Check out the new OI tote bag (Perfect for shopping Green) and bumper sticker. Let everyone know about your slightly crunchy side!
Thanks to Homeschool Australia
Many thanks to Beverley at Homeschool Australia for publishing Zen and the Art of Clutter. Even if you don’t live in Australia, this site is a wonderful source of information and inspiration.
Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – July 20, 2007
Lose your paper towels! No, really. Stop buying them – you don’t need them. With five kids, I used to use paper towels like they were going out of style. I couldn’t imagine not having a big roll of Bounty in the corner. And then my husband went to an overstock store and got two dozen terry cloth towels for $5. He hated the way the kids and I “went through” paper towels and he was even more disgusted with how much they cost per roll. After a week of using only the towels, I was hooked. Not only did they work better, nine times out of ten, I could simply rinse it out in the sink and reuse it. In fact, I liked our new system so much that I went back to that store and bought two dozen more rags to use as baby wipes. Rinsed in warm water, Jack has never had a rash – compared to the small ones he had when I used commercial baby wipes.
It does take a little time to get used to, but soon it becomes second nature – I never even think to look for a paper towel anymore. If you can’t find a good deal on towels (although I’m sure you can), you can use the cheaper end washcloths for sale at most stores, a bag of rags commonly sold at car parts stores, or old t-shirts cut into appropriate sizes (the sleeves are particularly good for this).
Earn a $1 Million Dollars by Turning off the TV
According to Jeffrey Strain in an article for TheStreet.com
A recent study found that it would take $1 million for someone to be willing to give up TV for the rest of their lives.
Guess what? If you decided to give up TV and invested the money you saved, you would get that $1 million — and probably a lot more.People rarely consider the cost of watching TV, and when they do, they usually focus on the cost of their monthly cable bill. The truth is that there are a wide variety of costs associated directly and indirectly with having a TV.
Here are some areas where your TV drains your finances:
TV: The cost of your TV can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand if you decide to go for the newer plasma flat screen TVs. Take this cost and multiply it by several times, since you will likely own far more than one TV during your lifetime.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ts/070712/10367373.html?.v=4&.pf=banking-budgeting
Simple Living Newsletter – Zen and the Art of Clutter
Just want to thank Fred Ecks at the Simple Living Newsletter for posting my article – Zen and the Art of Clutter. I hope you’ll click over and enjoy it – as well as some of the other great articles in the July/August issue. The Simple Living Network is a great resource and I encourage everyone to check out the Your Money Or Your Life section – that is one book that inspired me immensely and has encouraged me on my path to financial independence – or FI!
I’m not quite there yet – but we’re getting there and my husband and I are both fortunate in that while we still have to make a living – it’s a living and not a dying. We both get to do work that we love and we don’t lose time with the children or each other.
http://www.simpleliving.net/main/custom.asp?recid=1
Submissions Wanted…
Real Living – the ezine, turned blog, is now becoming Organically Inclined. I had such an overwhelming response to that little bumper sticker I put out, that I’ve decided it’s a much better name! So – from now on, Real Living will be known as Organically Inclined and is becoming a print/pdf zine in August!
Inside the first issue will be a few reprints of popular articles as well as some great new stuff…including poetry, tips for the frugal, essays on the good – or simple life, birth stories, parenting stories and a new swap it section.
If you have a writer lurking somewhere inside you or you just have a great story to tell – or even a pretty good story that you tell really well – I’d love to hear it. In particular, I’d love to see some articles on practical things – like your lazy gardening tips or how you keep the diaper pail smelling fresh!
So, please email me at misha@mishakennedy.com and hopefully you’ll see your name in print. We are happy to offer contributions a one year subscription to the zine – as well as that super cool bumper sticker…
July 2-8 is boycott Nestle Week.
Since 1977, breastfeeding advocates have encouraged the boycott of Nestle and it’s products. I first read about the boycott about 15 years ago. I heard that Nestle would dress saleswomen up as nurses and send them to third world countries to convince new mothers that formula was better for their babies than breastfeeding. The Guardian recently published their investigation to see if Nestle had changed their ways. Here is some of that article to give you an idea of why we boycott all Nestle products.
Milking It
By Joanna Moorhead
“Eti Khuman’s face lies cradled on her mother’s shoulder, her cheek resting in against Mina’s collarbone. Eti is beautiful, but she is poorly: her breathing is heavy, and Mina has the distracted look of a mother who is very worried indeed. Eti’s illness – first vomiting, then diarrhoea – struck without warning. Like all mothers in Bangladesh, Mina knew to fear diarrhoea: in this country, diarrhoea can kill. So she wasted no time in bringing her eight-week-old daughter here, to the main diarrhoea hospital near her home in the capital, Dhaka.
“Eti was admitted, and now she and Mina are in the main ward, a sweltering room so packed with beds that there is barely space to walk between them. It’s a general ward, but most of the patients are babies. Some, like Eti, are being held by their mothers: others lie quietly on their beds attached to drips. Not one is crying: they are all much too weak for that.
“Twenty-five years ago, when Dr Iqbal Kabir first came to work at this hospital, small babies were almost unknown as patients. Today, he says, infants make up as many as 70% of admissions.
“The reason? Kabir shakes his head, and points to a poster on the wall above Eti’s bed. The same poster is displayed, many times, around the ward. It shows a baby’s bottle, with a big cross drawn heavily through it. The message is clear. “Bottlefeeding is harmful,” says Kabir. ‘Because bottlefed babies get diarrhoea, since their formula is mixed with dirty water and since their bottles are not sterile. Do you know how many breastfed babies are admitted here with diarrhoea? The number is almost zero.’”
Read the rest here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2079757,00.html
For more answers about the Nestle Boycott, check out: http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/boycott/nestlefree.html
A Fine Mess: Humor and Help for Living Simply
g-diapers – convenient and eco-friendly!
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