As soon as I had posted my last update, I walked out of my room and was handed a $5 Barnes and Noble gift card and a $5 American Eagle gift card. I can’t even make this stuff up.

«« MONDAY AUGUST 19TH »»

I woke up early and drove to Seattle to spend the day with my friends. That’s worth a whole entire post in itself. Rhoda and I were trying to find Target. We couldn’t, but instead we found an Oberto Factory store. You know, like the beef jerky. So we – naturally – went in. I decided I’d spend my $5 on buying us some beef jerky. Except Rhoda bought it for us to share.

After picking up Andrew and Faith from the airport we wandered around, eventually ending up at Gordito’s where I exclaimed I would buy chips and salsa with my $5.
Except Andrew bought it for me. and Rhoda didn’t like the delicious watermelon juice she got, so she gave it to me.

A few hours later we were getting hungry and were discussing options and decided to start a tradition called DINFEST. Dinner that is breakfast for dinner. I stood my ground that we needed bacon with dinfest, and was prepared to spend my money on that. Except Jordan and Kristen bought it.

«« TUESDAY AUGUST 20TH »»

After nonstop streaming of John Mayer’s Paradise Valley, I NEEDED IT IN MY CAR. Those songs deserve the windows down, wind in my hair. I had redeemed some Swagbucks for a $15 iTunes giftcard, so on my way home I pulled over at a Starbucks and used their wifi to buy the CD. I was in such a hurry to get home that I burned the CD while I was driving.

«« WEDNESDAY AUGUST 21ST »»

Remember how I recently claimed a Klout perk for The Coffee Bean? It came in the mail. Two bags of coffee.

«« THURSDAY AUGUST 22ND »»

I woke up, made two cups of my new free coffee and drank the whole thing outside, listening to the bird and the wind and feeling very at peace and grateful. Thanks Klout & The Coffee Bean.

and then when I got to work I was ESPECIALLY grateful for two bags of free coffee because this was my coffee situation:

«« FRIDAY AUGUST 23RD »»

Matt Wertz said that his newest EP was going away in a few days. It was $4.95 on iTunes. I had $4.40ish left on my gift card from the Mayer CD. So I bought it, bringing my monthly spend up to $1.41.

I picked up a few girls to help me pass out flyers for our Vacation Bible School, complaining about the heat in my car the whole time. Then I saw, on the side of the road, a humble little 25 cents a cup kool aid stand being run by a precious little girl. We pulled over, I grabbed $2 and gave the whole thing to the girl for our 3 cups of kool aid, which was like a liquid jolly rancher and definitely worth the money.

After passing out flyers and helping decorate for VBS a little bit the girls were complaining about being hungry. I still have yet to figure out how to navigate things like having kids at our church around mealtimes and stuff. So I grabbed my Entertainment book and began looking for a coupon that could be #1. food I could eat and #2. cheap. After ten minutes I gave up and we went to McDonalds.

After scrounging up all of the dollars I’ve been collecting in my wallet (from my mom or my piggy bank or found in pockets) the bill was $3.02 and for the first time all month I swiped my card in a reader other than a gas station.

In a day, I went from having spent 95 cents to having spent $6.43 and I felt so guilty about it. The guilt plus the McDonalds made me feel sick all night.

But then I started thinking about how, really, what I’d wanted to do was cut back on my spending, to unstuff my life. None of my purchases this month have resulted in STUFF. a book on my phone, coffee that is being consumed, digital copies of music, cups of kool aid on a hot day, dinner for girls that were helping.