These things...

...are actually kind of awesome. I always immediately toss them into the recycling bin but in the spirit of Miser March, I decided to check them out this week. I sat down for an hour or so and compared the sales at 3 different supermarkets. Here's this week's miser report:

Shaws wins for cheapest tuna and oranges and they also have a good deal going where you can buy 4 packages of produce for $7.99.

Stop&Shop has a lot of good sales this week including, 2 for $4 strawberries, 10 for $10 28 oz. cans of tomato sauce, and 10 for $10 avocados.

Market Basket wins for toothpaste over the other stores with Crest at 2 for $3, and they also have 2 for $5 blueberries which seems to be a great deal for this time of year.

I also really wish I had the 40% A.C. Moore coupon last week when I actually needed something there. Time to start giving the grocery store fliers a once over before tossing them out.

Miser March

Miser: A person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.

Or, what unemployment has turned me into.

I’ve been out of work for about 8 months now so I’m definitely no stranger to scrimping and saving. Even though I’ve always been a careful spender, unemployment has definitely taken it to the next level. I’m comparing prices at the supermarket, using everything until the last drop, borrowing and making instead of buying, and just cutting back wherever I can. Although I’ve become a champ at this, I’m sure I can do better. This month I’m taking my economizing up a notch and declaring it Miser March.

Here’s what I’m thinking so far:

I’m starting out by doing something that I’ve always wanted to do: Withdrawing my weekly spending allowance from the ATM at the beginning of each week and spending only that. I feel like physically handing someone money rather than using a piece of plastic with my name on it might make me think twice before purchasing something unnecessary.

I cannot use my credit card or dip into my savings account unless it’s an emergency.

I should make or borrow whenever possible, but if I do need to buy something, it has to be on sale or second hand. Time to utilize Coupon Cabin, Craigslist, the library and things like Bank of America’s Add It Up Program.

Spend as little as possible on food and drink. Looks like it’s time to actually read through those grocery store flyers that usually get tossed into the recycling bin and do some comparison shopping. I remember being in awe of my friend Jess when she told me that she spent about $20 a week to eat. Eating out and drinking (alcohol) are only allowed if it doesn’t push me over my weekly budget. Love you 3 buck chuck!

Read through The Tightwad Gazette for money saving tips on everything. I’ll be sure to post good things that I find.

Sell things I no longer have a need for on Ebay or Craigslist for extra cash.

As always, I’m interested in feedback so if anyone has any tips for me, please share.

Life Junk

Out of all of the challenges that I’ve completed for the 12 Months of Lent, this February’s fun month may come across as less serious or structured than some of the other months I’ve done, but my intent for it was the same as it’s been all along. Like with every other month, I recognized something that was lacking in my life and devoted a month to trying to fix it.

Although I had originally designated February as Frugal February (now switched to Miser March), I’m glad that it wasn’t set in stone. Last year I determined each month’s challenge in advance, but this year I decided to figure them out month by month, allowing me more flexibility, and I definitely think it’s better this way. Coming out of January, what I really needed was a pick-me-up, not an intensive spending restriction to keep me in my house and further my status as a Watertownie. After the rough 6 months I had just gone through, I needed to get out of my head and back into the world.

So, did it work? Did a month of enforced fun help to pull me out of my winter slump? Yes and no. While I may not have partied like it was 2007, I did manage to have one of the best months that I’ve had in a while. Maybe I didn’t have rip roaring fun every day, but I did manage to do something enjoyable that helped lift my spirits for sure.

Sometimes we all need a reminder to not let life junk get in the way of living life, and that’s just what Fun February was for me.

The Fun Project

I love having fun, probably even a little more so than the next person (as anyone who hung out with me in 2007 can attest to). Lately though, the fun times have been a little lacking. Blame it on the winter blues or my extended period of unemployment, but whatever the case may be, there’s really no excuse. It’s time to bring a little more fun into my life.

