This two week update the things that stand out are our Canyon Lake day trip, two doughnut receipts, and our dead car.

Canyon Lake

We love day trips. Packing a picnic and being in nature is so incredible.

We found a lake about 30 miles away we had never been to, so we grabbed a picnic, loaded up and went!

My son got his first sun burn (totally my fault), my daughter found a stick of bamboo, and the kids played with mini dead fish.

A great day all for less than $30!

Doughnuts

Doughnuts are a huge deal in our house.

95% of the time we adhere to a high fat/low carbohydrate eating style. So when Kevin and I announce we are getting doughnuts the joy is intense.

But why two different shops in one morning?

The answer is simple…I have a four year old daughter and a husband.

She smiles and says she wants the “Fruity pebbles doughnut” and suddenly our 3-1 vote is void and we are driving to two places. 😊

We all got our favorite, so it was a good morning!

Dead Car

We carried the good feelings from our doughnuts into our afternoon and decided to head to the library. We had about 25 books to return so we decided to drive.

**click**

This was the only sound our car made. We went back in the apartment to regroup and then lugged our books on the trolley to the library.

We have had one car for about 18 months and it has dramatically improved our quality of life and finances. We have even pondered life with NO car. In the United States the thought of no car is unimaginable to most, due to sprawling cities and horrible public transit options.

Thankfully we chose a part of our city that is walkable and offers free public transit.

So when our car would only make that **click** sound, we simply left it there and have not touched it since.

Kevin has biked 18 miles round trip to work each day and the kids and I have kept our same trolley/walk/bike routine.

We thought no car would be so extreme and impossible….yet on day four of zero driving our pace feels even more relaxed.

We intend to fix the car eventually, but it feels good to challenge ourselves.

Successes and Improvements

We had a Zero Dollar Day and several zero drive days. These are both exciting successes and really help our budget and pace.

We used our debit card more than cash, which is not preferred, so that is an improvement to make during the next two weeks!

Overall the shopping ban is going well. We have bought gifts for others but no unnecessary items for ourselves.

The shopping ban continues to reinforce that our needs are met and our needs are few.

-Brittany