'Tis the Season

I can't believe it but Christmas is just a few short weeks away. I have been working to finalize my lists and start my shopping. Thankfully, we're paring down the number of people we're exchanging gifts with this year too. (Yea for a less is more Christmas!) I am super-excited to see the holidays through my two year old's eyes as I anticipate Christmas to be pretty magical to him. We will be buying very few gifts this year but here is what I have come up with so far.

Andrew: toy Stihl chainsaw (Daddy is intent on this one and I agree that he will dig it), Memory board game, books (Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and Tickle Time). I'm thinking an electric toothbrush and some art supplies for his stocking. We also talked about a train table and accompanying train but decided that he is still a little young to play with it properly.

Allison: a homemade doll, books (can you tell I like books?!) and possibly The Little Mermaid (since it will be vaulted by the time she'll be into movies in a few years). I'm super-stoked about the doll. My very talented friend, Cassie, is making it and her dolls are just adorable! I'm planning on getting a couple more fun books for our collection (Dinosaur's Binkit and That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat is Too Hairy). Can you tell I love Sandra Boynton books yet? We have a ton already but they are so fun! I have no idea for her stocking but I need to do something.

I'll probably do picture books for our parents and frame some photos of the kids. And I have no idea what to get my husband...he's always the tough one for me. (I'm open to ideas if anyone out there has any!)

How is your Christmas list shaping up?

Meal Planning Basics

Food is one of my family's biggest expenses. I am a firm believer in eating whole foods whenever possible and would love to buy all organic and make absolutely everything homemade. But life gets in the way of that goal and it just isn't practical with two young children and our busy lives. Several years ago, I discovered that a little planning goes a long way with both saving money on food and eating better. Sadly, I got out of the habit a few weeks back when I was super-pregnant and too exhausted to cook every day. But I have been gradually getting everything back on track (hello blogging!), including our meal planning.

I know there are lots of fancy tools out there to help plan meals but I have always found my old-school methods to work pretty well. First of all, I have a list of meals which I maintain. Basically, if I try a new recipe that we like, it goes on list. When I'm planning meals and drawing a blank, I consult the list. I have a second list of budget-friendly meals that I try to rotate in consistently. These include meals like soup and sandwiches, ham and beans and my husband's least favorite, breakfast for dinner. Perhaps it is odd, but I like to look at the weather when planning meals. If it is cold and rainy, I know I will want a warm soup or chili. If it is unseasonably warm one day, I probably won't want to turn the oven on. And no one wants to grill in deluge rains.

So from there, I start working around our calendar and plugging in meals for the week. The benefit of looking at the whole week at once is that I can eliminate (or minimize) waste by coordinating veggies and perishable ingredients.

What is your strategy for meal planning? Do you use a service or go at it on your own?

Extreme?

Last night, I was flipping channels and stopped on TLC's Extreme Cheapskates. I have seen the show before and have heard lots of people who are shocked by people featured. I have seen some things on there that disgust me but, honestly, there are a lot of things I currently do or would consider doing. I was contemplating this as I watched last night. Additionally, I couldn't help but think that we really are a wasteful society. And it is fine if you want to be wasteful and can afford it, but most of us can't afford it. According to CNN Money, the average family has nearly $16,000 in credit card debt. Yikes! Think about it, this is consumer debt with nothing to show for it. Now THAT seems crazy to me - living or going further into debt while living wastefully. I will be the first to admit that I, too, am guilty of not being as resourceful as I probably should. But I recognize that and am always striving to find new ways to save where I can. Even if you aren't in debt, could you not put more money into savings or retirement or give a bit more to your church or favorite charity? We can all strive to save more, right?

Here are some perfectly sane (in my opinion) ways to save money that have been featured on the show:

