lunch boxin' it

Starting today, I am going to stop buying my lunch. So for today I didn't buy this:

or this:

or this:

Today I brought a sandwich and baby carrots. Let's see how long this lasts...

411 Charges

My favorite way to get around those pesky 411 charges on my cell phone bill? Text Google!

Just send a text message to G O O G L E (466453) with whatever you are looking for. Regular texting charges apply. I have unlimited texts on my plan, so it is free!

Examples as of late:

• I needed show times for a movie we wanted to see, but was nowhere near a computer. I texted the following "movie show times, [my zip code]" and was promptly replied to with a listing of movie options close by. When it wasn't the movie I was looking for, I texted again, but with "500 days of summer show times [my city, my state]." Within seconds I was reading the show times and phone numbers of the theater closest to me.
• I got stuck in some righteous traffic last night on the way to the temple, where I volunteer every week. I knew I was going to be later than I planned, but I didn't have the phone number to the temple. I texted "LDS temple [my city] phone number", and Google pulled through! I was able to call and let them know I would be a little bit late.
  

The other thing Google has done for me lately? Allow Scott to sync his Blackberry calendar to our Google calendar. With a quick glance, I can see what his week/month/year looks like and add any appointments I have so that he will know about them on his phone. That's efficiency, folks.

Calling all Frugalists!

When Janelle and I first talked about starting this blog, we really thought it would just be her and I writing and wishing about things that we can't have. In the few short weeks since then, I have completely changed the way that I spend my days. Lunch hours that used to be spent perusing the aisles at Target are now being spent reading. Drives home that were peppered with stops at different shops along the way are now straight shots home. I am even trying to be more creative in terms of gifts that I give others. It is liberating and awesome, and quite addicting. Now it seems like when I finally spend money on myself, it better be for something worth it, you know?

Because I have gotten a couple of requests and because traffic has been increasing lately on this site, I decided to put it out there. We are now happily accepting new contributors to the Things We Almost Bought Today community. You don't have to agree not to spend any money on yourself, just if you post something, it has to be something that you wanted to buy, and then decided not to. If you are interested - just email us at notbought [at] gmail [dot] com.

Happy Saving!

Impulse Buys, Crazy Spenders...

Janelle and I were talking today (while at the mall, of course) that we have been spending more money than we should lately. Because of this, we are starting a new challenge. We aren't going to spend any money on ourselves for the next 3 months on anything besides food and gas and other mandatory monthly bills. We see things on a daily basis that we would be interested in having as our very own and so we started this little blog. So instead of buying that "gotta have it" item, we are going to just be posting about them all here.

Happy saving!