<$Thursday, June 26, 2008$>
Spill coffee on your wooden table.
| We're always on the lookout for non-toxic, natural alternatives to all the chemicals in our lives. This is especially important to my cancer survivor husband. I've been a little worried about this, wondering how, after we move, are we going to handle all of the paint jobs, furniture touch-ups, etc. that seem to go along with home ownership? So I'm pretty happy to have stumbled upon this Ask Metafilter article on non-toxic wood treatments. I'm especially intrigued--and a little squicked--by all of the info on shellac, where it came from and all of its uses: Pharmaceutical - shellac is used to coat enteric pills so that they do not dissolve in the stomach, but in the lower intestine, which alleviates upset stomachs. Its also used as a coating on pills to "time release" medication. Fascinating, huh? But then, there's this: If you use shellac, you have the added advantage of being able to tell your friends you painted it with an excretion of the female Coccus Lacca beetle, harvested from the bark of the trees where she deposits it to provide a sticky hold on the trunk, necessary during mating with the non-stick capable male. Bleah. But as someone else over there pointed out, honey is a bug excretion, too, and a mighty tasty one at that. At any rate, now I'm having visions of inexpensive unfinished bookcases naturally died with coffee and sealed with beetle juice dancing in my head, and no pesky carcinogens to ruin my fun. Labels: green, healthy living |
<$Tuesday, March 11, 2008$>
Product Love: Naked Naturals Shampoo
 I'm having a great hair day, if I do say so myself. A couple of weeks ago I was given samples of naked naturals shampoo and conditioner, and I finally remembered to take them to the gym with me this morning. Specifically, I was given awapuhi and lavender shampoo for color-treated hair. I used to color my hair pretty regularly, but it's been quite a while since I've bothered, mainly because of all the swimming I do. The chlorine can be pretty rough on my hair, though, so anything that targets any kind of chemical damage is a good thing. What's more, I've finally got the hang of putting on my swim cap (not as simple as it sounds, trust me), so between that and finding a great shampoo & conditioner, I'm planning on trying out a henna treatment sometime in the next couple of pay periods.For today, though, my hair is softer than it's been since pretty much before I started swimming. It's more manageable than it's been in a long time, too. I'm not generally one to believe claims that shampoo can magically give you better hair, but this one almost has me convinced. After a single use, my hair looks better than it has in a long time (and it smells great, too. Mmm, lavender), so I'm guessing that regular use of this stuff would give me some pretty great-looking hair. That this all natural shampoo is environmentally friendly is icing on the cake. I just wish it was available in the places I normally shop. You can buy it online directly from the source, but the MSRP of $9.00 is frankly too steep for my Suave-level budget, no matter how great the shampoo is. Walgreen's price of $7.99 is a bit more like it, and there's one right across the corner from my office. That's still more than I'd like to spend, but between coupons and watching for sales, I could probably squeeze it into the beauty budget. If and when I do start coloring my hair again, I definitely will, because I'm pretty confident that it will not only protect and strengthen my hair, but also help preserve the color longer, which will mean more time between touch-ups, which will only save me money in the long run. Labels: beauty, disclosure, green, product love, reviews, shopping |
<$Thursday, January 17, 2008$>
Blog Review: Conscious Spending
| I discovered Conscious Spending yesterday through one of my blog networks. I like its focus on eco-friendly shopping and businesses that support good causes. There are a lot of ideas and resources here geared toward creating responsible consumers. Of course, I'm trying to get away from the consumer mind-set, and some of the things linked here don't fit my meager budget--like these reusable shopping bags that are to-die-for and I want one so badly--but overall, this blog is about making wise spending decisions, and isn't that what frugality is all about? Labels: blog-recs, charity, frugality, green, healthy living, spending |
<$Wednesday, January 16, 2008$>
Green Light
| *Sponsored post* I love the fact that going green and being environmentally conscious fits in so well with being frugal. So many things that are better for the environment are also better for my bank account. LED lights are a pretty good example of this. Inexpensive to begin with, this decorative rope light burns cooler, uses less energy and lasts longer than decorative incandescent light strings--better for the planet, better for my bank account. It's pretty awesome the way those two things tend to go hand-in-hand. Now if only I could get my mom to switch. She uses white incandescent Christmas lights to illuminate the top of her kitchen cabinets and all of the knick-knacks she keeps up there. I like the idea, but once I get my own house I plan to duplicate it using warm white LED rope lights. So far my attempts to get my mom to change out ANY of her light bulbs have met with nothing but failure. My bet is that once my husband and I get settled in our own house and we can compare energy bills, Mom will finally come around. Labels: disclosure, frugality, green, PPP |
<$Wednesday, October 31, 2007$>
Product Love: LED Christmas Lights
