Small Successes

#1 - I’ve made sure to use up what we had in the fridge.    I made bread to use up leftover fruit and put extra in the freezer.   I made stir-fry to use up the veggies before they go bad.   I’m a notorious food waster :(.

#2 - I cleaned up the kitchen yesterday, loaded & unloaded the dishwasher, and washed the “need to be done by hand” dishes.   AND I cleaned up after dinner.   Miracle!!!

#3 - I took the compost out before it got funky.

Hmmm…I think the kitchen is a bigger problem than I think if that’s all I can write about.    See more small successes at Faith & Family Live!

No Spend Month

This month, we are joining Small Notebook in her 3rd annual no-spend month.   We’re setting our budget for the month a little higher than hers since I know there are a few things we needed that I haven’t bought yet; we didn’t prepare like she did with full gas tanks, etc.    Our July budget is $400.   Approximately $250 for food, $100 for gas, $20 for hockey and $30 for other stuff.   The other stuff consists of thread to hem the numerous pairs of pants that I have bought for DH off ebay for work, a DR book for a wedding gift (he always has a $10 sale over the 4th of July) and a few bucks for stuff I’ve forgotten that we deem necessary.

I’m really going to try to spend a LOT less than $250 on groceries because I have a FULL pantry and some meat & veggies in the freezer that really need to be eaten.    It’s time for a good clean out of both.   And for the first 12 days, I’m warming up for All You’s Grocery Challenge.   They allow $25/person/week, but I don’t think we need that much.    So for the first 2 weeks, I’ll be posting all sorts of progress but I can’t blog about grocery stuff during the challenge–it’s against the rules.   Are you participating in the No Spend Month or the All You Grocery Challenge?

July 1 - Nothing Spent

Book Review - Green Beauty Guide

The cover of The Green Beauty Guide says it all.    Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup and Fragrances.    The effects synthetic products have on you.    Organic makeup, moisturizers and hair care.   Shortcuts to going green without going broke.   How to spot organic frauds and gimmicks.   She covers all that and more!

In addition to the dangers of synthetic ingredients in traditional beauty products, Ms. Gabriel spends a lot of time discussing the biology of how the skin works and what things are beneficial for it.    She describes the uses of toners, cleansers, and moisturizers (among many others).    There are also tips about how to notice what your skin or hair is doing and how to naturally make dry hair or skin moister or vice versa, as well as what commercial products she likes with detailed reviews.    Not only have I learned about what to look for in my cosmetics and beauty products, but I learned how and when to use them.    I love beauty products but frankly don’t use many because I don’t know when or why.    I’ve taken several pages of notes and copied a few recipes to use.

I finished the Green Beauty Guide a few weekends ago.   Devoured it, really.   I had a feeling that our beauty products, much like our cleaners and the pesticides on our food, are really not good for us.    I had my “critical thinking cap” on while reading it because frankly, I’m not into the whole “the sky is falling” hysteria that everyone seems to collapse into.   In discussing the ideas of the book with my husband, he made the point that it IS probably nearly as bad as she says.   Cancer and many other diseases are MUCH more prevelant now than ever and no one is really trying to find out why–they are just trying to fix it.    DH pointed out that the people who live to be 100+ usually don’t slather themselves up in 12 different chemicals when they get up in the morning and they probably don’t eat as much convenience food either (thus ingesting less chemicals).

As with most changes to “green” your lifestyle these days — or to be a better steward of what God has given you without the political-environmental BS  — is EXPENSIVE!   Or it can be anyway.    You can go the “extreme” route of making your own — and Gabriel provides many recipes to do this, but some things are just too complicated for the average person to do themselves.   If you are looking for a little more convenience and a little less hands on, it’s not cheap to get good, natural products.    Even the lower priced end of her recommendations are more than I can get the equivalent regular shampoos for, as an example.   Combining super deals and coupons, I could get an $8 bottle of shampoo for a dollar or less.   Not so with the more natural products.    Also, less preservatives mean that even if you DO find a good deal, it doesn’t pay to stock up– they don’t last as long.

