I’m excited to partner with Kraft 2% Milk Singles to challenge you to live with 1/3 less in April! Time’s up! How did you do? I’ve included my final updates below.
Reducing Garbage
- I ran out of paper towels a few times this month, so it forced me to make do with rags. I still love my paper towels, but I only used three rolls for the month instead of six.
- I did a better job of recycling garbage, but forgot to take out the recycling bins last week. Now they are overflowing in the garage. Whoops.
- I had been in the habit of walking outside, pulling a handful of weeds, then dropping them in the kitchen garbage can when I walked inside. The past few weeks I kept a black lawn bag in the garage and dropped my weeds in there instead.
I feel like a did a good job of reducing garbage, but I could have done better!
Reducing Clutter
I feel like I did a great job with clutter this month.
- I passed along six bags of clothes to friends, Goodwill and garbage.
- I bribed my boys with iTunes gift cards (earned from Swagbucks) to convince them to get rid of some of their toys.
- I cleaned out a few drawers and closets.
One area I did not get to was my pantry! It is still a mess and with each shopping trip it gets worse! I’m hoping to get to that this week, before I head to the store!
Reducing the Junk Food
I was on track for this one until I ended up with two nasty headaches this week. Several sodas and motrin’s later I’m finally feeling better. My headaches kept me from really eating anything for a couple of days, but I tried to avoid the junk when possible.
I’ve found that when it comes to reducing the junk the key is to have better-for-you choices in the house. When I have junk in my pantry everyone eats it. When I have good food available they eat it! So if I don’t buy the junk it makes it difficult to eat, because it isn’t available.
If you are looking for better-for-you tips, tools and recipes visit Kraft’s My Daily website. There is even a coupon available for $1 off Kraft 2% Milk Singles. You can also find Kraft Singles on Twitter and Facebook.
The 1/3 Less Challenge is sponsored by Kraft 2% Milk Singles which have 1/3 less fat* than other American Slices. (Are you getting the whole 1/3 less reference?) To enter to win a $50 Visa gift card leave a comment updating us on your progress. You must leave a comment on all three 1/3 Less Challenge posts to be entered to win the gift card. Even if you fail miserably at the challenge you can still enter, you just need to try!
Kraft Foods is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me. This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by The Happy Housewife.
*KRAFT 2% Milk Singles have 2.5g of fat per slice compared to 4.5g in the leading processed cheese slice.
I managed to get into the Master bedroom and clear out the clothes. Dropped off 6 garbage bags of old/dated/no longer used clothes at Goodwill today!! I’ve been trying to get that done for a year!!!
Reduced all adult sized clothing in my house down to about 1/3! So–goal met!
We didn’t eat out as little as I wanted, BUT we did manage to get rid of a lot of things by donations, 2nd hand shops and recycling/trash!
I did pretty well on the not eating out. We had a couple of date nights so we did go out for dinner then but otherwise, I have cooked in 6 out of 7 nights this week. I’m adding all that saved money to my beach vacation fun money! I also called the cable company and reduced my bill. Not by 1/3 but enough to make me smile! Thanks for the motivation!!!
(cw) I did well cutting down on coffee and saving money by doing it. I switched to 12oz lattes (from 16oz and 3 times (since last check-in) I had regular coffee instead of a latte (saving $3+ each time). It also reduced my calorie intake for the month.
This also inspired me to declutter….I finally went through my daughter’s clothes/toys and gave away over $200 worth last weekend….it felt great.
- Cindy
My plan was to reduce my internet time by 1/3. I was fairly successful. I set a limit of no more than 2 hours a day on the net. (If that sounds like a lot still…I won’t say how much I was on before). I found that I got more yardwork and housework done! Plus, I miraculously has more time for reading.
