- Credit Crunch: How to Survive the Recession
- 20 Ways to Live On Almost Nothing
- 15 Real Ways to Conserve (and save money!)
- Putting Old Clothes To New Use
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 2
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 3
- It's Better Than Cheap... It's Free!
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 4
- Craig's List: Great Resource or Scary Place?
- Vacationing on a Shoestring Budget
Clean Wash, Zero Toxins
July 24th, 2008
Awhile back this blog featured a three-part series on Necessary Household Basics for keeping a clean house by concocting your own soaps, scouring powders, metal polishes, starches, fabric fresheners, bug repellants, etc. The list of ingredients were all common, inexpensive substances like salt, vinegar, borax, baking soda and corn starch. Saving serious money on soaps begins with saving the last of the bar soaps (and motel bar-lets) and turning them liquid by dissolving them in water.
Part 2 of that series offered some easy recipes for making the useful products. Like making an excellent metal polish by mixing vinegar and salt into a paste, or a fine scouring powder by mixing borax and soda. And of course, if you haven’t enough liquid soap to produce the laundry detergent or diswashing soap, you can always go ahead and purchase a jug of good ol’ Dr. Bronner’s organic liquid soap for making your mixtures. It’s not the cheapest of ingredients, but it’ll certainly go a long way! The money savings are significant all around.
Filed under Alternatives, Clothing, Conscious Living, Environmentalism, Health Maintenance, Surviving | Comment (0)Frugal Youth: Stuff Does Not Equal Happiness
February 4th, 2008
Age Counseling Youth
Once Upon a Christmas… my Mother-in-Law gifted my children with some thickly quilted fuzzy slippers to put on in the morning when the wood stove in our little cabin had gone out and the water in the dog dish was more often than not frozen solid. Unfortunately both of the pairs of slippers she’d bought consisted of two right feet. So off she went right after Christmas to the store where she’d bought them, and let the kids pick out new pairs that they could wear on both their feet.
The saleslady remembered when Mom had bought them, and the story she told about the kids living in the cold mountains without automatic heat. She asked the kids how they could stand living in a house with no heat. The kids looked at her quizzically, my daughter answered that of course we had heat, we just didn’t have electricity. That really threw the young woman for a loop, so she just had to ask…
If you’ve no electricity, how can you have heat? Daughter smiled. “Fire,” she answered calmly. “Fire is hot.”
Filed under Conscious Living, Debt, Economic Recession, Environmentalism, Fashion, Green Living | Comment (0)15 Real Ways to Conserve (and save money!)
January 11th, 2008
Since we’ve been looking at ways to avoid spending money on things we don’t really need, let’s look at some ways to save money on things we really DO need. Like, say energy to heat and cool our homes, cook our food, keep us (and our clothes) clean, etc., etc., etc. Energy - in the form of electricity, gas, heating oil and such for use in our homes is not getting any cheaper, and the generation technologies are contributing greatly to global warming. Water is another diminishing resource we cannot live without. Learning to consume less water is vital for our collective future. One of the best things we can do for our world and our pocketbooks is to learn how to live on less. USE less, NEED less, and be proud of our small footprints on the earth!
Here are some of the best ways to conserve energy and water that are being touted at present. Some of you can put to good use right now, and some of you will want to seriously consider through the coming year as your income allows you to replace things or renovate for a more efficient lifestyle. If you can save a couple thousand dollars a year on your electric and water bills, you’ll have that much more money to spend or save! Check ‘em out…
Filed under Alternatives, Conscious Living, Conservation, Energy, Environmentalism, Green Living | Comments (9)Taking Control: Energy Independence
December 17th, 2007
Analyzing Your Usage and Expense
In the 21st century almost all of us are acutely aware of the challenges of global warming, unsustainable consumption habits, the real human costs of petroleum dependency and the ever-rising cost of all forms of energy. When it’s difficult for regular middle class city and suburban dwellers to maintain their few hours of home down-time due to rising costs, the burden on rural dwellers can easily be impossible to bear.
Anyone committed to sustainable and self-sufficient living should have already begun planning their energy strategies. There are many things to consider before investing in energy sources. One of the first things a homeowner needs to become aware of are the various federal and state incentive programs available to them if they choose to meet some or all of their own energy needs with ‘green’ sources. These incentives have been fluctuating at the same time the per-watt price of the technology has been steadily falling. In some places the cost trade-off - where the cost to install is paid for by the incentives and further energy is basically free-for-upkeep - is down to 3-5 years. Which is a point when someone planning to live the whole rest of their lives on their homestead has no really good excuse not to invest! The Database of State Incentives offers a clickable map with details for all 50 states and is updated as incentives are tweaked or changed.
Filed under Alternatives, Conscious Living, Environmentalism, Family Projects, Green Living | Comment (0)The Thrifty Have Long Been Green!
October 15th, 2007
October 15 has been designated “Blog Action Day”, when bloggers are encouraged to write about our environment and things regular people can do to reduce their environmental footprint on the planet and help steward the environment we all depend upon to sustain our lives.
This is pretty easy to do if you’re living on a shoestring budget, as our previous excursions into bargain-hunting, recycling, thrifting and doing for yourself have demonstrated amply. Yet at a time when the Nobel Peace Prize can go to Al Gore for his crusade to educate the nations of the world about the threat of global warming and how our poor choices of lifestyle are contributing to it, this is a great time to do some thinking about how we live. Maybe earn a new appreciation not just for our cleverness in being able to get by on less, but for our wisdom in doing so. Even if we didn’t have to.
