Spring is here! March is in the air… March is here and spring is in the air!

Two of my ongoing zero waste projects required some maintenance! My compost bin filled up and I had to decide what to do. I dug a hole and buried my green-brown compost in the corner of the yard. I ran out of upcycled t-shirt tissues (I made 78 of them) and needed to wash them, which I finally did.

I spent time trying to halt my physical junk mail by collecting it from the mailbox and every few days looking up ways to stop that specific mailing. I didn’t realize that when I sign up for things online, the companies will sometimes just decide to send me things in the mail! I’ve also been unsubscribing to unwanted emails for the past few months and am hoping that eventually I’ll be receiving less spam.

I tried out my reusable pads and my silk floss this month. I ran out of my plastic floss which I am dearly comfortable with and though I’m not thrilled with the silk floss but am committed to using my entire supply and hopefully will get used to it over time. I love my reusable pads (and my Thinx – thanks sis!). They work so well and are easy to hand wash and then chuck into the laundry. Since it’s still so cold in the house, I place them over the air vents and they dry in no time at all! I also soaked some of my orange peels (from my recent favorite fruit) in vinegar (which I traded someone on my Buy Nothing Group for some unwanted clothes and foodstuffs) and water. I use this cleaning mixture mostly for dusty surfaces or to wipe down the kitchen counters.

I organized my growing glass jar collection by lip size and it makes me so happy to open my two drawers and see them all nestled in there!

I’ve collected quite a few sticks from my yard cleanup project for future fires and stacked it next to the house. I’m determined to clean out the backyard in our rental.

I cut my hair the shortest it’s ever been and donated it to Locks of Love. I’ve now donated my hair 7 times! That’s more hair in inches than my full body height (I’m only 5’2″).

My ongoing and future projects:

1. Make my own laundry detergent or source a better alternative
2. Line dry my clothes instead of using the dryer (when we have sun again)
3. Stop my junk mail (I’m working on it)
4. Get/Make/Source reusable cloth napkins and store in a usable location for both upstairs and downstairs
5. Source facial lotion
6. Source a toothpaste tablets/powder I like? I might table this one as I really like my toothpaste and am unsure this swap would be worth it
7. Visit the zero-waste stores in my area (they are on my list when I’m driving close to them)

Do you have any other ideas I should consider to reduce my waste?

As far as fitness goals go: After doing the February 100 abs challenge from Blogilates, I’ve continued to do an ab workout ~3/week in March. I also was able to get a complimentary composition analysis and compared it to the one I did in early January. I’m within 1 lb. of the same weight, but the body fat percentage is nearly 5% different. Did my body composition really change that much or do the two types of scanners differ that much?

I’ve added on another overarching and long-term goal for the year: learning Turkish! I have been using the Rosetta Stone Turkish since November, but I’ve added on to my steps to fluency after reading the exceptionally helpful book Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner.

September 2018: Duolingo practice, basic words and greetings
November 2018: Word of the day in Turkish, learn basic greetings and phrases
December 2018: Rosetta Stone Unit 1, Word of the day
January 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 2, word of the day
February 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 3, word of the day, vocabulary book
March 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 4, word of the day, read Fluent Forever, Create Anki cards for RS Unit 4 and review, create 25 vocabulary cards
April 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 5, Anki cards Unit 5, word of the day, first 250 of the top 625 in Anki cards, create 25 vocabulary cards
May 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 6, Anki cards Unit 6, word of the day, first 500 of the top 625 in Anki cards, create 25 vocabulary cards
June 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 7, Anki cards Unit 7, word of the day, all top 625 in Anki cards, create 25 vocabulary cards
July 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 8, Anki cards Unit 8, word of the day, top 800 words in Turkish in Anki cards, Vocab cards for first half of the grammar book, purchase a monolingual dictionary
August 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 9, Anki cards Unit 9, word of the day, top 1000 words in Turkish in Anki cards, 25 vocab cards,
September 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 10, Anki cards Unit 10, word of the day, 25 specialized vocab in Turkish in Anki cards, 25 vocab cards, read 1/2 a book and follow audio book in Turkish
October 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 11, Anki cards Unit 10, word of the day, 25 specialized vocab in Turkish in Anki cards, 25 vocab cards, finish 1/2 a book and follow audio book in Turkish
November 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 12, Anki cards Unit 10, word of the day, 25 specialized vocab in Turkish in Anki cards, 25 vocab cards, take a placement test? Take a vocabulary test?

I lost my voice for two weeks in March and didn’t finish Unit 4’s final test/review yet, but I plan on completing it this week. I’m on track according to this above plan. I love the Anki app and spaced repetition and feel like it’s spring boarding my vocabulary in Turkish. According to my list, I’ve learned more than 250 words, which seems so minuscule compared to my English vocabulary of over 25,000 words.

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’m doing this by earning more money, spending less money, and investing the money that I do have. Here is my monthly budget spreadsheet and a brief breakdown for how March went.

I made extra side income this month and even with my extra payment for my tax preparation and giving cash to my SO to spend in Mexico on chocolate and tacos, I was able to meet my overall goal of spending less than 50% of my incoming money.

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!