Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Where we are

At the beginning of 2011, I made this list out as my goal has been to move into a healthier, more simple, natural and responsible lifestyle. Blessedly I kept the list and thought I'd go thru it again... This is the original list with notes in red as to where we are now!

...real milk/half and half in my coffee in place of fake creamer (Thank you Mexico!)
...agave in place of sugar (not sure if this is actually healthier or not but I like it)
...bar soap in place of liquid soap from the store (soon to be my own homemade soap!) I now use homemade bar soap exclusively. David does buy and use a combo shampoo/body wash as this is easier to carry to the campground showers (where he prefers to shower as they are larger in size - he's a big guy!). And I make my own soap now too!

...real food in place of convenience boxed food (Hamburger Helper type stuff; boxed macaroni; boxed potatoes)We still don't eat a lot of convenience food, but have been eating more "junk food" on this journey.
...homemade deodorant in place of store-bought (post coming soon on this!)
...homemade cleaning supplies in place of store-bought
...fresh or frozen veggies in place of canned (still use canned tomatoes and mushrooms)
...fresh local milk in place of store-bought We buy regular store-bought milk due to lack of a place consistently to get fresh local milk.
...eating more veggies and fruit vs. junk food We have been on a junk food kick since being on the road... kinda a "vacation-mode"! I think we are slowly realizing this is life, not a vacation!
...most of my clothing comes from thrift stores
...natural gray in place of coloring chemicals every 6 weeks I gave in and started coloring my hair again back in November 2011... but now wishing I hadn't! I don't like the upkeep of it!
...cloth napkins in place of paper We tried using paper napkins/paper towels on the road but I do not like the expense of them... So we are going back to cloth napkins!
...doing more of my grocery shopping at the farmer's market in place of the grocery store I would love to do more of this but D is not as huge a fan as I am. And with one vehicle that I've only driven a couple of times, I don't feel the freedom to take off on my own. It's still my goal to shop more farmer's markets though.
...drinking more water (I've quit buying soda in the 12-pack; when we are "craving" one, we'll get one at the store down the road; it was just too readily available for me) We are back to buying 12-packs of mostly Coke Zero... I go thru periods of drinking/craving soda; then other times where I can take 'em or leave 'em.
...washing dishes by hand in place of using the dishwasher (I don't know that this is healthier but I love the "old school" washing dishes) Lol, my ONLY choice now is to wash by hand; I AM the dishwasher!




...eating more meatless meals
...laundry in cold water (most of it) and hanging clothes on the line to dry (most of the time) Still washing laundry in cold water but using dryers now as most campgrounds don't allow you to hang clotheslines from the trees. If they do allow it, we haven't had any good trees to hang a significant amount of line to line dry. And I'm missing that!
...limit driving trips; it does help that we bought a good-gas-mileage car in place of the truck I really wanted! Another LOL! We have one vehicle and have slowed down our travel immensely. And we do still limit driving trips!
...got out of debt and have stayed out (by God's grace alone!)
...reusing, recycling and repurposing things I already have (fabric, yarn, food)
...farm fresh eggs! Dearly missing these and the hens that used to bless us with them!

Things I've tried and not succeeded or quit doing. All of these I want to try again

...baking soda "shampoo" with apple cider vinegar rinse -Tried this again several times on the road... my hair feels worse when I use this than when it's just dirty!
...kitchen scraps to compost pile (I haven't done this in a while; just got lazy, but am pulling out the scraps bucket today!) No compost pile in the rig.
...I've been using storebought laundry soap... just got lazy about making it On hold till we have a sticks and bricks again.

Things I'd like to incorporate...

...Using more "rags" instead of paper towels (not sure if I can totally give up paper towels, but I'm going to try) I am using paper towels more on the road than I did in a s&b... mainly to wipe down dishes before washing them to limit what goes into our tanks.
...making my own salsa, refried beans and bread Due to space limits, these probably won't be homemade until in a normal size kitchen! I know there are some who do it in an RV, so it is possible!
...less tv watching; more crafting, reading, creating The TV is usually only on in the evenings... we watch our favorite shows then it's off... except for lulling D to sleep! 
 ...better efforts with my garden  No garden right now!

Things we've done on our road adventure...

...Live smaller (moving from a 1700 sf home into 240 sf home) 

...And what goes along with living smaller is less stuff, less consumerism, less materialism
...More mindful of water waste (having to limit our water usage for different reasons) 
...Spend more time outdoors (easy with 240 square feet indoors, a spacious "yard" and trying to seek our "perfect" weather...) 
...Gratitude for what we have and where we are

7 comments:

  1. My Hamburger Helper is what has kept this marriage together.

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  2. Me and hubbie go back and forth on the paper towels..loved it when they came out the 1/4 sheets. When I tore one of those in half for a napkin I really got "the look" :O) Darn cute apron!!

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  3. I still find the "choose-a-size" paper towels every once in a while! The apron was one of my favorite thrift finds! Thanks!

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  4. Have you ever tried Emeals for your meals? They provide you with a shopping list, menu and recipes. I love it. I used to buy a lot of boxed foods. The first thing I noticed is our trash went down because I was no longer buying pre-packaged foods. The downsize is I have trouble planning my own meals now. LOL

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    1. I did look into it when you mentioned it on our other blog... but we know the meals/recipes we like and I'm think I'm spending less than what it offered for our main meals. And I do enjoy planning our meals usually! Thanks for sharing about this though!It sounds like a definite help to a lot of people!

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  5. WoW! A great list Teri! I'm the same - up and down with things - I'm usually not so great on the road as at home. I'm going to make more of an effort this year! It's much harder to make things from scratch - the no oven thing certainly doesn't help.

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE my homemade deodorant and that is saying something with this summers heat and all the physical work we do. I think I have it pinned - coconut oil, baking soda, arrowroot, tea tree and lavender oils. I'm also making our toothpaste!

    I do have fingers crossed that soda consumption will go down - it is so so so bad for us. I LOVE coke and have worked on only having it so often. A tough one for sure!

    I'd go with you to the farmer's markets for sure - LOVE them too!

    Nice that you make your own soap - I'd like to - the whole lye thing scares me off.....

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    1. That is the deodorant "recipe" I use! I started using it one winter and thought the real test would be thru a Texas summer of 100+ degree days and I'm happy to report it worked in the summer too!

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