Frugal Accomplishments

This past week has been out of the ordinary, but not necessarily for this time of year.  We've received about 12 inches of snow over the past several days, which meant that school was cancelled every day but Tuesday (and Monday was a holiday).  In light of the weather, we hunkered down and ventured out very little.  This saved us tremendously over the week.  Here's how:

• I carpooled to work on Tuesday.  Every other day, my principal was flexible enough to allow me to work from home, which was a great blessing both financially (by not having to use the gas) and to our family time (I could work while little man slept or was otherwise occupied).
• Tutored on Tuesday, and was paid for that.
• Little man did have preschool on Thursday morning, so Benny took him and picked him up.  He did our small bit of grocery shopping ($15 in milk, almost free yogurt, 28 oz tomato products on sale for $1/can, and a few staples), got the car inspected, and filled it up with gas while little man was at preschool.  This saved on gas and time.
• Otherwise, we have not left the house since Thursday.  This has saved on gas, and thankfully, Benny was able to get his hours in at work on Monday and Tuesday before the weather got bad.
• We were able to meet for little man's IEP this past week via phone, which saved on gas.  This also means that we'll now be receiving his speech services for free through the school system and no longer paying for them out of pocket (our health plan does not cover any speech services).  This will save us a few hundred dollars a month.
• We did "splurge" and have the gas refilled for the gas logs.  This cost about $160.  While this is not our primary heat source, and we rarely lose power, it is nice to have them and to know that we could use them as an emergency heat source if necessary.
• All meals were prepared at home.  This included:  vegetable beef soup and corn bread, baked potatoes with lentil sloppy joes, foccacia (x2), baked oatmeal, salmon and roasted veggies, and pizza.  We also plan to make stock in the crockpot today, using leftover turkey parts from Thanksgiving.
• Met one of my new year's goals by trying out this recipe for pumpkin spiced baked oatmeal.  We did jazz it up with the addition of raisins and pecans, and found that it was better leftover than the first day.  It would be good with pumpkin seeds and other dried fruit too.  We used pureed winter squash from the freezer instead of canned pumpkin.
• Worked to assess the pantry/freezer stash, and have found a few more items to use up (such as some of the barley that went into the vegetable soup).
• Accepted a few gifted items that were going to go bad at the food pantry, including:  two turnips, four carrots, one peach, and a mango (which ended up getting composted because it was too ripe).
• All compostable items were composted, including salmon skins.
• When the oven was done being used, we tried to leave it open to benefit from the residual heat.
• All laundry was hung to dry, and only full loads were washed.  (This also helps with the humidity in the house, since the air is so dry this time of year.)
• Potty training continues to go well, so our loads of laundry continue to decrease.  
• Entertainment took the form of shoveling snow (a great workout), filling bird feeders, and watching a few shows for free via Netflix.  Little man and I also made some paper collages using paper destined for the recycle bin, which he's had great fun practicing his scissor skills with.
• Made thank you notes in preparation for meals, gifts, etc. when baby #2 arrives.
• Graciously accepted hand-me-downs for baby #2, including an infant car seat and base.  We were also able to secure a second seat and base for our other car.
• Organized baby clothes, so that we know what we have and if we have any gaps (it doesn't appear that we do).
• Made a small dent in organizing the garage space.  It is going to get worse before it is better, but Benny is using up some scrap drywall to hang in the unfinished space.  This will insulate it a bit more, and will clear out some more space.  We stored a few more items up on the high shelves, since they are rarely needed (camping water jugs, etc.)
• Cleaned the rental room upstairs thoroughly.  Have now posted it to Craigslist and the university housing site, with the hopes of renting it soon.
• Repaired the stain on a chair upstairs.  Plan to put a coat of paint on an existing shelf today.
• Invited our new downstairs tenant up for dinner, which was fun.  She seems to be settling in, and aside from the big snow, is enjoying being here.  She is quiet and is keeping the space nicely, so we hope she'll stick around for a while.  Her lease is a year long.
• Researched natural alternatives to commercial lotions.  They have bothered my skin in the winter for years, and now, I think I've found a few easy recipes using ingredients we already have around.

