It is the end of our first week of frugal living. So far so good. We haven’t spent any money and driven about 50 miles since we filled up the car. How we spent our time wasn’t much different than any other week.
With the sunny weather, we were able to get out almost every day for a long walk. Good for the body and soul and doesn’t cost anything but a little shoe leather.
On Tuesday I was a bit frustrated when our appointment downtown didn’t dovetail with the hours the library is open as I had a couple of books I needed to pick up. Usually we would have gone shopping or out for lunch to fill the time between our appointment and the opening of the library. Instead we came home for lunch. I did make it back to the library to pick up my books thanks to our dear friend Charley. She has a broken arm and can’t drive, so I was her chauffeur for the afternoon. She kindly let me add the library to our list of errands.
We also made it to the Metro RV show at the Expo Center. We were able to see the show without spending any money (an adult ticket for those of us over age 60 is $7). Our Airstream owners group, the Oregon Unit of the Wally Byam Caravan Club, has a table in the Airstream Adventures Northwest display. We manned the table on Thursday and Friday, as authentic Airstream owners, sharing our tales of fun and adventure with those who stopped by. While on street parking is almost non-existent around the Expo center, we did find a place to leave the car and avoided the $8 parking fee as well. Even the lure of good deals at Thousand Trails and vendors selling accessories did not divert us from our goal of frugal living. We didn’t even succumb to the chocolate and nut covered ice cream.
We are planning a frugal living party for Saturday March 24 at 7pm. We will provide the red wine, you bring appetizers and whatever you want to drink other than red wine or water. We will post just before the party if we are running out of anything, should you be inclined to bring a hostess gift. 
Eating at home isn’t too bad when it is steak and red wine.
