This past weekend and last weekend I've visited several pet stores, including an aquarium shop, looking at the equipment they have for setting up and caring for aquariums ("aquaria" is a real word, but people don't use it). That's more shopping than I usually do. I try to follow the idea of asking yourself: do I *need* to buy this or just want it? There's a difference. The related question is: how does this fit in with what I already have? The couple books that I have read on simple living say that questions like that eliminates a lot of wasted money on senseless purchases.

Before Kitty was born, we used to have an aquarium, so I remember some things from those fish-care days. I think we will need all the things we've bought so far. Some of them are early, but when the fish are ready for the bigger aquarium (one of the purchases), we'll be ready.

One shopping area that I'd like to cut down on is books. Especially if I'm going to have more free time on the weekends, I'll probably be reading more. Dolly reads the same type of books that her father does. He's retired and reads a lot. No way can she keep up with the stream of books from him.

On the other hand, it seems that the books I want are rarely ones that the library has, so I end up buying them, usually from amazon, because the local book stores often don't have them either. Amazon is good because they recommend books based on what I have rated and bought. I think that saves money because it increases the chances that I would like them. I could buy used ones from amazon, but they ship from different used-book sellers, so the shipping costs really add up, and the whole "buy locally" concept is blown way out of proportion. Alibris, ahhh, I need to check with that site again.