Money, Love, and Change

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We were cleaning out the basement this weekend, and had a lot of packing peanuts that we wanted to get rid of.  Throwing these out makes me feel guilty, as I know they take a long time to decompose in a landfill.

A quick google search helped us come up with a solution, and I just wanted to share the link.  The Plastic Loose Fill Council has over 1500 collection sites in the US - you just need to fill out an online form to find the collection site nearest to you.  Hope this helps someone out!

I recycle our plastic grocery bags from large shopping trips, but have been trying to get in the habit of taking my own totes to the store when I know I won’t be picking up a lot.  I have a small assortment of bags that were given to me as gifts, and I’ve been considering getting some more.

If  you’re interested in getting a free tote to get you started on your independence from plastic bags, you can take a short conservation quiz at Earthbound Farm Organic.  I’ll be getting one myself to add to my collection!

photo credit: Manuel.A.69

A friend of mine sent me a link to a site with a 20-minute video called “The Story of Stuff” with Annie Leonard. It took me over 3 months to follow the link an get around to watching it, being that if I don’t do something right away, it takes me awhile to get to it.

I’d highly recommend watching it, and sending it along to others (who hopefully get around to things before I do!). Here is a short excerpt from the website regarding what “The Story of Stuff” is about:

“From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.”

I do think that some of the ideas are oversimplified, and that Annie Leonard’s tone sounds a little too preachy.  However, the message is clear, and some of the statistics really make you think!

I liked it enough to send along to a number of my friends, some of whom aren’t quite so frugal and environmentally-friendly. Perhaps it will influence them to start taking small steps to changing their lifestyle.

If you take the time to watch this video, please let me know what you think. If you follow the link and decide not to watch the video, I would be interested to know why!

I feel like February and March kind of flew by.  I know that I have been sick, but I also feel like I have been busy.  The problem is that I am not sure exactly what I was busy with.  There’s all the daily things that have to do with life in general, but this is the first time in awhile where the fruits of my labor are not really tangible.

This is why I’ve decided that it is time to set some general goals for April.   It’s going to be more like a long list, but I need to start somewhere, so here goes!

1. Get taxes done.  I bet that I get this one done before the end of the month!
2. Figure out general game plan for the finances.
3. Get a job?!
4. Decide what do to about kid’s preschool.  This is kind of a big deal - it seems so weird to deal with this months ahead of time, but that’s life these days!
5. Blog development
   1. Get more on About Me page.
   2. Approach for Entrecard - I have some new ideas on this one.
   3. I really want to start reviewing some books and products (I’ve been really impressed with my kid’s Brio trains, for example).  I’m not really trying to sell anything, but would like to share some of my personal recommendations without being too forward.
   4. Get ahead on posts.  I really want to have some content written ahead of time so that I can post on a more regular schedule.
6.  Simplify more - we’re working hard on this one.  I really need to make more of an effort in the “getting rid of crap” department.  Our problem is that we want to recycle as much as possible (ie. sell on Ebay, get rid of on Freecycle, etc.), but these things take time and effort.  Time to buck up!
7. Spend some real quality time with family on the weekends - we’re not traveling this month (to my knowledge), and we’ve spent the past couple of weekends sick or just trying to catch up.  I want to make a little list of places we can go hiking in the local area, and maybe even go camping one weekend!

What are some of your goals for April?  Whether it is personal or professional, I think it is always good to be moving towards something.  When I finished school in January, such a large weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I think that I deserved a little break, but now I need to regain some focus.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I have a confession to make.  This weekend, we splurged and picked up some potato chips and Oreo cookies at the grocery store.  They were real Oreos (not generic), and for the record they were absolutely delicious.   Both cookies and chips are an extremely rare find in our household - neither my husband and I really watch our weight (thankfully, we are both at a healthy weight), but we usually keep all junk food out of the house and only have healthy snacks (granola bars, yogurt, etc.).

