New American Dream

I just wanted to post this website that a friend sent me that really sums up a lot of these ideas.
Its www.newdream.org I have spent a lot of time looking around it, there is so much on there! The only thing I thought was kind of lame was the junk-mail reducing thing. They want you to pay $41 to do it. I paid $2 to remove both jay and i from the DMA (direct marketing ass'n) and i called a 1800 number (for info on that, see the entry "simple ways"). That's it. That is supposed to stop like 80% or more of your junk mail. So don't pay $41. Pay $2 and do it yourself. Otherwise, the website is awesome.

Change in mindset

I think for us, the biggest challenge is going to be the car thing. Its so easy to be reliant on the convenience of a car. I am always secretly hoping that gas will go up and up and up--over $5 a gallon, because it will force myself and others to change this habit. I think the way I am going to have to tackle this is to pretend, in most cases, that we don't have a car. Sadly we have two, although one of them may die at any moment and won't get replaced.

If I can get myself to pretend that we don't have a car, maybe I can get so used to not having one that when we do make the switch, it won't be a big deal.

I've noticed that flexcar now has a car on 52nd and division, which is a short bus ride from our house. We'd have to take our carseats on the bus, which would be a hideous hassle, but if we are only doing this once or twice a month, it wouldn't be that bad.

Sadly, it costs an insane amount of money to take a greyhound or train to salem, which is another time we drive (to visit family). So its not really feasible.

I just wanted to post these great links about ideas to reduce waste. We are planning on visiting the Wednesday farmer's market at People's Food Co-Op They also have square dancing on Wednesday evenings, so we can check that out as well. Elsie's music teacher's band Government-Issue Orchestra plays there sometimes.

Anyway, the reduce waste thing

Also, the how to stop junk mail thing. As you can see, they make it hard for you. But I got FIVE, yes count them FIVE credit card offers in one day last week. This has got to stop. So I think I will order little pre-paid postcards from the post office and send them to these addresses. Hopefully I can curtail most, if not all, the junk mail we get.
I did this for myself and Jay. I get the credit card offers, he gets the student loan consolidation offers. Often times we get about 10 of these a week. Its stupid. I also called this 1-888-5OptOut to stop pre-screened credit and insurance offers.

Here is a very cool list of where to buy recycled items and recycled gift ideas

Metro may have its problems, but you have to admit it's pretty cool.