Dec 27, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Recycle, Repurposed, Save $ |
I have an idea. I know, no surprise… I stumbled upon this little video called The Story of Stuff. It’s a little over 20 minutes long, but I watched the whole thing. Before I get into the details here, take a look if you haven’t seen it. If you...
Dec 26, 2010 | No retail shopping, Save $
I had to go to the grocery store for a couple of things, and as I was walking through the store, I found something that seemed a little off. Shopaholic wine glasses. Cute, right? Not so much. The definition of a shopaholic is “a compulsive shopper”,...
Dec 26, 2010 | Dumpster diving, No retail shopping
It’s the day after Christmas, the day where everyone returns the gifts they don’t want. I gave myself a Christmas gift yesterday, and that gift was to take a day off of blogging. I’m a couple of days behind and will get caught up. I did go dumpster...
Dec 24, 2010 | No retail shopping |
Let me me be perfectly honest here. I really hate holidays. And, I’m an equal opportunity holiday hater, I don’t like any of them. I love Christmas, that is the true meaning of Christmas, but I hate the cultural crap that comes along with it. I just...
Dec 23, 2010 | Abandoned places, No retail shopping
I just don’t have much to share on the shopping front. I’m just not doing it. Instead, I’ll share a few photos today. Abandoned… This house was abandoned in the 70’s, and interestingly enough, it looks as though they moved nothing out...
Dec 22, 2010 | Dumpster diving, Ideas, No retail shopping, Repurposed, Salvaged, Save $ |
As usual, I had to look up some information on this. The white elephant gift exchange is defined on Wikipedia like this: A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game found primarily in North America. It has many variations in both the name and the...
Dec 21, 2010 | No retail shopping, Repurposed |
A couple of years ago, they started the “360 feedback” process at work. I’m a fan of it if people use it correctly, but I don’t want to wait until the end of the year to get zapped for something I might have done so long ago, and can’t...
Dec 19, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle, Salvaged
I got an awesome little gift a few days ago, unexpected and very much related to trash society. The gift? An origami box with a photo album inside, all made with junk mail and paper stuff from the recycling bin. Check it out… Notice the thought behind this,...
Dec 18, 2010 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
I found something in my email this morning, something which disturbed me greatly. It was from YouVersion, the online Bible app from lifechurch.tv. Now I love this app, I use it a lot to read the Bible, look up scriptures, post live church events and network with...
Dec 17, 2010 | No retail shopping, Save $ |
In a creative-type job, if you have an extra 15 minutes, that’s just play time. It’s not enough time to start a project, because in 14 minutes, you would just be getting into your creative zone, then have to stop. Frustrating! While Jerod and I were...
Dec 16, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Thrift store |
I’ve been asked a lot, “…what are you getting your kids for Christmas if you can’t shop?” Here’s the answer you’ve all been waiting for. I can shop, it just has to be pre-owned things, so here’s the plan. Half Price...
Dec 15, 2010 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Save $
I ran across two interesting things this week, one posted on my Facebook page and the other in a Yahoo! Groups post on Compact. These sites, xmaswithoutchina.com and the Marie Claire Yahoo! Shopping post, when combined together, portray a picture of our consumeristic...
Dec 14, 2010 | No retail shopping |
Yes, I used half a roll of paper towels last night. That’s more than I use in a month. I also used 2 plastic shopping bags and threw away a perfectly good pair of socks. Yes, this is not my normal behavior, but I did these things for a good reason. It’s...
Dec 13, 2010 | Dumpster diving, No retail shopping, Save $ |
I’m speaking tonight at Preston Trail Community Church, in the Financial Peace University class, about the “no retail” shopping challenge. I didn’t start this to save money, but it did turn out to be a nice benefit. Here’s a recap of...
Dec 12, 2010 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print
Is 200 a milestone in the challenge? No, it’s just a nice, round, even number. I remember my mom pumping gas into the car when I was little and she always rounded it up to a full dollar amount, even if that meant topping it off to the point it overflowed. I...
Dec 11, 2010 | Dumpster diving, No retail shopping, Salvaged, Thrift store |
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk0vwmq26JQ This video was created for a school project by a student at the Clarion University of Pennsylvania for a Physics of Energy and the Environment class. It’s a wonderful video on the how-to’s of dumpster diving...
Dec 11, 2010 | No retail shopping, Save $ |
Yet another trip to Target. This time it was for my son. Here’s the somewhat funny, yet disturbing story… I was presented with a ziplock baggie full of Barbie doll parts this past week. Normally, this would be okay, as someone might be giving me these...
Dec 10, 2010 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
Oprah always has her list of favorite things at Christmas time and gives them away to her viewers or audience. A lot of this feels like advertising, although she has a few things to say about each of these and why she likes them. Unfortunately that doesn’t...
Dec 9, 2010 | No retail shopping, Salvaged |
At work this week, someone dropped and broke our cordless drill. Accidents happen, and we had to buy a new drill. Right after that, the tape measure wouldn’t retract back into the case. So what do you do with these things? Possible repurpose? Luckily I work...
Dec 8, 2010 | No retail shopping |
There’s no possible way any household vacuum cleaner could possibly suck up all the crap on our floors. It begs the question, “Why do we have so much little stuff and where did it come from?” First of all, Spongebob seems to be everywhere in our...
Dec 7, 2010 | No retail shopping |
Thanksgiving day, we brought many coats and blankets to Dallas to pass out to the homeless people living there, trying to stay warm. Even though there was a lot of food, many said they had already eaten, as everyone gives out food on Thanksgiving. They were there...
Dec 5, 2010 | No retail shopping, Recycle |
We’re at a restaurant and Joe comes back from the restroom, running toward the table, carrying a paper toilet seat cover. He holds it up and says, “Mom, can you believe this?! They have paper thing to put on the toilet seats. How wasteful is...
Dec 4, 2010 | No retail shopping, Recycle, Thrift store |
Let me just say, before you read my list of things I don’t get, that there’s a purpose behind this list. That purpose is something I say regularly. Just think about what you’re buying and what you’re doing. Your actions make a difference....
Dec 4, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping
I ran out of dishwasher soap a couple of weeks ago and had to wash my dishes by hand. In the process, I realized that I wash all my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I’m sure this bizarre habit comes from my childhood of eating off gritty dishes...
Dec 2, 2010 | No retail shopping
There have been many days I have been called an activist. I never really thought of myself that way until a couple of years ago. Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky? Could happen. I do get overly passionate about many things. I suppose that could be good...
