Crafty DIY in 2011

I was thinking this morning of some things that I want to do make/do in 2011, especially around my house. Since we have lived here for over a year I want to go crazy, or maybe just get stuff done. Here is my "to do" list:

-Reupholster Chairs: I have a set of neat arm chairs that were given to us a year ago. I have one completely ripped apart and ready to go but I have to get over my fear of calling an upholsterer and asking if I can buy some foam. It sounds easy enough but I have a fear of getting phone-chewed out.

-Paint the Stairwells: The base paint that they use on the walls in new home also acts as a magnet for greasy fingerprints. Enough said.

-Make reusable produce bags: I posted about these bags before but I REALLY need to do this! They are awesome!

-Make reusable snack bags: The awesomeness is overwhelming!

-Build this desk for the bedroom nook: We have a distinct lack of furniture in our bedrooms. While I would like to call it minimalism it really is just lack of resources. So, off to the lumber yard! Maybe this can be Andrew's spring break project?

-Maybe if we get really ambitious we can make this headboard?

-Wallpaper the powder room: Does anyone have any suggestions for a place to get nice wallpaper that doesn't look frumpy? I am a huge fan of wallpapering small spaces.

Being a Conscious Consumer

What does being a conscious consumer mean, anyway? According to the New American Dream it means making informed choices about what we buy and how we consume. But what does it REALLY mean to you? Being "poor," i.e. lacking very much (if any) discretionary income, Andrew and I are always looking for ways to save. There are some amazing crunchy people, and non-crunchy people, I know that have found ingenious ways to save money, spend wisely, and reduce their waste.

Take Lindsay for example: even living in New York City, one of the most expensive places to live in the USA, she managed to set a goal of spending only $150 dollars a month on groceries to feed two adults, and well, I might add. How did you do it, Lindsay and are you still doing it?

One of the things I like to do is to use reusable grocery bags. They aren't very expensive and I get .05 off per bag at Smith's grocery store. It isn't a huge thing, but if you use 10 bags, which I easily do on my bi-weekly shopping trips, I get .50 back. That is $1 a month and since these bags usually cost $1 each you will recoup your cost in just 10 months and have these bags for a lot longer than that.

Or you could be like TopHat: Take the challenge to ditch the disposables. I cloth diaper and I try to limit how many disposables I use but, gosh darn it, it is tough! One of my crunchy friends, Brighton Woman, doesn't use ANY disposables! Her family is an all-cloth bunch. It helps that she is amazing at sewing, although, I doubt that even if I do learn to sew that I will ever stop using TP or Kleenex.

Reduce, reuse, recycle! One of the best ways I have found to be Green and save lots of money is the 3R's, especially when it comes to buying things like children's clothes, books, etc. Buying used is often just as good and SO much cheaper. I learned this lesson in college when just the thought of buying costly textbooks at the beginning of the semester made me feel sick. I saw a great post this week on someones blog (can't remember whose it was!) about fixing up garage sale finds for her son's b-day and it ended up saving the mom $200 over buying all the stuff new! Anyone who has kids knows how quickly they grow out of clothes, which is why garage sales, craigslist, freecycle, consignment stores and thrift stores are such great things. Most of the kids clothes are in great shape and they will cost you a lot less. Things I will not buy used: underwear, bedding, or shoes (unless I know the source).

That is all for now, but if you have great ideas on things you do to be a conscious/savy consumer, post a message and share! Plus for fun you can check out Living Green Below Your Means.

And for my first post: Just another reason why Walmart is going to Hell

What does one write on a blog... well I want to write about stuff I am passionate about and since I have been pregnant that happens to be saving the world, one green step at a time. So in one of these small steps Andrew and I decided to buy reusable grocery bags. I was inspired by an article I read about Ireland and how much less pollution they have thanks to a national "bag tax" which makes the free plastic grocery bags that we take for granted very not free in Ireland. So basically everyone in Ireland now has their own reusable grocery bags and everyone is happy. For more on this: http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=20

Now to why Walmart is going to Hell. Shopping at Walmart is already an irritating experience but it always drove me nuts how they would just give you a ton of plastic bags because the cashiers are not well trained in bagging groceries. Such waste! Well, today we tried out our handy bags and met with a near disaster. The cashier was VERY unwilling to accomodate us even though we bagged our own groceries! What on earth?! Basically she rung up our groceries so fast she made it impossible for us to bag the groceries so we ended up just throwing everything back into the cart and bagging it when we got to the car. Apparently we are not the only people Walmarts employees have done this to as other reusable baggers have told us. So why the rudeness? Does Walmart train its employees to shun the reusable bagger? Well, in any case I believe we shall keep trying to be reusable baggers at Walmart until we have the money to shun Walmart entirely. I look forward to that day.