• Buy food from discount grocery outlets. This includes scratch and dent items and items which are just outside of sell-by dates. I have done this. If I had a large family to feed, I would likely do this more often.
• Sell your car and ride a bike. Exercise, frugality and saving the earth? Many urban dwellers discovered the benefits of bikes long ago. 
• Make household products or cleaners. This includes cleaning your home with staples like vinegar and baking soda or making homemade toiletries. I clean most of my house with vinegar and baking soda, so I obviously see nothing wrong with this one.
• Recycle cooking water or bath water for watering plants. I don't see how anyone saves a lot of money doing this, but it is efficient, I suppose.
• Eat alternative cuts of meat. I probably won't be buying goat heads or eating cow brain but I don't see it as flame worthy, either. Kudos to these people for eating parts that often go to waste in our country. They are often very nutritious but the stigma of eating them prevents most Americans from ever trying them.
• Scavenging for wild food. If one is savvy (I'm not), then they can pick edible grasses and berries from the wild and eat them.
• Upcycling items. Basically, finding other uses for items that would traditionally be seen as trash. There are a lot of items that can be reused. You generate less trash and don't have to buy additional items for household needs. It can be a win-win! Just a note, here, though - there was one individual featured who was making gifts out of upcycled items. Sorry, but I view this as tacky. Be frugal on your own but don't give your trash as "gifts" unless e recipient is a fellow cheapskate or has requested a specific item.
• Washing and reusing Ziplocs. I frequently do this, especially if the bag has just held bread or a similarly non-threatening food. I will not reuse bags that have held raw meat or pungent items like onions, though. But bags can get expensive and they'd go right into the trash, so it is basically throwing money away each time I use one, so why not reuse thr ones I can?

There have been some other practices featured that are a bit further than I think I would ever go, though. Among those are the following cheapskate practices:

• Dumpster diving for food. Yuck. Sorry, but just yuck.
• Washing clothes in the shower while you shower. No...
• Not flushing the toilet. Honestly, how much are you really saving with this?
• "Family cloth" aka cloth toilet paper. Um, I'm all for reusables but I can't imagine giving up toilet paper.
• Asking strangers for their leftovers. I'm sure they are probably fine but this one is way too much for me.

All in all, though, I have to laugh a bit. What do people think their ancestors did or used? Even the things that I'm not willing to do (like family cloth) were likely normal practices in our country as recently as 100 years ago.  And I obviously still drive a car and don't do many of the things that I find acceptable. But I guess I'm not seeing where the controversy is with many of them either. To me, some of them seem worthy of consideration if times get tough. But maybe I'm an extreme cheapskate too.

Ode to Amazon

I have decided that Amazon is a busy mom's best friend. I always used the site to purchase books, movies and the occasional gift but I have discovered a whole new appreciation for Amazon since A was born. You can buy virtually everything there! I got sucked in when I signed up for Amazon Mom, a nifty little free program which lets you try Amazon Prime for free for a set amount of time (a month, maybe?) but will add on additional time with qualifying purchases. Basically, I utilized the service plenty while I was mega pregnant and right after A was born and we ended up with a whole year for free*! (*Yes, I realize that my "freebie" was the result of me buying lots of things so it wasn't exactly free. Still, these were things I would have bought anyway.) Amazon Prime  members get some pretty sweet benefits, the most important of which is free 2-day shipping on any Prime-eligible products (there are thousands) without any minimum purchase. We also have access to free movies and tv, the Kindle lending library and I can add several other friends on for them to be able to buy items with free 2-day shipping too. The catch is that this service costs $79 a year but we no longer subscribe to Netflix (approximately $96 a year), I buy fewer books and I am able to make fewer stops when running errands. The bonus is that I have also discovered that many of our household products are actually cheaper on Amazon than at my local stores.

I have had several people ask what I buy there and the extensive list, frankly, is a bit embarrassing. Here are some things that I have bought in the last 90 days: gifts (DVDs, a blanket, toys), canned dog food, organic applesauce, hair product, hemp diaper doublers, essential oils, air purifier filters, books and dog treats. How is that for a hodgepodge? And all of these things showed up on my doorstep approximately 48 hours after ordering them, which is just awesome! I will admit that I feel bad about taking business away from my local economy because I truly see the value in shopping locally. But the hassle of dragging a fussy toddler to four stores to find what I need for $2 more (plus the gas from driving around) makes me choose Amazon for this era of my life. Also, many of the items I buy on there arent available to me locally (like the canned dog food we like or the diaper doublers.) I assure myself that I will go back to buying many things locally in a few years and I hope to hold myself to doing just that.

Do you shop online? If so, have you found it to be as handy as I have? What do you like to buy from Amazon?

Mystical Magical Dr Bronner's Soap

One of the first earth mama products I tried was Dr Bronner's liquid Castile soap. Described by Dr Bronner's and his peeps as "magical", these soaps boast 18 different uses. Considering can you buy this stuff by the quart for about $17 and it's super-concentrated, it's not a bad deal for an Eco-friendly product.  Most of my interest stemmed from a desire to use this as a basic hand soap in my home. Long ago, we'd stopped using antibacterial soaps in our home but I wanted a greener option overall. So I figured any additional uses for this product beyond hand soap were gravy.  I excitedly picked up a couple bottles at my local Target to try.

