Goals! Again.

So for my first goal, I won't be able to see if I've made any real progress at lowering our electric bill until we receive our next statement sometime next week. PSE's website does allow us to track our daily usage in kwh either across weeks or the last few months.

Puget Sound Energy

Honestly, this doesn't inspire hope. But I'll keep persisting in keeping my heat turned off and switching off my power strips. I'm also constantly on the watch for lights have been left on by my roommates.

As for goal 2, I believe that is the one I'm doing the best at. I'd say about 80% of the food I've been buying has come from the Organic section. I've been inadvertently eating less meat products as well. I love chicken strips, but I wanted to switch to an organic option, so I looked in the frozen organic section and saw a bag labeled with "Crispy" and "Tenders" so I grabbed that and was on my way. Only when I got home to cook them did I see that they also are clearly labeled as "Meatless". So I've been eating these organic soy/tofu tenders for the past week, and honestly, they haven't been that half bad, I'll probably get them in the future. I still want some sort of meat though.

My third goal of shorter showers probably needs a little tweaking, since I have no real way of telling how long my shower's actually been other than my own gut. I'll need to get some sort of timer set up for my showers to know when my 10 minutes are up. One way I have been able to shorten my showers is by alternating days when I wash my hair, which easily cuts a few minutes off the time I'm in.

I definitely need to refocus a little bit on my water and energy consumption, but I feel I've been doing a better job overall at living a more sustainable life. For instance, I've been using a reusable mug every time I go to get coffee. That's one paper cup a day (sometimes two!) that I saved by bringing a cup with me.

In the past, whenever I've gone home to visit my family, I'd either need to be picked up and dropped off by parents, or I'd drive myself if they let me borrow a car. In order to reduce the impact my travelling has, I've decided for my new goal to rely on public transportation when I go home to visit my family. There is the Bolt Bus, which leaves from Bellingham and goes straight to Seattle. I might need to get picked up in Seattle, but the 45 minute drive to Seattle is much better than the four hour round trip to Bellingham and back.