I have this feeling people start to look at me oddly, as if I’ve gone crazy… I haven’t, really ;)

To ‘celebrate’ we went out and got some stuff for my balcony: pots / containers / soil), and seeds and plants.

I got four long wooden containers (they look great!) and the following plants:

• 4 tiny celery plants
• 4 tiny parsleys
• 4 tiny corn salads
• 1 big cucumber plant (with baby cucumbers)
• 1 small sweet pepper plant
• 1 bonsai basil (very nice!)
• 1 small lovage

and seeds for:
* spring onions
* rosemary
* garlic chives
* corn salad
* courgette (or zucchini or summersquash depending on where you live)

Through a friend I got three tomato-plants, seeds for beetroot, basil, parsley, peas and several types of beans.
I’m still looking for pinto-bean seeds, but they seem somewhat unavailable in the NL. I also still have rocket-seed, Tropaeolum and tons of seeds for sprouts (alfalfa, garden cress, etc).

I think I have enough…. (though boyfriend promised me oregano and thyme plants / seeds)

I want a bunch of smaller pots to put herbs in. It’ll look nice and helps to sow in phases.

I’m looking forward to seeding and growing, especially the sprouts. I seem to be able to eat bread again, so that would mean nice summer sandwiches with veggies and cheese and herbs and such :D

I have a balcony on the south, and even though most Dutch people think we do not get any sun, I can assure you we do. It gets pretty hot on my balcony, which I hope will help with the somewhat exotic plants (cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, courgette).

Now I only need a garden-hose, cause I’m not dragging water over every day :P

We haven’t set it up yet, but will take pictures when we do.

With the way the thing is set up, I’d still be stuck with the same basic provider (they own the pipes), but I can choose a different end provider.

So I happily switched from company X to company Y and all went well.

And today I received a call from company X, asking if I had time for some questions. As I love to see how these conversations go, I said yes.

The lady asked if I wanted to tell which company I switched to. ‘Sure,’ I said, ‘I went to company Y.’ When she asked why, I said they were cheaper.

She then said, in one of those tones mothers use to scold her children: ‘Well, ma’am, I have some bad news for you, they are much more expensive!’ at which point she basically lost me and I figured I’d finish the conversation just for kicks.

I had done my research and just said ‘Oh, they’re giving me a discount.’

She then asked if Y informed me I’d still be getting a monthly bill from X because of the pipe-ownership. I said that they had not (but as I have brains I figured either Y would charge me and pay the pipe-thing, or I’d get separate bill. Either way I didn’t care much, the amount is fixed and I’d see it on the first bill I’d get).

The lady continued with ‘Well then! You’re massively screwed there (she used different words, but clearly meant that) as you do not only have a more expensive provider now, you also have to pay that extra money per month!’
Yes, and I would not otherwise? This amount is fixed, I have to pay it no matter what, so pff.

I simply repeated I get a pretty good discount (but did not mention the amount)

She then stated that with the price drops in June or something I’d end up paying much more than I should! Up to 35% for gas alone! (This price drop applies to variable contracts, I went for a fixed price for a year, which could mean I do indeed ‘pay more than I should’, but I like security so I happily pay a little more now. I’m also a bit sceptical about the price drop in general. And I barely use gas so price drop or not, I still pay a very fixed amount for that.)

I said ‘Yeah.’ not feeding her with any more info.

She then made a comment roughly like ‘Well, you wouldn’t want to pay more than the neighbours, now would you?’

I said ‘eh…’ and blinked a lot, which of course she did not see. The comment took me a bit by surprise, and I wish I had said what I thought at the time: ‘I don’t give a crap what my neighbours do.’ ‘Cause seriously, I mostly don’t care what others pay (unless they’re deliberately duped, then I try to educate them on the matter as much as I can. But if they found a good deal, yay for them. It’s not like I’ll benefit from them having to pay more than me…)

She then got all friendly-lovey-dovey and said ‘So how about you stick with us and we give you a nice variable contract? Wadda ya say?’

I said no. :)

She asked why and I said I didn’t feel like going through the administrative crap again. Not that I did before, but I was done with her. She said goodbye and I wished her a nice day. It was pretty simple for me, I have a new contract with Y, ‘sticking with X’ would mean breaking the contract and having to pay for it. Yeah, sounds great! ;)

The thing is, all through the conversation, she clearly tried to make me feel I had made a horrible mistake and I don’t buy that. If you start out like that, you lose me straight away. I’m okay with making mistakes, I’m not okay with anyone rubbing it in. And certainly not when I made the right choice for me. (little side-step here: people will often try and rub in ‘your’ mistake because they simple would not have done the same thing, regardless of what’s best for you or if you’ve already accepted the fact you made it and moved on. No need to drag that out…)
Anyway, I firmly believe I made the right choice and this phone-call leaves me with a bad feeling about company X where before, I had none.

