no-spend April update

It’s been a week on my no-spend; so far, so easy. I had a productive week: taking 4 boxes to a charity thrift shop, starting more seedlings for the garden, doing spring yard clean-up, tidying the shed, washing windows… the weather has been beautiful, and I’m in the mood to spring clean and work outside!

I made a tiny grid for the dashboard of my planner where I can mark off the days for this challenge. I just drew a tiny calendar for the days of the month, and mark them off each time I have a successful day. Since I refer to my planner constantly it’s a little added incentive to keep going with it. This is actually a really good, simple, tool for perfectionists and would be great for any type of daily goal you are trying to achieve. Since I love challenges so much I may try this for another one next month.

I have to laugh that the quote above is about buying (“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy plants and that’s pretty much the same thing.”) I feel like it’s a true statement! The only things I’m jonesing for right now are plants, but I can wait until May for that. 🙂 This is actually a good time of year to do a spending freeze; gardening season is a time it’s easy for me to justify spending money. But better planning and using what I’ve got is a much better habit to get into. Gardening should be a frugal hobby! So until May, and until I’ve fully planned and prioritized, I’m babying seedlings and studying what’s emerging in my yard from last year, to get my plant fix!

3 more weeks to go!

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no-spend April

Source.

Every now and again I do a month- long spending freeze, and I’m starting another today. I actually really love doing this once or twice a year, because they inspire me to:

1. slow down and be grateful for what I have;
2. be more creative when solving problems (make do without, borrow, make my own, etc);
3. tackle overdue projects I’ve already got the supplies for, explore my city, connect with friends, get rid of excess…basically just channel my energy toward the things I otherwise overlook;
4. give a new look to old stuff (I like changing things up, and during spending freezes I just rearrange, shop the house, try some different outfit pairings, etc. to get my fix)

I always decide at the beginning, what the “rules” will be. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, a downfall of that being that when I mess up, I give up! By establishing what’s allowed, what the exceptions are, etc, I am more likely to stick with a challenge. The allowable expenses this time around are:

• Groceries
• Household consumables (items to clean, personal care stuff, etc – though I will make most if not all of this category)
• Reasonable “experience” expenses. This is new; typically I also try to avoid these when doing a spending freeze. But this time I will allow a bit of spending for a night out (we have one planned mid-month), Mom’s Club activities (like admission into a museum), a family outing or two, and renewal of our Nature Center membership.

So what is NOT allowed is: décor items, office supplies, makeup, clothing (for any of us), books (for any of us), toys, and random tempting Amazon purchases. Even thrift shopping is going to be a no-go. This month I’m focusing on removing (even more) things from the house and not bringing any in. So I’ll be going through our things again and again to minimize our possessions, selling, donating, and giving away anything extraneous. I’ve already sent countless bags and boxes of things to charity shops over the last 3 months, but I am not finished yet. Though I’m not much of a retail junkie, my thrift shopping tendencies, as well as my always saying “YES!” to other people’s cast-offs has really added up.  That, and just the general epiphany that less is more – I am truly feeling more at home the more I get rid of (knowing that most everything left is useful or special).

The only physical item I will allow is new glasses – I need them pretty badly, and April is when my benefits will allow for them. I do also have two birthday gifts to factor in; I haven’t decided if I will purchase gifts or get a little creative..

This time around, I’m particularly excited to see how zero waste will affect this challenge. My spending over the last month has been mainly swapping out disposable or junky plastic stuff for good-quality, sustainable items I can use indefinitely. I’m not entirely done, but the wasteful disposables, most toxic plastics, Teflon, and vinyl (aka, the worst offenders) are out of our lives. We can absolutely make do with what we have now for a while.

I’ve got a little list of projects to do this month, but they aren’t going to keep me up at night. I just have my list in case I get the itch to do something productive and don’t want to be tempted to hit the hardware store or thrift store for a project.

Have you ever done a no-spend month? If you want to join me, let me know and we can trade tips and updates!

