One of my favorite gifts that I, myself, gifted this year was a one-month subscription to Hello Fresh for my mom. She’s been bogged down with work lately, so I know that’s affected the time she has available to go grocery shopping. So, my partner and I decided to go half in together on a one month subscription to a food prep company all so my mother could make her own meals after work and not worry about time needed to do it.

Unfortunately, a company like that isn’t exactly cheap, so we had to cancel her subscription a week ago in order to not be charged full price for February. It sucked because we both knew she was loving it so much, but the full price on some of those subscription companies and their shipping boxes is absolutely outrageous.

And this made us realize we had our own subscription companies to decide on quitting or not. In fact, one of her friends gifted us a one-month subscription to a wine company. It’s not surprising that her friend is a huge fan of wine, but we’ve enjoyed the company enough to consider continuing the subscription boxes we get now that a month has gone by after Christmas. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that we’re going to continue on with it. But all isn’t said and done until she gives the go ahead!

Still, we live in a moment in history where people actually have to make these conscious decisions, to skip their next month’s subscription or to continue on. Part of these decisions can be made based on financial reasons, and sometimes they’re made because someone realizes that it’s just not as necessary as they first thought. On the other hand, other subscriptions can really make you consider continuing a subscription because of the absolute convenience that the company is providing you. Take my mom and us for example. We would be dropping almost eighty bucks to go forward with 2 meals a week for her and my dad. Yeah, that really only comes out to be five dollars a meal, but that’s something we could achieve on our own for even cheaper if we went to the store often for really cheap produce and grains.

When all is said and done, I would say that now more than ever we have all the power in the world to choose what we want and what we spend our money on. A lot say the internet is an evil thing, but I look at it as the most benevolent invention humans have ever made if only because it has offered us absolute control over our preferences.

In the past few years, I’ve begun narrowing down a lot of my expenses to become things that I need or can afford if I don’t need it. It’s really been helping my budgeting to be able to name exactly what it is I must have and what I don’t need. From there, things become pretty simple to avoid. It’s almost like an alcoholic making sure they’re not around alcohol in certain situations to not even tempt them. For some, they must ensure they’re not even in the position to spend money on things like video games by removing a card from the online gaming store and by not going near gaming sections in certain stores. Sounds simple enough, right?

https://youtu.be/NoCw1FcC3SU

Well, it is so long as you have the willpower to start off strong in whatever you’re doing. I’ve found that another healthier way of handling this sort of need to buy things is substituting something you were paying for with something you actually need.

For example, I’m a big fan of subscription boxes, much like a lot of others out there my age. It’s all the craze nowadays, and there’s a reason for that: getting something shipped to your door without having to go out and buy it is addicting. You do much less work to get the product and yet can get pretty much whatever you want from online marketplaces. And the shipping supplies are always enticing too, because those companies put so much work into making sure their customers return for more and more.

So I decided to invest in something like imperfect produce. Cooking is a huge part of my relationship with my partner, and we’re constantly running to the grocery all the time for a few onions here or some garlic and greens there. Instead, I decided it would be a good idea to pay a monthly subscription for imperfect produce. It serves three different purposes for us.

First off, we’re able to reroute money elsewhere spent on subscription boxes that we don’t need to something like this that we do need. It’s fueling an obsession in a healthy way. Secondly, it saves us trips to the store and gives us a constant stream of produce so that we’re getting all the nutrition we need and are forced to cook with it. Finally, it makes us stay in much more often and eat our own home-cooked meals instead of going out all the time and spending more than we need.

Who knew boxes with pretty shipping supplies within could be a healthy thing that supports a need in your life? Too often we’re swept up by all the enticing things out there that we “want” but don’t actually “need.” It’s good to find a healthy substitute!

With a new year comes new habits, new resolutions, and new lifestyle changes. Well, I sure hope that all of those things happen for everyone else, because new means change, and I have always seen change as one of the best things humans can undergo and take on.

It’s no surprise that all of the resolutions are coming out in full force this year. This is mostly because not only have we welcomed in a new year, but we’ve also welcomed in an entirely new decade. Considering decades don’t come around as awesome, you can imagine that everyone is hopping on the resolution bandwagon and setting out lofty goals to achieve in 2020.

One thing my partner and I have set out to do this year is to get much more vegetables and produce than we did last year. We just recently transitioned to a vegan lifestyle, and so plants and produce should abound in our home. The problem is, we’ve been a bit bad about making sure we have enough to eat and getting the right nutrition, so we’re taking a new approach to groceries this year.

And that’s through the imperfect produce companies out there. I’ve heard that you get so much produce on a weekly basis, almost to the point of not being able to keep up. And for the price they offer this imperfect produce at, it’s seemingly the best deal out there for helping to support a cause like eliminating food waste awhile also getting your own produce at an absolute steal.

So we’re bound to have shipping boxes on our front porch on a weekly basis now. This should also make grocery shopping much easier, as that will likely revolve around spices, one off products, frozen foods, and other essentials that are not related to our cooking. Joining in on one simple little plan with shipping boxes full of produce is going to change our grocery game in a huge way this year, and I think it’s going to keep us honest when it comes to sticking to a great nutritional program.

I encourage you to think about your own resolutions in a way that helps out your health more than any other aspect of your life. Second most important to health? Your financial life. These two things have the biggest influence on your lifestyle and what you are able to do, and they absolutely should be addressed when it comes to crafting goals for yourself for the rest of the year (or even decade!).

Now that the new year has rolled in, I’ve become engrossed with creating storage out of nothing in my home. The idea of organizing my belongings and storage areas is enticing if only to save space elsewhere and keep the home nice and tidy. In fact, I always find myself wanting more areas and dedicated spaces to store my general stuff. You know, general stuff as in not clothes, not food, and not technology. Everything else that is a loose item needs somewhere to go, right?

For example, rather than putting my shoes directly beneath the bench in front of my front door, I have a shoe rack. Or even the abundance of coasters I have collected from breweries, those go in a small basket beneath my coffee table.

But when it comes to new storage things, I can’t really justify spending money on storage containers and other shipping supplies when I’m fine with my place being a little messier than normal if it means saving a few bucks. And that’s probably most of my problem. That I’m okay with being cheap even if it means being messier. Probably not the best way to be!

As of late I’ve started to have a few ideas of little things I could go out and buy that wouldn’t cost too much, especially if they’re from resale shops.

Knife rack.

Honestly, I have too many loose knives with no dedicated rack in my kitchen. And the loose knives in my drawers can honestly be a bit dangerous to reach into if not careful. So recently, I I realized we need a knife holder. These can be extremely cheap if you find the right ones in the right places. The only thing to keep in mind, though, is if it fits the theme of your kitchen. You can never go wrong with wooden knife racks.

Bookcase.

I always loved my bookcases growing up. They were a sign of how much I loved to read, and I considered them sacred for that very reason. Now, I don’t happen to have as many books since I’ve gotten rid of a lot, but having a bookcase for my books and other things like my vinyl albums seems super useful. Heck, I can even store my very shipping supplies in cabinets within the new book shelves if there happens to be any. Talk about storing the storage supplies themselves!