Continuing Goals

Make curtains

After the enormous task that was the dining room curtains, I have taken my time with the living room curtains. They have their own entry here. 

The spirit of this goal was to find something to cover the huge windows in the house that are single-paned and drafty, which I have done, so I am calling this goal complete!! We still have other windows that need curtains, but the window in the basement is a standard size and windows in the office are casement windows, so I might just buy some simple curtains and just hem them. I can re-visit lining them with that thermal liner (that is only $6/yard at JoAnne’s) in the winter.

Also, I never ever want to make curtains for a window that big ever again. Ever.

Use re-usable cleaning supplies

I think we’ve hit critical mass on this. We have a collection of rags and whatnot that we use more frequently, and the things we still use paper towels for I’m not planning on changing. I am going to call this goal complete.

Bring re-usable bags to the grocery store

I SO suck at this! I have two that I keep in my purse, so I usually remember to use those; now I just need to start bringing more so that I don’t end up with bags upon bags. On the plus side, I do re-use or recycle all of my plastic grocery bags; I don’t just throw them out.

Re-use and recycle more

I think we’ve hit critical mass on recycling. I am going to call this goal complete.

Come up with a better system for recycling

Now that Kyle is home for the summer this has gotten a little easier since he can drive our stuff down to the recycling center once a week so stuff doesn’t accumulate. Actually going to the recycling center is easier than having them pick stuff up because the rules are so rigid for pick-up. So that’s a plus. However, our own collection method has been “throwing stuff in the back room and dealing with it later,” which arguably is not the best system. I am thinking of getting some large bins to collect things like paper and cardboard that isn’t easily bagged.

June’s Goals

Go to a thrift store

We did this. It was an interesting experience, but for a variety of reasons it will not be part of our normal routine.

Go to the farmer’s market

We didn’t do this. The farmer’s market is only open on Saturday mornings and so far every Saturday has been taken up.

July’s Goals

Start planning home projects 

This is going to be a separate post. I have so many ideas for things to do with the house but annoying little things (like patching the driveway) keep popping up. I think if we break these projects up in to smaller pieces it won’t be as overwhelming either physically or financially.

Follow the money

I made a budget the other day in Excel and it was not pretty. If you just look at what we earn vs normal monthly expenses, things look pretty tight. So for the month of July we are saving every receipt so we can analyze how much we really spend on things. We’re not changing our spending habits yet, I want to have a realistic baseline, but it should be interesting at the end of the month to see how things turn out.

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There’s a pet store in the mall that just came under new management.  Apparently part of this new management is to allow patrons to hold the pets.  This is a brilliant yet terrible idea.

Last night I had a Chihuahua-Pekinese mix puppy snuggling in my neck. She was tiny and adorable. Even now I am trying to figure out if we can afford to get her. 

Beingfrugal.net had an article about The Joys of Thrift Store Shopping and it caught my attention. We have at least 2 HUGE thrift stores in the area. I generally don’t visit them for a few reasons. 

1. When I go shopping it’s usually because I am looking for something very specific and with a tight schedule I like to go somewhere that I know I will be able to find what I am looking for.
2. I can afford to buy things new and feel like I should leave things in those stores for people who need them.
3. My mom likes to tell everyone what she bought at thrift stores and for how much. It’s super embarrassing and I guess I always associated thrift store shopping with how tacky my mom is.
4. For a while all of our clothes came from thrift stores and I’d rather not remember those years. 

But now I’m thinking that I should shop at thrift stores. My motivations are:

1. To save some money and find creative solutions. We’ve reached the point where everything we still need for the house is prohibitively expensive to buy new. In the interim maybe we can pick something up cheap that will work.
2. Re-using things that are already made reduces your carbon footprint. Yes, I actually just said that and yes, that actually is a reason I am going to do something. 

So finally I sucked it up and went to the big thrift store in Dover.  I learned some very interesting things.

1. Apparently only skinny people donate their clothes. I found a lot of nice clothing… in size 2.
2. The furniture there is actually fairly decent and pretty cheap.  But they had nothing we needed. Not even anything that could be repurposed.
3. They close at 5 pm.  This is very inconvenient as that is usually when we get home from work.