| As October comes to a close, it's looking less and less likely to happen, but I'm still holding out hope that Husband and I will be in our own place by Christmas. Whether or not our Christmas wish comes true, I want us to aim to have an environmentally-conscious holiday season. There's a lot of talk in the personal finance blogosphere about switching out incandescent lightbulbs to CFLs in order to reduce both energy costs and environmental impact. So it makes sense to also look at alternatives to incandescent Christmas lights. One such alternative is LED Christmas lights, which look just as pretty while using 90% less energy than incandescents. They're safer, too, seeing as they don't get nearly as hot as the old-fashioned variety. Growing up, artificial trees were de rigueur in my family, so one thing I'm definitely looking forward to is the day I have space for a real, live Christmas tree. I love the suggestion in this article, 9 Things You Can Do To Make Your Holidays Greener, to use a live tree that you can re-plant in your yard come spring. It has some other great suggestions, too, some of which I've already been doing for years--more for frugality's sake than that of the planet--like skipping cards or tags and just writing names directly on the package. Here I thought I was just being cheap; turns out I was also reducing waste. I really, really hope we can celebrate the holiday in our very own house this year; but even if we're stuck spending another Christmas in our two-room attic, we can enjoy the challenge of having ourselves a Green Christmas. Labels: disclosure, green, PPP |
<$Wednesday, October 10, 2007$>
BP Decathlon
I've been pretty impressed with BP's efforts lately to be more responsible and environmentally conscious. They seem to be honestly committed to the effort to find and develop alternative sources of energy and to promoting environmental awareness. The latest example of such is the BP Solar Decathlon, a semi-annual event hosted by the Department of Energy that pits 20 university teams against each other in the quest to design and build the most livable, efficient and entirely solar-powered house. This year's event takes place in Washing, D.C., starting tomorrow and running through next Friday. If you're in the DC area, it sounds like it could be a lot of fun to stop by and check out. I'll be following updates in the hopes of getting ideas for when we finally have a house of our own—when that happens I'd love for us to go solar-powered as much as possible. I think it's both commendable and a sad commentary on the industry that BP is the only energy company sponsoring this event. It makes me wish BP stations were more widespread and accessible in my part of the country. I'd be happy to give my gas money to them instead of to the greedy oil giants who seem to be parked on every corner here. Labels: disclosure, green, PPP |
<$Tuesday, September 4, 2007$>
Energy Policy TV
| *Sponsored Post* I have a confession. Throughout most of my adult life, I haven't been very politically-minded, nor have I made it much of a point to stay informed on what's going on in the world around me. I've always been pretty content to keep to my own little corner of the world, and it's hard enough for me to keep up with that, let alone with a global conscience. But all of that seems to be changing as I get older. On a selfish note, much of that has to do with my position among the indebted and indentured middle class, and looking to help effect changes that will improve my class condition. I've been making an effort toward going green, but a big incentive is that "going green" often lines up nicely with "being frugal." That it's also better for the planet is just a side bonus. I am making attempts to be more proactive, though, and to be aware of the bigger picture and ways that I can help to change it for the better. Energy Policy TV is helping me out with that by hosting video footage of press conferences, senate and congressional hearings, board meetings, and other gatherings of politicians and other people in power discussing climate change and what they're trying to do about it. This is information that will come in handy come election time. Right now I'm watching a video of the CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute giving an economic analysis of alternative energy resources. It's interesting stuff, and is helping to ignite an interest that sparked in me a few weeks ago, that being the possibility of going solar once Husband and I get our own home. It seems like it might be a costly investment up front, but one that would pay dividends in the long run, not only by cutting our energy bill, but also by helping reduce strain on resources. It would be great if discussions like this helped to make solar generators and other alternate-power sources more readily available to the general public. Labels: disclosure, green, PPP |
<$Thursday, July 26, 2007$>
Low Carbon Diet?
| Lazy Man points out something that never even occurred to me: buying and eating imported food contributes to carbon emissions. I mean, of course it does. That food doesn't just fly or float over here by itself. I never would have thought of this fact on my own, though. It's something I'll try to be more conscious of in the future. Although I doubt it will convince Husband to give up his love of imported beer any time soon. Labels: green, healthy living |
<$Tuesday, July 17, 2007$>
Freebies & Greenies
| In my perusal of the personal finance community, I've noticed a general interest in keeping things Green. I've also noticed a propensity for liking free stuff. Well, yes, of course, because who doesn't like free stuff? Like free graphic design, for example? The Thinking Blog, run by graphic design artist Ilker Yoldas, is holding a contest: review Ilker's blog for a chance to win a free re-design for your own blog. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but my template could use a pick-me-up, and I have neither the time, tools or know-how to do my own, nor the dosh to hire someone to do it for me. So this is one prize I would be beyond thrilled to win. As for the blog itself, The Thinking Blog is an interesting and ecclectic mix of posts on topics ranging from science & technology to the environment to Web 2.0 socialization, all designed to make you think. Ilker also offers up info and reviews on environment-, wallet- and declutterer-friendly sites such as SwitchPlanet. Best yet, if you love to get in on the ground floor and beta-test new start-ups (or if you just like the bragging rights associated with being among the first users), she also freely offers invitations to hot new start-ups. Besides looking fabulous, with a design that's clean and readable while still being visually interesting, The Thinking Blog is a neat resource for finding some pretty neat stuff. I'll definitely be adding it to my daily reads. Even if I don't win that free blog do-over. ;) |