Paper vs Cloth

A few months ago I made the switch from paper products to cloth products. I stopped using paper towels and paper napkins. I also stopped using paper plates.

Stopping the use of paper plates was the easiest thing to do. How hard is it to reach for a real plate over a paper one? No more leaky plates that make messes and less trash in my trash can. I replaced my paper napkins with cloth napkins that I had as "decor" napkins. Seriously, how lame am I, I had pretty napkins that I only used to decorate my table. Why not use them? Paper towels took the longest to get use to not having around. Anytime I had a spill, I used a paper towel. Anytime Emma had something on her face, use a paper towel. We were going through rolls of paper towel like it was going out of style.

Why did I decide to take the cloth route over paper...one reason was to save money, the other reason was to create less paper waste and to better the world.

For those of you who still use paper products, think about how many times you have to replace these items at the store. How much money do you spend on them? I only bought name brand paper towels because I thought they worked the best. It was an expensive purchase, now I don't have to worry about spending money on these items or having to lug around a huge case of paper towels or a huge sack of paper plates.

Trust me, when you switch to cloth napkins you do NOT use as many as paper napkins! Cloth napkins don't really get that soiled during a meal, so we usually keep ours folded on the back of our chairs so we can reuse it and so we'll know whose napkin is whose. Of course, if for some reason you're napkin is really dirty, I don't expect you to keep reusing it. (Sometimes after a spaghetti dinner it's impossible to have a clean napkin). We do not do a separate load of laundry for napkins. I'll throw them in the wash with whatever load is less full. Doing this cuts down on water waste. A good tip to save some money when buying cloth napkins is going to a second hand store or a garage sale and finding some cool napkins. If you're crafty, make your own.

What do I use instead of paper towels? A wash cloth and dish towel. I was using paper towels to clean mirrors and windows, but I use cut up t-shirts for those kind of jobs.

I use real plates over paper plates. Yes, this might cause you to wash a few more dishes at the end of the day but I can live with that. Just be smart when you do dishes. Don't let the water run! I tend to wash up all my dishes and place them in the other half of the sink, then when that gets full, I'll rinse them off. This just helps with not wasting water. ***TIP***If you make a sandwich and you're like, "ahh I really don't want to dirty a plate" use your cloth napkin. And then when you're done, empty the crumbs in the trash can and then reuse it for the next meal.

I dare you to give up your paper products! After just a few days, you'll realize how easy it is to live without them and you'll never have to buy them again. Plus, you'll feel good about saving trees and creating less waste in our landfills :)

Vegan Corn Bread

So what happens when you haven't gone to the grocery store in over a week and it's time for dinner??? You improvise, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case, it worked!

We're getting ready to move so I've been trying to use up all the food in the freezer and fridge. I'm doing a good job of this except we've run out of things we use everyday, like milk, bread, and eggs. I didn't realize this until it was too late.

I planned on making Emma and myself some turkey steaks and green beans for dinner but I wanted some bread to go along with it and guess what, Emma ate the last piece of bread for lunch so I thought I would make some corn bread (I have a huge bag of corn meal just sitting in my pantry). So I start measuring out all my dry ingredients and then I read that I need milk and an egg. Crap! I don't have milk or eggs. So I started improvising and this is what I came up with.

Vegan Corn Bread

• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 TBL sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 heaping TBL applesauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, mix all your dry ingredients. Add your milk, applesauce, and oil. Beat for about 1 minute, until the batter is fairly smooth. Pour into greased 9in cake pan or 8in square dish and bake for 18-20 minutes.

This corn bread is fairly sweet and really moist! I'm not a big fan of dry corn bread with no taste (like Cracker Barrel's corn muffins). This also was the biggest piece of corn bread I've ever had. It's easily double the thickness of a store bought mix. For the non vegans, adding a big dollop of butter and honey would make this even better...which I did and enjoyed!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I bought the ingredients weeks ago to make my homemade laundry detergent but I still had my expensive store bought laundry detergent to use up...well last night I finally got the chance to use my homemade soap! I'm so excited to blog about this because it's seriously the coolest thing I've done in months.

What possessed me to even want to try to make homemade laundry detergent? Well, I honestly don't know. I'm trying to live a "greener" more frugal life and buying expensive store bought laundry detergent in huge plastic containers isn't really part of that life style. That and the fact that it was summer vacation and I was bored might have played a role too.

What all do you need to make it? Only a few ingredients, most of which you probably have in your house right now.