There is one other thrift store in Dover (which also closes at 5, so we didn’t get the chance to go) and there’s also an antique store, so it will be worth checking those out as well.  I know that a large part of thrift store shopping is that you have to keep going to find something, but seeing as how I usually only go shopping when I need something, the extra time is a little inconvenient.

So conclusion? I suppose it would be worth it to go maybe once a month and check stuff out. I signed up for Morris County’s Freecycle email group and I’ll continue to check Craigslist for stuff, but for me, thrift store shopping is not convenient or efficient.

So I am on this quest to be more green and more frugal. In a lot of ways these two goals overlap. If I re-use things then I don’t have to pay for new ones. If I make curtains with thermal liners, I save a ton of money both on the cost of the curtains themselves and in heating and cooling the house, thus also saving energy.

But at some point these two goals seems to contradict each other. Take, for example, recycled paper towels. They’re more expensive, but they’re better for the environment. Or organic food. Organic products are way more expensive than their generic partners (and are rarely on sale) but are good for the environment and theoretically your health. Is it worth it to spend the gasoline to travel further to pay more money for organic and environmentally friendly products?

As an aside, that’s always something that irked me about people who make organic living their religion. There’s a lot of inherent privilege in being able to take the time and spend the extra money on that kind of a lifestyle. Just saying.

You can drive yourself absolutely insane arguing back and forth on these questions.
I'm only one person, my choices don't make much of a difference. If one person and another person and another person all make the same choice, it will eventually have an impact. I could spend that money on something else.
Isn't it worth a small sacrifice to save the entire planet?

The truth is that I won’t single-handedly kill or save the planet by cleaning my house with vinegar or buying organic apples, but I am aware that these options and alternatives exist when making decisions. Sometimes frugality will need to win, but in other cases I may choose to go green even if it is a small sacrifice on my part.

My point in all of this (yes, there IS one!) is that in the end I think that it's the fact that you're making a conscious choice that makes the difference.

Has it been a month already?  Time to look at my green/frugal (“grefrugenal” for those that are new) goals and make some new ones for June.

Continuing goals:

• Make curtains

As you can see, I finished the curtains for the master bedroom here, and I have finished sewing and am in the process of hanging my dining room curtains.  Fabric arrived yesterday for the living room curtains, so hopefully those will be done by the time I make July’s goals.

• Use re-usable cleaning supplies

I haven’t completely given up on paper towels, but I have definitely made progress in using washable rags for a good portion of my cleaning.  I still prefer paper towel to clean the bathroom, though.

• Bring re-usable bags to the grocery store

Well… I bring them.  Don’t always use them, but we HAVE found where you can drop off plastic bags to be recycled, so we’ve been recycling what we do have.

• Re-use and Recycle more

We’ve been awesome at recycling more, but I’m still trying to find some new ideas for re-using and re-purposing things.

May’s goals:

• Find more coupons.

My grocery store has an option on its website to not only print out coupons, but you can go through the circular and it will create a printable list of items that are on sale.  I’ve been doing this once a week and we saved more than $30 on our last grocery trip by using coupons and our savings card.  I am calling this goal complete.

• Come up with better organization system for cleaning supplies.

I cleaned out my linen closet (see here), which has definitely helped.  It’s easier to use things when you don’t have to search for them.  For now I am calling this goal complete.

• Come up with better organization system for recycling.

We still just toss stuff in the back room, but now that Kyle is off for the summer, we’ve created a schedule for ourselves where each Friday he goes down to the recycling center to drop everything off.  It’s not a perfect or long-term solution, but at least now we have room to think.  This will become a continuing goal.

• Start a garden.

Hell no.  They’re not selling the bushes anymore at Home Depot and it’s too late in the season to really start anything.  Also, the start-up cost for the garden is a little high at the moment, and my sanity is wearing thin.  This is going to be put off until next year.

June’s goals:

• Go to a thrift store.  This deserves a post of its own.
• Go to the farmer’s market.  Buying locally helps the local economy, gives your better food, and reduces your carbon footprint.