Have I stayed away from corporate greed & corporate chains?

YES. For the most part… but I have had a few slip-ups.

On the flip side, here’s what I have accomplished so far:

1. I have not been to a commercial/corporate grocery store during the month of March. All our food has come from Russo’s Market and Trader Joe’s thus far. I plan on visiting a small fish market this week and maybe some other local markets.
2. The 4-yo has not had a juice box in his lunch box all month… we’ve been using a reusable, juice box-like containers and filling them with 1/2 water, 1/2 100% juice.
3. The 4-yo is now drinking strawberry Kefir “cultured milk” in the morning, rather than individual drinkable yogurt bottles (think Danimals).
4. Rather than Uncrustables(pre-made PB & J sandwiches), I’ve been making PB & J every morning for the lunch box.
5. I have either skipped coffee or tried cappuccinos at locally owned businesses.
6. All the take-out we have had has been from locally-owned businesses (not chains) — though, almost all our food has been homemade.
7. I have not gotten gas yet… but when I do, I will go to a locally owned gas station.
8. I made fruit leather rather than buying it.
9. I have been using homemade Apple Cider Jelly that my friend made and gave to us.

How I’ve slipped up so far:

1. I have had Starbucks about 5 times… but I do not feel horrible about this because SB “does their part” for the environment and free trade.
2. I had McDonald’s. I know, I know… the worst of the worst. I am blaming The Husband for this… he brought it home last weekend (after his visit to the gym no less!)
3. I went to and purchased items from Walgreen’s. I needed some items I could not get at TJ’s or Russo’s. I will also need to go to CVS tomorrow to pick up a prescription.
4. I bought a few kids birthday gifts from our local Hallmark store (rather than trekking to a locally owned toy store). My bad. We’re making the gift cards though.
5. I bought 2 other toys from TJ Max… for a play-date the 4-yo had. I was just killing time, browsing around and no intention of spending money… but then I saw a toy he loves and it was like $5 cheaper than usual, so I couldn’t resist.

And that’s about it… I don’t think it’s too bad so far. We have definitely been saving on recycling — no juice boxes, drinkable yogurt bottles, water bottles, individual cheese wrappers or invidividual cracker/cookie packages.

I still need to work on things, but feel confident the second half of the month will be even better than the first half. My goal is NO MORE slip-ups. On my to do list for tomorrow? I need to make a huge batch of silver dollar pancakes and freeze them… as we are almost out of the frozen ones I’ve been serving to the 4-yo.

Lessons learned? One thing is painfully clear, Corporate America makes mom’s lives much easier…. we rely on easy-to-use items way too much. I am disgusted by how often I realize I “need” or generally use something made to support corporate greed and plan to be MUCH more conscious and conscientious of my spending habits after March is over.