Frugally Green » Clothing

How to Add a Little Green to Your Halloween

Tyler — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:00:08 +0000

There is something more terrifying about Halloween than all the ghosts, ghouls, and goblins of the world running amuck for one frightful night – the price tag of doing so. Every year, Americans spend an average of $4.75 billion on Halloween costumes and decorations, with each participating person spending around $56.31. Also, costume manufacturers rely on huge profit margins during the holiday season. So, the costumes you buy probably won’t survive the holiday, and they will probably be over-priced.

While parents might feel just fine “throwing something together” for their office party, children can be very sensitive about homemade costumes. They want to be their favorite movie character and impress, or at least blend in, with their friends.

So, we’re not suggesting gluing a cotton ball to your child’s rear end, calling her a bunny and sending her on her merry way. But there are many ways that you can add a little green to your holidays this year.

Compromise With Your Children or Yourself

There’s something about the psychology of wearing a store bought costume and, as much as your frugally focused mind might not want to admit it, you have to compromise with your children to get them on board. But this doesn’t mean that you have to go out and buy an expensive full costume. Especially with movie Halloween costumes, there’s usually one defining piece of the costume that makes the whole thing come together. So, you might consider buying the one defining piece at the store and frugally handling the rest. For example:

Leonidas from 300 – The Spartan Helmet
Jason from Friday the 13th – The Hockey Mask
Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean – The Pirate Hat

Always think of ways to cover both ends of the problem with Halloween costumes. While you might want to save money on your Halloween costumes, there’s nothing wrong with purchasing a single item for your child to help preserve their self esteem.

Holiday Costumes Entirely From Scratch

There are also movie costumes that can be made entirely from scratch with a bit of ingenuity, like:

Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harry Potter from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz
Woody from Toy Story 2

For portions of a costume (or entire costumes) that you would like to treat frugally, use the following techniques to put together costumes that look good, without requiring you to shell out that $56.31.

Make a list of what you need: Ask your child (or yourself, of course) what he or she would like to be for the upcoming holiday. Ask him or her to make a list of the possibilities. Then, use these to start on your own list. Find a picture of the character and start making a list of all the items that make the costume come together. For example, if you want to be Jack Sparrow, you might make the following list:

Pirate Hat
Red Bandana
Long Black Wig (with multicolored beads)
Black Makeup
White Shirt
Blue Vest
Belt with Large Buckle
White and Brown Sash
Brown Pants
Black Boots (or spats)
Sword and Sheath

You now have a shopping list (or scavenger list) for all of the costume items. If you have multiple people to dress up, consider convincing them to wear complimentary costumes (like a vampire and his victim) to cut down on both costs and shopping time. Take this list and a picture of the character with you as you hunt for the necessary items.

Check your own closet first: You’d be surprised what you can find in the forgotten depths of your own closet. A loose white shirt can easily become part of Jack Sparrow’s ensemble. That old berry picking basket would be perfect for Dorothy or Little Red Riding Hood.

Visit the local thrift shops: Thrift shops are obviously a gold mine for Halloween costumes. While you would never wear or own a frilly white shirt, for example, you might be able to find one at the thrift store. Keep an eye out for extra items that you didn’t think of in the first place too. For example, you might find some garish rings that look like the ones Jack Sparrow wears in the movies. But be careful – it can be easy to accidentally spend much more money than you anticipated at the thrift store. Sometimes you can even end up going over the original store-bought budget.

Alter existing items: If you have a hard time finding one item, consider using a bit of creativity to make another one work. You might not find boots that fit you for your costume. But, by cutting out the bottoms, you can make some spats to wear over normal black shoes. This works best with boots that don’t have laces. Along the same lines, if you can’t find a cheap whip for your Indiana Jones costume, consider simply wrapping a piece of rope in a loop on your belt. It doesn’t have to be a fully functioning whip to be an effective accessory. If all else fails, try just going without. Can you look like Captain Sparrow without donning a black wig?

Take advantage of seasonal sales: If you just can’t get creative, ask around to see if anyone has old Halloween costumes in their attics. Or, buy your costumes right after the holiday, when they are priced up to 80% off. This tactic is best for costume accessories rather than whole costumes (children grow out of clothes quickly). Also, you very well might find yourself wearing that Indiana Jones hat to keep the sun out of your eyes while you work in the garden during the year – giving you an extra bonus.

Make Soap, Save Dough

Tyler — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:00:29 +0000

There are lots of ways to save the planet and tons of ways to be environmentally correct. And everyone wants a good deal, so how about combining the two?