I had read a bit about the Dr Bronner's Castile soap and knew that it needs to be diluted for most purposes since it is so concentrated. For hand soap, I had read to dilute it with about 4 parts water for each part of soap. This creates a really thin liquid which would be tough to use with a traditional dispenser so I picked up some cheap foam soaps so I would have their dispensers. (Technically, you can just buy the dispensers as well but I wasn't able to find any that weren't outrageously priced.) We have been using the Dr Bronner's soap I our house for about five months and, overall, I'm very pleased! I have begun diluting the soap a bit more than I was in the beginning but we have a water softener so soap goes a long way at our house. Also, the Dr Bronner's can be drying to skin so I try to use the minimal amount to get the job done. Overall, this is a great use for this green product and I have no doubts that we save money by using it. Plus, it is a toxin-free soap, which I love. (No icky triclosan or sodium lauryl sulfate here!) There are a variety of scents you can buy, including lavender, peppermint and almond and there is an unscented version as well.

Another use I'd read about was using the Dr Bronner's as a toothpaste. Since I've already ventured into natural toothpastes, I figured why not try this too? I put a little of our peppermint soap on my toothbrush and began to brush. It started out lovely and minty. Mmm...so healthy!! Go earth mama! Then, it suddenly wasn't lovely at all as it began to taste like...tar, maybe? Whatever the nasty taste was, I couldn't get past it. I never used it to brush my teeth again as it took a couple hours to get the putrid taste out if my mouth (even after using evil, chemical-laden Colgate).

Lots of people also love this soap for shampoo and body wash. I may try it as body wash at some point but I really love my (non-hippie) shampoo.  All in all, these are great products that are very economical as well. Dr. Bronner's is definitely here to stay at my house.

DIY Laundry Soap

In my quest to save money, I recently tried making my own laundry soap. There are many different "recipes" out there for powders and liquids, but many require that a large batch is made and stored. Storing a large bucket of detergent is less-than-appealing to me, even though we go through some serious detergent in our house (the poor washer is always running!). I have read lots of divided opinions on the liquid detergents, too, so I thought I'd start with the basic powder.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this simple recipe and tried it:

1/2 a bar of Fels Naptha soap, grated
1 C washing soda
1 C Borax

All of these "ingredients" can be picked up at your local hardware store but they are also available at many grocery and discount stores. These items are all pretty old-school. I also picked up a cheap cheese grater from the dollar store and grated half the bar of Fels Naptha. To be fair, this took a little time and elbow grease. I grated it into a clean cottage cheese container and added the washing soda and Borax. Then I stirred it up. Easy-peasy! I keep a tablespoon in it and use one tablespoon for each regular load of laundry; I use an extra half tablespoon for really big loads. For kid clothes, I also add a quarter scoop of Oxyclean as my kid's clothes seem to always be covered in food and grime.

So far, I've been pretty pleased. It seems to do really well on Rick's greasy work clothes and most stains come out of A's toddler attire. I haven't been brave enough to try it on diapers and probably won't (I have something that works well for them and that's worth every penny to me). Still, this little concoction has worked better than I ever expected. I think it even works better than our old standby, All Free & Clear.

All of the ingredients are cheap and have various other household uses, so you really have nothing to lose by trying to make the detergent. Fels Naptha bars cost around $4. They work well for removing stains (just rub the bar on the stain - much cheaper than Shout :-) ). Borax costs around $4-5 for a small box. It works well as a laundry booster as it softens water and boosts your other detergents' cleaning power. It also works as a natural insecticide. Please note that it is toxic if directly ingested by humans or pets, though. It works well in crawlspaces, sprinkled around your foundation or anywhere inside your home where kids or pets won't eat it. I recently mixed a little in with sugar water to combat an ant problem we were having. Voila - no more ants! I have long been a fan of Borax, if you couldn't tell. Finally, washing soda costs around $5 for a small box. It is the base for many laundry detergents but can also be used around the house for general cleaning. It works well for degreasing your range or oven or it's pieces. If you want to be extra frugal, you can make your own washing soda from baking soda per the Penniless Parenting blog's instructions here. I haven't ever made my own washing soda beacusse it isn't that much of a staple in my house but baking soda is cheap, so this is handy knowledge if you love the stuff. Many people also make their own dishwasher detergent and use washing soda as a base but I have not tried this,

Based on my use, the homemade detergent costs approximately $0.08 per load. Each batch of the recipe above washes around 45 regular loads of clothes. I have always bought All Free & Clear? It is not an expensive detergent but the cheapest I can usually find it is for $11.99 for the 110-load bottle and that is on sale. Occasionally, I am also able to find coupons for $1.00 off but I can't always find them. At $11, the 110-load bottle costs $0.10 per load. Two cents per load isn't much but it's all savings. Considering we wash about 5 loads of laundry a week (excluding diapers), that adds up to more than 250 loads a year. That much laundry means $5 a year. And really, it's even more when you consider that you can't always find coupons or buy detergent on sale. Each little bit counts. Give this a try today - you have nothing to lose!

