“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Why don’t I buy any of these things anymore? Because of every reason imaginable haha. (cost, health, environment, less waste, minimalistic, simplicity, higher quality, taste etc)

Note: When I say “we” I’m referring to my husband and I. Just wanted to clarify so you don’t think I’m Gollum/Smeagol. Sneaky little Hobbitses.

1. Canned Soup
Alternative: We make soup from scratch and bottle it.

2. Salad Dressing
Alternative: It’s incredibly easy and delicious to make your own. Orange vinaigrette dressing recipe here. Olive oil and vinegar is also good on salads.

3. Flour Tortillas
Alternative: We make our own. 

4. Packaged Sports Drinks
Alternative: Healthy powdered sports drink mixed with water in a reusable bottle.

5. Milk
Alternative: We make our own dairy free milks. Recipes here. We also use water instead of milk in a lot of recipes.

6. Vegetable Broth
Alternative: We make our own.

7. Microwave Popcorn
Alternative: I adore my popcorn popper!

8. Packaged Herbs and Spices
Alternative: We buy from the bulk section. It’s amazing how much cheaper it is!

9. Packaged Convenience Meals
Alternative: Cook from scratch. Freeze meals. Canning. 

10. Bottled Water
Alternative: Reusable water bottles!

11. Shaving Cream
Alternative: Donovan uses coconut oil to shave his face, and I use shower gel to shave my legs etc.

12. Toothpaste
Alternative: We make our own tooth powder. Recipe here.

13. Face Wash
Alternative: I make my own and my skin absolutely loves it. Recipe here.

14. Unnecessary Hair and Beauty Products
Alternative: I used to hoard products. I now only have the bare minimum of what I need and don’t buy more until it’s necessary.

15. Tissues
Alternative: We use handkerchiefs and they are awesome!

16. Deodorant
Alternative: Donovan uses plain baking soda and I make my own. It works so much better.

17. Cotton Rounds/Balls
Alternative: I made reusable “flannel squares” haha.

18. Feminine Products
Alternative: Menstrual cup!! Best thing that ever happened to my period.

19. Disposable Cleaning Cloths
Alternative: I use a small vacuum for our wood floors instead of a swiffer sweeper. I also use cleaning cloths/rags.

20. Laundry Detergent
Alternative: We make our own and/or use soap nuts. Recipe here.

21. Dryer Sheets
Alternative: Not necessary. Especially if you use soap nuts and line dry your clothes.

22. Plastic Wrap
Alternative: I’m all about the reusable containers.

23. Dusting Spray and Other Cleaning Products
Alternative: Microfiber cloths. Baking soda and vinegar.

24. Newspapers
Alternative: You can find news online for free. Though I recommend avoiding news media all together. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel when you aren’t being bombarded with all the negativity.

25. Excess Memberships and Subscriptions (Costco, beauty boxes, magazines, gym memberships, hulu plus, audible etc)
Alternative: We love our public library, exercise outside, and go without. We do have Netflix still.  Edit: We now cancelled Netflix, more details here.

26. Car and Car Expenses
Alternative: Walk. Ride a bicycle. (I sold my car last year, but Donovan does have a company car we use)

27. Home Decor and Seasonal Decor
Alternative: Enjoy the decor you already have. 

28. Cell Phone Service
Alternative: Ditch the phone plan. Use wifi.

29. Random Clothing & Accessories
Alternative: Say no to items that you’ll only wear once or twice. I strive to make intentional purchases that truly reflect my personal style and mesh well with my current wardrobe and lifestyle.

30. Professional Grooming Services (haircuts, hair coloring, mani/pedis, dog grooming etc)
Alternative: DIY

Thank you for reading this! Are there any items you don’t buy anymore? If so, please share so it can give me ideas of more things I can stop buying haha.
Peace & Love
-Kayla Oliver

5 reasons to make your own laundry detergent:

1. Less Waste
“A horrifying 1 billion laundry jugs are discarded in the United States annually. Once empty, only an estimated 30 percent of these high-density polyethylene (HPDE) jugs are recycled. The remaining 70 percent ends up in landfills, or clogs oceans and waterways.” –www.treehugger.com

You can recycle the paperboard packing the ingredients come in. If you can find the ingredients in bulk, package free, then that’s even better!

2. Eco-Friendly
The toxic chemicals in store bought detergents drain out and cause problems with plant, animal, and aquatic life. No bueno.

3. Cheaper
Tide costs about .20 cents per load. This stuff is between .04 and .11 cents per load (depending on how much you use).

4. Healthier
Being mindful of the ingredients you use can avoid skin irritations and allergy problems. Not to mention all the other health problems chemicals can cause.

5. Self-reliance
Hooray for going to the store less often!

Recipe:

1 bar castile soap
3 cups washing soda
3 cups borax

Grate the castile soap into a large bowl. Add washing soda and borax. Mix. Transfer to container of your choice. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load.

No need to use hot water, a cold water wash works totally fine. Also, you don’t actually need dryer sheets or fabric softener. Less crap to buy. Less waste. 

Thanks for reading! Peace and love.

p.s. blogpost coming soon about pros and cons of soap nuts/berries!

https://youtu.be/uOHiUeol1VA

Why make your own face wash?

1. Better for your skin and for the environment. The majority of store bought cleansers are filled with toxic chemicals that aren’t beneficial for your skin, your health, or the planet.
2. It’s cheaper to make your own.
3. Avoid creating unnecessary waste.