Please treat me as an adult, and as a client. I am not your friend or your child, if you want to keep me as a customer, treat me like a decent person. Thanks :)

I did do research before, especially for needed items, but my wants sort of slipped past that research stage more quickly. By keeping this list I force myself to not only wait, I also make sure I do plenty of research (and then in the process drop the product all together).

I’ve also noticed it becomes easier to throw things of the list after a while, and this in turn leads to it getting easier to not want to put something on there to begin with. Don’t want to waste my time with things I won’t buy anyway :)
By seeing the silly stuff on my list, I feel less tempted by more silly stuff. And seeing the total amount doesn’t hurt either!

I currently have 5 items on my list (I dropped some earlier):
1. Griffin Clarifi iPhone case
2. Neocube magnets
3. Sigg Thermo Mug
4. Portable foldable water-drinking reservoir for the dog
5. A 5x5x5 Rubik’s Cube

All wants, I don’t need any of them really. They’re just so much fun! ;)

Unlike others, I don’t buy shoes or clothes. I buy boxes. And organising stuff. Sites like The daily planner and The container store make my heart beat faster.
And Thinkgeek.

Oh, and pens.

And I buy a lot of food.

Only on occasion do I not use the things I purchase, this happens maybe a couple of times per year. I don’t buy 50 pairs of shoes, new skirts because they’re on sale etc.

But I am a compulsive spender and this has to stop. I have more pens than I could possible ever get empty (granted, drawing just goes a lot better with the right pen, but I have multiple so that shouldn’t become a problem any time soon). I have a gazillion (lovely) boxes.
No more buying food when I have plenty in my pantry. Make shopping lists and stick to them. Time to grow up ;)

I’ve started thinking about gifts for them. I have budgeted some money for these and want to try and gift a nice non-expensive gift (cheap makes it sound bad).

For my sister I can’t really think of anything original, so I want to purchase a sweet little baby blanket at Ikea for 3.99 euro and then sew the name of the baby on it, to personalise. In all honesty I don’t think it really matters what I give, she’ll get swamped and I’ll most definitely get ‘outbid’ by his family. I have no intention of trying to keep up with them (I don’t even know them) and I do want to give a useful gift. I figured, baby blankets get puked on and dirty, she’ll probably have use for one more anyway. I like the idea of a personalised blanket, so that’s what I’ll do :)

For my mother I want to sew something, but I don’t know what. She’s a pretty independent 50-something year old woman who enjoys hiking and drives a cab for a living. She enjoys going to Germany with her boyfriend where they have a caravan at some camping-site. I’m considering sewing maybe tablecloths for the tables there, with a set of napkins, or perhaps making a fancy laundry-bag (of a recycle shopping-bag and some nice fabric, for when she goes out to the caravan). Not entirely sure yet… Maybe something to pamper herself with, but what? (limited budget, willing to spend time and she’ll appreciate that)

Speaking of fabric, I noticed Ikea has some pretty nice fabric. It’s not all great and fab, but it can certainly compete with the store where I usually get my fabric. I also noticed they have nice cheap duvet-covers that I could buy just for the fabric. I thought that was pretty good thinking ;)

No clue for boyfriend’s birthday though… What can one give a geek that basically has all he wants and needs?

So far, I’ve only purchased groceries and have not let my temptations get to me, hehe.

Still not sure about going out for dim sum in two weeks. I’d like too, but not sure if I want to spend that money right now. Also noticed it’s pretty easy to not even consider things. At work we regularly have outings, that cost a little money. I saw the poster today and immediately thought ‘Nope, can’t do, No Spending Month!’ It feels pretty liberating :)

Lying awake in bed thinking about that and my current situation, I’ve decided to participate. I will give up frivolous spending and TV for Lent under the following conditions:

• I read Lent is about fasting but Sunday doesn’t count.
• I will fast on TV shows except on Sunday when I can watch all I want.
• I will postpone watching that Grey’s Anatomy episode till the next Sunday and nobody will give me spoilers!
• I will go for one dim sum lunch on Sunday march 15.
• Boyfriend and mother have their birthday, will spend some money on that as well as the birthing day of my sister’s child (not frivolous IMHO).
• I will not spend money on anything else unplanned unless absolutely necessary, which means no booze, no craft supplies, no ‘fun’ stuff, no iPhone apps, no online ordering. Yes to medical things for me and Nano that can’t wait.

As far as I know I’ll start wednesday, which is exactly payday. It’s a sign ;-)