What did you do to live and save green this week?  I'd love to hear from you, so leave some notes in the comments!

Cutting Christmas Costs without the Cutting the Celebration

We've had to cut back on our overall budget in several ways, but holidays was one easy place to trim quite a bit.  I love the holidays; the decorating, wrapping, celebrating, and baking.  But our culture often tells us that the more we spend on these things, the better.  Here are a few ways we trim the budget, while not trimming the spirit.

Decorating

Several years ago, we bought some lighted garland at an after Christmas sale, so it was deeply discounted.  That same year, we bought some plastic metallic ornaments, snowflakes, etc.  We use these each year to decorate the handrail to upstairs and the mantle.  I use a lot of my silver plated stuff to sprinkle in on the mantle to add more sparkle, which I already had.  Much of this stuff is sentimental too:  Grandma's silver candle sticks, a set of pottery candle sticks given to us by my aunt, a silver platter we bought at an antique store on a date one time.  I use wired ribbon to weave through things too, which can be reused each year.

We have several artificial wreaths I decorated over the years which we store in plastic bags.  This is the easiest decorating ever... just pull the bag off and hang it on the door!

Outside we do very little.  Most of this is because we don't know if it will blow away or get covered in snow or ice for weeks on end.  We do put window candles in our windows, and some years, we scavenge tree trimmings from friends to use outside.  These trimmings I stick in some all-weather flower pots (not pottery, they will crack if you have big temperature fluctuations) and fill the pot with water.  Then, the water will freeze, holding the branches in place.  You could do the same with holly branches, etc.  These just end up being more festive if we have snow fall.

Wrapping and Cards

I've gotten in the habit of saving large pieces of wrapping paper and gift bags for years.  Now we have a substantial stash, so we reuse these.  Often we reuse the wrapping paper for kids gifts, since this paper is more likely to be torn.  We also reuse tissue paper for stuffing gift bags and for wrapping stocking gifts.  My great aunt, who grew up in the Depression era, has mastered wrapping without tape, which is a skill I have yet to learn, but would love to.  These strategies save us lots of money, as well as save valuable paper resources.

We save the fronts of gift cards and Christmas cards to use as gift tags or upcycle into new Christmas cards.  I also make hand-stamped Christmas and thank you notes, which saves a ton of money over buying gift cards.  I use my ink rewards from Staples to "buy" cardstock and envelopes, so I have only the cost of the stamps and ink invested.  This year, we'll take advantage of some of the great photo deals out there on photo sites to print a family portrait to give with Christmas cards.

Gift Giving and Celebrating

When it comes to gift giving, we're all about homemade. We make jams and jellies throughout the summer and fall to give.  I've also found some recipes for homemade soup mixes, which are fun to give with a loaf of homemade bread.  Giving bread is cheaper than giving cookies because there's less sugar, chocolate, or nuts involved, all of which are expensive when compared to the cost of a bulk bag of flour.  We also make homemade vanilla extract for the bakers in the family, and I put away a few pounds of herb butter in the freezer made from herbs we grew this summer.  For some friends, they'll get a loaf of homemade French bread and a stick of herb butter.  All of these are gifts that come from the heart and are genuinely appreciated, and they cost us far less than buying something for everyone on our list.  Giving a gift certificate for services is also fun.  I gave my mom a gift certificate for a bread a month, which was really fun.  She didn't use it every month, but she did enjoy it when she took advantage, and it was nice when she was entertaining for her to not have to worry about that, but just call me to bake a loaf for her.

We also get creative about how we purchase gifts that we need to.  We use Amazon credit, I'll use Recyclebank points to give magazine subscriptions, or we'll purchase used and upcycle.  We might buy some picture frames at the thrift store and remix them into something that suits the recipient, and give a family portrait that way.

