20 ways... to reuse every day plastic garbage

I've now been in the US for about a month and I am shocked over and over again about how much of plastic garbage one "has to produce" every day. I am using "has to" because there is no way one could avoid all the plastic that is used. You "have to" buy most of the food in plastic bags or packaging, you "have to" buy drinking water in plastic containers, you "have to" eat your food with plastic cutlery because there is no other available. Of course some of this could be sidestepped but only with a huge effort and most people (me included) would never think of for example bringing their own cutlery to a restaurant or bring their own containers for take-out food.

Anyhow, there are many, many ways to at least reuse the unavoidable plastic containers/bags/packaging a few times before throwing them out.

A few of my ideas I have already incorporated in our daily life, such as:

reusing plastic bags as waste bin liner, to keep bread fresh, as batting for packages, to store food in the fridge

reusing vegetable/fruit packaging as a piggy bank (you could even get a little crafty and decorate it)

reusing food containers to store other food/odds and ends in

reusing water bottles as planters for herbs and other small plants

reusing take-out containers as planters

Xoxo, have a great week!

60 tasks in 15 months

Recently I've seen a lot of 101 things in 1001 days-lists pop up all over the internet and decided to also make a little list for myself. I figured, once I have everything written down and published, I will complete the tasks more easily - mostly to being able to ticking stuff off the list. So I've set down and come up with 60 tasks, that I am trying to complete until the end of 2015.

Usually the time frame is 1001 days, but I've decided to shorten it to 15 months, because I was afraid I wouldn't go through with it, if I set too big a timeframe.

I have already started completing tasks at the 1st of October, and I have to say until now it's going pretty well - except for the tasks where I wanted to exercise for 2 hours/week and meditate for 20 hours/week. I haven't even started, so I'm afraid I'll have to change these two.

I'm excited that I made myself write down all these tasks and also still be working on the list 3 weeks into the project.

To make it even more binding for myself I've decided to blog about it and write a post about my progress once a month.

Here you'll find the tasks -->

I hope to inspire some of you to make a list of their own or just follow my progress. Maybe some of you even have some tips on how to actually follow through and complete all the tasks.

Xoxo, let's hope I'll succeed!

10 easy ways to save money without having to cut back

Summer is fast approaching and I've been thinking about going on vacation and a shopping spree for some new spring/summer clothes. And in order to still having some money left to put into my savings account I've come up with a number of ways to easily save money without actually having to cut back on anything.

1. Turn off your electric devices properly instead of leaving them on Standby. This will save a lot of electricity.
   
2. Try to use less of basically everything - tooth paste, shower gel, shampoo, toilet paper... You won't even know you've used a drop less, but in the end it'll make a big difference.
  
3. Use your old and unused eye shadow to create your own nail polish like this girl here.
  
4. Grow your own food. Spices and vegetables like tomatoes or cucumbers are quite easy to grow on your balcony - and gardening has a calming, therapeutic effect.
  
5. Buy stripe tickets instead of purchasing a single ticket every time you take a public transport.
  
6. Whenever you cook dinner, make a little more so you can eat the left overs for lunch the next day at work and don't have to go out and buy an overpriced sandwich oder salad.
  
7. If you like reading rent books from your local library instead of buying them. Or buy e-books instead of hard copies - they are usually cheaper.
  
8. Take and use whatever you get for free - for example sometimes in cafés you get these little sugar sachets, instead of leaving them if you haven't used them, take them with you and use at home. Or, on long distance flights you might get a dental kit, there's enough toothpaste in there for at least 3-4 times of brushing.
  
9. Use the coupons you get - no, I'm not talking about converting into the next couponing queen, but using a coupon once in a while will save you a lot of money.

  

10. Print your documents double-sided. You'll only have half of the papers to carry around with you and save a lot of printing paper.

What are your tricks for saving some money?

Xoxo, have a great day!