Only the Necessities, Please

Last week Jeremy and I watched a film called, No Impact Man about a man who wants to make no impact on the Earth for an entire year. He does not drive, buys nothing new, only buys and cooks with ingredients that can be found locally, discontinues the use of toilet paper and eventually turns off his electricity. It was interesting, but a bit extreme. When we moved to Portland I decided to cut down my paper towel consumption because I felt like I was using a lot of them. I purchased some cloth towels and ever since, I've cut my paper towel use by more than half. But, after watching this movie, I was inspired to do more.

Jeremy and I needed to start out small. I wasn't about to bike to everywhere I needed to go, so we discussed something that would be more of a baby step as well as affect us in a positive way. We decided to focus on spending. For me, at least, I have gotten to the point that sometimes I don't even think very hard about a purchase I am going to make. Last week I bought a window fan for my kitchen and the entire purchase took 3 minutes because I used Amazon.com, that is not informed shopping! Because we know we spend too much, we discussed the idea of minimal spending for two weeks. This would mean that we would buy nothing that we did not absolutely need. A large portion of our unnecessary spending goes to restaurants and as part of this experiment we would not be allowed to indulge in restaurants for the whole two weeks. I am hoping that on August 1st we realize how much we don't need and get over our desire for frequent retail therapy.

The following is considered a necessity:
groceries (with exceptions)
gas
toilet paper
pet food
parking meter fees
postage

The following is not allowed:
grocery exceptions- soda/sugary drinks, candy, junk snacks (potato chips)
restaurants/take-out food/coffee shops
magazines/books
toys
electronics
admission fees to parks, zoos, museums, play centers, beaches
clothing/shoes
movies/entertainment
bottled water

Of course there are exceptions, for example, if one of us breaks our cell phone we would need to replace it. However, we will do so in the least expensive way possible.

Any food we consume will either be free to us, meaning that someone else purchased it, or homemade. This means that instead of stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee I will have to either make it myself or do without.

I anticipate the hardest part will be the food because we will not be able to be out at say a Sea Dogs game (as long as our admission is free) and get a beer or a hot dog. I will either have to bring food in from home or we will need to eat before we leave. Another thing I just realized is that I will be limited with what I can do with Max. I was planning to go to a petting barn yard with him tomorrow, but just remembered that the admission is $5. That will not be acceptable come tomorrow. There are plenty of free things for me to do with Max and I will need to focus on those activities for the next few weeks.

This project will begin on Monday July 18th and end on Monday August 1st. Everything outlined about is just a rough idea and I will be adding more as the days progress. It is hard to anticipate the type of obstacles we will encounter. I will update the blog daily.