As I've discussed a little on this blog, BF and I have a lot of plans in the works: Wedding, buying a house, etc. We thought it was important to sit down and draft a plan of what we wanted to achieve and how we were going to get there.
First we started with wedding stuff since we started that before any of the rest of the items, but that proved to be pretty easy. Here's what we have done for the wedding:
1. Dress- picked out, tried on, ordered and now stored safely in a secret location! Along with the veil, accessories, etc.
2. Location- Wedding rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception locations are all picked and a down payment made.
3. Menu- picked, even though our picks aren't due until July. Hey, we know what we like!
4. Music- picked and put on a playlist! Ceremony, reception, etc.
5. Bridal party and Groomsmen- done and notified!
6. Guest List- mostly done, just verifying some family members.
Really the only few things left are:
1. Picking and officiant.
2. Picking a bakery for the SMALL cake- we don't want to feed everyone cake, but still need a little one for the cake cutting and pictures.
3. Bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen colors. Not that worried about it since they don't need them until September.
4. Invitations. Still, not worried since we won't be sending them out until late spring/early summer.
5. Flowers- but we really only want flowers for my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets and the grooms'/groomsmen's boutonnieres.
6. Photographer.
I'm hoping to get a bunch of this stuff figured out during the Bridal Show next weekend where I can meet vendors, etc.
The next thing we are working on is buying a house. Since the market is so low right now and paying a mortgage is about what we already pay for rent we figured it just made sense to do it now. We've currently viewed about 20 homes and made a few offers. I'm hoping we hear back from our favorite house soon and get things going!
We don't have a "to do" list for our home yet since we aren't sure which home we will end up with, however I've already gone paint shopping and picked out a palette that both BF and I like a lot for the main living spaces. We already know that no matter what house we get we will probably repaint the inside to our tastes.
Because we don't have the house yet, we have decided that this is the perfect time to start "Nothing New 2012" because it will deter us from buying things that we will just have to move to the new home anyway (we both HATE moving) and also help us save money for possible home projects (like paint or a backyard make over!). Here are our rules for Nothing New 2012:
If we think we need something, these are the questions we must first ask:
1. Can we borrow it from a friend/family member?
2. Can we get it used?
3. Is there a sustainable alternative?
4. Do we really NEED it? Or do we WANT it?
5. Does it have a home? Meaning does it have a place to be stored or be kept permanently if we do get it.
The items that we know we will be buying that are MOSTLY exempt:
1. Groceries
2. Toiletries/ household cleaning items
3. Dog food/treats/medications
4. Prescriptions/Vitamins/Supplements
5. Undergarments- you never realize how quickly men's undershirts wear completely out until he cannot find a suitable one to wear one day!
6. Experiences- travel or entertainment. You should spend money on fun memories that build your relationship rather than consumables and knick knacks.
The reason I qualified this list as MOSTLY exempt from the rules is that there are items that we buy regularly that I've been trying to phase out and replace with more sustainable ones and also items that I'm starting to question that we even need (ie. vitamins and supplements- they cannot hurt, but research shows that they don't really make you healthier, your food and lifestyle do that... which is a whole other post).
Once we have the house stuff settled and the remainder of the wedding expenses paid for we will continue the Nothing New because we feel that it's just a good practice. We don't need to fill our home with unnecessary stuff and we don't need to fill landfills with trash. As we go we will just start setting goals on what to save for next- a trip to Europe, a weekend kayaking excursion, cooking classes, etc.
Here's hoping we hear about the house soon and that 2012 will be an amazing year!
Showing posts with label Nothing New. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nothing New. Show all posts
Monday, January 2, 2012
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Nothing New Updates- And Going Green-er
So I've had to make some concessions with my challenge, but I some of them HAD to be done in order for me to reach my other goals this year of changing my lifestyle to have a lower carbon footprint.
1. I HAD to buy some new pants and shirts. I've lost almost 20 pounds since January and my clothes were starting to look terrible and WAY TOO BIG on me. I weighed the options of buying gently used clothing, but I settled on picking out 2 pair of new jeans that are nicer so I won't feel like a slob at work and then digging out my old clothes that I was saving for when I lost weight (high school pants!). I kept a ton of clothes from when I was smaller so I've had some items to work with so I didn't have to buy new everything. I bought a handful of new shirts, but I'm looking for organic cottons and recycle fabrics when I do. I've donated bags upon bags of my old clothing since I'd taken really good care of them and most of them look new for others to benefit from. I'm decluttering my closets and drawers and it feels great.
2. I've had to buy the puppy stuff- grooming items (brush, deshedding tool, toothbrush), food, training treats and toys but BF and I have made a concerted effort to buy top quality, all natural ingredients with as little packaging as possible. Oh yeah, and I bought some dog clothing, but you know... Rudy didn't want to get wet and they were ON SALE for super cheap since it was the end of the season. Also, no packaging and the tags were recyclable.
3. I bought a new car because mine was on it's last leg and I had already planned for that. The plus side is that this car rates pretty well on the emissions scale (much better than the old car) and gets much better gas mileage than the Subaru.
