July Challenge - Buy local

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While I didn't post about it much, our June challenge of eating clean was such a success (we feel great!) that we're going to keep at it.

In addition, we're doing a month of Buying Local.

July Challenge: Buy Local

We always prefer local products and this month we're going to cut out the shortcuts and of out-of-season or far away items.

We have a small stash of certain things that can't be produced locally (like coffee) that we will use up but other than that we will be eating from farmers markets, local farm stands, and local producers.

The girls will drink local milk, we will eat local meat, we will eat from our own small gardens and get lots of veggies from local farmers markets and farm stands.

We've also got a few feelers out to buy larger quantities of local produce for putting food by. We will pick berries and stone fruit when they ripen this month. 

We are very much looking forward to putting our money where our mouth is - buying to support our values, our communities, and our bodies.

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In another ongoing challenge - we've hit the breaker switch on our dryer. 

HandsomeJoe was recently gone for almost a month and I started line drying all of our laundry. Between the reduced appliance usage, fewer hot showers, etc. We saved more than $100 on our electric bill. 

We haven't decided fully if we'll actually sell the dryer and use the money to buy a smaller (not oversized beast that we have now) for guests and possible future roommates, or simply leave it off. There's no rush and we will figure it out as we go. For now however, we will use wind and solar power to dry our clothes, help them to last longer, and slow down our life.

What simple switches could you make to buy local?

For our other monthly challenges click here.  

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