What a crazy week, and the fun has only begun. Next week is going to be even more hectic. Oh boy!

I am off to my very first blogging conference in Toronto, Ontario and J.P is driving to Dallas/Forth, Texas. So lets just say, we are literally going to be all over the map! It will be interesting to see how we handle “our no waste” while on the road separated!

This week we most definitely spent significantly more money than we do during any given week. With it being little E’s birthday, and me wanting to make everything myself; we had to spend some extra money.

I am not much of a baker, but I tried my darnedest to make an organic vegan banana cake for the party, however, I failed miserably on my 2 attempts. J.P decided it would be best to buy a conventional cake for the guests. In retrospect, he was right. Little E had organic/raw chocolate mousse which she played with and barley ate and I had a piece of raw/organic cheese cake. Both were so yummy!

We also decided to purchase 2 baskets from Lufa Farms instead of getting another one for week 4. Therefore, this week, I will not be picking up a basket and we will resume our subscription once we return back home in about 7 months from Dallas/Fort Worth.

Here are our stats for the week:

1-Food Purchases

From Lufa Farms (roof top farm in Montreal) 8 tomatoes

• 18 cherry tomatoes
• 4 small cucumbers
• 2 large English cucumbers
• 6 heads of red lettuce
• 1 head of Boston lettuce
• 2 bunches of parsley
• 2 large bunches of kale
• 7 potatoes
• 2 containers of gooseberries
• 3 acorn squash
• 8 black radishes
• 10 beets
• 2 tiny peppers
• 6 orange bell peppers

Sub-total cost: 84.00

Green Party Treats

From La Moisson (health food store) and IGA (regular grocery store)

• 1 loaf of organic flax seed bread (Canada)
• 1 yam (Quebec)
• 1 garlic bulb (Canada)
• 1 plastic bag of organic dates
• 1 glass bottle of organic soya sauce (USA)
• 2 paper bags of organic blue tortillas (USA)
• 4 organic avocados (California)
• 6 bunches of organic fair trade banana’s (Peru)
• 1 plastic bag of organic carrots (Quebec)
• 1 organic red onion (Quebec)
• 8 tomatoes (Quebec)
• 1 plastic bag of apples (Quebec)
• 1 plastic bag of organic pita bread (Quebec)
• 1 loaf of organic sesame bread (Quebec)
• 1 plastic bag of organic chocolate chips (USA)
• 2 glass bottles of organic sunflower oil (Canada)
• 1 glass container of black pepper (Canada)
• 1 bunch of organic Cilantro (USA)
• 1 raw/organic brownie in our own glass container (Quebec)
• 1 piece of raw/organic cheese cake in our own glass container (Quebec)
• 1 plastic container of raw/organic chocolate mousse (Quebec)
• 2 soft drinks-don't drink it, but thought our guest might enjoy a glass (Canada)
• 1 paper bag of fair trace organic coffee
• 1 case of 24 beers (Nova Scotia)
• 1 conventional cake (Quebec)

Sub-total: 201.53

Restaurant

• Friday dinner Thai Express for 20.18
• Sunday dinner Thai Express for 2: 20.18

Sub-Total: 40.36

TOTAL COST: 225.89

2-Composting

We weighed our compost this week before J.P went off to a neighbors to “borrow” their compost pile once again- total weight of compost was 12.6 lbs. Not sure if this is a lot of compost, but it feels good knowing we were able to divert that amount from being sent to a landfill.

3-Recycling

We had significantly more recycling than the last 2 weeks because of all the extra food that was purchased for little E’s birthday celebration and such. There was the cake box, as well as envelopes from cards for little E .

4-Trash

J.P had an envelope from coins the order months ago. He is an avid coin collector, so he is still collecting them over the next year.

I had a blade from my razor, a q-tip, plastic wrap from when I ordered a spring roll not knowing they were wrapped, a stupid straw and plastic things. I totally forgot to mention no straw for my smoothie. Grr. But, I remembered for my water. Yay!

Our communal trash contained all the receipts from our food purchases, stickers from the banana’s, a tie wrap from the cilantro, a piece of plastic from the date packaging, toothpaste tube (will be making my own soon), cake tray (tried to get the silver off to recycle the cardboard; as you can see it didn't work), plastic wrap from around the cake, wrapping from the pizza my parents brought, plastic wrap from the peanut butter jar as well as from the soya sauce jar.

In case you missed it, it is recommended to dispose of BPA contaminated receipts in the trash. We are trying to avoid them, but it will be difficult.

5-Travel

J.P travelled 163.9 km (101.84 mi) to and from work 5 days this week, and filled his gas tank with 46.70 L (12.34 gals) once this week costing $59.96.

I travelled 153.6 km (95.44mi) throughout the week, but I did not have to fill my gas tank.

We are looking forward to settling in Dallas/Fort Worth within the next week, so that we will have more of a system and routine set up to keep track of our composting and trash. The last three weeks have been hectic to say the least. At the end of our 7 month or so stay in Dallas/Fort Worth, we will weigh our trash to get an idea who is winning the challenge.

I am getting nervous, J.P is doing particularly well; better than I thought! I am going to have to get my butt in gear.

I realize that we had more recycling and trash this week, but considering the situation; I think we did a pretty good. Birthday parties tend to create lots of waste and we did our best reducing our waste while still having a great celebration!

What do you think? Did we have a good week?