an easy day to not spend. (Our pumpkins were also something I got earlier in the month. I only had to pay $0.17 for both sugar pumpkins).
3. I packed my lunch since I have to eat every 2 hours and what I need to eat and what I need to avoid is so specific these days.

Tips…

1. Do not stock your cabinets/pantry etc. But I was glad in the end that I had thought ahead to costumes. In other years that might not have been an issue as we have a dress up box and could have pulled something from there but this year it is in storage out of reach. I also would have stuck to my guns on no spending if I hadn’t thought ahead (like I had to do for gifts/parties). I would have turned to friends or our Buy Nothing group and just taken what I could get.
2. Enjoy the little things. Simplify. (I’ll explore these tomorrow but if we’d all just do this life would look a lot different)
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