How are we doing so far?

We are almost through our first month of Buy Nothing New...how are we doing?

No exceptions and two lessons learned

At the doctor's office: I like to look at what I call mindless magazines..I can page through and get inspired or get new ideas with minimal effort on my part. It is something to look forward to while waiting to find out if ( in fact) I have been a negligent mother by not bringing my child to the doctor sooner.

While waiting to find out if Ben did ( in deed) have pnuemonia I was paging through a magazine but this time I was really aware of when a new product was being suggested as the solution to a problem.

Since I did not want to be tempted to buy anything new.. I skipped these "articles." There was nothing left to read..…a new product was always be suggested as the solution…even when it was an “article”

So Ben and I spent the time talking about my new discovery.

The Lesson of the Pipe Cleaners

It is rare that Nate (14) is excited about church. So I was thrilled to have him get in the car talking about his class in an animated voice. They had been creating something and there were cool pipe cleaners ( turns out they have funky stripes)

Nate “ we have GOT to get some of these pipe cleaners”

Me ( in my head where I seem to spend quite a bit of my time) I really want to support creativity ( esp off line innovation)..pipe cleaners are not expensive and don’t seem to pose a huge environmental threat. What have we committed to...am I going to ruin all chance of creativity because we can't even buy pipe cleaners ( I now call this Challenge remorse)

Ben “ We have pipe cleaners down stairs”
Nate “They’re not the cool kind”
Ben” No but they work the same…shouldn’t we use those up first?”

Note to Mom:..some times the best thing to do is nothing

What's a Rutabaga look like?

Rutabaga
Originally uploaded by ianqui

My Mom emailed me..."Rutabaga? Celeriac? Turnip? What do they even look like?" Great question..since I didn't even know they existed before we joined a CSA ( community supported farm).

Our farm (Vermont Valley) introduced us to all sorts of funky vegetables and ( luckily) recipes so we had some idea of what to do with them.

This time of year...if you want to eat local...it is root crops are us.

The other action we are working on is our commitment to eat more plant...specifically more beans and grains. Most of our protein still comes from cheese and eggs and we'd like to diversify. This week we are making dal ( an Indian lentil stew that both mark and I love....I'll let you know what the boys say)


Interested in the what the other veggies look like?
Celeraic

Flickr photo: ispy/1950484255
Turnips

Flickr photo:7bikeframesweldedtogether

Eating our Values

For the Greener Faster Challenge we are still focused on eating local/organic.

This is the area that we have made the most changes and are settling into a routine.

Willy Street West has made this part of the challenge a "piece of cake."

Mark shops at Willy St once a week. It means he gets to take the car to work which is a treat for him and means no big shop on the weekends.

The boys and I stop at Bagels Forever ( for 2 dozen bagels...I have to growing boys remember) on the way to church on Saturday. And if we have forgotten anything we can stop at Whole Foods on the way home.

We are eating at least 1-2 meals with root crops and most weeks at least one meal bean/grain. This weeks menu is potpie ( turnip, parsnips, celaric, yellow and orange carrots and potatoes...a family favorite with some new veggies thrown in) and split pea soup.

We are experimenting with one big cook on Sundays making two dishes which will each serve two meals...that way we are pretty much done cooking for the week. Loved it last week.

Our national association for our church published our Statement of Conscience for Ethical Eating.

It's a little long ( OK a lot) but that is pretty typical of Unitarian Universalists...but if you scroll to the end you can see the part where there is a list for what families can do.

We are living up to our part of bargain!

Shopping for food has become easier...and even more enjoyable! And we don't have to do any other shopping for a whole year...so life's pretty good.

Thoughtful comments

Well our New Year's Resolution is generating some thoughtful comments and conversations....I'm not sure if people check back to see the comments so ( even though this may be bad blogging etiquette) I've copied my friend Trudy's comment and posted it below.


Julie - your Mom asks good questions. My first reaction to your resolution was "all things in moderation", but I think your exceptions to the rule are good and trust that you and Mark will know when to 'break' resolutions for the good of the family and individual. Secondly, and this ties into your Mom's worries about the economy, I think we need to augment the concept of sustainability with resilience. We know that there are good times and bad, happy and sad, extravagance and penny-pinching. The businesses, organizations and governments of our society need to be constructed with threads that make them resilient, not just efficient. As a society we aren't talking about this, or any new models, and I find that troubling. Our government seems to want us to return to the lavish over-spending many indulged in to jumpstart the economy, and our economic structures count our lack of new housing starts, failure to return to living beyond our means, and new penchant for saving as evidence of continued recession. Yes, we are still in a situation I describe as "failure to thrive", but we need new behaviors and processes, new economic measures, and new structures (and jobs) within our society. We need to transform ourselves into a healthy society before we will thrive. A society that relies on the selling of bling and trinkets or the flipping of houses is not one that is healthy. one. Lets look at the core needs of humans -- can we meet those? Then, lets meet the core needs of Earth, without which humans cannot survive. We need to be creative, innovate new products, services and processes that create new jobs and economic successes for our economy while fostering life on Earth. If we can foster quality life, then I think we will be better able to weather some of the crises that are sure to come. The old ways don't work now, and won't in the future. And we aren't making good use of the time we have to change.

Will the Economy Collapse?

My Mom ( one of my most dedicated blog readers..thank you Mom) asks some good questions after reading our New Year's resolution.

1, What would happen if we all didn't buy anything new...wouldn't our economy collapse?
2. What will the impact of our resolution be on our boys? ( will they be embarrassed to go to school?)

What would happen if no one bought new?

Here is what I hope would happen...companies would ask why and more importantly ...what will you buy?

My answer: I will buy products and services that
-enrich my life and my community and that
-are produced sustainably ( don't pollute the environment and are 100% recyclable)
from companies that pay a fair wage and provide benefits ( like health insurance)

Would our economy collapse? I don't think our economy is doing super well under the current conditions and I don't believe we have created an economy that is sustainable in the long term.

2. What about our boys and the impact on them? We talked long and hard about this. Our boys do sometimes feel that our family is a little "out there" ( as do many kids ) When we talked about trying this..their main concern was being able to buy books ( hard for parents to discourage that) but most of their book purchases are from Half Price books...which sells used books.

What about clothes? Will the boys be embarrassed at school?
We did talk about this..and that is why we put in an exception for things like shoes and even jeans. So far we have been able to find most other clothes pretty easily at second hand stores. We do live in a city so we have quite a few second hand options.

The main goal of this challenge is to make us more aware of how we spend our money and to be intentional about our purchases ( not to make us miserable :))

Quite honestly..we are not big shoppers...so it will be interesting to see what the impact of this is on our lives...it is certainly leading to some good discussions already.

Thanks Mom!

Our New Year's Resolution 1.1.11

We have talked about this for over a year (hat tip to Sarah Apple who first shared the idea) and this year we are ready...to make a one year commitment to

Buy Nothing New for One Year

Our Reasons to try this
*We have everything we need
*Research shows that having more does not make you happier ( in fact it seems to be quite the opposite)
*We don’t want to add to landfill
*We want to be more aware and intentional about how we spend our money
*We want to simplify our lives

I knew we were not the first to take this pledge but I was surprised to find out how many people we are joining. One google search connected me to

The Compact

#1 Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
#2 Do Borrow, barter, or buy used.

We are allowing some exceptions (which seem in line with others who have "signed" the Compact)
-Food
-Consumables (like toilet paper, light bulbs)
-Health/safety products ( toothpaste, soap, medicine)
-Underwear/sox
-For the boys: shoes and if we can not find resale jeans, OK to buy new)

Full disclosure: we did have some last minute purchases. These were things that we had on our "To buy" list for most of last year.

Our last minute purchases
-Two lamps for the living room ( we have looked for used for over a year)
-Curtains for the living room ( our last ones being chewed by pet rats- don't ask)
-A water conserving shower head
-A new fire/smoke alarm
-A lamp for my drawing table downstairs
-Three cake pans which I have not been able to find at Goodwill ( I love to bake!)

And so we begin...........