Jan 20, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $ |
I told my kids I would let them buy a box of cereal straws if they promised to blog on the ridiculousness of them. They chose to do it, so I purchased the box of Oreo Funstix cereal straws for $3.50. Joe: O.K. First of all. My mom is making me do this. So I’m not...
Jan 19, 2011 | No retail shopping, Recycle |
I saw this recycling box at the local camera shop. No, I wasn’t shopping, I had to go there for work. I was surprised to see the red dot that says, “10% of proceeds will go to charity”. 10%? There are a lot of collection boxes where all of the...
Jan 19, 2011 | Mini challenges, No retail shopping, Recycle, Repurposed, Thrift store |
Here’s the experiment. I decided to reduce my wardrobe by 50%. I also threw out a mini-challenge. Take 25 pieces of clothing from your closet, place them in a box or plastic tote. Put it away for a month and see if you miss any of the stuff in it. If not,...
Jan 17, 2011 | Mini challenges, Save $ |
I’m posting the 25 piece clothing challenge separate from the blog post, as I have a few people that want to participate already. I’ll post the results monthly, along with the list of people participating. Check it out. Take 25 pieces of clothing from...
Jan 17, 2011 | No retail shopping, Thrift store |
I promised you dirty laundry, so here it is. There’s actually more of it, but this is my basket. My kids have one upstairs too. So why an I showing you this? I have no idea, other than it seemed like a fun title for this blog post. I was thinking a few days...
Jan 16, 2011 | No retail shopping, Recycle, Salvaged, Save $
My friend that had the flood finally got to move back into her house yesterday. As I was helping, I noticed the old bathroom light fixture sitting in the trash, with all of the old light bulbs still in it. With the challenge, I can’t buy light bulbs, so I...
Jan 15, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $, Thrift store |
Several people have asked me to compile this information, so here it is to the best of my knowledge. I did not start this challenge to save money, although it’s been a nice benefit. Here’s a few of the details, and I will be tracking this more going...
Jan 15, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $
Yesterday I had to shop for work again. I’m designing an interactive wall that unfortunately need some new supplies. I was mentioning the fact that I had to go to the store in front of someone that just heard about my no retail challenge. He asked, “So,...
Jan 13, 2011 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Save $ |
Here in North Texas, we’re a little spoiled by the not-too-cold winter temperatures. We get our once a year snowfall, but generally our low’s are still above freezing. This was not so 2 days ago, when the low, including the wind chill factor, was to dip...
Jan 12, 2011 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Recycle, Repurposed, Save $ |
Instead of buying ziplock plastic baggies and other plastic containers, I like to reuse containers I already have. Instead of placing my plastic sour cream containers, margarine containers or other food containers directly into the recycling bin, I wash them and use...
Jan 10, 2011 | No retail shopping, Recycle, Repurposed, Save $, Thrift store |
I had to go to 2 stores for work yesterday. I needed a frame, a mat board and to have 1 photo printed. I decided to go to Aaron Brothers for the frame and mat board, because in January, they have their “buy one, get one for a penny” sale. I found the...
Jan 9, 2011 | Flashback, No retail shopping, Save $
Original post: January 1, 2009 About two months ago, I got a really cool pair of shoes from a friend’s teenage daughter. She said she was not wearing them anymore, so I took them home with me. The shoes were awesome, great colors and artwork! As soon as I got...
Jan 8, 2011 | Save $, Thrift store |
Amy found this clothing store in New York City called Necessary Clothing. Yes, clothing is necessary, and from the looks of the mannequins, you might need to buy several pieces of it. I did a little research on this store. They’re located in the SoHo district...
Jan 6, 2011 | No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
I’m really not sure exactly how much money I’ve saved doing this challenge, as I haven’t tracked it, however I know it’s a substantial amount. I have no debt, I’m not always broke and comparing my finances to last year, I’ve spent...
Jan 5, 2011 | No retail shopping, Save $
I found myself being irritated at the grocery store, stirring over the little yellow tags again. (day 160… trained shopping monkeys) Upon a very deliberate observation, I would guess 60% or more of the little yellow tags are ‘low price’ tags and...
Jan 1, 2011 | No retail shopping, Recycle, Repurposed |
I don’t have any resolutions for the new year. I’m doing the no shopping challenge, I’m getting a lot of things done in my house and I’m doing most of the things I want/need to be doing. One thing I do want to change is my cooking habits....
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 23, 2010 | Flashback, Save $
This is a blog post I did in October of 2008 on iembracechaos.com, and the one post I send people to most frequently. is it coffee or an investment? Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot live without my latte machine. It’s a Pasquini machine, basically...
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...