After the kid went to bed, we pulled out the junk food and decided to settle down with a movie.  We went to hulu.com and decided to watch K-Pax.  I wouldn’t recommend K-Pax (Jeff Bridges will always be The Dude), but we were pretty satisfied with our viewing experience.

If you haven’t checked it out, I would recommend giving it a try.  Hulu is a site that has both tv shows and movies from a variety of networks and content providers.  There are some great movies (Big Lebowski) as well as both new (Arrested Development) and classic (Fantasy Island, anyone?) tv shows.  All of the content can be viewed for free, although there are commercials.

The video stream with Hulu was continuous, without any problems at all during the 2 hour movie.  We had a Netflix subscription when they first started streaming video, and the connection was horrible (and therefore extremely annoying) most of the time.  The only downside with Hulu was that the commercials got annoying in the middle of the movie, but the spots were under 30 seconds long.  My husband and I agreed that it was acceptable, but only because it was free.

Have you tried Hulu?  What do you think?  Do you recommend any other sites that are similar in nature?

I was talking to my friend the other day about bringing down their household costs, and he mentioned that their family cell phone plan cost $90 a month.  This is just for he and his wife.  They are on a network plan where they can talk to other members of their family for free (ie. their parents, sisters, brothers, etc.).  However, I was still amazed at the cost.

My husband and I each have a cell phone from Virgin Mobile, and they are pay-as-you-go phones.   At a minimum, it costs us $160 a year to keep these phones in service, and last year we spent $200 total.  For our needs, I think that this is pretty reasonable.

What do we use them for?  When we travel, we tend to use the phones to contact family and friends.  Traveling is the only time that we really spend time on the cell phones.  Other than that, we both travel with them in the car (in case of an emergency), and we occasionally call each other.  Replacement phones are usually $10 or less since neither of us need any of the latest phones.

I honestly don’t think that the added “convenience” is worth the cost of a cell phone.  I understand that there are people who need them for work, but other than that I am not sure of why someone would pay the extra money.  I am still amazed by the number of parents I see who are ignoring their children while babbling on their phone - what kind of message does that send?

What about you - what is your cell phone life like?  Why?  Would you consider simplifying when your current plan is up?

After getting back from visiting family, there was a pile of mail waiting for us.  One of the most annoying things we receive is the Valpak (the big blue envelope of coupons we never use), so today I decided to do something about it.  After a little online investigating, I found that you can take your name off the Valpak mailing list by filling out this form from Cox Target Media.  I also found that if I ever have a burning desire for some of the coupons I never use, I can go to Valpak.com and enter my zip code to print them off.

Just thought I would share - it’s an easy way to save a couple of trees, and help decrease your junk mail!

“So toss away stuff you don’t need in the end, but keep what’s important, and know who’s your friend…” –Tom Marshall (lyricist for Phish)

I mentioned that I picked up a bin for our bathroom this weekend. Our bathroom is not that large, and we only have one of them (gasp!). Since I’ve been getting some good deals at CVS, I have been running out of room to put things like toilet paper and shampoo - hence the bin. While transferring items to the bin, I was forced to come to terms with all those useless gifts I’ve been hesitating to throw out.

A useless gift? Could there be such a thing? In this case, I’m talking about lotions and other crap like body sprays that I never use but are always in some gift that I receive. I have a bottle of Suave cocoa butter (I think that it was in the $2-$3 range) that I use in the winter, and that’s all I need. I hate to throw out these things - some of them are from Bath and Body Works, and I keep thinking that there has to be someone who would take them. I do like to use Freecycle, but for these items I rather have them in a location where people can try them before deciding if they want them or not.

I was talking to my mom this weekend, and she suggested bringing them home with me and putting them out at my grandma’s senior citizen complex for free. She did this herself last year, and said that everything was gone within an hour. I would have never thought of this, but I really like the idea. A lot of the people there are on limited incomes, and would greatly appreciate (and use!) these items.

Do you have any other ideas for giving away these items? My mom did check with my grandma’s complex manager, and she thought it was a wonderful idea. I can’t wait to clear up the additional space in our bathroom, and am happy to see these items go somewhere other than the landfill!