Things you’ll need:

Mixing bowl and plastic or wood spoon. (it’s very important NOT to touch the bentonite clay with metal)

Raw Honey

   • Naturally anti-bacterial
   • Moisturizing
   • Promotes faster healing of blemishes
   • Lightens and fades scars
   • Calms inflammation

Bentonite Clay

   • Detoxifies skin
   • Helps balance oil production

Essential oils

Adding essential oils is optional. If you have extremely sensitive skin then I would suggest not using any. I personally use and love Rose Absolute, Rosehip, and Bergamot oils. There’s plenty of info online about which essential oils are good for different skin types. www.mercola.com is a good source, or just do a google search. Trust your instincts on what essential oils (if any) would be good for your skin. Learn to listen and be in tune with yourself. Your body knows what’s good for it!

Recipe:

Depending on the size of your container, you may need to adjust the size of this recipe.

Mix

   • 4 tablespoons raw honey
   • 2 tablespoons bentonite clay
   • a few drops of essential oils if desired

You can add more honey or more clay to get the consistency you want. There’s no right or wrong.

To use this, I wet my face, gently massage product on, leave on for 30 seconds or longer, then rinse. I usually apply this at the beginning of my shower, and rinse off at the very end.

Thank you for reading this. I hope that you found this information helpful. If you try this out, please let me know how you like it!

(note: this post is referring to trivial matters, not serious trials)

It’s totally normal to have a bad day every once in awhile. Life isn’t perfect. People aren’t perfect. There are always ups and downs. What’s important is how you react and deal with those “bad days”. I recently had a bad day… one that ended with a boot on my car and a $115 fine haha. Yes it totally sucked in the moment, but later it really got me thinking about the positive ways I dealt with the day, as well as the things I should’ve done differently. It’s good to be introspective and retrospective, but not so much ineffective to correct your defective, selective, negative perspective. *drops mic*

1. Don’t add fuel to the fire.
It’s only going to make you feel worse if you lose your temper, listen to angry music, or dwell on negative thoughts. Trust me on this. Ever notice how the rage builds the more you think or talk about a problem?

2. Stop complaining.
“If you have a bad day in baseball, and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more.” -Sammy Sosa
So true. It’s the law of attraction baby! What we focus on amplifies. If you are putting out negativity, more negativity is going to come right back to you. So stop ranting on facebook. Dumping negative energy into the world is a lose lose situation. If there is a problem that can be fixed, then by all means, fix the problem and move on!

3. Perspective.
Think about your problem in terms of time and relativity.
My mom taught me to ask myself, “is this going to matter in 50 years? 5 years? 5 days?” The answer 97% of the time is, probably not.
Think of others in the world who have it much worse. The fact that 1 billion CHILDREN are living in poverty should put things into perspective. Write down or say out loud what you are grateful for. List as many as you can. Once again, we want to shift our focus to the positive in life.

4.  Laugh.
Laughter is the best medicine. For many years my philosophy has been “you just gotta laugh about it”. Because sometimes when you are in a crappy situation, laughing is all you can do. Besides, I’d much rather laugh than cry.

5. Do good.
Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Get out of your own head. Stop worrying about your problems and instead ask yourself, “what good can I do today?”. It’s amazing how doing a good deed can boost your mood.

Hopefully these tips can help you turn a bad day around. 🙂  Thank you for visiting my blog and for reading this. Peace.

There are about 3.9 million dogs that enter animal shelters in the USA every year. According to ASPCA “Of the dogs entering shelters, approximately 35% are adopted, 31% are euthanized, and 26% of dogs who came in as strays are returned to their owner.”

Adopt, don’t shop! There are a lot of misconceptions about animals in shelters. There’s many pros to adopting from a shelter! You’ll be saving a life. The dog will already have it’s shots and be spayed/neutered. The dog may already be trained. Adoption fees are generally very affordable.

In September 2013 one of the greatest blessings joined our family! Tiffany is a poodle and the sweetest girl ever! We adopted her from a local “no kill” animal shelter. Her original owners abandoned her out on the streets. At some point Animal Control picked her up and took her to the shelter. She was adopted once or twice but the adoptions didn’t work out because they said she was “too needy” (insert eye roll). After she was back in the shelter, they were able to place her in a foster home. I’m so thankful to that foster family for taking care of her until I found her!

I saw Tiff’s picture online and knew I needed to meet her. We called the shelter and made arrangements to see her. It was love at first site! We immediately bonded. I believe that human/animal souls can have a deep connection similar to soul mates or kindred spirits.  Tiffany came into my life when I needed her most. She’s been a guardian angel and best friend to me. In return I hope I’ve helped her live a happy and fun life, full of love and belly rubs.

10 Facts About Tiffany:

  1.  She doesn’t go for “walks”, she struts her stuff like she owns the town.
  2.  Loves snuggles, like seriously LOVES snuggles.
  3.  Enjoys sleeping and snoring loudly.
  4.  She gets intense separation anxiety.
  5.  Loves her big dog brothers and tolerates her cat sister.
  6.  Tiff is very intuitive.
  7.  Adores blankets and pillows.
  8.  She is sweet and loving.
  9.   Pickiest. Eater. Ever.
10.  She loves to play hide and seek.

“A dog will teach you unconditional love.
If you can have that in your life, things won’t be too bad.”
-Robert Wagner