31 Day No Spending Challenge – Challenge Recap

Wow – what a long month! The No Spending Challenge is officially over tonight and I am so glad. I will admit now that I was so far from perfect – it wasn’t the success I’d quite hoped for. But it was definitely a good exercise nonetheless. Being hyper-aware of all those little expenses and impulse buys is a good thing for the budget, even when I justified some of them. I still could not justify many, many little things I wanted to purchase, so lots of items went back on the shelf. Also, I realized I use shopping as entertainment sometimes. I never really realized that was something I could say about myself – I think of myself as someone who dislikes shopping because I avoid malls. But this month made me realize my bargain thrift shopping scores and home improvement project purchases still add up, even though they are much easier for me to justify than dropping $100 on shoes at the mall.

Disclosure time. I spent. I mean, I actually brought quite a few items into my house (and camping trailer) this month. I already disclosed the canning jar purchase, but justified it as part of grocery expense and I FILLED THEM this month. So, totally justified. But I also made THREE separate thrift store trips, spending $39 total. What did I haul home for $39? You know I’m going to list it for you 🙂

• A really great, perfectly-sized Sakroots crossbody bag for $1 (def. in my top 10 scores ever).
• 12-15 clothing items for Hannah for fall/winter (shirts, tunics, cardigans, hat, shoes, sunglasses).
• A few camping and road trip toys to keep Hannah busy for our Yellowstone trip (a toy car, a new baby doll, a ball, a cookie sheet for magnets and 4 books).
• A few divided toddler plates to keep in the trailer (so I don’t have to keep bringing Hannah’s dishes back and forth between trips- not that big of a deal but for $.25 it makes a lot of sense!).
• A few misc. baskets and bins to organize the trailer cabinets.
• 2 tiny pieces of pottery and one pretty plant pot I absolutely did not need, but could not leave without. (I will be planting succulents in them).
• 2 big baskets for produce-picking in the garden (these have made life so much easier!) plus a plastic basket I can rinse veggies in right over the dirt in the garden.

31 Day No Spending Challenge – Week 3 Recap

I’m a little late with the recap on week 3 of the 31 Day No Spending Challenge, because we spent the weekend in the mountains. 🙂 We are back a little more relaxed than when we left. An escape is always great!

Week 3 was a busybusybusy one with garden preservation! This is the first summer I’ve done any canning by myself and it’s a LOT of work! But well worth it, I think. Here’s what got done last week:

• Canned 6 pints of pickles
• Canned 6 pints of pickled beets
• Froze 25 2.5 cup bags of peaches
• Made 10 jars of peach freezer jam
• Made a batch of kale chips
• Made two bottles of dilly beans (fridge variety)
• Dried lots and lots of herbs (lots more to go..)
• Cleaned and organized the camping trailer
• Went ATVing
• Went to a Cooking Club
• Went to the Aquatic Center (ok – this cost money, but it was el cheapo)
• Went camping
• Did a lot of cooking!

I have to confess I did spend some money this week at a thrift store. I went to pick up a couple of produce baskets for picking veggies in the garden, and ended up also getting a few clothing items and toys for Hannah. I also bought canning jars (new), but those were a grocery necessity. All in all, still a good week. Unnecessary impulse buys were at least at a fraction of the retail price, right?

The next update will be a recap of the month, as there are only 8 days remaining. In the next 8, I would like to accomplish the following:

• Get 18 month pictures of Hannah (my sister-in-law is on board to help me, so assuming she can help this week it should get done!)
• Take yard/garden pictures
• Can another batch of pickles
• Dry more herbs
• Put together our Yellowstone trip plan
• Clean the trailer and start getting it ready for trip
• Finish throw pillows

freedom.

We are so far from minimalists. I’m usually happy with my status as frugal and generally-conscientious-consumer.

But this post solidified my desire to do more (by doing less): 7 Common Problems Solved by Owning Less. Such a succinct reminder of all the ways consuming less sets you free.

Image is from here: links to another good post on the topic of downsizing).

31 Day No Spending Challenge – Week 1 Recap

Week 1 of the 31 Day No Spending Challenge is coming to an end, and I thought I’d recap. It wasn’t a perfect week, but I know we saved ourselves a bit this week by being conscious of our spending, and not running out to pick up some little thing here and there (especially as it always leads to picking up a few other things “while we are there.”)

