Our pledge, part iii.

Here's another edition of our pledge to buy, shop and eat locally. You can read about our pledge and about our first week's progress. And now, here's a little bit about week two.

Our second week of this run was more difficult than our first. There's a couple reasons for this; the main reason being that we ran out of a lot of stuff: paper towels, hand soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, tissues, etc. Another reason is that it was Mother's day so we bought gifts, cards, as well as more food than usual to host brunch for 6 people. So needless to say -- it was an expensive week. Combining that with the fact that our bank statements show that we barely bought anything the second week of April makes it look even more like we overspent during the second week of May.

Sean suggested we factor in what we're spending on gas since we spend a good deal of time driving to all of our "approved" places to shop... and it's clear that's where a lot of our money is going.

I'll admit we sort of cheated this week. But the products were absolutely necessary items (medication and contact lens solution) and we couldn't find them anywhere we looked. We also needed a ton of household items and we saw how expensive everything was during our first week of this type of shopping, so we opted to go to a local chain to buy a lot of what we needed (I mean -- we can't go broke...).

During the first week, I noticed how local places have very different hours than chains and I mentioned how that's a bit frustrating. This week, I've had two observations; both positive.

1. We're buying healthier foods. Maybe it's because on a whole, the food is a bit pricier so we're buying less "junk" food just because we can't justify spending so much money on it but overall it's a pretty positive thing. The only non-meal item we've purchased in two weeks are tortilla chips -- but I mean, we need tortilla chips -- so that's pretty impressive. We're not buying candy, or crackers, or fruit snacks, or popcorn, or cookies. And we're not dying over it either. We don't miss it and it feels good to have a cart full of good food like fruits, veggies, dairy products and meats.

2. We're not wasting our food. I'll admit, I'm one of those people. You know the ones, who look down at leftovers. Shameful, I know. But in the last two weeks, we've eaten everything we've purchased. I attributed this to the fact that the food is more expensive and I can't bare to see it wasted -- but, we're eating it. All of it. We buy only necessities and only what we can use to make meals for the week and we're using it all. When we have leftovers, we're taking them to work for lunch or eating them for dinner the next night -- which is something new to us me this month.

Here are some pictures of local places we've visited this week:

Only at a small shop in the middle of nowhere can you still get a cup of cider for 5 cents. And of course, Sean made me dig through my pockets to find a nickel.

Another stop we made this past week was to a local ice cream shop:

All in all, it was a successful but an expensive week. And I'm really wishing it was closer to June 1st. :)

I'm very much craving Aussie cheesefries from the Outback, a chicken burrito from Chipotle, Apple & Eve Very Berry juice, and to see The Great Gatsby. The local theater is playing Oz, and we've already seen that...

Until next time...