Low budget napkins - going green

I’ve been reading 2 magazines and how they say to go green as much as you can in your own home.

We have decided to buy 100% cotton table napkins for us (when we have guests come over, we’ll use paper napkins/tissues).

Normally, we buy a whole pack of short size 3000 1-ply Kimberly-Clark dispenser napkins from Costco that costs $12.69. I have no idea of how long that lasts us (probably 2 packs per year) but we do use a lot of napkins.

We purchased 6 cotton table napkins (they cost $1.99 each at Century 21 department store – after checking all other napkins online and in this department store, this one seem to be thin (easy to dry), reasonably price and I prefer cotton over polyester) so that my husband and I can test them out and we intend to wash them after each meal. They are thin cotton napkins and they take about 2 hours to dry. It works pretty well so far. We will try for a week or two and if they are working well, we will get a few more napkins just in case we get too busy and unable to wash them right after dinner (after all dishes are done).

The Bachelor Show

I’ve been watch the bachelor show since the season where that guy didn’t pick anyone at the end. That was probably 2 years ago or so?

Whether the people go on the show for fame, for love or for both, they are exposing themselves to the world…hoping one way or the other can find some kind of fame or love.

This season, the bad experience these women experienced reminds me of those good old dating days. Only afterwards, one will learn if someone smells like someone they used to date, RUN!!! Don’t waste anytime and energy. Most of the time, when you are in the situation, you don’t see it and you hope that things will change if you give it a little more time. And then more time was given and nothing changed. Then you realized “oh my godsh, what am I doing? I need to snap out of it and get on with my life even though this is going to hurt really bad.”

Balancing Life

I come across an article (from the Martha Stewart's body+soul magazine Feb 2010) on balancing one’s life by writing down the categories and then check them on a weekly basis so that at the end of the year you wouldn’t wonder what have happened to you…that you didn’t spend anytime building your relationship with your friends or extended families etc…

Here are the categories one reader listed.

Exercise & nutrition:
Spouse & child(ren):
extended family:
friends:
community:
career:
dreams & goals:
home organization:
Learning:
exploring:

I also particularly like what a few other readers write:

A. instead of crashing in on Friday night, do all chores like laundry, food shopping and organizing so that you have the entire 2 days of the weekend to do what you please to do. I might do this once in a while and not every weekend.

B. take a day in the middle of the week off or take a long weekend once in a while to spend time with family or to catch up with other things in your life. I particularly like to take Wednesdays off so that I get a break in the middle of the week.

C. Learn to say no to plans that other people have.

New Year Resolutions

Another year is coming to an end, it’s time to look at my New Year resolutions list (in excel) and see what I have accomplished and if I have accomplish anything at all. This has been a habit of mine for the past few years. A few days before the New Year, I write down what I would like to accomplish for the New Year in spreadsheet and then work on it.

It looks like I have accomplished one of the six New Year resolutions for the year of 2009. As I recall, the more effective way of getting your new year resolution accomplish is to see the goals each and everyday so that you are not side track.

Looking back at my daily to do list, I have been spending a lot of time doing everyday stuff like cooking, cleaning/organizing, food shopping, food preparations, baby sitting, bill paying, and more bill paying.

For the New Year, I will look at my goals everyday so that I am on track of it. When I don’t keep track of my New Year resolutions, the everyday stuff gets done first because they have to be taken care of. I probably have to sleep a little less...maybe get up a little bit earlier or go to bed a little later to get some of things done so that I can accomplish my goals.

Wish you have a better year in 2010 than in 2009!

The costs and benefits of not owning a car

When I decided to give up my car, I know I was ready to give up

The bad things:
1) paying auto insurance
2) paying for tickets (parking mostly)
3) paying for high gas prices
4) giving up on having to move my car every other day because of alternate side street cleaning rules
5) most of all avoid people asking for favorites just because I have a car in the city where it’s consider a luxury if you own a car.
6) Paying for damages to the car because people break into my car
7) Find parking space


The Good things:
1) Giving up on how much time I can save by driving to a certain place vs taking pubic
transportation and wait for it’s schedule.
2) In case of emergency, I can use my car
3) Have a car to buy bulky heavy stuff
4) Don’t have to ask other car owner for favors
5) Lower my daily expenses
6) I don’t have to plow my car out of the snow storm like what we have today

I think one of the health benefits of giving up my car is to walk everywhere I need to go – that is my exercise.

Home-made shelf for printer and fax machine

After many weeks of looking into different web sites and found nothing fits into what we want, my husband finally decided to build the shelf himself. Of course he did not volunteer, it was after many weeks of nagging and looking before he finally gave in. And look at how great the home-made shelf looks. It only costs him about $17 and 1.5 hours of time to get it done and it’s custom made to fit exactly.

We could’ve easily eliminate the fax if we have efax service but because I have to deal with people who do not use emails or computers, we have to keep the fax and thus a shelf is needed to save some space.

My first Black Friday shopping experience

So I finally went shopping on Black Friday and I got there at 4AM. I didn’t wait on the line for Best Buy to buy any electronics. I went to Kohl’s to look for baby clothing and toys instead. The line for Best Buy wrapped around half of the parking lot already. I was glad that I didn’t have to wait on the line to get into Kohl’s. I got the toy I wanted and picked up some clothing for our baby and myself. I wanted to go into Toys r us too but my husband called and asked if I can go to Staples to pick up the portable hard drive for him. So I went to staples and got on line. I waited for at least 40 minutes to get into the store and of course, they sold out the item long time ago. As my husband said, they might already sold out as most stores probably just carry a few of the advertised items to lure you in there to buy other stuff.

Then I hit home but unable to take a nap until my daughter takes her nap as well.

What is my experience on Black Friday shopping? It was not terrible. I won’t do it again if it’s not for something special. I might do it again next year…but all depends if there is anything we need and that I won’t have to go to work.