Since February 1st, I’ve been making an effort to do something fun everyday. Whether it be learning how to play Umbrella on the Ukulele, giving myself funny manicures, or having friends over to watch the Olympics, I go a little bit out of my way everyday to make myself smile and laugh out loud. It’s a similar idea to Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, where she spends a year giving herself monthly resolutions aimed at making her happier and improving her life. Instead of the pursuit of happiness though, I’m focusing on the pursuit of fun.

Happy February! Let me know if you want to hang out and do something fun.

Year in Review

When I was growing up, my dad would always tell me to “make it a great day” before sending me off to school. I’d usually shoot back some smart, teenage retort about how I couldn’t possibly control what kind of day I was going to have. It wasn’t up to me dad, how could I know what the day had in store for me? It’s only in the last few years that I’ve come to realize what a valuable lesson he was trying to teach me. That our own fate and destiny aren’t in the hands of an unknown force, but that we are the ones who choose the path our lives will follow. It was this philosophy that pushed me to take the fate of 2009 into my own hands and make it the year that I wanted it to be, one month at a time.

The 12 Months of Lent was designed as a series of month-long personal challenges that were outlined to push me towards living a richer and more fulfilling life. I sat down a year ago with my friends Amanda and Jenny and together, we came up with an idea for each month, ranging from eating more mindfully, to being more conscious consumers, to just doing things that we’d been putting off for no good reason. The ultimate goal was to adopt the habit that each month was trying to form into our daily lives. They say it takes 30 days to break a habit, so hopefully it would also take 30 days to make one.

Looking back on the year, it’s definitely had a lasting impact on my life. Whether I really wanted them to or not, a lot of the months did form habits that have stuck with me: I write in my journal more than I ever have in my life, I think twice before using disposable anything, I check the label to see where my produce was grown, and I try to support local food sources whenever possible. I have a hard time not picking up trash when I see it, and I make an effort to purchase things with the least amount of packaging possible to reduce my consumption in the first place. I recycle absolutely everything, and even though I failed at it, I gave composting a try, and I’ll give it another try come Spring. I more readily offer compliments to friends and strangers, I don’t hesitate to get in contact with someone that I haven’t spoken to in a while, and I generally just try to do things instead of putting them off. Overall, the 12 Month of Lent was a very positive experience and I look forward to continuing it through 2010, repeating months I enjoyed, and coming up with new challenges as I go along.

So, many thanks to Rick for the encouragement to blog in the first place, to Amanda, Jenny, and Tim for your participation, and to all of you for your support and thoughtful, insightful comments over the year. Keep them coming and happy 2010 everyone!

November & December

November's random acts of kindness ended up being a really positive month. I left notes for waiters and waitresses when I thought the service was excellent, I tried to be less of a Masshole when I was driving, I made an effort to smile at strangers I passed on the street, but most of all, I spent a lot of time making handmade cards and gifts.

As for December, I had originally intended for it to be a sort of wild card month. I was either going to repeat a month I really liked, or try to combine a few different months into one. But when Caribbean vacations, birthdays, and holidays got in the way, I ended up taking the month off. In reflecting on the year though, I've definitely noticed that I've kept bits and pieces of each months challenges, so I guess December wasn't too far off from my original intent. More on that later...

Corporations and Random Acts of Kindness

I read this in an issue of Budget Travel and thought it was interesting:

"Getting an unexpected upgrade can hook you on a place–and that's the motivation behind Hyatt's "random acts of generosity" initiative (yes, it's an initiative), announced in May. The company's CEO told employees to occasionally tear up guests' bar tabs, comp massages, or dole out some other out-of-the-blue treats."

I know the primary motivation here is to hook customers and drum up more business, but hey, I still think it's pretty cool.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I would say that in general, people hold things in more than they let them out. We mostly think of this in terms of negative emotions, the person who bottles everything up, only to explode once they’ve reached their breaking point, but lately I’ve been thinking of it in terms of the positive things that we hold in as well. How sometimes I want to write my favorite musician a note about how much I enjoyed their show but I tell myself not to bother. How sometimes I’ll think a friend is doing something really great or inspiring but I don’t say anything. Or even simple things, like not complimenting a stranger when I like something that they’re wearing. What is the root of this repression? Does is all boil down to fear of a negative reaction?