You can also get creative with celebrating.  We do lots of potlucks this season, where everyone brings their favorite holiday side dish.  Sometimes, we've done a Feliz Navidad theme, which is kind of fun and a nice departure from all the same kinds of foods.  By going potluck, it takes the pressure off the host and means everyone got at least one thing they like to eat.  By hosting, it means that we get to enjoy everyone getting together, and it's far cheaper than eating out with everyone (and less chaos since most of us have kids).

Baking

I save on baking this time of year with the same basic grocery strategies we use all year.  Buy in bulk, use coupons, shop sales, etc.  This time of year is a great time to stock up on baking necceties, though.  There are always sales and coupons for spices, brown sugar, nuts, etc.  I try to save a portion of November's grocery budget just for stocking up on baking supplies so I don't have to buy them later in the year.  I'll try to buy enough brown sugar this month with coupons and sales to last us for the year.  We'll stock the freezer with fresh cranberries this time of year so we can make cranberry muffins, bread, and cranberry chutney throughout the year.  We love all these things, and the chutney is great on bagels with cream cheese or mixed into oatmeal.  The chopped frozen cranberries are also great in popsicles or cooked with cabbage as a side dish.

How do you save green at Christmas?  I'd love to hear from you!

Kicking more of the paper habit

We've been a recycling family for a long time, and I've been a recycling crusader since about first grade. I come from a family of scientists, teachers, Boy Scouts, and conservationists, so I "come by it honest".

But it's always bugged me that there are some things you can't recycle, such as some types of plastics (we only recycle # 1 & 2 here) and some paper products, such as waxed freezer cartons and the ubiquitous tissues. I've figured out how to use those other plastic containers for packaging leftovers/food for gifting and for starting seedlings. I've also begun using the waxed paper cartons for starting seedlings, just cut them off to fit the size you need (a butter carton will give you two containers if you cut it in half and retape the open end, a milk carton or cream container will work perfectly if you cut off the spout end, etc.). Then it's easy to give away these seedlings and you don't have to worry about getting your containers back.

But what about the tissues? I know there's a sanitation issue with recycling them; totally get that. So, I've begun using handkerchiefs as most of my grandparents generation did, and many still do. Certainly there are times when a tissue is best (when you're sick), but for the occasional nose blow or wiping sweat from your face when you've finished yardwork, a handkerchief works wonders. By folding it over a few times, you can get a few uses out of it (sorry if that's too graphic for some of you more sensitive readers out there). I keep one in the bathroom where the tissue box used to live and one in my pocket when gardening. When it's dirty, I throw it in the wash with the sheets and towels, since these get washed in warmer water to sanitize them.

All in all, I figure this has saved us a small amount of money in our monthly grocery/toiletry budget (since we used coupons anyway, we could generally get tissues for about 50 cents a box), but it's definitely saved the amount of paper that's thrown out in our house. It means the bathroom trash fills less frequently, which means we're saving on plastic bags there. (Not that we purchase these bags, we simply reuse plastic grocery sacks that seem to find their way into our house, even though we use reusable totes at the store.)

So, I'd love to know... was this post too extreme for you? Would you ever consider using handkerchiefs as tissue substitutes, or is it just too Depression-era or hippie for your taste?

Green and Budget Wrapping and Gifting

One of my first rules of thumb when it comes to wrapping is to make it beautiful. I take joy in wrapping packages, as friends can attest, and love giving a pretty gift. My second rule of thumb is to do it as inexpensively as possible, without making it look cheap.

With wrapping paper, I try to reuse as much as possible. I've found the Sunday comic pages make great birthday wrapping, and can be recycled in the end. I love using pretty, glitzy paper at Christmas, but try to make sure that it's good quality, so that when someone unwraps the gift, if they don't want the paper, I'll quietly sneak it away, fold it neatly, and use it to wrap another gift. If it's not good quality paper, then it generally tears and can't be reused as readily. Plain brown paper, plain newsprint, butcher paper, and newspaper can be stamped or painted with your own designs and are fun for kids to make. (These generally fall into the budget arena, although the newsprint, brown paper, and newspaper are recyclable if you stamp them.) I've also found that fabric makes great wrapping "paper", although it's a little trickier to get neat folds, and is definitely in the "reusable" category. (Benny's family has been known to wrap gifts in pillow cases and sheets, or not at all. While this is definitely green and budget friendly, I just don't find this as festive--love you all!)

