Monday Money Saving: Tuesday Edition

Since, yesterday I partook in a conscious squandering of my Holiday afternoon, I didn't get to the nitty gritty of what we did yesterday to save money. In this case it's actually what we didn't do.

See I had big plans for yesterday, my 'free' day off. I had plans of garden fence expansion and re-build, painting said fence, building new raised beds. These plans involved trips to the lumber yard, and generally sounded like cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching.
It was big plan, but we so rarely have whole days with no concrete obligations. It looked like our golden opportunity.

It was not to be.

 As one of our 2011 goals, we have sworn off the Big Box store. That means no Home Depot and no Lowes, among the long list of chain stores we do not patronize. This causes some challenges. More significant challenges in some categories vs. others. Hardware and Home Improvement being one of those.

Yes, we have local independent lumber yards, and paint stores. In some cases, we've discovered they even have better prices than their soul-less counterparts. But, these type of places tend to cater to the Contractor set. The Monday thru Friday 9 to 5 Contractor set. The Contractor set that has Labor Day off. If your clientele has the day off, why would you be open?

On Sunday afternoon, when we started formulating our plan of attack for our forth coming Day of Labor, we were met with an unfortunate choice; Forgo our plans for productivity or admit defeat and get ourselves down to the Home Despot.

I admit, I thought long and hard about the latter option. Even though we've made it all this time without going succumbing to the call of convenience, fluorescent lighting, and low low prices. I had made plans dang it! I wanted to be productive!

Then, I let it go. We had other stuff that could be done. Yes, the garden is important. Instead of embarking on a new project, we used the time to do some maintenance in our small existing garden. Important hum drum things like mulch and fertilize, using supplies we already had.
Then we took the time to sit down and go over our plan for next year, and prioritize our end of the season projects. After that discussion, which involved sitting in the sunshine with cups of coffee, we decided the fence can wait until next year. We don't need it until then, and there is actually some debate about the style we'd like.

I could have rushed out and spent a bunch of money yesterday. Just because I could. Because I had the time. Then we would have rushed around trying to finish a weekend-long project, in one day. I would have compromised a goal we have upheld for the last 9 months. And as it turns out, it might not have even been a fence we both wanted. 

Instead, we did things we already had materials for. We spent $0, and we enjoyed our afternoon at home.
I also opened another targeted savings account called 'Garden', and put $25 in it.