MAYbe June will be better...by Jessica

May's recap:
7 recipes cooked, 128 (gulp) left to cook
2 paper coffee cups (and started the month of June off horribly with 2 paper cups used!)
Purchased New: Socks for Anya, Shoes for Ian, Bibs for Ari and a Charcoal starter thing for Zack. Shoes and socks were necessary (and not really going against the rules of the project, but still I felt little twinges of guilt), bibs and charcoal starter were purchased...but not for me and not my idea, so does that count? I can tell you that it felt really weird to be in Target looking at no-no items.

Lots of people ask about how to find good stuff at the thrift. Here's a piece of advice. Always pick up things for the next season. Right now it's getting to be warm, so I start looking for school jackets and sweatshirts for the kids. During the winter it was time to stock up on shorts, tee shirts and sundresses. I felt very proud of myself while camping and seeing my children in warm jackets, nice quality just like new jackets; purchased at the thrift for a grand total of $8 (for both of them combined!).

When you have kids, you do end up realizing that all your stuff is gonna get ruined. They don't mean to be damaging (or sometimes they do) but kids just wreck havoc on your stuff. So it's no surprise when I came home from work and heard that the kids got grounded from riding their bikes for TWO weeks for tearing out the interior foam lining of their helmets. It's easier to handle that kind of thing when you've gotten the helmets at the thrift and you only spent $2, but I spent nearly $20 (last year) on the little girls helmet and it's really cute! So I was pretty mad about that....but also pretty mad about the two week restriction. I think that's punishing me more than anyone since summer vacation starts next week. It's going to be a long two weeks.