Clearing a Drain the Green Way

A couple weeks back, I completed the dreaded chore of steam cleaning my bedroom carpets. Yuck. This back-breaking task always reminds me just how disgusting carpet is to me. I clean our carpets a couple times of year and am grossed out every time by the amount of gunk that comes out in the water. This time was no different. Unfortunately, I created a new problem for myself as I dumped the dirty water in my bathroom sink and ended up with a semi-clogged drain. Don't you hate a slow drain? I know I do.

I've never been a big fan of the strong, caustic chemicals that can take care of these things, and our curious toddler makes me even more adamant about not having them in my home. I am also not a big fan of taking the drain apart and cleaning out the p-trap, although that's probably the best way to solve this problem. So, I decided to try to clear the drain using baking soda, vinegar and hot water. I've read about using this little potion but honestly, I was pretty skeptical. I mean, I've seen the nasty crap that came out of my carpet and... Anyway, I put about a cup of baking soda down the drain. I then dumped about a cup of vinegar down the drain and closed it with the plug (making the bubbly solution work it's magic down into the p-trap rather than up into the sink). After doing this, I let the mixture sit while I heated 3-4 cups if water in my tea kettle to a boil. After bringing the water to a boil, I let it sit for about 30 seconds to cool just a bit, then I poured it down the drain.

This concoction seems to have completely fixed my problem! My drain is completely clear again. I doubt this would work if the drain were completely clogged but I will definitely remember this little trick in the future.

Nom, Nom, Nom for Baby

I make the majority of A's food and have found it to be much easier than I expected. Recently, several people have inquired about this with the impression that it's difficult. If you're considering it, please be reassured that it is easy! I'd contend that no one should ever buy some foods for their baby as virtually no extra work is required for feeding baby at all. Bananas and avocado are two of those foods which anyone can make - just peel and mash it up! For these foods, I really love our Mash and Serve bowls by Annabel Karmel. They're a simple product but get used multiple times each week in our home, especially now that A's eating more textures.  Also, I recently saw them at Walmart for much cheaper than the Amazon link, if you're interested in finding one to try.

Many other foods are easy to make as well, but a time and energy are required (two things that are tough for mamas to find).  Last weekend, I had a little baby food-a-polooza and made pears, squash, sweet potatoes, chicken and apples for A. Yes, it was a couple hours worth of work, but this will also cover many meals for him in the coming weeks.

I put the chicken in a baking dish with a little water and covered it in foil. Into the oven it went. Sweet potatoes just got scrubbed, then baked. And I split a squash down the middle, scooped out the seeds and goo, then placed it "meat" side down in a shallow baking dish with a little water and foil over the top. Peeled pears (and later, peeled apples) just got cooked in my steamer basket on the stove until they were soft. 

Once cooked, I just scooped the sweet potatoes out of the skin and mashed them up. Yum!

I then either serve it right away, store in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze the food for later feedings.

Squash is a baby food staple and is so easy to make! I baked the squash as described above. It should be baked until the skin is lightly browned and the squash is soft.

Then, scoop out the "meat" of the squash, discarding the skins. The squash is usually still a little thick/chunky, so I run it through my food processor with a little water.

Process until the squash is smooth and creamy (or the desired consistency for feeding your baby).  A blender or immersion blender can also be used for squash or similarly textured foods. Once your food is smooth, prepare it for the freezer.  There are lots of fancy trays out there, but I just use basic, plain ice cube trays and they work well (note: do NOT buy the really cheap, lightweight plastic trays as they do NOT work well at all). My trays are a hard plastic and are made by Rubbermaid. I spoon the food into the tray, shake it a bit to get it to settle and pop it in the freezer for several hours. This is the exact same process I later used for apples and pears as well.

Sometimes, I also freeze food in jars if that will be easier. I bought a couple dozen 4-ounce quilted canning jars from Ball and their plastic lids (not shown). These are old fashioned but work very well as baby food jars. They're also great for feeding on the road as the lids screw on and can't pop off in the diaper bag - a very important feature in baby food transport. The plastic lids with the jars are great for food on-the-go.

