No New Stuff Challenge: Second Week of May

Where does the week go? Seems like time is flying around here these days. This week has been pretty busy here at our house. I finally finished our vegetable garden! Yay! I plan to get some pictures when everything starts to sprout. I think I embarrassed my poor husband when I used recycled materials from around our house to act as trellis and stakes. I however had several old toddler beds just laying around and they work perfectly in the garden. Luckily no one can see in our backyard so poor dh should live ;)

I planted:
Watermelon
Pumpkin
Cucumbers
Corn
Zucchini
Onions
Lettuce
Carrots
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Strawberries
Peas
Rosemary
Cilantro
Flat leaf parsley
Chives

Once I had all the vegetable and fruit plants in the ground my daughter and I were able to plant some pretty flowers. Even better news is that the flowers and the mulch were free from our housing office. I am all over free!

Also this week I finally had enough of looking at our dirty carpets and decided they needed to be cleaned. Trouble is I sold our big carpet cleaner a few months ago because I didn't like that it had a cross-action brush instead of a rotating brush. My original plan was to sell the machine I didn't like and buy a new carpet cleaner. However we started this challenge before I could actually do so. Since buying a new machine wasn't an option I sucked it up and went to self help to borrow the cleaner they have there. Of course all three were already checked out the first day I went to see about getting one. Luckily the next day I was able to get one of the machines....okay...the thing is HUGE, and LOUD. Not the greatest thing when you have to lift it in and out of the back end of your SUV, and are trying to clean carpets while the kids are asleep. Ugh. It was however FREE, even the soap! So I dealt with the inconveniences (including having to take it back within 24 hours...in the rain). My carpets look brand new now and I am a happy mama once more.

This week also found me on the search for more feety pj's for my 2yr old son. I don't know what it is with this kid. He grows like a little weed! He just turned 2 last month and fits a 3T perfectly. My husband felt he needed more pj's and I agreed with him. So off to the thrift store I went. I was able to find him 4 pairs of feety pj's  (the only kind he can't strip off at 2am and pee in the bed while wearing) for $9. I was very tempted to go ahead and get some 4T ones while I was there (and they had them) but I held out. Call me an optimist but I would like to think he will be past this stripping naked and peeing everywhere phase by the time he can fit in a 4T...which at the rate he is growing will be in just a few months.

Remember how last week I said I wanted to learn how to knit? Well I did it. I taught myself how to do it (thanks to youtube!). I admit I got SO frustrated with having to keep ripping out my rows because I made mistakes. After decades spent crocheting I admit it was really hard for me to go from one needle with a hook on the end to two straight and LONG needles. Once I stopped dropping stitches it was actually pretty easy to do. Here is my current project. My entire family keeps asking what it is....um......I am going with a washcloth for now ;)

Total I would have spent this week: $410
Total I actually spent: $104


(Budget for the garden was $100 and I spent $95 on plants and seeds)