Original Air Date:
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Dominguez Family's Live with Less Challenge:
The Dominguez family from New Jersey were the first to show what life was like in their home before the challenge started: the kids didn't eat what mom Tina cooked, that family's electric and water bill was $1,000 a month, groceries kept coming in and food thrown in the trash, clothes with the tags still on them and more - the waste in the home was extremely high.
Oprah's challenge asked the family to eat what was served each day and eat the leftovers, switch to a refillable water bottle, only 1 hour of TV a day, computers only for homework use, a thermostat set at 70 and no shopping for the week - simple rules?
Cheating began right away in the Dominguez family with members falling asleep with the TV on, leaving multiple lights on through the house, wasting water and turning the heat up. Mom Tina did get a recycling container and only cooked 1 meal on the first day - progress.
The challenge was tough on the family, especially the TV rules which made oldest daughter Jessica want to quit on day 6. The family stuck with the challenge and say that they have really learned life lessons about consumption and that they feel changed by the experience and will never go back to their old ways.
The Burbee Family's Live with Less Challenge:
The Burbee family let cameras see what their daily life consists on: TVs in every room and left on all day, over shopping for food, eating out for work, disposable products for cleaning and meals, computer on all day long and son Tommy addicted to video games.
The extreme change to follow the new rules would be tough, but the family had to: eat meals and leftovers at home, no disposable products or bottled water, only computers for homework, not video games, only 5 minute showers and no shopping. The family was in for a tough surprise with the challenge they faced.
Early on Tommy, who is 5, experienced heavy withdrawal from the computer, television and especially video games even saying at one point that he "can't live without it" making his coming off of them like an addiction. Mom Kriss described that she felt terrible that she had let the situation get so bad.
Many positive things happened during the challenge: Dad Tim read to the kids at bed instead of watching the game, the family rode bikes, the kids asked for water to drink, the family changed the amount of food they cooked at each meal and they started spending more time together playing games and talking.
Kriss described on the show that the challenge was good for her children and her marriage giving them the opportunity to talk and really listen to each other with no distractions. Even though the challenge ended, the family is sticking with the rules. The family is now fully checked in and had learned valuable lessons about making changes for the long term.
Shannelle is Inspired to Live with Less:
After seeing a show on the debt diet, Shannelle decided her 6 figure income, extreme shopping and eating out and image were not cutting it for her anymore. Shannelle decided to cut back and start living with less. Shannelle limited going to the salon, got rid of clothes to have space in her closet, and minimized her food shopping. Shannelle now only uses what she needs and not what is available to her. By limiting her use, Shannelle realized that she didn't need much to make her happy and that living with less made her feel more herself, more authentic since she's not using things to define herself anymore.
A Change at Harpo:
Oprah was inspired to make a change at her company, Harpo, as well from the rules of the challenge. Harpo goes through 32,000 cups equaling $41,000 per year just so the staff can have access to drinks. The waste was ridiculous, so Oprah decided to make a change and now requires the staff to bring in their own cup or reusable bottle for their drinks.
