I love a good carnival! Check out some of these great homeschooling blog entries.
If you have come here from the carnival – please comment and say hello.
Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – When Life Hands You Lemons…
Make a good cleaner! Using lemons is cheaper and non-toxic. They are versatile – and they smell great!
Use the juice of one lemon and water in a spray bottle as a versatile cleaner – clean counters, walls, sinks, even wood (but test a small area first!).
A lemon juice and baking soda paste will take the tarnish off chrome, copper and brass.
Lemon juice added to the dish water will help cut the grease off pots and pans.
A little lemon juice on the cutting board will sanitize it and cut any smells – like garlic or onion.
Lemon juice in the rinse water of the washer – and then hanging your laundry in the sun will whiten your whitens – and brighten your brights!
Lemon juice on an insect bite or sting will help keep it from itching.
A little lemon juice or oil around a known ant trail is said to repel ants.
Lemon juice rubbed on the hands will help get out tough odors like fish or garlic.
Have a lemon juice tip? Add it below!
Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – Avoid Packaging
I hate packaging. I hate the crinkling of granola bar wrappers. I hate the plastic bags inside of cereal boxes. What to do?
Stop buying it! We do not have curbside trash pick up here in rural Vermont. Instead, every Saturday, we pile the trash into the back of the truck and take it to the dump (which is really a transfer station now). It costs $2.50 to dispose of one bag of trash. It’s free to dispose of the recyclables. I’ll admit it – my children are lazy. I’ve had to holler more than once at them for throwing a soup can away because they didn’t want to rinse it out and put it in the recycling. So, I changed our trash area around. Now, the trash can holds only recyclables. If you want to throw something in the garbage – you have to go outside in the freezing cold (on the deck, right off the kitchen – it’s not like they have to hike three miles), take the bungee cord off the trash can and throw it away.
But I’m trying to make it easier. I am making a concerted effort to buy fewer items that have packaging that can’t be recycled.
Buy cereal, granola, rice, pasta, spices, dried fruit in bulk at your local co-op. Either reuse a plastic bag or use a paper bag. Paper bags can’t be recycled, but they can be burned in my woodstove for starting a fire – or they can go in the pile I have for paper mulch for the garden. They are an excellent path liner in the garden, they are thick and durable, stomp out weeds and decompose through the fall.
Buy laundry soap in five gallon buckets. We always have a use for a five gallon bucket…watering animals, storing dry goods (purchased in bulk), holding tools, step stool, plants.
Most co-ops offer shampoos, dish soaps, oils, vinegars, peanut butter and much more in bulk in reusable containers. If you have more brain than me, you’ll remember these containers when you go back to the store.
Reuse spray bottles. Put your own mix of vinegar and water in them for cleaning, water for spraying plants (or things that catch on fire on the grill), a mixture of hot pepper sauce and water to keep the deer off the hostas. We even have a few laying around in the outside toy box for the kids to fill up in the summer and spray each other.
Make your own treats. Granted, I don’t always do this…but I try! Rather than purchase cookies, crackers and the like for the kids to snack on, we try and make our own. We make granola bars, cookies, brownies – all kinds of grab and go treats. Doing it this way has a number of benefits. First, I don’t spend so much at the store on crappy food for the kids. Because there isn’t a stash of such items in the pantry, they can’t sneak off with three or four (and the teenagers do…), and I can make up the items with organic ingredients.
If there is a product you just love, but the packaging is just too much – write them a letter. Ask your local store to stock bulk items, if they don’t already. As consumers, we need to refuse to buy offensive products – it’s the only way companies will stop making them.
Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – Save Water (We’re Going to Need it Later)
Whether you pay for your water or not, saving water is both a frugal and green thing to do.
1. Turn off the tap. Very simple. When brushing your teeth or anything else, turn the tap off! The average bathroom faucet runs 2 gallons of water per minute – do you really need 2 gallons to brush your teeth. On and off.
2. Install a low-flow showerhead. You could save up to 70 percent of the water you use in a shower. We have a simple one we purchased for about $9, but they sell other models with features that are a little more expensive. Spending a little more on your shower head will save you a lot in the future.
3. Water your garden in the morning. Cooler air helps the water seep into the roots, rather than evaporating before it gets there. Watering in the evening promotes bacteria and fungi growth because the sun doesn’t warm things up. Don’t even ask me about watering the lawn…I don’t believe in lawns.
4. Don’t wash your car. OK – maybe once in a while, to get the mud off or the salt from the roads after winter. But if you’re the guy who is out there every weekend wasting water and waxing his F150, you need more help than just a few water saving tips.
5. Fix leaks right away. We had a leak on the valve where the washer meets the pipe. It didn’t look like that big a deal, so I put a bucket under it and decided to wait until I was headed into the big city to get what I needed to fix it. Do you know that leak dripped a full gallon of water in one day? I was stunned. I asked my husband to pick up a new valve on the way home from work and we fixed it that night.
We take water for granted. In many areas of the world they are fighting over water. In this country, right now, we are fighting over water. Over and over, I hear people ask, “What can I do?” You can do this. YOU can save your water…right now…why? Cause we’re going to need it later.
Author Refuses Nestlé Prize Check
Good for him!
From Mothering Magazine:
“British children’s author Sean Taylor, winner of the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2007, refused to accept a check as part of his recent award, presented in December. Taylor, who won the prize for his book When a Monster is Born, said that he could not accept the money because of his concerns over the marketing tactics used by Nestlé in their promotion of infant formula.
In an open letter explaining his decision, Taylor said that he was honored to have won the prize because it is awarded on the basis of children’s votes, but he could not accept Nestlé’s money because “their interpretation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes sets up the risk that profit is put before infant health.” After examining their baby formula marketing practices, Taylor said, “I do not feel that Nestlé are the most appropriate sponsors for this major children’s book prize.”
A global marketing report recently released by the International Baby Food Action Network found that Nestlé is the leading violator of the International Code for the Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes.
Taylor made his decision after consulting with representatives from Nestlé, anti- Nestlé group Baby Milk Action, and an unnamed third party with ‘experience in the field.’”
For more information visit http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press12dec07.html
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/12/book-prize-nestle.html
A Fine Mess: Humor and Help for Living Simply
g-diapers – convenient and eco-friendly!
-
Please click here to download the plugin required to make recent comments work!