Here at Mission Control (what I call my home) I've been engaged in a challenge I gave myself. I'm calling it the Year of Cutting Back and Going Green. I've decided to start making this blog more about cutting back financially, going green, reuse, reduce, recycle, movie reviews, and product reviews. It is still the world according to me, but maybe with a little more focus on the world, and less on me.
When I accepted my new job and moved cross country, I also took a paycut. So I'm not just cutting back financially so that I can make new investments or savings, I'm doing it because I have to. It has been quite an adventure so far. I'll report back more on my efforts later.
Going Green is so cliche these days. It is so much more than recycling newspapers or plastic bottles. It also means reducing waste, reusing packaging, repurposing many things, etc. I've always naturally been pretty good at reducing and reusing. I'm pretty creative in those respects. But I'm looking forward to sharing some of my little ideas of how to reduce and reuse, and for getting ideas from my friends on how to do even more- while cutting back financially. Unfortunately, going green can be very cost prohibitive at times.
And then there are movie and product reviews. Pretty straightforward, right?
As I go forward, I hope you'll give me your feedback on what is interesting to you, what is helpful, or what bored you completely!!
I suggest to stop buying and using paper towels and paper napkins. Go treat yourself to some pretty or even utilitarian cloth napkins (Pier 1 and World Market are my favorites for this... good clearance prices) and use them instead. (dish towels too - designate your old ones for sopping up spilled juice instead of paper towels)
ReplyDeleteIt feels a bit more sophisticated and as a result, it takes me about 9-18 months to go through one roll of paper towels!
It won't save a ton of money but you'll feel good about not tossing out all that processed paper.
When I see folks at the grocery store with huge packages of like... 10 rolls of paper towels... I always think, "My goodness it's going to take ten years to use all those!" Then I realize that they're just using them constantly, for small things that don't even justify the shipping of paper towels all over the country.
I even take my cloth napkins on picnics and jazz in the park... and keep a few older ones in my car in case I find myself eating take-out.
Second suggestion is... check out http://www.conscientiousconfusion.com/
She has some good ideas and seems to do a lot of research.