No Impact Week

Inspired by Huffington Posts "No Impact Week" I'm going to have my own week of "Saving Money" week.

No impact is part of it, but also working to save as much money as possible goes hand in hand with living lightly off the land.

I already use cloth diapers for the kids and we have zero waste at lunchtime (I sell Laptop Lunches in case anyone is interested!) by using reusable containers and water bottles.  We also recycle and reuse via hand-me-downs as much as possible.

I'll start on Sunday, but I'll be taking today through Saturday to gear up for it and get the family ready to do it.  It's really hard to train kids to think about our resources with every action, but I'm willing to give it a go this weekend.  We are going to turn off lights when leaving a room, maybe even candlelight for dinner (how fun is that??) I also want to eliminate television and use our bikes to get groceries.  Speaking of groceries, I'm going to take inventory of what I have in the pantry and see what I can make throughout the week with what I have.  If I can't use something in the pantry, I'm going to donate it to FISH (local food bank) so that someone else can use up that can of full fat refried beans that I bought on accident.

I have a recipe for refrigerator dough for bread that is sitting in my fridge so that is one less thing to buy this week.  Breakfast will be oatmeal I already have and the occasional french toast or pancakes depending on the egg bounty.

Also with saving money is exercise and now that I finally have the green light, I'm getting excited to start running again.  I'll probably bike and walk for several weeks and work up slowly to running, but I can't wait!