So what are your frugal living/activist spending goals for the week?

[LeftyMom]

I hope nobody minds but I think it might be a good idea to do a weekly thread with our goals so we can share ideas with each other, find creative solutions and be accountable for our progress. If this proves popular or useful I'll post a new thread each week.

My goals:
1. I will find ten things around the house to give to Goodwill, offer to friends or to Freecycle.
2. I will make three gifts to give next month.
3. I will make more scratch meals.
4. I will buy some phone cards and mail them to Walter Reed Medical Center so injured soldiers can call home.

What are your goals?

[Kenneth ken]

1. to get through my first fast

I've decided it would be a good idea for me to take up fasting one day a week. I picked Wednesday. For my schedule, it makes the best sense to go midnight-to-midnight, so I started at midnight Tuesday night. Five and-a-half hours left; this is hard! But at least when it gets to midnight I have food in the house so I can eat. I'm much better off than many people who fast by circumstance rather than choice.

52 days in a year without eating; it's a small thing, but it may help me think more about food and diet and making good choices, and eating less on a regular basis. Good for me, and maybe a small ripple that will have some minor effect on the world at large.

The less of anything I consume, the more of it there is for the rest of the world.

[LeftyMom]

2. That's awesome!

Are you getting plenty to drink?

[Kenneth ken]

4. I can have all the water I want.

since it's my rules, that's the one intake I allowed. Given the impending scarcity of drinkable water, that may not be the best rule, but I tend to drink a lot of water anyway, so it's better to go with that than to switch to something not-water for the day.

I drink water all day long out of a "sippy cup" - really it's a quart bottle with a lid and plastic nipple kind of thing that opens and closes, and has a plastic straw attached to the inside of the lid that runs down into the bottle. I take it everywhere, and when it gets empty I refill it. I make sure its full before I leave the house. So, essentially, I always have a supply of water with me, and drink as often as I feel the need.

:hi:

[K8-EEE]

8. Hey I'm Also On The Fast-Track!!

Only mine is a cheater fast -- I drink dilluted fruit juice, carrot juice and clear soup and water water water tea tea tea!

I'm doing it Tues & Thurs. After several false starts I figured out what was hard. The hard thing was I cook dinner for my family every night and at the end of the day I'd just say what the hell and eat it.

So here's what worked! I make dinner in the morning when everybody else is at school or work; I even set the dinner table in the morning, put the stuff in the oven with the timer on and take off to the Y for a swim while everyone else eats!

After a swim and a shower I come home, have a pot of tea and go to bed. I really felt good and energetic this morning. I know people warn about the dangers of fasting but the dangers of mindless overeating are worse and boy is it easy to fall into that trap this time of year!

[Kenneth ken]

10. I made it through one in a row!

YAY me!

You have my sympathy, I surely couldn't do it if I was around people who were eating. Fortunately for me, I live alone and work from home, so I don't have the temptation.

For myself, I'm not much concerned about any dangers in fasting; heck it's only a day. If I were thinking of fasting for a week or more at a time, then I'd be sure to read up on all the dangers and safety tips.

I'm also a swimmer, though I go to Bally's. I like to go about 9:00 AM, after the morning rush. (If I ever become homeless, I'll be one of the neat and clean homeless types, since I could keep going there and get a shower every day. :P ) I usually wake up energized, I think it's partly that I sleep deeply after I've swum, so the body gets good rest.

:hi:

[K8-EEE]

11. I Also Only DId One Day!

Tues AND Thurs not Tues THRU Thurs...I was ready to eat this morning for sure!

This was also hard to pull off when I worked in an office because you get the inevitable lunch invites and "I'm going here, do you want anything?" And then if you tell anybody what you're doing the immediately try to talk you out of it and face it...all you need is a bad day to get talked out of it real easy!

There are definitely benefits though. You would think you would eat a lot the next day but I find my self more mindful and careful about eating and enjoying it more, after giving it up for just a short time.

[Kenneth ken]

14. Thank You for the recipes.

I printed out both the 'caviar' and fettuccine recipes.

I did realize you are doing two one-day fasts, but you did say "I know people warn about the dangers of fasting..." so I was responding to that comment.

I had red beans and rice last night, pretty good, but could be better. Once I get it really yum, I'll post a recipe. I had the beans and spices cooking in the crockpot last night, so it made not going downstairs and dishing it up before midnight kind of tough.
Next week: leftovers that I can pop in the microwave! :D

[Zorra]

3. Have not bought a single thing since Sunday.

[Lorien]

5. Costco has the best deal on phone cards

$20 for 675 minutes, plus Costco gives 100% to Dems.

[NMDemDist2]

6. I am going to check out the new grocery store that is progressive

i'm not spending much money these days anyway

[Lorien]

7. a few of the same

trying to only eat home cooked meals.

contining to research progressive/ repug businesses and products.

Hopefully go through the garage for stuff to Freecycle.

Make a Santa hat for my cat so I can photograph him for my Christmas cards. He already looks like Sanda with his "beard", lol!

[K8-EEE]

9. Interesting Thread Lefty Mom!

I'm a lefty mom too!

