How can people live like this?

This week, you will be eating at home every meal. No more eating out, no more takeout. And you have to eat your leftovers. If you throw food in the trash, you've got to 'fess up. My family been doing this for years. Only go out to eat once a month. For one week, you're going to give up the bottled water habit. Get a water filter—time to get to know your tap.Bottled water? What's that? Been buying and using the Brita for least 10yrs now. No more disposable plates, cups, napkins or paper towels. Try cloth—you might like it!We've always used actual dishes and cloth napkins. Paper towels are only for yucky pet messes on hard floor surfaces. Otherwise cloth rags are the norm for cleaning in my household. For entertainment, you'll have to rely on each other. For one week, I'm asking you to give up your iPods and video games, and your computers only get turned on for homework. TV is limited to one hour per night—one TV only. Even thou we do watch tv, it's not an everyday thing. We mainly read, play board games, do yard work, walk, bicycling, camping,fishing. Granted I love my computer but I'm not on it all the time and neither is my daughter. That thermostat is going way down…to 69 degrees. If you get cold, put on a sweater. Our's is set at 60 in the winter and 70 in the summer. We rely mainly on our wood-burning fireplace for heat. Give your washing machine a break—try to wash only clothes that are TRULY dirty. Do that as well and only full loads on cold. Warm temps only for whites. When you leave a room, lights out. Ditto for fans. When you're done using an appliance, unplug it. Don't forget your computer and cell phone chargers too. We don't unplug but we do turn off what we aren't using. Many times only light in our house is the light from the fireplace at night or the glow from the tv or the 2 nightlights we have plugged in that only come on when dark. Showers are going to be shorter—eight minutes max. Use a kitchen timer to help you keep track.We shower every other day and take sponge bathes inbetween.Our showers tend to be no more than 15min. each thou. Want to go shopping? Head to your closets. That's your wardrobe for the week. The mall is off-limits.Shopping? What the heck is that? We do thrift stores and garage sales when our clothes are ready for the rag bag. You final challenge—no buying anything other than food for seven days.Can you feed a family of 3 plus 4 pets on $150 a month w/o buying cheap pet food? I can! We also recycle heavily. No garbage service needed for us cause what lil actual garbage we do incur is set out with the neighbor's every month. That's 1 kitchen garbage bag a month, not a week. Think we met or exceeded Oprah's challenge?

I think so too. There is no wander the kids of today do and act the way they do. some parents are not good role models for their children.

Well I don't watch Oprah but I did read the link you gave. I could not live like that first family although I don't think I'd want to go to the extremes they did with the challenge. During the winter our heat doesn't go on until it's under 64 in the house and in the summer it's set at 80 degrees for the a/c. Otherwise we use fans and windows to keep cool or if we are cold we bundle up. We use the low energy lights and shut them off when no one is in the room. We make only what we have to and if there are any left overs they are used the next day. We shop once a month for groceries although we might have to pick up milk during the month. Otherwise we do without. We don't grocery shop every week or go out every few days for things. We seldom eat out, can't afford to . As for showers they rarely go over seven minutes for the adults; my niece will take long ones be we are working on her taking shorter ones. We don't have a cell phone (don't see the need for it actually). We cut as much as possible. We try to cut bills and save money where ever we can.

I used to hate Oprah. It seems that lately she is having shows that I am interested in or can relate to more. I hope she keeps up the good trend. When she has a show on a good topic she really does it well.

thats disgusting!! i cannot imagine living like that! if the kids want it so much, let them get a job! i had two at age 16

Thanks for the story! I can't imagine living that wastefully! And he was on the verge of losing everything and has to borrow money?! Duh! I'm glad they're changing.

WOW! I tell my family this is not a restaurant, you can either eat what I fix or you find something yourself. I don't fix 3 different meals, I can do with just cereal or salad for dinner if no one is hungry enough to eat. I am guilty of throwing out left overs, but that is after it has been in the fridge and picked over. These people should be ashamed of themselves ~Icy~