I ALWAYS reuse gift bags and tissue paper, sometimes to the point of being OCD about it. If I see anyone throwing away perfectly good tissue paper (i.e. it doesn't have tape all over it or hasn't been torn to shreds), I'll almost hurtle myself across the room to save the precious tissue paper. (And if it's the pretty printed stuff or gold/silver, I'm all over it. You can use gold/silver for ANY occasion!) In our family, we find that we just swap gift bags around quite a bit. Being a teacher, I'm never in short supply for gift bags and tissue paper, as students generally bring Christmas and end-of-the-year gifts in these (really, most of their moms send them, but they're still much appreciated).

My great aunt has mastered the art of wrapping without tape (I think it's a Depression era thing), so her wrapping is easy to reuse, and she saves on tape. I have yet to master this art, but want to take a few lessons the next time we see her in CA or over the holidays in NC.

For ribbon, I try to use grosgrain or wired ribbon. Although this is more expensive than curling ribbon up front, it can be reused over and over again, if you're creative. I've also found that incorporating a well placed Christmas ornament is a nice way to make a package more festive for the holidays. It doesn't take much wired ribbon to make a present look professionally wrapped, especially if you use a double-looped bow. (I'll post a play-by-play of my bow making and wrapped gifts for inspiration sometime soon.)

We cut the front off of any greeting card we receive and use it as a gift tag. Some of the most beautiful cards would be thrown away by others, but in our family, they get a second life. (We recycle the part that has been written on.) This trick works for almost any birthday, thank you, Christmas, or wedding card. (We have so many from our wedding, we'll never have to buy a wedding gift tag again!)

I also make all of our thank you notes/greeting cards from my stamp collection and card stock. Sometimes, my greeting card finds have new life in these note cards. I find this to be a great way to spend an hour or so on a Saturday and we save tons of money on greeting cards. (I am amazed that some greeting cards sell for upwards of $5.00!) I'm fortunate to have family who enjoys crafting as well, so we had an assembly line for making our wedding thank you notes in my aunt's dining room. We had 300 notes knocked out in a few hours once we got the system down.

As for green gifting, I find that it really takes knowing your recipient (which I hope you do if you're giving them a gift!). So many of our friends and family are trying to simplify their lives and teach their children not to buy into the consumerism that drives our culture. So, often, instead of giving a physical gift, we make a donation to a charity that would mean something to that family or individual. For instance, for our friends who have a child who had a cancer scare, we made a donation to the American Cancer Society for his third birthday. I'm sure that this gift meant a lot to the family and I know that the child didn't miss the gift at all... he just had a ball with his friends and loved the cupcakes. There are hundreds, thousands of charities and nonprofit organizations you can give to out there, so figure out what would mean something to your friend or family member and give away. We find that a well phrased message on a handmade note is a nice way to convey the gift we've mad in the person's honor. (On the budget side of things, the majority of these gifts are tax deductible, so when you make your donation, they will send you a receipt. Keep those receipts in a folder so they'll be handy for the next tax season.)

I hope you've picked up a few good tips today and have an occasion to try them out soon! Sharin' the green love and savings!

Green Paper Products

So, today's post is all about the ins and outs of green paper products, and how to reduce your consumption of paper products. (As an aside, check out the candied grapefruit peel in progress... isn't it a beautiful color?)

We're currently in the transition in our home from standard paper products to recycled, in some cases. However, before we began thinking about this, we tried to reduce our comsumption of paper products as much as possible. Here's how:

1) We always use fabric napkins. They don't get ironed (unless we're having fancy company) and we try to use the same one for several meals. Since we always sit at the same place at the table (or on the couch if it's a movie night), it's easy to keep track of which napkin is Benny's and which is mine. We have several sets, some even handmade by Mom or old ones from my grandmother's house, so we're not ever without and they get thrown in the laundry with the towels.

