Holding Each Other Up With Thoughtfulness

Today's NO SPEND was a fantastic milestone for me. Several months ago I received an envelope in the mail all the way from Sweden. Remember when you were younger and you'd write back and forth by mail to close friends of yours? I hope that memory is a part of your childhood. I met a ridiculously kind Latvian exchange student when I was in the 10th grade. It's funny, I remember thinking, "Latvia must be the kindest country in the world." She never spoke a rude or unkind word. She blushed when stupid girls would gossip about other girls. She was always apologizing for silly things that didn't seem offensive to anyone but her (she still does that). She spent all of 10th grade here in the states and many of my fondest high school memories are from that time (in fact I despised all of high school except for my sophomore year). After she went home we wrote by mail all of the time. I read some of our old letters awhile back and they are quite silly. Seriously EVERYONE needs a pen pal!

Earlier this year I received an envelope from her all the way from Sweden where she now resides; quite the traveler, yes we're all jealous. She'd made me a chart for my NO SPEND challenge and I couldn't be more thrilled at the thought of it, the loveliness of it, and the idea of actually marking my little accomplishments off on paper (why hadn't I thought of this earlier?). Surrounded by photos and quotes cut from magazines there were all 104 of my NO SPENDs waiting to be crossed off. I apologize for the photo because its possibly the worst photo I've ever taken. I just spent the last 4 hours sewing with needle and thread and the idea of setting up the tri-pod and staging a photo so that I could avoid using the flash and get you all a much deserved decent photo of my lovely chart... well I'm just too lazy. I did link her blog behind the photo though : )

Today, upon completing NO SPEND day 88 I've moved from the first side of my lovely gift to the much smaller in number second side of the chart. I've been eagerly awaiting this day for sometime and I am so excited to have made it this far. With only 16 days to go and one month left of the year I might actually be able to do this thing. And to be honest there were many MANY a day when I almost caved but the kindness and friendly gesture of my friend caused me to press on without buying that coffee or bar of chocolate knowing that when I arrived home I could mark another day off of that chart. Thank-you!

Average daily spending for November: $11.70

Number of days in a row
Not buying food at work: 17
Not making large unnecessary purchases or luxury purchases: 17
Since we last ate out: 7
And I'm at 17 out of 18 NO SPEND days so far this month