A few interesting observations:

1. I think (more) about how much I already have (in a gratitude way and a stifled-by-stuff way, depending on the moment). This is an entire post for another day.:)
2. I notice my thoughts and energy directed more toward the things that make me truly happy, the simpler things. It’s cliche, I know. But so true. I tend to spend more time outdoors and dreaming about travel (yeah, that costs money, but it’s not about *stuff* so it’s different.) More time actually reading, than adding books to my Amazon wishlist. More time sitting on the deck, burning incense and watching the hummingbirds with my family. It doesn’t take a spending challenge to enjoy these things – but it feels less like carving out time for it and more like there is already plenty of time for it. It’s hard to explain!
3. I always want to downsize. When I think about my real, true values, it goes back to this every.single.time. I want less: a smaller home, a smaller yard, fewer things, a tiny garden. It’s a weird world we live in when so many people have so little – not enough – and yet many of us have so much – too much. How did that happen and how can we change it? It’s become so needlessly complex. It’s something on my mind a lot, amplified by my latest no-spending challenge.
4. Also interesting is there’s guilt associated with wanting less, because it means I have so much. It seems ungrateful. But I am not. Sometimes I forget I’m lucky, but overall, I know how fortunate I am. But I also feel guilty for the excess. Excess is completely relative – in the Western World we are all comparatively better off that much of the world. But I’m even better off than many (MANY) people right here in my own community. We don’t have debt and we work for all we have, so it’s easy to feel we deserve it. There are days, though, that it feels like having less would be less of a burden. There’s a happy balance, and it’s having enough, whatever that is. For us, I know that it’s far less than we have. It’s something I need to formulate into real action.

On to the recap:

The GOOD:

1. I signed up for milk delivery from a local dairy. Once a week we will have our milk (and other dairy we need) delivered to the doorstep for only a $5/month delivery fee. It’s good quality, a small, local business, and will save me from little trips to the store that add up in gas and impulse buys. This is a step to help our grocery budget in the long run. My goal is to go to Costco at the beginning of each month for the staple items needed and have milk delivered weekly. The rest of the grocery budget will be divided between two additional shopping trips to a regular grocery store each month for fresh items and non-bulk items. This may be easier now through October while the garden is producing lots of good stuff, but I plan to make the that goal from here on out.
2. I must be putting out “cheapskate” vibes into the universe because I swear people keep offering me free things. People who don’t read my blog as well as my family who does. 🙂 My mom dejunked her massive (to me) fabric stash and gifted to me a whole bunch of fat quarters in a weird and random assortment of patterns and colors I can’t WAIT to sort through and make things with!
3. I got a LOT done for one week!

• Went to a BBQ/pool party (Hannah’s first time in a pool – she loved it!)
• Wrote a legit snail-mail letter to my cousin.
• Painted the little bathroom (formerly green, now painted pale grey with leftover paint from the basement finishing project.)
• Hit the Farmer’s Market
• Dejunked and sorted the master bedroom closet.
• Dejunked, sorted and labeled my dresser drawers (to help keep it nice and organized..)
• Cleaned out the glove box in my car.
• Cleaned out the stack of mail/ads in the kitchen.
• Filled 2 decent-sized boxes of items to donate (they remain on the kitchen table as I’m adding to the pile daily. I’m about to start a third box, actually.)
• Tidied up and rearranged the deck.
• Removed some spent plants from the back yard pots. (Trying to decide if I should fill them for the remainder of the season or put them away. There are at least 2 more months to enjoy them, but it would require buying something…)
• Tidied up the garden a bit (weeded, dug up spent plants, pruned the grape vine).
• Made a batch of refrigerator pickles from garden cucumbers (This is my favorite easy recipe!)
• Dejunked and sorted the kitchen utensil drawers.
• Cleaned up the landing of the garage and made a *tiny* dent in cleaning up the rest of the garage (needs a lot more work this fall)
• Began reading Infinite Jest (it’s my foremost “bucketlist” book. It felt so indulgent to get up early the other day and read out on the deck with my coffee. I might just make it a once a week thing! – I already get up early to work while Hannah’s sleeping so I will just take a morning for myself instead of being a slave to email from the wee hours.)
• Almost finished scrapbooking all the 2011 photos I printed in August. (Using the Project Life system, so “scrapbooking” entails shoving the photos into pockets and journaling a bit on each page). PS my ultimate goal is to be caught up by the end of the year…

The “BAD” (or just.. the less than perfect):

