Low Impact Month...can we do it?

 I decided to digress from all the yummy food and talk about something that we should all find equally yummy....green living. Oh no, another vegetarian on a eco- trip??!?!? Nah, just trying to not be quite as much of a hypocrite :)

Last night, Matt and I watched No Impact Man on Netflix.  It's a documentary about a man who decides to go as no impact as he can, along with his wife and toddler daughter.  That means, no electricity(microwave, REFRIGERATOR), ALL local food - no meat or coffee (since it comes from over 250 miles away), no toilet paper (yikes!) no washing machine, no makeup, dinner by candle light, no car or public transportation, and no buying of material goods....for an entire year.

Read his blog here ....http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

So, after watching Matt and I felt a little less than green about our current lifestyle choices. I mean, the man brushed his teeth with baking soda and we leave lights on all over the house. So, since we are not that radical and Matt can't give up on his 'comforts', ie. bike stuff, we decided we would do a "Low Impact Month" and see how it goes. We want to see what we can do without and what things were are too-thankful-that-it-was-invented to give up. We made a list, flexible to our lifestyle and not so strict that we set ourselves up for failure (matt could never give up coffee).


Here are the rules:
- No driving to anywhere in the borough (except Aidan's school - kid on back of a bike deemed too dangerous by Matt, Kate concurs.)
- No Starbucks - poor Matthew
- No Take - out eating or eating alone/just the 3 of us. (Expection here is we will eat out as a social event, but no more runs to wawa or even getting a bottle of water!)
- Unplug chargers when not in use 
- No use of the Dryer
- Only 1 room with lights turned on at night, employ use of candles
- No purchases of non-essentials (bike stuff is considered an essential, however so is my new macbook Pro)
- No lights on during the day 
-Grocery shopping 1 x per week, Sunday.
- Farmer's market for all produce on Saturday
- No buying meat (matt is converting to the dark side?!? No, we can use up the meat we already have, however no purchasing more for the rest of the month).
- No Shopping Bags
- Compost Bin in backyard to reduce and ultimately reuse our trash.
-  3 Minute Showers

Since there will be NO takeout, there will be lots of blogging with lots of yummy food. Stay tuned for updates and pictures to follow.

Until next time...eat,love,live and eat some more.