Updates

Been MIA...again.  I guess you better get used to my randomness. 

Back on January 1 my family gave up these:

And these:

I know.  For a family who lives to eat and hates to clean up, giving up paper plates seemed like a crazy idea.  But we generate a lot of trash.  And it isn't all white.  That's a gene pool issue.  Anyway, paper plates aren't expensive.  We only used around 150 a month.  But it's 1350ish less we've used since January 1.   

I bought plastic divided plates on the dollar isle at the grocery store.  They look like this:

They aren't this pretty.  They are a lovely shade of green (like army) and navy blue.  2 plates for $1.  I initially bought 6.  It soon became evident that we needed more.  So I bought 6 more.  For $6, I got 12 plates.  We have an unfortunate accident with 1 or 2, but 9 almost 10 months into the experiment, we still have 10 plates. 

Why did I buy plastic divided plates?  Don't have I plates that we could use?  Why, yes, of course I have plates that we can use.  I have 14 place settings of Fiesta.  But it was one of those things....we didn't want to use them for things like pop tarts or toast.  And what if we were just having a sandwich? 

The paper napkins were a little more difficult to give up.  I do love napkins.  I usually need 3 or 4 during a meal.  I rarely go to a restaurant that I don't use several napkins.  I have been accused of having a napkin fetish.  My lunch bunch makes fun of me and my napkins.   We initially made some cloth napkins from material I had in my stash.  Frack made them on a snow day.  It didn't take long for us to figure out that we would need more napkins than I thought.  I don't launder towels everyday and that is where I thought the napkins should be laundered.  As luck would have it, my favorite kitchen store had cloth napkins on their 50% off table.  So I picked up about 20 napkins for about $20.  Works for me.  And now I really miss cloth napkins when I have to use paper.  Funny thing.

So far the experiment is working.  Saving some trash one piece at a time.  Just sayin'.