Hey thanks for doing the Walter Reed thing. I wrote democraticunderground.com phone card drive on mine!

Here goes!

1) I'm doing a semi fast Tuesdays & Thursdays

2) Limiting wine (my biggest weakness!) to 3 glasses a week

3) Work one day at my parish food bank

4) Make a detailed, scaled down Christmas shopping list, finish all the shopping by Thanksgiving and then NO MORE! Yep! NO frantic gift-buying for me. NO gift buying at all in Dec. LEMME TELL YA --THAT'LL BE A FIRST!

I'm cheating a bit on that last one. I got some wine at Costco and a couple of those Method product gift packs in case somebody unexpected drops by with a gift, a situation which freaks me out even though I know it's dumb; but at least the just-in-case stuff is stuff we will use for sure and it will keep.

[PretzelWarrior]

12. good idea. I am going to pay down on my credit cards...

pay quite a bit more than the minimum on 2 of them.

I'm going to go through our "JUNK" and sort out what we can donate to Goodwill for tax purposes and to give clothing and other necessities to an org that will sell them to people who need cheap good-quality clothing.

[cally]

13. I've talked to my family about not giving gifts this year

to each other. I'm calling them and suggest we give donations instead. I'm working hard to convince my husband to not use Federal Express at our work. I've changed where I shop to small businesses and more progressive stores.

[sherilocks]

15. I spent the last week in preparation

Reorganizing is my first goal. It's harder than I thought. Just changing banks is a chore. I'm filling in all my e-bill paying addresses for the new bank. Yuk. I redirected my direct deposits and my automatic payments. I also will have to get a new safe deposit box.

I bought a bunch of fruits and vegggies at the farmer's market and froze them. I also turned some of them into frozen dinners. I think I'm also going to try my hand at canning. I'll let you know if that's worth what seems like a lot of work.

I weeded out a bunch of old books to donate to the local library for their sale. I sent a bunch of recipe books that were in great shape to one of my kids who will enjoy them (at USPS book rate)

Reorganized my canned goods and donated the older ones to the post office food bank box.

Just received an unwelcome motivator to keep my life simple, another hike in my health insurance premiums for next year.

My goals for the coming week? More of the same

[Lorien]

16. I Freecycled a fax machine

and a box of NFL trading cards that my neighbor threw out (nearly full! A little boy and his mom came and picked them up). I also have some clothes I plan to drive to Goodwill, plus I brought a BEAUTIFUL used scandinavian maple dining set for $150!

I turned a number of pet owners on to my holistic pet food store; www.pookiesbowwowbakery.com , which won't only make for much healthier pets, but supports organic growers and small blue businesses too!

[crispini]

17. Damn, that's ambitious!

All in ONE WEEK? Jeez.

My goal for the week: Take the books and DVDs that have been waiting to be resold to Half Price. How's that? :D

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. Hey, it works for us!

We just did that this last week! How do we always manage to spend more than our buyback money? Grrrrr.....

FSC

[WolverineDG]

19. here's a hint fsc

when they give you your $$, run like hell for the door!!! hee hee

no, that's never ever ever happened to me before.....NOT :evilgrin:

dg

[fudge stripe cookays]

20. Tee hee!

There's actually a place in Denton on the square that gives amazing buyback deals, and I can at least break even if not leave with money in my pocket from there.

Only problem is that reprehensor hates Denton and won't let me make the drive. :-(

"Come on! It's my alma mater, dude!"

{{{sigh}}}}
FSC

[NMDemDist2]

21. i'm not going to spend a dime

not at the grocery store, not at the thrift store and certainly not at the mall!

i have every thing i "need" :)

I realized that after I posted my other thread

[politicat]

22. My goals:

Several are completed.

1. Get the estimate for moving the little mobile home from Buttpimple CO to Boulder to reduce drive times, make sure our property taxes are going to a progressive community, and be able to use public transit.

2. Get copies of automobile donations from just before the first of the year and get tax records in order.

3. Check out the locally owned shops within walking distance of the new mobile home park.

4. Get tenants in "real" house to agree to xeriscaping project in spring.

5. Find new, liberal doctor in Boulder to replace, old, neo-con pig my insurance assigned me to.

6. Start paperwork (AGAIN) to get tubal ligation to prevent accidents. (Mr. Pcat is snipped, but shit happens.)

7. Pay off little credit card. (Yea!! Too bad I still have the big one from Mr. Pcat's ex wife to still get done.)

I've got 1 and 3 done today (I'm at the little coffee shop that is an easy, 1 mile walk from where the house will be...). 5 and 6 are Thursday. 7 I'll probably do tonight. 2 I sent a letter to the donation company. 4... ick.

The best thing about mobile homes (this is Mr. Pcat's legacy house from 1st marriage; we can't sell it, but it is comfortable, cosy and efficient, so that's a plus) is that they're mobile. We can move it for a couple grand.

And now that I've remodeled the damn thing down to subfloor and back up, it's livable for the 4 more years it will take to pay it off. We tried to sell it, but it was on the market for 3 years without a nibble. So we rented out my house, moved back into the little one.

Pcat