My progress is slow, but we are working on it. Recycling cans is going very well though
We keep a box in the garage and every time my children put something on that does not fit they throw it in the box, every time they do not want to clean up toys or realize they know long want them they get thrown into the box. then as my hero leaves for work he can pick up the box and drop it at the thrift shop on post
My plan was to reduce the amount of soda I drink every week–the first week I succeeded, but this last week I was on vacation, and I had a lot of soda and junk
Oh well, new start this week!
Cindy- you made some awesome progress. Great job!
Stacy-
Wow, that is great. It takes a lot of discipline to cut back on things, especially if you like to do them. Congrats on getting more done around the house! Yeah!
Good for you Deanna, slow progress is better than none, right?
It’s never to late start creating good habits. I desperately need to reduce my soda. We should probably start a club!
Awesome Annagrace!
I would encourage you to try to eat out less even though the challenge is over. We cut out eating out for four months and I couldn’t believe how much we saved. It was incredible!
Carrie- What a great idea about your eating out/ vacation money. That’s smart! Also good job getting your cable bill reduced. It never hurts to ask!
We did great on reducing the number of times we had lunch out during the week – went from 3-4 times on average to not at all this week! Not so great cutting back on eating dinner out, though. Trying to run 3 kids 3 different directions every night makes it tough. I am definitely going to need to do freezer or crock-pot meals for dinner.
But, I did still manage to save about 1/3 on my groceries this week by watching ads and remembering to use my coupons – I knocked $41 off my $120 grocery trip! Woohoo! Hubby was impressed!
We have done really well at cutting our energy bill, but haven’t lived here long enough to know how much. Especially considering all the new high efficiency energy saving stuff was installed right as we moved in! But we believe we see definite improvement.
Which is good because cutting back on coffee while still unpacking boxes was a bad idea and I failed miserably. I will revisit this one later.
Definitely recycling. We have 11 in our home (triplex). One garbage can that doesn’t get filled each week and four recycling containers overfilled. Yeay for recycling.
I also recycle like mad, I just took my to the city bins this week. I still have another bin that didnt fit in the car. I also picked up dog poop, and raked the dog run. Oh yeah, getting these small little arms back in shape! And we dont out that much, I cook most everything.
My mother left today to visit some relatives in South America and I was able to give her some kids’ items we no longer use to donate to children there. It helped cut down on our clutter and hopefully helped someone else!
We did well on the clutter issue. This week I started clearing out empty boxes from the basement. As luck would have it, I ended up getting three huge packages this week so now our recycle’s are overflowing. My goal is to continue to take a few boxes up every week until that area is cleaned out.
I’ve been walking and riding bike to the library, it feels great.
This week my husband sorted thru his closet and “de-cluttered” it. Some of the shirts stayed but in a different capacity, they were turned into his “outside working t-shirts”. He has a drawer for those and it is any shirt that is to good for the rag bag but something that is stained, to small/big or just not wearing. Then when those get to stained or ripped, I turn them into rags for cleaning jobs, bit inside and outside.
I have started decluttering the large closet in our bedroom and will donate the items to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I may have a few items that would be good to put in a consignment shop. I have purchased from them but never sold anything…can’t be all that hard since lots of people do it!
Basically, I have about 1/3rd of my decluttering done but this has gotten me really motivated to continue and finish the decluttering of the house and find ways to reuse, repurpose and recycle everything that is designated as a “decluttered item” , rather than just throw it out.
Progress has been slow. This week has been crazy. My Grandmother passed away last Saturday and now we are playing catch up after the funeral on Thursday. Hoping to make a lot of progress over the next week.
I have only 5 more of the 15 boxes to go thru. We did get a crafting area set up-woohoo!!!
We cleaned out all the clothsets(sp?) and gave away 10 bags of clothing/jackets/blankets/shoes to the homeless shelter. We did not get our garden started as we had 6 plus inches of snow in our yard yesterday, hoping next weekend to get some of it planted. I think we are doing great.