This is a great for anyone hoping to get back to basics.   She provides lots of natural beauty recipes and tips and provides alternatives in all price ranges to traditional, chemical laden beauty products.   It’s also a good primer for someone who is not real savvy (I resemble that remark) when it comes to beauty–she breaks it all down.   I absolutely recommend reading this book.

WFMW - Reducing Waste

I’ve been reading Stephanie’s @ Keeper of the Home’s e-book Healthy Homemaking.    I’ve really not skimmed the whole thing yet which is kind of surprising because that’s pretty much my style…skim then re-read SLOWLY.    Anyway, I’m spending a lot of time on this first baby step because between reading a bunch of books (including Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) and have been torn between doing the cheapest things and doing the best things.   Reducing our waste, however, could easily be the best AND the cheapest.    Depending on how good we get at it, it MIGHT be cheaper to run things to the recycling and just throw out a few bags instead of getting a tote with curbside pick up of both.

Before I started reading her book, I had already taken steps to reduce waste.   I just thought of them as reducing expenses

• move from paper towels to microfiber cloths/rags
• move from paper napkins to cloth (I have TONS)
• bringing my own bags when I shop
• reuse plastic shopping bags (work great in the garbage in the bathroom(s))
• use (mostly) cloth diapers and wipes

The first thing we did was find our county’s website for what should be recycled.   I should just be able to ask DH since he’s on the council, but he doesn’t retain that kind of information.   I was really surprised at what they DON’T take–I’ve just been throwing all typically recyclable things in the bin.    Our county only recycles #1 & #2 plastics and styrofoam not at all.    Waxed cardboard and pizza boxes are out as well.  Bummer!

I’ve been on a hunt for a good compostable junk bowl, but haven’t found one yet.   I had purchased a lovely  compost bucket a few years ago complete with charcoal filter at Gaiam (and totally lust over their compost wheel…but I digress):

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well for me.   It works SOOOO well at keeping the stench down that I forget I have stuff in there until my house is infested with fruit flies (we like bananas).    A bowl that gets funky and full and is a visual reminder that I need to actually take it out works much better for me.

We’ve reduced our waste from a 1/2 - 3/4 full tote to 1/4 full.    We’ve been getting really good at eating everything so we don’t waste much there either.   Any way, reducing waste works for me!

AngelFood Ministries — Is it really that good a deal?

In May, I ordered the basic package, the Fajita pack, and the Latin veggie pack to do my own research on whether AFM is a good deal or not.   I’m going to say not really.

The basic package was barely a deal at $30 and included the following items:

This total was based on NORMAL prices at Meijer’s in TC as of 6/29/09.    If, however, you shopped around you could get it down lower than that.   I know that you can often get a Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Pie at the Sara Lee outlet for $1.99.    I know, too, that if you shopped at Sav-A-Lot, combined a sale with a coupon, and/or  kept your eye open for meat that was reduced for quick sale, you could EASILY lower this by $10-15 and get food you would normally eat.

I also bought the Fajita package ($21).   It included:

Not a deal at ALL!!   The chicken meat, I based off of getting a really good sale and using leftovers because it was hard to find pre-packaged fajita or stir-fry chicken.    The steak could easily be lowered by getting a bigger, cheaper cut and slicing it yourself.   It’s obviously cheaper to make your own than to buy theirs.

Last came the Latin Fruit & Veggie Box ($22).    It included:

Not a deal at all.    I know that the I know some of this was on sale this month so it could be even less if you bought on sale, in season and/or at the Sav-A-Lot.    Plus, you get it all at once and it needs to be used ASAP.    And the quality was ABYSMAL.   I’ll go into that in my food quality post.   Suffice it to say, it was NOT worth $20.

Stay tuned for my final post next week about the quality of the food and my thoughts on the program in general