Because it was tax free weekend and I had coupons that were about to expire, we did some shopping which is quite unlike us. Here's the breakdown of our spending:

Goodwill - $7.44 (2 children's shirts, cookie press, and another clothesline)
Academy - $139.92 (running clothes for DH and a shirt/shorts for me)
Shoe Store- $90 (DH running shoes)
CVS - $22.22 (4 boxes hairdye, 2 gallons of milk)
TJ MAxx - $42.29 (misc clothing)
Ross - $66.37 (misc clothing)
Big Lots - $39.29 (lots of food)
Lunch - $16.90 (for 4)
Wal-mart - $190 (our computer monitor bit the dust)

DH has decided to give up Netflix! My heart skipped a beat when I heard that news! There's $15 more toward our cards each month and we'll get the added bonus of spending more time together. For not having cable (for over a year) he sure did watch A LOT of TV.

We have an upright freezer that we received for free. I've only been able to fill it up 1/4 full especially since my oven is broken. But it is over 20 years old. Since we just bought the house, I'm not sure how it will affect the electricity bill. My feeling though is that it's guzzling too much! I have a $50 gift card and a 10% coupon to Lowes. There is also a city program that will come pick up your old appliance and pay you $35. With that in mind, I'm trying my best to convince DH is would be better for us to get a midsize chest freezer. He does not see the logic.

I've been reading "Not Buying It" by Judith Levine. Although there are a lot of political undertones, her experiment with creating a personal definition of "necessity" is fascinating. I've enjoyed it tremendously so far. Of course, some of it is unrealistic since she works from home, but it raises some interesting questions...especially since I just went on a shopping trip this past weekend. I'm putting it near the top with my other favorites "The Tightwad Gazette" and "Miserly Moms"