One of my main challenges and goals of this blog is to escape from what I call the Land of Excess.  Our family is up to our eyeballs in stuff, so each week I plan to make a conscious effort to de-clutter, simplify and lose the excess from our lives.

Here are the things I did to escape excess this week::

  1. Saved money by brown-bagging my lunch at work four out of the five days. I made things like turkey pastrami pitas, chicken and rice, and good ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
  2. De-cluttered my craft area by throwing out a bunch of paper supplies that I haven’t used in years.
  3. Saved money and time by serving up some ice cold Japanese somen noodles on a warm Sunday afternoon instead of going out to eat after church.  I have fond memories of my mom doing the same thing to cool us down and fill us up when I was a kid.
  4. Saved gas by walking to our neighborhood frozen yogurt shop for a yummy treat after dinner.  The kids enjoyed the walk, hubby and I loved the change of scenery, and we even ran into our neighbors along the way who had the same fun idea!
  5. Saved gas and time by carpooling to work one day with my neighbor friend.  Every little bit counts, and she doesn’t mind the drop offs and pick ups to/from school and daycare.  Not every carpool partner is that nice!

Next week, we will be preparing for our semi-annual community garage sale, so I imagine I will be able to make some great strides toward losing excess next week!  I can’t wait to see what I can sell, give away, and throw out!