Careful Shopping

We do careful shopping around here for a number of different reasons.  First and foremost is because of the cost of things!  Everything is at least twice as much as it is at home.  The second reason is because every available inch of space in our home and closets is already being used!  So, if we want to buy something, we have to think about where we will put it!  And finally, we have to think about how to dispose of the packing.  As you can see above, our kitchen under-the-sink trash is compartmentalized into trash, glass recycling, paper recycling, and plastic recycling.  All compartments are very small which is actually a good thing because they have to go into a small space from here so they have to remain small!  Our trash goes into a chute in our building that is only about 10" in diameter.  Our recycling then has to be taken around the corner and put into it's separate bins by hand.  There is not a dumpster to be found, ANYWHERE (except construction sites) so all trash has to be disposed of in this way.  I panicked when the movers brought our things that they would leave without taking the packing materials and boxes but they didn't.  They know how Sweden works.  A very interesting article about Swedes and their trash...

So, accumulating "things" is not something to be done lightly...

It was a cleaning, grocery shopping kind of day but Josh and I did get over to the bank to finally add me to his account.  Guess what???  It was complicated!!  We were told that "no", we can't actually add me to his existing account, we actually have to open a new, joint account and get new debit cards and pin numbers for this new account! Ugh! At this rate, we are never going to actually have a debit card that can work!  So, we opened a new joint account.  In 5-7 days, we can get our new debit cards and then 3-5 days later, we will get our pin codes.  The funny thing is that we are not really putting any money into these accounts until all of the bugs are worked out so we now actually have five (FIVE) accounts at a bank but almost no money!

Tabitha is at her first babysitting gig tonight!  Hope it all goes well so she can start earning some money again!  The kids do not have school at all tomorrow because it is parent/teacher conferences.  Pretty easy schedule that they have around here!