they're grrrrrrrrrrrreat!!!

i have no original creativity, but boy can i spot a good idea when i see one! check out a multitude of ways to repurpose all those cereal boxes you're tossing...

t-shirt bags...who would have thought!?!

this is SUCH a great idea! it is reusing something we all have (t-shirts that aren't being worn), it is frugal (pretty much free) and it provides a an alternative to plastic bags. it even eliminates the need to produce and buy reusable grocery bags! so frugal and so green on so many levels! sigh. if only i had a sewing machine. if you do and you make one of these will you PLEASE email me the pic...i will post it and you will be famous! (ok, maybe not famous, but i will think you are really really cool.)

also-these are much more compact than the bags you can buy for the same purpose so you could actually just roll and put in your purse so that when you shop you would actually have the reusable bag you meant to use and if something leaks...throw it in with your laundry!

Car Lockdown Update

Well, we lasted 6 days. On Saturday we had to free our car in order to run a group of errands for the Family Business in the next town over. And on Sunday we drove it to a wedding near Salem. We figure we saved at least $40 worth of gas by not driving it for nearly a week.

Not driving helped us save money in other areas, too. For one, we didn't use any fast food drive throughs. Haven't you had those days when you've been shopping and you're stuck in traffic and the kids are whining that they're hungry and you spot a McDonalds and suddenly you've blown $10 and are now the proud owner of two horrid plastic kids meal toys?

Or how about this scenario: You're in Target getting toilet paper, dental floss, and a garden hose and your child sees some little trinket and it's only $2 so you let him get it. And oh look, this completely unecessary candle holder is so cute and its on clearance for only $4! So you throw it in your cart. You know what I'm talking about right?

Well, walking everywhere forced us to plan better. Since we were always close to home and there isn't really such a thing as pedestrian traffic jams, there was no excuse for fast food. (They were too far to walk to anyway.) Anything we might have purchased that was uncessary wasn't even a temptation because we knew would have to carry it home. When you've got to fit all your purchases into a backpack or a stroller basket you tend to only buy the things you really need.

We enjoyed walking everywhere so much than on Sunday night we locked the car up again. We know we'll have to use it on Tuesday and possibly Thursday, but it would be awesome to save another $40+ this week. How did you do? Want to join us for another week?

beautifying the earth

today we walked home from a playground and i started being disturbed by all of the trash along the way. ari (5 1/2) and i started talking about how ugly it made things and how people make choices that impact other people, animals, and plant life. finally when we were almost home we decided...hey! let's pick this stuff up! we didn't have a bag and we were almost home, but we came up with all of this in our little impromptu litter walk. we are going to be more intentional next time and the discussion sparked was even better than the beauty restored.

Car Lock Down Challenge

This is our car. It's not broken down. It's not being repaired. It's in jail. Yep, we've locked our car into our backyard and we're going to see how many days we can go without driving it. So far we've gone a day and half and we haven't missed it yet! Want to join our Car Lock Down Challenge? Leave a comment below. We'll check back in next Monday and see how everyone did.

Forgotten Money

I have a lot of money. Vast quantities of it, actually. And I almost never think about it. In fact, I often look in my wallet and complain that I only have five dollars. You see, all that other money--it's forgotten money. Want to know why I forget it about it? Because it looks like this:
Not too long ago my husband and I made up a shopping list of things we needed. We only had $17 to spend and it looked like the items on our list would total that amount. My five year old asked if we could get some ice cream while we were out. It was a super hot day and ice cream sounded sooooo good. But, "Sorry, buddy. We might not have enough money for ice-cream," my husband said patiently. My son replied, "But you have lots of money! It's all over the place!" And he proceeded to point out our change jar, the pile of change in my husband's nightstand, the bulging coin pocket in my wallet, and then he reminded us of all the coins on the floor of our car.

He was right. We had lots of forgotten money! We each took a handfull of coins with us to Fred Meyer and when we were ready to pay we used the U-Scan. Our total was $17.82. If our son had not reminded us of all our forgotten change I might have thought to scrounge around in the bottom of my purse for 82 cents. I probably would have chosen to put one item back. Instead, we started plugging all our change into the U-Scan machine and watching our total go down, down, down.

At the end we only needed to pay $11.81. We still had a five dollar bill! Plenty of money for a carton of ice cream. It was a happy day indeed!

Now we try to use the U-Scan as much as possible so that we can play "The Change Game." (We could use the regular line but it seems rude to ask a real person to count all our change and to hold up the line for other customers.) It's amazing how much our dollars can stretch when we actually use all of them!

So where's your forgotten money? Do you have any tips on getting the most of out your change?

robot teaching green?

today we went to see the new pixar movie: wall e. now, i know going to the movie theatre isn't exactly frugal, but maybe you could catch this at the redbox when it comes on dvd or do a matinee with no concessions:) it does fall into the green category, though. no preaching. not even much dialogue. just a picture of what can happen when we care more about convenience than beauty. more about ourselves and the immediate then those we share creation with.
i'm a person who feels almost any information about a movie is a spoiler so i will stop typing, but has anyone seen this flick? any thoughts?