4. I bought reusable shopping bags, sandwich bags and cleaning cloths. I hated getting plastic bags when I was shopping to put my produce in, so one day while at Fred Meyer I spotted these reusable mesh bags that come in threes. I bought 2 packs of them so now I use those instead of plastic bags and if they get dirty I just rinse them off in the sink and hang to dry so I can reuse again. They are also nice because your produce doesn't get all slimy in the drawers with condensation since the bags are mesh and let air through.
I also bought some Snack Taxi bags for our lunches. I'm refusing to use plastic sandwich bags anymore so we are using the last of ours now (which I also rinse out and reuse when I can) and are starting to use these awesome little reusable, washable pouches for our snacks and sandwiches. We try to use glass and ceramics as much as possible, but they aren't always practical when you tote your lunch to and from work every day.
The cleaning cloths are to replace paper towel use. I found some awesome micro fiber cloths (they come in 3 packs and 6 packs) at Bed, Bath and Beyond and they come in different shades of green so you can assign a cloth to each room in the house where they will be used. Our dark one is in the bathroom for cleaning, the medium green shade is my dust rag for the living/dining room areas, and the light green one is the kitchen cleaning rag. We just throw them in the wash every few days with our regular laundry to clean them. We still use paper towels for cleaning up specific things (like the ever so rare dog mess), but we have switched to using the recycled paper towels for that.
5. And I almost forgot I bought a mini Kitchenaid food processor with my slot machine winnings because the blender does NOT work for everything and I don't have 2 hours each night to chop stuff up for dinner. WORTH IT.
So that is pretty much it. I think those few things (one of which was planned before I decided to do the challenge) were worth buying and will help us save in the future. Plus, I don't know how to sew snazzy outfits from my drapes like Maria (Sound of Music reference) so new clothes were in order.
Going forward I think it will be easier to not buy new stuff. We don't really need anything new and most of the shopping we do now is for groceries and dog food anyway. I think the only other thing we are looking to replace are our plastic cups, but I have been keeping an eye out for glass and stainless steel ones at thrift stores so we'll see what I find.
1. I HAD to buy some new pants and shirts. I've lost almost 20 pounds since January and my clothes were starting to look terrible and WAY TOO BIG on me. I weighed the options of buying gently used clothing, but I settled on picking out 2 pair of new jeans that are nicer so I won't feel like a slob at work and then digging out my old clothes that I was saving for when I lost weight (high school pants!). I kept a ton of clothes from when I was smaller so I've had some items to work with so I didn't have to buy new everything. I bought a handful of new shirts, but I'm looking for organic cottons and recycle fabrics when I do. I've donated bags upon bags of my old clothing since I'd taken really good care of them and most of them look new for others to benefit from. I'm decluttering my closets and drawers and it feels great.
2. I've had to buy the puppy stuff- grooming items (brush, deshedding tool, toothbrush), food, training treats and toys but BF and I have made a concerted effort to buy top quality, all natural ingredients with as little packaging as possible. Oh yeah, and I bought some dog clothing, but you know... Rudy didn't want to get wet and they were ON SALE for super cheap since it was the end of the season. Also, no packaging and the tags were recyclable.
3. I bought a new car because mine was on it's last leg and I had already planned for that. The plus side is that this car rates pretty well on the emissions scale (much better than the old car) and gets much better gas mileage than the Subaru.
4. I bought reusable shopping bags, sandwich bags and cleaning cloths. I hated getting plastic bags when I was shopping to put my produce in, so one day while at Fred Meyer I spotted these reusable mesh bags that come in threes. I bought 2 packs of them so now I use those instead of plastic bags and if they get dirty I just rinse them off in the sink and hang to dry so I can reuse again. They are also nice because your produce doesn't get all slimy in the drawers with condensation since the bags are mesh and let air through.
I also bought some Snack Taxi bags for our lunches. I'm refusing to use plastic sandwich bags anymore so we are using the last of ours now (which I also rinse out and reuse when I can) and are starting to use these awesome little reusable, washable pouches for our snacks and sandwiches. We try to use glass and ceramics as much as possible, but they aren't always practical when you tote your lunch to and from work every day.
The cleaning cloths are to replace paper towel use. I found some awesome micro fiber cloths (they come in 3 packs and 6 packs) at Bed, Bath and Beyond and they come in different shades of green so you can assign a cloth to each room in the house where they will be used. Our dark one is in the bathroom for cleaning, the medium green shade is my dust rag for the living/dining room areas, and the light green one is the kitchen cleaning rag. We just throw them in the wash every few days with our regular laundry to clean them. We still use paper towels for cleaning up specific things (like the ever so rare dog mess), but we have switched to using the recycled paper towels for that.
5. And I almost forgot I bought a mini Kitchenaid food processor with my slot machine winnings because the blender does NOT work for everything and I don't have 2 hours each night to chop stuff up for dinner. WORTH IT.
So that is pretty much it. I think those few things (one of which was planned before I decided to do the challenge) were worth buying and will help us save in the future. Plus, I don't know how to sew snazzy outfits from my drapes like Maria (Sound of Music reference) so new clothes were in order.
Going forward I think it will be easier to not buy new stuff. We don't really need anything new and most of the shopping we do now is for groceries and dog food anyway. I think the only other thing we are looking to replace are our plastic cups, but I have been keeping an eye out for glass and stainless steel ones at thrift stores so we'll see what I find.
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