I knew April would be busy, since I scheduled a family vacation and two book selling events (one happening over the course of an entire weekend). Being so busy has made me realize even more how much I value having free time to get all the little tasks of the day done. I like having a clean and organized house. I like being able to work in the backyard clearing out the weeds. I like starting and finishing little household projects (like my future project of re-growing lettuce). I like relaxing in bed for 30 minutes during the day, reading a book or working on my Rosetta Stone.

April has pushed me behind on a few of my projects and I hope to catch up in May!

I have also realized that traveling makes zero-waste endeavors very difficult and points out how inconvenient they can be. I was able to visit the Recology Store and gather a few wanted zero-waste supplies last month and I put them to good use in April. I found a handy Kishu charcoal water bottle filter that I took with my empty 32oz Camelbak water bottle to my trip to Florida. I filled it up at the airport and while I was walking around all day in Florida. I will be taking both on my upcoming trip to Colorado. I really liked having the 32oz water bottle (at home I use a 24oz).

The recology store also had a child’s kit of to-go bamboo silverware that I couldn’t say no to as it is the perfect size for me and I have it in my purse bag. I love this set!

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
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

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

As far as fitness goals go: Nothing to report…

Turkish language progress:

I am on top of the Anki cards – both creating them and studying 50 cards per day (I missed two days so far). I’ve created the first 250 vocabulary words as well as my word-a-day words and words from the Rosetta Stone Units. As far as Rosetta Stone, I’m only on lesson 24/39 for Unit 5 and will work to catch up and move to Unit 6 this first week in May.

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?

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 was traveling with family this month and spent a lot more on food than normal and was also not able to make as much side income, but I still did really well as no unexpected emergencies came up.

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!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!