The Vitamix helped us accomplish a 2015 goal

In 2014, I became slightly addicted to the Peanut Butter Chocolate smoothie from Smoothie King. On my way to work, I would stop and buy a smoothie for breakfast. The staff knew me so well, they'd ring it up as soon as I walked through the door, Peanut Butter Crunch-no milk, no sugar. They also learned to ask whether I wanted 1 or 2 (1 for Nick on the days we worked together). At $4 each, it was getting to be an expensive habit but one that I justified because it meant that I was actually eating breakfast versus running out the door without eating like I'd been doing. I figured it's no different from those who have to have their Starbucks coffee every morning. 

Nick took notice of my habit and my complaints/concerns over the use of styrofoam cups and plastic straws at Smoothie King and he solved the problem by getting me a Vitamix blender for Christmas 2014. It's been a year and with the exceptions of when we travel (and sometimes we do travel with the Vitamix), every morning we have both made a chocolate peanut butter protein smoothie for breakfast. The fact that I stopped consuming 4-5 styrofoam cups and straws/week is a big win. 

Here's the breakdown of the cost and environmental benefits:

Vitamix $375-- Yes, it seems like a lot for a blender but as you'll see it has paid itself off and then some. I honestly can't live without it now. I use it for so much more than smoothies too. 

Smoothie King Smoothies

$4 each * 3x/week (and this is a very conservative estimate)= $12/week 

$12/week * 36 weeks (number of work weeks in a regular semester)= $432 for the working year

Just in my breakfast smoothies that I would buy before work, the Vitamix has paid itself off after this year. 

Further, because we have the Vitamix, now ALL of us have protein smoothies in the morning. Nick and I have a 16-20oz one and the kids each get about 8oz with their oatmeal breakfast. Not to mention all of the specialty smoothies that I've made for them as after school or weekend snacks. Each kid smoothie at Smoothie King cost $3 so we're getting a lot more bang for our investment in the Vitamix. 

Oh, and I know that I'm not taking into account the cost of the ingredients in these calculations but that's because 1) the ingredients are stuff that I was already buying on a regular basis and 2) the quality of the home smoothie doesn't compare to the SK kind. Making smoothies at home means I can customize to our needs and wants. I now make 100% organic chocolate peanut butter smoothies AND I get to add chia seeds, oats, hemp seeds and protein powder (each of these additions cost 99 cents at Smoothie King so my $4 smoothies would be $8 if I made it like I do at home). I know I don't spend that much on ingredients...and even if I did, I feel much better about knowing exactly what is in my smoothie AND the environmental benefits are worth it to me. 

Environmental Benefits

The best thing about this is that we are no longer using the styrofoam cups and straws every morning. I bought stainless steel straws and we were gifted insulated smoothie cups for Christmas last year that we've used every day since. 

Counting only MY consumption (not Nick's or the kids), I avoided 108 styrofoam cups and straws going to the trash this past year (and this is only based on my "work" smoothies). Considering that styrofoam and plastic NEVER biodegrade, any decrease in consumption is great. This has been one of the most effective changes we've made as a family. 

We still have a long way to go with straws and even styrofoam cups. We still consume some but mostly because of our travel schedule this past year. We try to carry water everywhere so we avoid having to get to go drinks somewhere and hence using a plastic cup/straw but we're not perfect. But overall, I'm so happy that Nick bit the bullet and bought the Vitamix and that we accomplished this major goal of ours. 

Life in Valdosta, GA

I haven't posted in this blog in months because of the hectic summer we had and all the technical troubles we ran into when we moved to Georgia.  So, here's a recap of the last 6 months:

Financial Goals

In October, we crossed off another financial goal off our list.  We bought a house.  Not just a house, but a dream house within our means!  We stuck with the budget we set and although we picked the house at the top of that budget, the budget was well below what we "could" afford.  Having gone through what we went through with the housing market in Florida, I wanted to be sure we'd never be in that situation again.  We put our down payment and now have a comfortable mortgage that we can afford to pay extra on to bring the life of the loan down.
We still don't have car payments and we've paid off our credit cards so the only debt we have at the moment is the mortgage and our student loans. I still go back and forth whether I should double down on my student loans to pay mine off sooner or whether I stick with the low payment for the next 20 years. It just seems SO long.
Right now, we're still trying to figure out what our actual budget will be with our new jobs.  Each month they've been some adjustment with our retirement plan, healthcare, HSA or something else where we still have not received a "normal" paycheck since August.  Once I get a rhythm and set aside what we'll need to cover our summer expenses when we DON'T get paid, then I can think of how to manage our disposable income to lower our outstanding student loan/mortgage debt.

Green Living

It seems that I haven't made much progress in the last 6 months, but we're constantly working on it. We're being much more conscious about the things that we do buy for the new house and we want to be as minimalist as possible. I'm becoming more conscious of all of our purchases and trying to not buy things just because it's a good deal.

I'm stuck on this minimalist lifestyle and I so wish we can do it. I've read enough blogs and articles now to know that it's not an overnight thing. I'm just amazed at how often we clean out our house and fill bags to donate to Goodwill and yet we still have SO much stuff.

Goals in this area:
1. Minimize my closet and drawers. I have so many items that I have not worn in over a year and somehow they've survived every sweep I've done in the last year. I'm going to start with myself and then work through the rest of the family.

2. Plant a garden. We have a huge yard that I want to put to good use. The kids are excited about growing their own fruits/veggies. We have colleagues that grow quite a bit of their food so I'm hoping I can learn from them.

3. Only buy second-hand items. This is difficult since we live in Valdosta and the thrift shops and craigslist are not as good as a big city. But, we're visiting Orlando often enough that I think we can do this. We do well with kids' toys in this area but we can do better in the rest of the areas. I recently joined several "buy, trade, sell in Valdosta" facebook groups and those seem to offer a better selection than craigslist.

4. Eliminate waste in the kitchen. I definitely want to start composting for real. We were using the empty lot next door as our "compost pile" but they just cleared it to build a house so I'll need to make a legit compost pile in our own yard. I also want to stop buying cartons that are not recyclable like the vegetable broth kinds. I figured if I freeze my own scraps then I can make my own broth at the end of the week and freeze it for later use. If I can manage that then maybe I'll feel empowered enough to make my own almond milk and avoid those cartons.

I have further goals but I think these 4 are feasible at the moment. Once I manage these then I can move on to bigger and better things.
Anyhow- I'm going to try to go back and post weekly menus because it was really helpful for me to have that record. I recently went back through the early posts last year and remembered a few menu items I had forgotten about. They were hits once again.

Til next time...