24/24 - Week 1

 It has been about a week since I came up with my 24/24 challenge, and here's an update!

Purchases this week

1. A secondhand Otterbox case to protect my phone (the old one was cracked after a year plus of use)- got a refurbished one on Amazon and saved $10! Fun fact: I recycled the cracked case in our TerraCycle bin, recycled the cardboard box it came in, and am taking the plastic film it was shipped in to Target's plastic bag recycling station (every Target has one).
2. A trio of fabric swatches from Azazie.com, to eventually purchase a bridesmaid dress for my brother's wedding in August (my brother and I are both getting married this year!). The swatches were free because I used a discount code, however, they are new items and therefore created waste; the primary focus of this challenge is the environment, and my budget is secondary, so unfortunately these swatches count. However! I have emailed Azazie and asked them if, when I ultimately purchase my bridesmaid dress and return the other dresses that I reject, I may pop those swatches in the return package along with the no-go dresses... And would they realistically re-use those swatches? And if they will accept them to re-use (not to throw away "for me"), then I am un-counting these swatches as one of my 24 items for the year.
3. My brother's fiancée Emma wants us bridesmaid to all wear box-heel white sandals for their wedding, which will look awesome and will save us from sinking onto the grass! I found a pair of adorable secondhand shoes that she approved from Poshmark. Looking forward to wearing them on their big day, and I can wear them many times after. $120 is the price for a new pair, and I made an offer for $70 for a once-worn pair and it was accepted!
4. This was 2 days before 2024 but had to mention it because it's such a win. I snagged 4 free packages of Earth Breeze laundry detergent eco sheets on my local Buy Nothing Group. Our washer does a great job with these eco-friendly detergents, be them sheets or tablets- but I know that they don't work in every washer. So I put my feelers out there and scored! Each packages contains 30 sheets and we do laundry about 3x a week (two loads of clothing/bed sheets/towels, one load of kitchen linens/mitts/cleaning rags/cloth tissues)... However the kitchen linens/rags only requires half a laundry sheet (easy to rip them in half, as they are essentially soap), and we had 1 pre-existing package, so I am making it a goal to have this be all the detergent that we will need for the year.
5. Derrick and I did our monthly House Project Day yesterday, and he had to make a hardware store run for suet blocks (gotta feed our wild birds), caulking cement and a deadbolt guide. Suet/bird food is on my okay list- wild bird numbers are down in general, and it's good to give them a little help in the form of fatty winter foods. The caulking cement was used to patch 3 minuscule daylight holes in our basement foundation- important, because not only does this keep pests out, but it means our home is that much more well insulated, which is better for the planet. So, I give myself a pass on that one. As for the deadbolt guide- unfortunately it is a new item, and counts toward the 24. However because Derrick and I split all these hardware store costs, I am only counting it as half an item. I mean look, the alternative was that I tell Derrick we can't buy it- which isn't fair, because I'm the one doing the challenge, not him. Or tell him to buy it himself, which also isn't fair, because we are a team and split everything house-related (except for bird stuff- that hobby is entirely mine).

Laundry detergent for a year

Shoes for my brother's wedding

Other fun tidbits and wins from the week

• I adore essential oils- I like doTerra the best but I'll use any brand as long as they are 100% pure (not fragrance oil- that sh*t is not healthy for lungs or the planet).  I use my oils daily, then rinse and recycle the empties at Soap Refill Station. I haven't bought a bottle in years- I get gifted most of them from friends and clients who won't realistically use them, and know that they will be put to work in our home. This last week I had fun playing with some of the oils- not just diffusing them, but putting Melaleuca oil in my shampoo and face wash (tingly and refreshing). I also added 3 drops of Cassia to a wool dryer ball, and we enjoyed the scent of cinnamon on our clothing and kitchen linens all week.
• I took some of Derrick's old books to Half Price Books for him this week, and he made $22 cash! Better to have extra dough than items that you won't use again taking up space. He & I are primarily audiobook folks anyway.
• I paid off $1,500 of home improvement debt on January 1st... $10,500 of debt to go on both the foundation repair and window replacement projects.
• Derrick & I went through our puzzle/game cabinet yesterday: We are donating/selling 8 games between the two of us- some are bound for Half Price Books, one I'm trying to sell on Marketplace, then I listed some wooden brain puzzles and their solve key on my local Buy Nothing Group. It's nice to have room to breathe in that cabinet. We have some we've never played- we plan to test one of them out at Game Night later this month with pals.

Weekly Stats & Take-aways

• I've hit 1.5 of my 24 items, for the first week of the challenge. This is pretty early in the year. I've got to be a bit more conservative... At this rate I'll have 78 new items for the year (noo). It's scary to think how much waste we create by buying new items, isn't it? Google says as of this morning that the world population is 8,045,311,447. If every single human on the planet bought new items at the rate that I am, that would be 627,534,292,866 items created in one year. We are in such big trouble.
• I'm just hoping that Azazie replies and agrees to take back and re-use these swatches.
• Our House Project Day was initially scheduled for January 20th but we woke up yesterday morning and decided to do it. Had we had the 2 extra weeks to prepare, I could have asked the Buy Nothing Group for a deadbolt guide, or even asked my friends in a Facebook post to borrow one. Buying a new tool for a one-time job sucks. I'm very good at anticipating things like this, but sometimes things come up last-minute and I can't prepare.