My sister visited and looked through the bag of too small clothes that I had been hanging onto and managed to find some that fit her. I have a friend visiting tomorrow that I am giving a bag of maternity clothing to….so that will clear out a little bit more. Still have a few more bags of clothes to leave the house, but little by little it is happening. I also went through my older son’s clothes and passed along a bag to a friend. The rest of his stuff that is too small went into a bin in the basement to save for our second son to use.
I forgot what I was going to do ….but I have been getting rid of stuff. Where do I go to find what I said I was gonna do? oosspppsss!
I ruduced our paper clutter considerable with several bags of shredded old paperwork put in the recycle bin. We eat much less junk food since I did not buy any this month. I switch my little boy to choc. almond milk and reg. milk with ovatine instead of choc. syrup in his milk.
We shredded several bags of old paperwork and put them in the recycling bin. So we made progress on ruducung our paper clutter. Plus I started give my little boy choc. almond milk, and milk with ovaltine instead od milk with choc. syrup. I didn’t buy extra junk food this month son one the on hand stuff was gone we didn;t have any the eat so we went for healthier snacks!
Thanks for such a great challange!
Not only is it the changing of the seasons, but I have recently lost weight and I’m wearing a much different size of clothes. I am purging my closet and drawers and only keeping what I will truly wear and what fits.
I am happy with how much I was able to reduce laundry. This weekend threw off my laundry a little (a toddler with a stomach flu = LOTS OF BEDDING CHANGES!!-Gross) But I have been able to reduce my laundry by about 5-6 loads on average. I have been planning menus and making enough to feed us. Depending on the meal enough for left overs if I know we will eat them.
It has been a great challenge and something that is saving me time and most importantly money!
We got 2 closets cleaned out and reduced about a 1/3. I was also able to get the junk in the garage cleared by 1/2 and we got one credit card paid off completely!! I think I’m happiest about that =)
My daughter is graduating in a couple weeks and I have company coming so I have more incentive then normal and have done great. I have bags of stuff ready to go to Goodwill!!
I cleaned out my bathroom linen closet and cabinets. I got rid of several long expired products, and donated some items I “bought” free or very cheap with coupons, yet will never use!
I was more ruthless in purging my clothes as I switched over seasonal items!
I cleared all our homeschool bookcases of books we are either done with, or just won’t ever use!
I took advantage of my 10 year old daughter wanting to spring clean her room, she is finally at a stage of wanting more order and openness in her room. The entire upstairs hallway was full of items leaving! Thankfully, my street is having their annual garage sale this week. I was only going to put a couple big items in my neighbors sale. However, I now have enough to have my own sale.
I have 3 bags of kids’ clothes to pass on to friends (which I’ll do today). In the past month, we have only eaten out once which was Saturday with my in-laws. Amazing. My skinny lattes have gone from just about every day to 3 times in the past months.
We have given up our Costco membership and our Sunday newspaper. I have found in the last month that our one garbage can is doing the job more so with us eating at home and not shopping (unless necessary) than before.
BTW, we don’t buy paper towels or napkins and use cloth ones and reuseable towels. I don’t miss either. We only buy paper napkins when we host small group at our house every couple of months.
well we are sending lots of things to goodwill this week and my hubby has a big ole dumpster coming this week so he can clean out the basement of things that got wet (nothing major-lots of cardboard) so i think the 1/3 thing is going very well here!
can’t wait til we are done! this clutter is soooo annoying!
I was fairly successful in reducing my internet time.
I have removed some of the clutter around the house and am getting ready for a huge garage sale!
I removed so much that I now have room for a treadmill that my friend is giving away so I can reduce ME by 1/3!
We had a new addition to our household… one of my daughter’s friends moved into the basement with her… I am proud to say that I now have the opportunity to teach her about recycling and she is excited about it!
Now, off the internet & back to reducing!
Ok, I really fell off the bandwagon on this one. I wanted to cut the stress of mealtime by pre-planning my dinners. Great idea, but hasn’t worked in reality. I do think about dinner earlier in the day, but I’m so not where I want to be. Still working on it though.