• Whenever I tell myself I can’t spend money I *always* want to make an exception for plants. I don’t know why! I think in my mind they symbolize something opposite of consumption and should be exempt, but it’s still spending, right? I have to tell myself I can wait until September for succulents and potted mums.
• Yesterday morning was rough – I got very little sleep and was dealing with cramps and some anxiety issues. I just felt like I needed a little pampering. So I took my little mini out for a breakfast. We shared a grilled veggie sandwich at a local bakery and ate outside at a little bistro table on the sidewalk. It was indulgent to go out for breakfast at all – especially during a no spending challenge- but it was a pick-me-up I needed. And Hannah loved the cookie they gave her, and watching/grinning at people passing by our table. Sorrynotsorry for this little cheat:))

Goals for this weekend/next week:

• Take yard/garden photos.
• Take Hannah’s 18 month photos.
• Put together Yellowstone trip plan (rough itinerary).
• Dry some herbs from the garden.
• Finish 2011 Project Life album (possible blog post on the progress..)
• Make something.
• Possible hike?

31 Day No Spending Challenge List // & 50 things to do instead of spending money

This August we are attempting a 31 Day No Spending Challenge. This means all month long we aren’t spending on non-essentials, but we are of course still allowed:

• Our bills/utilities
• Groceries
• Household essentials like diapers, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc..
• Gas/Car-related maintenance
• And though this isn’t essential, I’m allowing for a couple of instances of eating out. J brings a lunch to work almost daily, but occasionally it’s not practical for him. And an occasional $5 pizza for dinner will be allowed. I have to be realistic here because I don’t want to throw in the towel at the first lapse.)
• Also allowed is the possible extra grocery/gas expense associated with camping. We still plan to actually have fun this summer! 🙂

Here’s what’s not allowed:

• Hobby supplies
• House/Garden/Personal items that aren’t essential
• Anything for Hannah that isn’t necessary (she’s got plenty of everything she needs right now)
• Clothes
• Media: books, mags, downloads, rentals, etc. unless they are free
• Gifts. We have one birthday to celebrate in August (my niece who lives with us) and I’ve already got her gift, so we are good to go!)
• Entertainment like going to movies or events
• Anything else that’s not essential

To keep me motivated/distracted/busy, I came up with 50 things I can do that will cost me nothing (except some groceries/gas money here and there) to refer to throughout the month, in case I need reminded there are plenty of things I can be doing with my time that won’t cost money. It really wasn’t that difficult: I just put down in one place some of the seasonal to-do items I need to accomplish, some free things I want to take advantage of for the remaining days of summer, and listed some general ways I like to spend my time that cost me nothing. I also put down lots of projects I’ve been procrastinating on that I have the supplies for. Maybe this will be the month I get around to them. 🙂

To Do List (items in orange are the things I definitely want/need to accomplish)
1. Get caught up on the little work projects I’ve been putting off, and get more organized
2. Plan and research Yellowstone/Jackson Hole trip (Sept.)
3. Take 18 month photos of Hannah
4. Go on an anniversary date (with a gift card we have stashed away)
5. Go on a free date (Frisbee in the park and a picnic, maybe?)
6. Paint the little bathroom (extra paint from basement)
7. Paint the kitchen chairs (extra paint from bookcases)
8. Begin Christmas gift planning: budget, idea list, and gifts-to-make list
9. Get rid of 100 things
10. Clean up the garage
11. Cut out pieces for the triangle quilt I bought fabric for (might not have enough fabric, but I can start, and see what else is needed)
12. Finish garden stool project (have supplies)
13. Finish scrapbooking 2011 photos (already printed photos and have the supplies)
14. Make Christmas gifts / cards (if I have the supplies)
15. Paint the raised garden beds (extra paint to use up in garage)
16. Tidy up the landscaping in the front yard (prune and move things as needed)
17. Divide up the Hostas (if weather cools down)
18. Food preservation and garden journal/plan update for 2015
19. Can pickles with garden cucumbers
20. Harvest, dry and save seeds from cucumbers and peppers
21. Dry herbs from the garden
22. Make some herbal remedies for wintertime
23. Take some pictures of the yard (for blogging and scrapbooking purposes)

