cash drain

Even if I haven't actually left the British Isles this whole summer, I have still managed to spend a lot of money.

Breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner, parties, all suck up your cash like a selective black hole.

Falling into a dangerous addiction to a TV show leads to ill-advised boxset purchases which have not yet arrived!

Mainly, I seem to have suddenly rediscovered my ability to shop. Or maybe I just have a lot more time. I still only purchase on average one item out of every two shopping trips, but the trips have been upped to a couple a week.

I even decided to learn to cook properly, and spent a tenner on ingredients for my super special stir fry on Friday.

Basically, time is money and a lot of time means a lot of money.

Click here for a recap on what I was spending my money on a couple of weeks ago. Now envisage more of the same: a dress in exactly the same shade of purple as the nail polish, Mad Men season 3, a pretty blouse I needed like a hole in the head etc etc

I'm getting bored just writing about it. I can't imagine how you could enjoy reading about it. So instead I'm going to try something a little different. How can I carry on wasting my time, without spending any money doing it?

Entertainment
-Read more than the first page of the SIX books sitting on your desk which you received for your birthday.
-E-mail Amazon and ask them to refund your boxset because it is taking so long to arrive. Watch all the episodes online.

Shopping
-Shop your friend's clear-out piles! I discovered treasure in my family friend's trash : a beautiful pastel argyle Pringle cardigan. In another friend's clear-out pile, I also discovered a questionable light blue vest with leather straps and buckles for shoulder straps, but I'm thinking I can make it work.
-Remind your friends that they still haven't bought you a birthday present and they are almost a month late.
-Take your little sister shopping in the hope that your mum will thank you in the form of a pretty new top.

Consumable Goods
-Try to cook a meal out of ingredients already in the fridge. May be a bit of a challenge considering there are currently approximately four meals on my repertoire, but wasn't the whole idea to challenge myself anyway?
Prepare sandwiches or salads whenever I meet people for lunch. I have sunk to picnicking in Starbucks before so I don't see that this will be too much of a problem.
-Find guys to buy me drinks

Sorted