2009 Resolutions

This time last year I was blogging about my resolutions for 2008. We were still fairly new to the idea of simple living then and my resolutions reflected that. There were big changes to be made and as a result, our eagerness made some of our resolutions a bit naïve.

Buy Nothing Challenge Confessional 1

I am a failure at the buy nothing challenge, its official. We were doing so well for the whole of the first week…until yesterday. We went out for a pizza and pudding, AND drinks. Gah! But there we are…It’s a new week and I’m determined to do better.

On the up side we didn’t buy a few items which we normally would have, including a new memory card (ours broke and now we are using one which stores about 14 photos). I also joined Ceredigion Freecycle. I haven’t had time to explore it properly yet, but hopefully it will be useful.

Resolutions

I have made loads of new years resolutions this year which is surprising as I never normally do. They include saving more electricity and water, never buying from a supermarket, and avoiding multinational companies wherever possible!

I’m a bit of a grump when it comes to new years really. I like a party as much as the next person but I don’t really see the point of celebrating it that much – I mean it’s not much different to any other change in month.
Anyway, perhaps that’s just me being cynical and grumpy as I’m having a long and trying day. 

After reading my Christmas present ‘A life stripped bare’ it spurred us into finally buying some energy saving light bulbs. As our electricity bill was rather large in the last month (a shock as I’ve never received a proper winter electricity bill before having lived in a house with a shared meter) this is more of a monetary thing than an ethical thing.

I also got round to trying to save the water we flush down the loo by putting a bottle full of water in the cistern. This works by displacing the water in the cistern so it has to use less to fill it to the top. I have heard that this is better than using a brick, because that can break up and muck up your toilet.
I’ve got no way of knowing if this is making a difference, and I doubt it is saving much water anyway, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

Having said that, the fact that we finally got a washing machine is probably going to cancel out any water or electricity we are saving! We are going to try using it sparingly though (having lived without one for 6 months and not having much money for laundrette bills we are certainly used to being creative with, and reusing our clothes!). Some friends of ours very kindly gave it to us for free so it has been really great for us, and makes such a difference.

Now we know we are definitely going to be able to stay in this flat we can finally relax and make ourselves truly at home. We have even got round to buying some picture hooks to hang our many lovely wedding photos!