Husband is a compulsive baker of rye bread. It seems that every Friday we agree that we aren’t going to bake on the weekend and will just use up what we have.
We really have a hard time keeping to our bake-free agreement. Husband is very adept at finding an excuse to bake something. Last Saturday he was cleaning out the pantry when he came across an almost empty bag of old russet potatoes. They were shriveled and had stems growing out of them. Just the perfect things to boil and mash and use in rye bread! We couldn’t possibly let them go to waste! The rye bread was delicious, but we really didn’t need more.
What do you look for excuses to do or buy?
Trail Baboon 
Fruits and vegetables. The Birds need variety. They are very persnickety about food. So the suggestion from birders is to eat what I’m trying to feed them right in front of them. It’s rather fun to see them on their favorite perches cocking their heads to get a good view.
“Are you nuts, human?! We’re not gonna eat that!”
I don’t particularly like kale but I will fake a yummy sound.
But after chip-clipping the item to the perches, they will always come and investigate. Mixing new items with regular pellets and seeds doesn’t work that well. The Birds will toss it out no matter how finely it’s cut. The sound can be rather like hailstones on the roof. Spoiled rotten kids!
LikeLiked by 8 people
I’m horrible about buying artwork. I don’t keep a credit card balance but I spend much more than I ‘should’…whatever that means…
LikeLiked by 5 people
Artwork for us includes pottery and pieces of fiber arts. We buy on impulse and it’s not as if we don’t already have plenty but I will say that I’ve never acquired a piece of art where later on I think, “I wish I hadn’t bought that.”
LikeLiked by 5 people
Framing for my art. I have gone all ego in my old age but then only I ever see it.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Doughnuts, caramel nut rolls, eclairs, banana chocolate chip walnut muffins at Central Park Coffee, quality Champagne at a reasonable price (Total WIne),
However, with online shopping being so prevalent, I don’t go out of my way to buy something very often anymore.
Chris in Owatonna (4-5 inches of snow expected here today)
LikeLiked by 6 people
A cuppa joe.
I’ve been using several neighborhood coffee shops as “my office” since I started working from home full-time (lo these many years ago).
COVID put an end to that and the shop closest to me has never re-opened, but it still looks like it could any day now.
So whenever I need to do an errand that takes me far enough to use the car, I always stop by one of my coffee shops to grab a cuppa and tip like crazy.
I keep thinking I need to arrange a corner in my house to be “the coffee shop” so I do a better job of getting my office tasks done.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Oh, let me count the ways. There is always an excuse to by chocolate or some other sweet – someone might come over and you’d want to have a treat on hand to offer with coffee.
Our co-op sells a breakfast wrap (available all day) that is very tasty, and it’s amazing how often one needs to supplement the diet with one of those.
LikeLiked by 4 people
My downfall is of course stamps and ink and paper for my studio. I’m currently working on a cataloging project and it is become obviously clear, even in the beginnings of this project, that I never need to purchase another stamp with the image of any kind of flower on it. Ever. I doubt sincerely that this will matter the next time I see something that catches my interest.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Renee, I’ve always wanted to ask this and today is the day. There’s just two of you and you both do so much cooking and baking. You can’t possibly eat all of this food, can you? So he had to bake to save the potatoes because he didn’t want them to go to waste. What happens to the Rye-bread that you haven’t eaten before the new Ryebread gets baked?
LikeLiked by 3 people
It goes in the freezers in the basement. Right now we have 5 loaves of rye bread in the freezer. There also are 4 loaves of julekage he made that will be given as gifts this weekend. I finally have time this weekend to get some belated Christmas treat boxes to UPS to ship to daughter and her friends in Tacoma. That should free up some space in the freezers that I am determined won’t be filled with anything. “Eating out of the freezer” is my mantra these days.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Having once been the beneficiary of such a gift package from Chris and Renee, I can attest to how much it brightened my day. Not only on the day it arrived, but for a whole week as we indulged in really good pumpernickel bread (as a base for Danish open face sandwiches), and first rate pfeffernusse. Thanks, again, Chris and Renee. What an unexpected treat. One of these days I’ll come up with a way to reciprocate, I hope.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Renee, I’m thinking you need some chickens to feed the left over’s too. Then he wouldn’t have to bake so much bread. (Hahaha! I know it doesn’t work that way)
LikeLiked by 4 people
Oh, I sometimes wish we had a pig I could feed leftovers to, but then I would get attached to it and I couldn’t eat it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
lakota think dog is a delicacy
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s actually not true. Traditionally, dogs were used by the Lakota to carry wood and sound the alarm when intruders neared; they were considered an important and revered animal. Puppies were also killed, and their meat boiled and consumed, but only for special healing ceremonies, not as part of an everyday meal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s what a friend – who shall remain nameless – posted on FB this morning: “In light of this never-ending pandemic, more snow and gray skies, and the bland diet I will embark upon tomorrow to prepare for my 60 year old celebratory colonoscopy, I hereby declare today Brownies for Breakfast Day! (accompanied by a 2nd cappuccino, of course!).” This, along with a photo of a brownie with a swirl of whipped cream on top, and the cappuccino machine in full swing brewing a cuppa. That’s the kind of “excuse” that I give my stamp of approval; not that anyone needs it.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Speaking for myself, honestly, I’m way past making excuses for buying things. If I want something and I can afford it, I don’t feel the need to justify it to anyone. So I buy books, CDs, spices, plants, flowers or whatever else inspires me at the moment, and I don’t give a fig whether anyone approves or not. Most of these things are small and not expensive, but not all.
Like Bill, I’ve bought more arts and crafts than anyone really needs, but you don’t buy these things because you need them. Like Bill, I don’t regret any of them, although I have occasionally bought some items more because I wanted to support the artisan than I wanted the offering.
Some of the happiest people I know are people who find ways of celebrating – spontaneously – ordinary, everyday events. Today is my friend Barb’s 68th birthday, and they are pulling out all the stops. Her husband baked her favorite scones, and her adult daughter, caught on camera with a glue gun, fashioning the paper birthday crown that is customary in that household.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Yes! (I wish I would do this more often…)
LikeLike
What’s stopping you? Go for it, BiR.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Devil Made Me Do It excuse works…sometimes…okay…it never works.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Just happened on this quote by Wendell Berry…
LikeLike
Woops, here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225159651130700&set=a.10204256507605176
LikeLiked by 1 person
hang with / gift my grandkids
sleep
smoke a good cigar
catch live music
plan trips
get on track with my new business ideas
LikeLiked by 3 people
I used to say having a child (or teaching kindergarten) was a good excuse for buying children’s books.
And “buy local” can often be used to rationalize buying something that’s not really a necessity..
LikeLiked by 2 people
I buy lots of books, and sometimes CD’s and DVD’s, by telling myself that I can always put them in a Little Free Library, and pass them along to someone else. They do tend to sit around in large piles waiting to be released into the wild, though.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Me too.
LikeLike