Today marks our 8th week of the shopping ban. I love to find a few special receipts that make me smile each two weeks.

This round it was purchasing a baseball tee and bat, a bike tube, and visiting one of our favorite parks, McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.

We celebrated our 4th year in Arizona on March 26th and this park was our saving grace when we first visited and moved here.

At that time my son was turning 3 and OBSESSED with Thomas the Train. So a park where we could play, ride a train, ride a carousel, AND watch model trains in the museum was the place to be.

We had not been to the train park in months. Being there reminded us how much our kids have grown. They took off running to the playground and needed no help. They rode the train alone for the first time. They were the “big kids” now.

So as I held the train park receipt of $8 for two carousel rides and two train rides, I shed a small tear. My son no longer screams with joyful hysteria at the sight of Thomas, and my daughter is no longer a baby riding the train on my lap.

**Big sigh***

On to baseball tees…because I won’t stop crying if I keep talking about trains!! 😭

Another fun set of purchases was a metal bat from goodwill and a baseball tee from Walmart.

If you have ever tried to pitch baseballs to young children, you understand the imminent frustration of the pitcher (us) and the batter (kids) as they whiff 20 times in a row.

For this reason we avoided baseball for awhile.

We both love baseball, so as the kids expressed more interest we realized a sturdy rubber tee and metal bat would increase the fun. The purchase was under $20 for both and it led to a great morning of (mostly) frustration-free baseball!!

Finally, a bike tube for Kevin’s mountain bike.

Let me first paint a picture….

Kevin and I are both Underbuyers, which means we will refuse to buy things until we absolutely HAVE to. I have learned Kevin will not buy things for himself. Either I buy it for him or I give him permission multiple times until he is annoyed and must do it.

His two-year-old Walmart mountain bike probably has 2,000+ miles on it. He cut the brakes off and took all the stickers off. It has been through the ringer.

So he woke up with a flat the other morning. I agreed to help him patch the tube. As we pulled out the tube we realized he had already patched it THREE TIMES! I laughed out loud. I went to Walmart’s website and found tubes for $7. We immediately drove there and got him a new tube.

I am all for salvaging and squeezing out the last of the toothpaste, but my man’s bike tube looked like a kid who got into the Band-aid box. 🤕

So the shopping ban is going strong as we continue focusing on experiences (train park), essentials (busted bike tube), and approved items (bat and tee).

It is motivating to look at our purchases and know we met our goals. The experiment continues!!

-Brittany