2) As I mentioned in the cleaning post, we use rags and newspaper for almost all of our cleaning. This means that we don't have to use paper towels much (I think a roll of paper towels has been known to last us three months or more.) Using the newspaper also means that we can compost or recycle it, as long as we use natural and biodegradable cleaners. (Again, the rags go in the laundry with the towels or in a load with the dog blankets.)

3) We use paper plates/cups and plastic utensils as infrequently as possible, opting for compostable corn starch products or 100% recycled paper for parties. We use our standard dishes, even if we're having a dinner party with several couples invited. All of our standard stuff can go in the dishwasher, but we do handwash wine glasses and pottery stuff, because I just feel better about the glazing holding up, etc. Many of our dishes were gifts, so the cost of those didn't come out of our pocket. I did find these cool tumblers in the antique store in downtown Boone for $3 a piece. (Mom went halfs with me on them for a set of four.)

4) We reuse plastic grocery bags in our smaller trashcans around the house. (I think most people do this now.) I'm also working on crocheting a reusable bag out of cut up plastic grocery bags. Here's a pic of my "plarn" roll in the making. (It's still in the planning stages and is something Mom and I will tackle together over her spring break--we now have school, so I'll still be teaching during the day.) Benny found a new use for them while touching up paint... he lined the roller try with two. It didn't work quite as well as the plastic tray liners, but I think it probably used less plastic overall.

5) I take a lunch box to work, rather than a paper bag. (Again, I think most folks do this.) It means that I'm not paying for a school lunch (which is pricey for teachers and not all that nutritious) and I also take my own utensils and will begin taking my own cloth napkin, now that I have a few that are smaller lunch size ones.

6) We started, about two years ago, taking our own bags to the grocery store. Since I have accumulated so many from text book companies and conferences, we now have a set for each car. They're actually easier in the long run, once you get into the habit of getting them out of the backseat or trunk, because it means schlepping fewer bags from the car to the house when we get home. At some stores (unfortunately none in Boone, that I know of), you can even get a small credit for bringing your own bags.

7) I try to purchase recycled content aluminum foil when I need it, and when I use it, I'm sparing. The exciting news here is that some of the big name brands, like Reynold's, are coming up with recycled content products. So, that means coupons! So, not only are we saving the landfill space by using recycled content stuff, but the coupons allow us to purchase it for pennies on the dollar. (I think I paid 25 cents for the last roll of aluminum foil I bought.) Also, if you're careful, you can keep the foil clean and then recycle it, if not reuse it.

We're working on making the transition to recycled paper toilet paper. We still have some of the Scott Extra Soft left, so we'll use that up and then buy the recycled paper. We found that the Seventh Generation stuff has a pretty high recycled content, higher than the Scott Naturals, and the price is pretty comparable. When the Seventh Generation stuff goes on sale, we'll stock up and put some in the basement for when we need it. Seventh Generation is one of the leaders in green products and has tons of products available.

In terms of tissues, I haven't found a recycled content one that I like yet, so if you have any suggestions, let me know. Benny carries a handkerchief every day, so he uses that when he needs to, but I can't figure out how to carry one with as small as most women's pants pockets are. (If I'm sick, the handkie rubs my nose raw more than the tissues, so I generally opt for tissues.)

I've heard about corn starch kitchen trashbags, but haven't seen any on the market in Boone (although I haven't checked out EarthFare.) To fit our budget, we'll use up what we have of the standard ones before purchasing the corn starch ones. (I do feel a little better knowing that we're reducing our over trash as much as we can, so we're not putting as many plastic bags into the landfill as many families.)

If you've got any great green paper product ideas, please post them here! I'd love to know what you're doing and it'd be great to share those ideas with others. Sharin' the green love and savings!