Being an inherently shy person, it’s always been a struggle for me to put myself out there. It’s only in the past few years (this blog being a great example) that I’ve begun to focus less on what others think and more on my motives. To me, if your intentions are positive then there’s no reason to be shy. I mean, how many times have you received a surprise note from a friend or a compliment from a stranger that made your day? Everybody likes being the recipient of these actions so why do we hesitate to be the giver?

November to me is all about not holding these things in. It’s about getting them out and just putting as much positive energy into the universe as possible. Like other months, I’m aiming to do one thing per day, so by the end of the month I’ll have tallied up 30 “random acts of kindness”.

This month has also encouraged me to revisit the idea of paying it forward, a concept introduced to me by my friend Rebecca a few years ago. I’m sure most of you are familiar with it to some extent, but the basic gist is to do a favor for another person–without any expectation of being paid back.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I hope everyone will be inspired to be uncomfortably honest and unnecessarily kind to everyone you encounter.

p.s. I’d love suggestions that anyone has for random acts of kindness, ie. paying someones toll on the highway, etc.

Green October

A few months back, I posted a link to Green as a Thistle, a blog run by Canadian journalist, Vanessa Farquharson. For one year she made a different green change in her life everyday. Some of the changes were small, like switching to natural cleaning products, but some of them were much larger, like giving up her car and refrigerator. I was inspired by the concept after reading an article about her in my most favourite magazine Body + Soul and decided that the idea would lend itself well to The Twelve Months of Lent. So, I've come up with 31 ways to make my already pretty green lifestyle even greener. A lot of the changes are inspired by Vanessa's, some of them came from Body + Souls going greener guidebook, and a few are just ideas I had on my own.

Here's my list:

1. Do not purchase any single serving bottled beverages.
2. Make all my bills ebills.
3. Read by candlelight at night instead of turning on the lights.
4. Switch to cloth napkins.
5. Find a better solution for plastic litter liners. They probably make biodegradable ones, right?
6. Unplug the computer when I'm not using it.
7. Shower with the lights off in the daytime.
8. Switch to CFL lightbulbs. I'm kind of embarassed that I haven't done this already.
9. Use only natural products to clean the house, like baking soda and vinegar.
10. Fill the tea kettle with the exact amount of water I need.
11. Reuse one glass and one mug all day.
12. Carbon offset air and auto travel.
13. Put a bucket in the shower while the water is heating up. Save the water and use it to water plants.
14. Take the stairs.
15. Be strict about turning the lights off when I leave the room.
16. Try Good Search instead of google.
17. Wash clothes in cold water and don't use the dryer.
18. If I need to purchase something, try to buy used.
19. Shave my legs in the sink instead of the shower.
20. Ride my bike or walk to the grocery store instead of driving.
21. Switch to Luna Pads and the Diva Cup.
22. Use cash instead of credit and debit cards to minimize receipts.
23. Buy recycled and biodegradable trash bags.
24. Use glass instead of tupperware and stop using plastic wrap entirely.
25. Don't let the water run while I'm doing the dishes.
26. Get a working composting system in order.
27. Stop using paper towels.
28. Try to cut shower time in half.
29. Don't buy fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic or styrafoam.
30. Donate things I don't want anymore to a charity.
31. Reduce junk mail

The general gist of "going greener" seems to be to reduce your consumption, reuse what you can, and recycle the rest. Here are a few facts I came across that will hopefully encourage everyone to reduce, reuse and recycle more:

In 1995, Americans generated about 208 millions tons of garbage; 12 years later, that number rose to 254 million tons, with the average person producing nearly five pounds per day.

According to EPA estimates, we could recycle as much as 75 percent of our trash.

In finding ways to make my life greener, I realized that the concept was referencing some previous lents: reducing waste, eating locally, etc. I hope this month will be a good way to get back into some habits that I haven't kept up with.

Stash Sistahs

Before we left for our cross country journey, Jess and I were joking about how Jess and Danne sounded like dude names and how we should make some fake stashes and wear them around. The joke quickly turned into reality and Stash Sistahs was born.

Here are a few gems: