Some new goals

[maereth]

So there are three blogs that I read that give insight on frugality and simplifying your life: Being Frugal, Get Rich Slowly, and Zen Habits.  I also follow hip_domestics  and sf_domestics  to get tips on home repair and other DIY living options.  I have decided to set some goals and use some of the ideas from these resources to put new habits into place to achieve them.

Goal #1:  Be more frugal
The economy is bad and with a new house our expenses have skyrocketed.  We had one weekend where we spent $600 on unexpected repairs.  Thank goodness I had started a "house expenses" savings account on ING, so we had some cushioning, but that safety net is quickly becoming threadbare.  So here are some of the things I am going to do to try to save where I can.

• Bring lunch to work.  Buying lunch at the cafeteria is pretty cheap and convenient and I've already stopped buying soda and just drinking water, but bringing my lunch would be cheaper.  I'm going to start with bringing it 2 times a week and work my way up from there as I get more in the habit.  I tried to start this week and even bought lunches to bring, but every morning I ran out the door empty-handed.
• Make my own curtains.  At least for now.  Because this house has casement windows, none of my old curtains fit and we have a 10-foot-wide picture window in the living room and a 6-foot-wide window in the dining room.  I was going to buy professional custom curtains for some of the rooms, but now I think I'm just going to make them.  Added bonus: I can line them however I want to make them a thermal barrier to save energy since all of the windows are single-paned and it makes the house really drafty.
• Keep a running grocery list and clip coupons.  By planning ahead in my grocery shopping (things we need NOW, things we will need soon, things that will be nice to have) I can get stuff when it's on sale and check for coupons.
• Use re-usable cleaning supplies.  I use paper towels for everything and I usually buy disposable cleaning products becuase they're easy and convenient.  However, it will be cheaper (and greener) to just use re-usable things like washable rags to clean things like windows, floors, and dusting furniture.  Now that we have a laundry machine it will make things a lot easier.  I have also found that a hand or dish towel can attach to my swiffer mop thing and that I can use water with some dish detergent in it instead of the cleaning solution you buy for it.

Goal #2:  Be more green
Some of these overlap with Goal #1, which was my initial motivation in a lot of this stuff, but I have found that some green habits also overlap with life simplification, so I will tolerate being a crunchy hippie.

• Bring re-usable bags to the grocery store.  I have a ton of them that I actually bought for that purpose but can't seem to get into the habit of using.
• Put computers on power strips.  I didn't know that even when you turn off your computer it still draws electricity.  I know things like speakers stay on, but it always struck me as a negligible difference because they weren't being used.
• Re-use or recycle more.  I regularly recycle cans and bottles because they're easy, but I'm lax about paper and cardboard.  This is also important because we are limited in how much trash we can take out each week.

Eventually I want to plant a vegetable garden and things like that, but those will take a lot more time.

If you guys have any other suggestions, feel free to share.