I have this bad habit of not spending money. Really, it's a terrible habit. I'm trying to lick it. Not completely - don't worry, Mom and Dad - but there are a lot of things out there that I need to try.

Take yesterday, for instance. It was the Marrickville Street Festival and it was pouring rain. I went anyway.


Of course. It takes more than a bit of a deluge to stop this former South Yorkshire resident!

Local shops and eateries had set up tents all along Marrickville Road, which meant that virtually every country where English is not the primary language was represented. There were Mexican nachos, French crepes, Italian garlic prawns and Moroccan meat skewers. Spring rolls, curry and churros. Something African that I couldn't quite identify, but that had a lot of beans in it. Actually, now I think about it, Australia was represented. There were a lot of sausages.

I meant to spend money. Really, I did. I brought some with me and everything. But then I got distracted by the cheese table - the one where they were giving out free sample balls of mozzarella. It was next to the one Italian stall where they were giving out free mini cups of ravioli and the pastry shop stall where they were giving out free samples of cheesecake and cupcakes.

Entire cupcakes. With M&M smiley faces. Free M&M smiley faces.

I couldn't decide which was tastier, the free cheesecake with caramel topping or the free baklava I got at the Greek tent, so I went back to the pastry stall to see if a bite of strawberry cheesecake would help me make up my mind. They were out of free cheesecake samples at that point and had moved on to free extra large chocolate chip cookies.

And what can I say? One of those just filled me right up. There wasn't a square inch left for anything purchasable. So you see my dilemma. How am I supposed to work on my lack of spending habits when the good peoples of the world keep showering me with free samples?