Meats, in particular are scary to many mamas but I have found them to be easy! Just cook the meat however you'd like (I baked my chicken, as previously discussed), then process it, adding water as necessary.  Here's my processed chicken, before I added water:

It was chunky, as you can see.  A isn't ready for this much texture yet, so I added a little water to it and processed a bit more (below). (It looks yummy, doesn't it? That's the only downside of making meats for your baby...they look less than appetizing.  But canned baby food meats also aren't terribly appealing and at least you know what's going into this, right?

I then freeze the chicken into cubes as well. Once my cubes are frozen, I dump them into large Ziploc freezer bags and put them in my deep freeze.

Then, each feeding, I thaw a cube or two for A's meal. Fruit cubes are great with oatmeal and a little formula or breastmilk. The meats are good with rice and a little formula or breastmilk.  I tend to serve the veggies on their own or mixed together, although I occasionally mix them with meat too (this is just personal preference).  One observation I recently made was that many commercial baby foods use squash as a base with "meat" foods so that's an idea too, even though I've never tried this personally.

I have found that the time and energy required for baby food-making is well worth the satisfaction of knowing what my baby eats and the monetary savings (baby food is expensive!). Hopefully you will find it equally satisfying and easy!

Living green - things we're already doing

I first started thinking about going more "green" when I planned to get pregnant. My first goal was to create a healthier home for my family, but I also enjoy saving money and am all about helping the earth where I can too. I started contemplating ways to create a healthier home.  After a bit of research, I realized that we were already on the right path with several things we were doing in our home. Since that time, we've  tried some new ideas as well. These are some things that our family is already doing which are healthy and green and most of them save money too.

• Use a steam mop. These mops simply use steam to clean and sanitize floors. Since most of our home is hardwood or tile and we have a little rugrat, ours gets plenty of use. I love, love, LOVE our steam mop for a variety of reasons - there's no bucket to haul around, it's faster  than traditional mopping and, best of all, there's no chemicals! The only maintenance is washing the microfiber pad after each use. We have the Bissell Steam Mop (shown below) which I would highly recommend to anyone.

• Minimize paper towel usage. I've recently seen lots of buzz about "unpaper towels" such as these.  All of this buzz has made me wonder how many paper towels most people use and for what purposes?  We've always used lots of reusable alternatives in our home.  Some of these include the following:
• Kitchen towels and hand towels for hand-washing and drying dishes
• Flour sack towels for washing/drying produce and covering yeast breads
• Shop towels and old t-shirts for general cleaning
• Old bath towels for cleaning spills
• Microfiber towels for cleaning glass
• Baby washcloths for cleaning A's hands and face (especially after mealtimes)

We still use paper towels for a few things in our home, but they are pretty much relegated to really icky chores like cleaning up large pet messes, cleaning the toilets and cooking bacon.  We currently use less than 8 rolls a year which seems reasonable to me.

• Skip the dryer when you can. Get a basic clothesline (or make one) and dry your clothes outside.  The sun will work to sanitize and freshen your clothes and you'll save a little money.

• Eliminate unnecessary toxic chemicals from the home. We don't use air fresheners and don't burn candles very often. Sadly, these things bother my allergies too much to be used in our home  (I have to cheat with the occasional candle, though, because I genuinely enjoy them).  But in general, they are just unnecessary chemicals which compromise air quality. A far bigger elimination for us was no longer using fabric softeners. My original reason for eliminating fabric softener from our laundry routine was related to cloth diapering (see next bullet) and the fact that softeners can create problems with the diapers. After a bit more research, I was far more concerned about eliminating it for health reasons.  Commercial fabric softeners and dryer sheets contain chemicals which are linked to a growing list of health concerns from asthma and lung irritation to cancer. This was enough for us to go softener-free.  Oddly, we don't miss it at all as our clothes are just as soft without it. 
• We use cloth diapers. Cloth diapering means that our baby isn't exposed to the toxic chemicals in commercial disposables and he rarely gets rashes or has blowouts.  Plus, they're cute and they're very easy to use. We use a variety of brands and types, but the BumGenius 4.0 (shown below) diapers are among our favorites.

 





We still have a long way to go but I feel like we have a nice start.  My current focus (and the subject of a future post or two) is detoxifying our cleaning routine, which I know is completely unhealthy as it is. What is your family doing to be greener that works well?