We need a Spend Nothing month, too. The patio project cleaned out our ready-use capital reserves, and I'm not touching the tax-free savings or Himself's business savings, which is where we sock away money to pay the taxes. I don't ever want to find myself out of pocket at tax time, having lived through that low-grade but unremitting misery long ago.

That said, the patio needed doing. It probably could have waited, but the old deck had that unmistakable whiff of active rot AND there were those basement windows and their drainage issues.

But, of course, one completed capital project leads (as the night followeth the day) to the next. The basement windows, no longer hidden by the deck or half-submerged under rampant foliage, are about as energy-efficient as wet Kleenex and an invitation to burglars.

Also, the air-conditioner. Maybe that can wait till next spring, but ... probably not.