COVID Didn't Stop Us in 2020

2020 may have been discouraging in several ways (thank goodness it's 2021!). There were several things we couldn't do: coffee shops stopped accepting your personal reusable cups. Restaurants moved to takeout-only with piles of disposable napkins, utensils, wrappers and containers. Grocery stores stopped allowing reusable shopping bags... In so many ways, it felt like an insurmountable backslide away from the good sustainable practiced we'd made habit.

On the flip side, there were so many things we did better. For example, with many jobs moving to work from home, we had substantial less commuting. This both saved fuel as well as provided more time for cooking at home and DIY projects. In some areas, we learned completely new skills, and in others, we kept the habits we could, but moved them online.

Thank you for joining me for 38 posts. Through it, we learned a lot and saved a lot:

Clothing and Fashion

• We went thrifting with friends and saved $187 on the perfect skinny jeans and a tutu-like formal skirt for a night on the town. 
• In-person store closures led me to more online thrifting, and saving $96 on blouses and boots.
• I got fancy, saving $104 by thrifting tuxedo pants and and a sparkly skirt. 
• Adding an ankle strap secured my shoes with style. 
• You don't need to splurge to explore your feminine side. I saved $173 on second-hand ruffles. 
• Rental clubs helped us keep things interesting while not buying new clothing.
• Second-hand allowed me to save $50 and explore new colors. 
• I used Poshmark for the first time, expanding my options for second-hand marketplaces.
• A combo of second-hand and DIY saved me $38 on an original Halloween costume.

Energy and Fuel

• We chose pooled or shared trips with our rideshare, and saved $20. 
• We conserved energy by putting our holiday lights on a simple light timer. 
• Cozy sweaters and blankets let us save 10% on our energy bill by dropping the thermostat a couple degrees. 
• Our holiday gifts didn't have to travel far by shopping local.

Pets

• My cat appreciated hours of scratching time because I restored his scratching posts.
• My dog was entertained by a second-hand ball pit from Buy Nothing.
• A homemade cat scratcher gave second life to scrap cardboard, and saved $10.

Kitchen and Cooking

• We replaced our Saran wrap with beeswax wraps. 
• We reflected on 24 ways we could honor Earth Day, despite quarantine. Just one example? We reused our "disposable" takeout utensils.  
• We made flavorful sauces from the waste of jarred sundried tomatoes.
• Portioning and freezing let us make the most of our hard-to-use-up ingredients. 
• Oat milk was an easy-to-make alternative to dairy, avoiding both packaging and methane emissions.
• We enjoyed our leftovers to the last bite, by incorporating them into new recipes.
  

Garden

• We gained survival skills by regrowing our lettuce!
• Home propagated succulents save $2.
• Our Christmas tree got a second life as compost.
  

Home and Bath

• I shared my failed flax hair gel experiment, so next time you know what NOT to do! 
• DIY saves us $10, when we made a hamper liner out of an old sheet.
  
• Switching our cotton swabs may have just saved a seahorse!
• We upgraded our hair products by buying solid.
• Coconut oil made for habitat-friendly, clean burning candles. 
  

Party and Holiday

• Some DIY piñata-making turned packaging waste into a party, and saved $20. 
• We saved a tree by swapping to recycled holiday cards. 
• Normalizing (gently used) second hand gifts saves money and resources.
• We wrapped our gifts with fabric and recycled paper. 
• We remembered that our time is the best gift of all.

Community

• We earned rewards by logging our sustainable activities in the Random Acts of Green app. 
• We gave back to our communities while de-cluttering our homes.

Overall, we saved $710 this year while saving tons of resources. Here's looking forward to an even better 2021. Cheers!