Earth Day is approaching!

Earth Day is April 22nd, but many areas are celebrating Earth Day over the weekend. You can find out Earth Day events in your area by checking the Earth Day website

If you have kids, the EPA has a kid friendly environmental website.

I'll be in Pennsylvania on Saturday, so I'll miss our local Earth Day celebration (unless it rains...then the rain date is Sunday!)

In the meantime, we're doing our same old earth friendly stuff. We're really getting good at NOT using paper towels! Our last roll has been on the dispenser forever! It has not been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. We're also getting rid of our ziplock bag use...we have re-useable containers we pack sandwiches and snacks in.

One thing I still haven't had much success with is finding recycling for #5 containers. It just looks like recycling facilties for #5's are just too limited. So I am keeping all my yogurt containers (I still haven't used my yogurt maker...this confession is my nudge to do it!) and they're piled up on my dining room table to remind me, too.

So back to Earth Day, pray for rain on Saturday so we can make it to the rain date celebration on Sunday :)

Easy coupons!

I've been posting a lot of "green" posts lately, so here's a cheap one :)

I LOVE coupons. A LOT. It takes some time and effort, but it really pays off. I think the real trick is to only clip coupons for stuff you regularly use.

I've been couponing for years, but in the past few I changed my habits even more. In trying to reduce the amount of packaging we buy, there are some coupons I don't use anymore...like softsoap.

I love softsoap, but the convenience didn't seem worth the many bottles we used up..even not worth the refill bottle when we could use plain old bar soap. So the softsoap coupons were out, the bar soap coupons are in!

So most of my coupons come from the newspaper and from my parents' newspaper, but just recently I tried something that I can't believe didn't cross my mind before... requesting coupons via email directly from the manufacturer!

We drink organic milk and coupons for that can be hard to find. So I went to the Horizon website and clicked on their contact form. In two short sentences (We drink your milk and love it. Can you send me coupons?) and a week later I had coupons mailed to me from Horizon! Almost too easy to be true.

I tried this with a number of products...same short, to the point request, and 8 out of ten sent me coupons. Since these are for things we always use, it's like free money...and so easy.

My next mission is to request coupons from Method cleaners and Burt's Bees...I'll post what happens.

Organic makeup

I'm an art teacher, and when my students oil paint I make a point to tell them that if oil paint gets on their skin, wash right away. There's some not so great ingredients in oil paint. And guess what? Some of those ingredients are in the makeup that people put on their bare skin. AND the FDA does not regulate cosmetics. Did you know there are eyeliners on the market that contain lead? For more info, go the the FDA's official website.

Because of this, I recently ordered some organic makeup. Many of the websites that sell organic cosmetics sell small samples for $1. So I ordered eyeliner (they only had full size), eyeshadow and lipstick (I don't wear foundation). They also only had full size mascara and the one I wanted was $28 (ouch! not frugal), so I passed on that for now.

My samples in the mail last week. I ordered these items and here's what I thought of them (and as a side note, I'm not a big "makeup person". I might wear it once a week. So I was looking for something pretty simple that will probably have to last awhile).

Honeybee Gardens Eyeliner 6.99

Couldn't tell any difference between this and the old Maybelline. It may have gone on smoother even. This one's a keeper.

Earth's Beauty Eyeshadow 10.50 (.20 oz)

I was also happy with these (I ordered the $1 samples which will probably give me 5 uses each). They come in a powder form (not pressed), but that was no problem. I'll probably decide to order a full sized one once I decide which color I like the best.

Ecotints lipstick 4.49

Very nice! Packaged liek chapstick. Goes on smooth like chapstick, with a nice color, more lipstick-y than just tinted chapstick. I got Rose Quartz, a nice subtle color. I will definitely order this again! And costs less than most regular lipsticks.

Nvey Eco Lipstick 28.00

Obviously, I got the $1 samples. A REALLY nice product. Great color (I got a matte color) that had nice coverage and didn't cake up. I'd buy a lot of these if they were cheaper. I liked this better than the Ecotints even, but for the price, I'll stick with Ecotints.

I'm still researching mascaras...I really need something that doesn't run/smear/etc...and I'm a little worried about dishing out the money for something that might be too "smeary" for me.

The eyeliner and ecotints were comparable price-wise to the non-organic products I used to buy, so that's an easy transition. The eyeshadow is more expensive, but when it comes to health, paying a little more is worth it.

Have you tried any organic cosmetics?

Charlton Heston, RIP

Charlton Heston passed away yesterday. While I didn't agree with Charlton Heston's gun and some political beliefs, he was a fine actor and we enjoy many of his films in my household: Planet of the Apes, Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Omega Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy and many more. They just don't make actors like Chuck anymore.

Here's the environmental tie-in: check out his movie, Soylent Green. It's a movie about the earth's environment in 2022 after it's been irrevocably damaged by global warming, overpopulation and pollution. Check it out.

Goin' down the toilet!

My sister wanted me to post about my toilets. Really. So here it is!

We save 1 gallon of water everytime we flush...how you ask? A new low-flow toilet? No, that's not in our budget at this point.

The next best thing...we fill up a used gallon milk jug with enough water to prevent it from floating and set it in the tank. Your tank fills with one less gallon of water everytime you flush. How's that for cheap :)

And as far as pictures, well, I did take some of the toilet tank but I just don't think you'd want to see that!

I love my clothesline!

My husband's mother has NEVER had a clothes dryer. I used think that was ludicrous, but in trying to use less energy, I have discovered the joys of the clothesline!

Spring has brought us nice sunny days, so I've been trying out the retractable clothesline we put on the deck. The lines attach to hooks at one end and when you're done, roll back up into the box mounted on the wall.

I've found I love it! It really doesn't take much time to hang the clothes, and it's a nice excuse to go out into the sunshine. We get full sun on the deck from around 11:30 am on, so even on a not-so-sunny day, everything is dry pretty well before dinner time. And the clothes smell naturally fresh!
While we certainly haven't eliminated the use of our dryer, about every other load is going out onto the line, so we are saving 50% of the energy previously used for the dryer. Once summer hits , I plan to put much more laundry out!

Frugal pets

Just a short post today!

While the care and maintenance of pets can be expensive, remember there are a lot of great animals out there that need homes. Our pets below are "freebies" we adopted or found.

Louie (11 years old) Clarence (10 years old) Clark (17 years old)