Since I do a lot of my own improvement projects and all my own maintenance, I have found that a typical weekend project can take several trips to the hardware or supply store because you forget stuff or run out of materials. Most people I have spoke to agree with this. What my neighbors and I started doing was buying extras of the small things that tend to tie up a project with wasted trips to hardware store (nails, screws, pipe fitting, etc). We save $$ by buying in bulk ‘contractor packs’ and we share the excess. We keep a rough idea of what we’ve got between us and we always discuss our needs before making the trip. And when we do make the inevitable trip, we ask the others what they need to save each other time and gas. I think taking community or neighborhood approaches can be a source for a lot of ideas, as the site touches on with cooking, book clubs, etc. The final results are:
Less trips to store=
more time
less gas
less stress
Buying in bulk=
having leftover materials to share
less cost per item
This post was submitted by Jeremy.
At work, instead of just hitting the print button when you find something of interest, consider saving the file as a pdf and saving in your computer under the phrase
“file cabinet”. 99% of the items we print and file never get looked at again. Save a tree, it’s much easier with today’s technology to save it on your computer and plus, you can electronically search for what you want!
You can also edit your work on the computer instead of printing it out and making hard edits. Even if you just cut down 10% of the time you would normally print something, you can make a huge impact and save reams of paper!
This post was submitted by Tonja Steel.
We gave up TV (owning a set and all!) over 6 years ago! Our entertainment has changed from all TV to reading, watching DVDs on our computer and hanging out as a family and with friends!
Has been a wonderful time ever since. We play more and do more outdoor activities with out 4 yr old like playgrounds, hiking, picnicing and to top it all he is not exposed to all the commercial selling aimed at kids, the violence in the shows etc etc!!
We also, gave up all other media coming into the house in the form of newspapers, magazines and other paper related products that we controlled. Stopped buying “new” books and now request all and any we need from the library! Also, switched to audiobooks for lifestyle reasons!
This has made our lives healthier emotionally too since we are not bombarded by constant “bad” news and when the news is big enough for us to be concerned …. we hear about it, since it is important enough for people we know and interact with to be discussing!
This season, I did not put on the AC at all. Opened the windows, draped the over sunny windows and used the ceiling fans when it got HOT… I got my husband to install one in all rooms that we use regularly. Life is much cooler now than with the AC and it means a lot more money in my pocket than last year!!!!!!
Overall, “going simple” has made our lives as a family more fulfilling and meaningful.
This post was submitted by Ashita.