Summer Family Fun:
1. Utilize “free days” in my community (Ours has free Saturday admission to swimming pools, Dinosaur Park, Aerospace Museum, Children’s Museum, depending on the date)
2. Splash pad at the park
3. Farmer’s Market (groceries are an acceptable expense, and they have great deals)
4. Nature Center (already have membership!)
5. Pack a picnic for the park or rec area
6. Backyard kiddie pool
7. Help Hannah play with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, water the plants, etc.
8. Roast marshmallows and sit around the fire pit
9. Eat some meals on the deck
10. Bike ride our nearby trail (borrow bike trailer for Hannah)
11. Farmer’s Market (because groceries are an allowable expense)
12. Plan our Fall Bucket List

Boredom Killers:
1. Manicure/pedicure
2. Write in my journal
3. Read a book I already own
4. Go for a walk
5. Do some yoga
6. Bake cookies
7. Blog post
8. Organize a closet, drawer, etc.
9. Make a new jogging playlist
10. Try some new at-home workouts (YouTube, videos I have already..)
11. Go to the gym on base for fitness classes (if Jonathan’s ever home to watch Hannah for an hour…)
12. Go to the library for books, music and movies
13. Make a project with fabric scraps
14. Practice shooting photos with my camera
15. Take a nap (haha! riiight)

31 Day No Spending Challenge

This August we are doing a no-spend month in our household. It’s half damage-control from the last few months, and half just a way to reset/get back on track. We aren’t in any trouble, but we certainly can’t keep up the pattern of spending we’ve had going on in recent months, in which we finished an entire basement, and bought a new TV and elliptical machine. (Granted, we used out tax returns on the basement, and sold some items to pay for most of the TV and elliptical machine cost. Still. It’s more than we are used to forking over in a short period of time, and we have a smaller income these days.)

I want to build back up some savings this month by cutting our spending to the absolute necessities: groceries, utilities and other bills, gas, and mortgage. August is the perfect month for it, as there are no birthdays or other gift-buying occasions in our immediate family this month except our anniversary. (This year is the big 1-0 anniversary, but we have a fun Yellowstone trip planned in September and I think that more than covers the celebration.)

For the last week of this month, I am preparing for our no-spend month by doing the following:

1. Writing down the following lists:

• Allowed expenses (with budget estimates)
• Goals for the month
• Things to do that are FREE*

*I will share my list of free things to do shortly. I may add to it throughout the month, but basically I will list all the things I’ve been putting off doing around the house, projects to start/finish that I already have supplies for, free things to do in my area, etc. This list will be helpful to me on those days when I am going stir-crazy and feeling stuck at home, as well as allow me to finally check off some of those nagging to-do items.)

2. Menu planning (trying to use up some pantry/freezer stuff as much as possible). This will be a very loose plan.. more of a list of possible meals to pick from when I do my actual weekly plans/grocery shopping.

3. Unsubscribing from mailing lists and turning off push notifications on all my money-saving apps. (I don’t need to know every time the stores I like are having a sale.)

4. Filling up the gas tank.

5. Stocking up on a few staples, so I don’t need to make many shopping trips (to prevent impulse purchases).

One thing I have noticed is, though I love a good challenge, challenge months are long. It seems like 31 days is over in a flash, unless I’m abstaining from carbs or shopping. So I know this will not be easy. I’ll try to post some weekly updates about how it’s going, successes and failures, and what I’m learning along the way.

Anyone want to join me? 🙂

green grocery shopping + a buy local challenge

The other day I was unloading groceries on the kitchen counter. It’s a bit of an ordeal because I have to take all my mason jars from the pantry to decant my bags of dry goods into them, and take the produce out of their little reusable baggies so I can roll them up with my Envirosax bags.

But, by ordeal I don’t mean that I hate it. I actually realized just then, I’ve come to absolutely love my food-getting routine because I have it pared down to an Eco-friendly science at this point, and I save a lot of money. It’s one of only a few things I have a sense of control over in my life. However, what it isn’t, anymore, is convenient. At least, not when compared to the way grocery stores want you, and lead you, to shop. And that, too, gives me a sense of rebellion I have grown to be addicted to (starting with one itty bitty thing will make you want to examine everything else you do in life, and improve them all.)

