Happy Nothing New Year 2014

      As each year comes to an end, in preparation for the New Year I like to make a list of what I would like to do differently. I guess you can call them resolutions. Some of them are typical like loosing weight, which after a month of turkey dinners, Christmas cookies and chocolates really shouldn't come as a surprise. Mostly it just seems like a good time to evaluate how things are going and how one might make some improvements.

      This year I've made a list but there is also something different we are trying. We have committed as a family to buying Nothing New for the entire year of 2014. So, we are now in the middle of our first week. I have to admit, my first trip to COSTCO was hard! And Jonathan has already had to remind me once that it still counts even if it is 50% off. Even though we are only 4 days in we have already come across a few things that we would normally set out to buy. The kids use small glass cups for drinking out of and being that they are kids they sometimes get broken. I've broken a few myself. We buy them in a pack at ikea for a reasonable price. They fit nicely in the dishewasher. They match. I think we lost a few over the month of December and with 4 kids drinking out of them we seem to be out of clean cups before super. I was tempted to just go to Ikea and pick up another set. The other thing is our Brita has had a crack in it for probably more then a year. Some unfiltered water leaks through as it is running its course, not really a big deal but we just finished our last filter and so it was time to say good-bye. We decided we can live with just drinking tap water but it makes for lots of trips to the sink during meal times. So we used a juice jug to bring to the table when we eat. This works fine but I would prefer to use a glass pitcher. So, I made my way to Talize and found 6 matching glasses (49 cents each) and a glass pitcher (2$) for our water. Now I can feel good about saving money and reusing.
      Another Resolution for this year is for Jonathan and me to go on a monthly DATE. That makes for 12 dates a year which probably doesn't sound like much but I think it is about 9 more dates then we had in 2013.
    So, Happy New Year to you and Happy Nothing New Year to us.

Nothing New for 1 Year...

I first read about not buying anything new for a whole year in my "Today's Parent" magazine.... months ago. I must say it tugged at my heart as something I wanted to do with my family and when I talked to Jonathan about it he was very enthusiastic to say YES (I think he saw instant dollar signs on the backs of his eye lids) $$. I want to start in January 1, 2014 and finish December 31, 2014. I know, I could really start now but the New Year always feels like a new start for me so that is what I am planning to do. Another reason I don't want to start just yet is that I don't want to do it alone. I would like to see 10 people commit to doing it too. I HAVE mentioned this idea to a few of my friends, none of whom seemed very enthusiastic but I would like YOU to think about it and get back to me.
Here is the article I read a few months ago that got this idea started:
Click HERE to read the article
This is certainly not a new idea... when I was searching online to find the article there were lots more that came up.
I will be Blogging along in my journey and you can find my posts under the label "Nothing New"