Yesterday's episode of Oprah featured two wasteful families that the mogul herself challenged to cut out their defining habits in seven days. It sort of reminded me of Honey We're Killing the Kids in the sense that some of their household regularities were so obviously problematic, and the families even admitted this much, yet they never made any changes on their own. Certainly, overcoming these issues is better late than never.

We meet the Dominguez family of five and the mom, Tina, makes four separate meals for the family without saving any leftovers and they often eat fast food. Not only does the mom have a water bottle habit, but she doesn't recycle the empty ones — that's a two-handed environmental slap! Their gas and electric bills are so high from leaving lights and appliances on and cranking up the thermostat that the dad, Joe, says he sometimes has to borrow money from friends or family. See how the family lives with less when you read more

Oprah says: No more individually prepared meals, eat leftovers, no more fast food, replace water bottle habit with Brita, limit TV time to one hour per day, ban iPods and video games, computers used for homework only, turn down the thermostat, and shop in your closets instead of the mall. Tina has the hardest time giving up television, the three kids say it was a struggle without their computers. At the end of the challenge week, Tina says, "We never realized how much we wasted. We just spoiled the kids and let them buy what they wanted on the computer with no time limits. We're a changed family."

Do you have any habits that are admittedly wasteful, and would you dare to live without them?

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