So, because it’s awesome to be a tree-hugger, and because I’m getting pretty good at it, I thought I would share some of my greener ways (I promise it’s more worth it than painful). I am starting with my grocery routine. Here are some ideas:

1. Ditch all disposable bags. This is the obvious one and most people are using reusable bags these days. I have been using the same set of Envirosax I got on Amazon for several years because they hold a lot, are really cute, roll up small, and are washable. A set of 5 is around $35 and I use them for everything! But you can take it further and reduce the use of the thin, disposable bags for produce and bulk items, by bringing your own reusable bags and containers. I use small muslin bags for bulk items like beans and grains, and thin mesh bags for produce. Extra hippie points if you make your own from old fabric items, but I purchased mine at an Eco shop (locally made by someone way cooler than me).
2. Reduce other packaging. Bulk bins are the way to go, even if you don’t bring your own containers. The packaging is still less, and it’s far less expensive. I think dry beans are about 1/5 the cost of a can of beans (serving for serving). Most grocery stores will allow you to use your own containers for things like spices, as well. You weigh the container first, then when you are checking out your items you have them subtract the container weight. Easy! And while you will spend something like $4 for a small bottle of most spices in the spice aisle, you will pay cents for bulk equivalents. You will feel like you totally robbed them the first time. I use these containers for spices, and you can see my post here about it (three years later, a different kitchen, and I still love my system).
3. Figure out a good food storage system. Of course, if you buy in bulk and use your own bags, the stuff you buy won’t come in its own package. Investing in food storage containers is crucial to saving money in the long run. I use canning jars for my dry goods and it’s perfect. You can keep using them forever.
4. Buy local. In the summer I go to the Farmer’s Market to get lots of things, and there is no down side to it. It’s cheaper, it’s healthier, it supports your local community and farms, and nothing has to be shipped from across the country. Plus it’s wayyy more fun than going to a grocery store. Also, I’ve recently starting participating in a local co-op for produce and bread. Every Saturday I pick up my box, and it’s a real bargain. If you have one in the area, give it a shot!
5. Have things delivered. We also have our milk, eggs, cheese, and Greek yogurt delivered from a local dairy only 1 mile away. Everything is hormone-free and local. The eggs are cage-free and organic. Between the dairy delivery, and produce/bread pickups, I don’t go to the store very often anymore. It saves money (less impulse buying) and time.. which totally makes up for the excess time I spend container-wrangling.
6. Eat mostly veggies. Factory farming is bad for the planet. You can’t reuse or recycle much of the gross packaging from meat, either. Eating more plants and less meat will save money and resources.
7. Buy versatile products. When a recipe I want to make calls for an ingredient I don’t have, I Google substitutes for it before buying it. It’s likely I already have something that will work. Pantry staples are pretty versatile. Also, some products are just worth every penny because you can use them in place of so many expensive alternatives. I’d never used coconut oil until about a year ago (Skinny Bitch in the Kitch recommends it for many recipes). I’ve since discovered it’s great for greasing muffin tins/bread pans when baking, as a facial moisturizer, as a leave-in hair conditioner, as lotion (in a pinch), as a mouth wash (really!), to remove labels from things (like its own jar when you want to reuse it for something else!), as a sun screen.. the list goes on. No jars of random, unused (or once-used) products.
8. Compost the scraps. All the veggies peels, apple cores, celery ends, etc, can be composted if you have a garden (even a flower garden). This goes above-and-beyond the grocery store trip, but is worth mentioning!

There are probably lots of things I didn’t think of – so let me know if you have other good tips!

Finally.. a challenge! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one, so I thought April 1 I would begin one for the fun of it. Starting April 1 (for one month) I will be doing a buy-local challenge. That means only buying from locally owned/operated establishments, and eating in local restaurants that feature, where possible, locally-made products. That was a mouthful, but I am stoked. Who’s in?

fall cleanse – october is detox month!

It doesn’t seem possible it’s October already. I’m almost done with a class I feel as though I barely started, and starting another in two weeks. Work has been chaos. Our NYC trip is fast approaching (mere DAYS!).

The last few months have been way too hectic. I miss the days when I could keep taking on more and more and just use a little concealer under my eyes to hide the fact I was sleep deprived. But I guess aging means minding the important details and taking better care of myself because lemme tell ya.. it’s starting to take its toll.

