2010

Yesterday, the first day of my year-long experiment in carbon-footprint-shrinking, we had an early fail.

At the grocery store, I had brought in my reusable bags (yes, I did have to go back to the car to get them, because that's still not a habit), but I still got home with two more plastic bags because the cashier was quite insistent that my meat and milk needed to be in plastic bags so they wouldn't leak onto my other items. And I was tired enough (and polite enough) not to argue.

Yes, we reuse all our plastic bags (when the husband delivers papers, when I walk the dogs, etc.) but I still hated bringing them into the house.

Only one impulse buy at the store, and it was something we do purchase frequently. It was on sale and had coupons displayed alongside, reducing its price to about half what we'd usually pay. If our freezer were less full, I'd have bought more.

The daughter is resigning herself to the no buying new stuff part of the experiment. She was horrified for a moment when she realized she hadn't spend her Christmas gift cards, but I assured her that such purchases were perfect exceptions to the rule, especially because they were technically 2009 purchases.

Too bad it's so cold outside. I'm ready to take down the holiday decorations and put 2009 entirely into the past.