• 1 cup of washing soda (It's found in the laundry section at your grocery store. I use Arm & Hammer)
• 1/2 cup of borax (You can buy this at Wal-Mart)
• 1 bar of soap (Whatever is cheap, I used Ivory)

You take your bar of soap and grate it until it's a fine powder (I bought a grate at a thrift store for 50 cents to use just for making detergent). You then put it in a container or glass jar (recycle, I used an empty yogurt container that I washed up) along with the washing soda and borax. Put the lid on and shake for 2-3 minutes, until everything is all mixed up.

At this point, you can check it out and see if it looks like a fine powder. I thought mine could use an extra mix so I threw it all in the blender and mixed it for a few seconds. That did the trick! When I went to go do a load of laundry I started up the washer then added my 2 Tablespoons of the detergent and also a scoop of a generic brand of oxyclean (I use this even when I used my expensive detergent). This will make about 2 cups, which is roughly 16 full loads of laundry. If you only have a small load, don't use the full 2 TBL. You could always double, triple, or even quadruple this batch if you do a lot of laundry.

One big difference in homemade detergent over store bought is the lack of bubbles. Mine had no bubbles so this detergent would be great in an energy efficient front loading machine! Many people think that bubbles is what gets your clothes clean...WRONG! I was scared that my clothes were going to smell like Ivory soap, but after they were done in the washer they had the lightest scent. You really couldn't smell anything. I put them in the dryer and used my normal amount of dryer sheets and they came out just like any other load of laundry I've done before. ***Tip***When putting clothes in the dryer, make sure you shake each article of clothing out. This cuts down on drying time which will save you money!

I recommend making a batch of homemade detergent for your family. It would be a fun project with the kids! This could even be a science fair project if you have older children. Another fun idea would be having a Green Living Party. Invited a bunch of friends over and have everyone make homemade laundry detergent and other cleaning products (I plan on blogging about homemade cleaning products later).

Allowances for Kids?

With the approaching start of the new school year, I've been thinking about a lot of different things I should start implementing at home with Emma. The one I plan on blogging about tonight is allowance.

Emma is 4 years old and lucky for me she is sweet and doesn't throw a tantrum everytime we're at the store and I tell her NO when she wants a new toy. Although there have been numerous occasions when she pouts and sulks...at least I don't have to deal with a screaming child! I think she's at a good age to start doing some chores and having responsibilities that she can earn money for.

I've been doing some research on allowance for children and chores for certain age groups. What all my research shows is that all kids are different and some might be able to do a certain chore more easily then some blah blah blah. And parents all have their own opinions on allowance like how much to give and whether or not it should be awarded for chores or given to teach financial skills. So, I've sort of made up my own guidelines for allowance.

This piggy bank is super cool and I haven't bought one yet but am seriously thinking about ordering one. Although, as ya'll know, I'm rather cheap and I think I can have the same effect by using 4 plastic cups with labels. I have a feeling I'm going to save me the $17 and use my plastic cups I have in the cabinet. Either way, you want to make sure you have 4 different spaces for the money: one for saving, spending, donations, and investments. The one for saving, is money you collect for something special...say a new Leapster game or action figure. Something your child wants, but will take a little while to save up for. The spending section is money that your kid can use right away. Like when you go to the store and your daughter wants a gumball out of the machine. She can use money from the spend section of her piggy bank. Donations is money collected and sent to a favorite charity or to your local USO or even use it for church offering. Investment is money saved up for, in Emma's case, college. You can use it for a car, wedding, vacation, etc.

Now that I've explained what the piggy bank is for let me tell you how much money I think it's okay for allowance. With Emma, since she's 4, I'm going to give her $4 a week...if she earns it. I think a dollar for every year is a good start. She must complete her daily chores and responsibilities to earn the $4. Her list is making her bed, getting dressed, brushing teeth, doing her school work (I'm teaching her basic pre-k skills at home since I did not enroll her in a pre-k class this year) picking up toys. I think I'll have a special chore like on Monday nights she needs to help gather trash in the bathrooms. Since that's not a everyday thing, it will be a special chore just like helping out with laundry.

There are rules. She has to put in a dollar for donations and a dollar in investments each week. She can put however much in her save and spend slots as she desires. I don't think I'll have a problem with her skipping out on her chores/responsibilities but if she does then I won't pay out the full $4. Of course I'll give her plenty of encouragements to get them down! I also plan on teaching her about deals and bargains, etc while actually out shopping. A good example would be comparing a box of cereal or a can of green beans with it's store brand.

I'm hoping to teach her that everything costs money. I want her to learn that you have to work to earn money. My biggest wish is that she will learn financial skills by the time she's a teenager so she doesn't grow up in debt or worst a spoiled brat!