Since it’s a new month, I decided it was a good time to come up with a new regimen for myself – one that focuses on taking better care of myself and reducing stress. It’s nothing too crazy, but I have incorporated a few inexpensive and simple healthy activities to my personal care routine, and I’ll be focusing on holistic detoxing.

(Please forgive the lack of detail on these, but I’ve linked to the information I am following. As a newbie, I am trying these tactics by-the-book, and I didn’t want to re-write the processes here until I make them my own (meaning, once I have established a real routine I will post about what’s worked for me). I’m no expert, so I’m linking to more information for anything that may interest you. I’ll report back on these at the end of the month.

1. Daily coconut oil-pulling. Have you heard of this process? Essentially this entails vigorously swishing a tablespoon of coconut oil (or another oil – olive or sesame are cited in a number of pieces written about this) for 20 minutes a day upon waking, prior to eating or drinking. You then spit out the oil and rinse with water, then brush/floss as normal. (And yes, it’s a long 20 minutes, but it’s doable). This process cleanses the mouth making your teeth and gums healthier (and healthier-looking), and supposedly absorbs/flushes the mouth of bacteria and toxins that invade into your system causing a myriad of health problems (they say most diseases begin in the mouth). The benefits are things like clearer skin, decreased joint pain, better digestion, better breathing, lessened PMS symptoms, reversed gum recession, etc. As I’ve only been doing this for 4 days, I am not yet sure what benefits I will experience, if anything, but I can vouch that my mouth feels clean and my breath stays fresh, and my teeth look brighter (which in my opinion is the number one thing a person can do to look younger quickly!) After 30-40 days I will follow up on the experience.
2. Daily body-brushing. Remember the impact that Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet made on me? One of the sections in the book discusses some of the ways you can be kind to yourself, other than revamping your diet. She mentions body-brushing as a way to brighten your skin and “love yourself” in her happy hippie-dippy way. I think that was the first time I’d heard of it but since then I’ve seen it mentioned all over the place, so I finally started giving it a try last weekend. This is a detoxing and exfoliating process – ridding the skin of environmental toxins effectively, and allowing for better absorption of moisturizers. It increases circulation which brightens and tightens the skin, so it’s supposed to reduce cellulite. I bought a long-handled natural brush and followed Alicia’s instructions. I do this every night before a shower. I love the tingliness after dry-brushing, and my skin does feel softer (I think). I’ll follow up on this one later, too. (http://www.naturalnews.com/025240_skin_natural_brushing.html)
3. No-shampoo. ‘Poo-free, if you will. I’ve eliminated washing/conditioning my hair. After switching to henna color, I also switched to a natural shampoo, with mixed results. I loved the feeling initially. But after a week, my roots felt incredibly greasy, probably due to the fact that for the first time ever, my scalp had to produce some oil. I tried extensive daily brushing to better distribute the oil, but that made it worse. I’ve never, ever had oily hair in my life and I couldn’t get used to having to wash every day. Such a hassle. So, I’m trying a new hair regimen: baking soda and apple cider vinegar. And for the first time since using the natural shampoo my hair feels clean! And the cost is pennies. Literally. Maybe 2 cents a batch. This may change my life. Again.. I’ll follow up after my trial month.
4. Weekly hot-yoga. I’ve signed up for this and can’t wait. I’ve been upping the cardio the past few weeks, but my yoga class is too early in the day to get to them on time these days (working more hours) and I’ve been missing it. The studio I was taking Belly Dance classes from offers a hot yoga class I’ve been meaning to try to now’s the chance! And if you don’t know what hot yoga is, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The room is cranked to 95 degrees and you sweat out the bad and get super bendy. It may turn out to be my personal idea of hell. But I’m gonna brave it.. and I think I will love it. (I’m heading back to belly dancing this week, too!).
5. Vegan-for-a-month. (It’s World Vegetarian Day today, by the way!) This one’s obviously the bigger commitment, but shouldn’t be much of a stretch for me. I’ve been lazy, lazy, lazy with my diet and feeling a lack of energy (and totally horrible about myself – it’s all connected!). So I’m going to kick off my healthy month with an immediate strict dairy-free diet.

So that’s my inner and outer detoxing plan for the month. Happy, healthy October!