If you’ve chosen to live an eco-friendly lifestyle, and you want to save some money in the process, one of the easiest ways to do so is by making your own laundry detergent. You can mix up a batch that’s liquid or powdered on the cheap, and keep it safe for the planet.

If you’ve ever read the label of your detergent, you’ll find things like alkyl phenoxy polyethoxy ethanols, diethanolamines and subtilisin. Aside from the fact that no one can pronounce these toxins, they’re bad for the environment. When you make your own detergent, you know it’s better for the planet and for your family�not to mention your wallet.

Aside from the harmful ingredients, a recent report by Consumer Reports found that many of the mass-produced and so-called green cleansers on the market aren’t doing the job. So it may be your best bet to just make your laundry detergent yourself.

The recipe for liquid laundry detergent:

1 quart boiling water
2 cups grated bar soap
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda

Turn the heat down to low. Add the finely-grated soap to the boiling water and stir until the soap is melted. Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the borax and soda. Stir well until dissolved.

Keep the pail covered, or you can transfer it to smaller containers. Use 1/4 cup per load of laundry. Be sure to stir the soap before each use, since the mixture will gel.

The recipe for powdered laundry detergent:

2 cups finely grated soap
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax

Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

If you’ve got hard water, add a half cup of baking soda or vinegar to the wash. For tough stains, pre-soak your laundry with one cup hot water, a half cup each of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, then wash as usual.

If you do choose to make your own detergent, keep in mind that:

You can use Fells-Naptha, Ivory Soap, Sunlight bar soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile and Zote brands. Don’t use a heavily-perfumed soap.
Washing soda and borax can be found in the cleaning and laundry aisles at your local grocery store.
Save a couple of your old store-bought laundry detergent bottles to store your homemade soap in.
If you find the soap isn’t rinsing clean from your clothing, or if you find a soapy buildup in your washer or hoses, add some vinegar in a fabric softener ball with each wash.

This guest article is courtesy of AmericanOneUnsecured.com. They help consumers obtain unsecured personal loans and a variety of other unsecured loan solutions that are available nationwide.

10 Tips to Save Money and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Tyler — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:00:17 +0000

The economy and environment are at the forefront of our minds as governments the world over look for ways to improve the health of both, and as individuals, we try to make the financial and environmental aspects of our lives more comfortable. There are plenty of simple ways you can save money and the environment at the same time around your home, from making your own cleaning products to avoiding aerosol cans. However, if you want to make a real, measurable difference, you need to look beyond the obvious frugal tactics, and consider these 10 financially and environmentally life changing ideas.

1 � Eat less meat

Most nutritionists will tell you that cutting down on eating meat is better for your health, and the spend at the butcher would easily be the biggest portion of most family budgets each week. Therefore, with so many benefits already, the fact that eating less meat is also good for the environment is a bonus.

Research has shown that if we all ate less meat, we could reduce the cost of fighting climate change by $20 trillion. This research takes into account the consumption of beef and pork, and if land was not needed to farm these animals, vegetation would be able to thrive in these areas. Even though additional farmland would be needed to grow the alternatives to meat, less space would be required than is used to farm meat producing animals.

As well as the extra vegetation which would be allowed to grow, millions of tonnes of methane would be saved thanks to reduced emissions from farms. This would negate the need for expensive carbon saving technologies such as clean coal power plants. The methane is also released from the animals themselves, where cows in particular release methane when flatulent, and as their manure decays.

You wouldn�t need to give up eating meat all together, and instead need to look at how meat can accompany other foods, rather than be the star of every meal. If the global population were to eat a low meat diet of 70 grams of beef and 325 grams of chicken and eggs per week , 15 million square metres of farmland could be used for more vegetation to absorb more carbon dioxide. The farmland could also be used to grow bio energy crops which could replace fossil fuels.

2 � Downsize your home

It is easy to think that you need a big house with a games room, three bathrooms, a separate study, guest room and formal dining room. However, if you were to downsize your home to accommodate your family in a bedroom each and one or two living areas you will be able to not only save money on mortgage repayments, heating and cooling costs but you�ll also find more time to spend together as a family for a richer lifestyle outside of your bank account too.

Plus, even if you do remember to turn the lights off when you leave the room, turn the air conditioner up in summer and down in winter and turn off your standby appliances, when your home and living areas are smaller and more compact, you are using less power in less space, and producing fewer emissions.

3 � Look in your own backyard

Your own backyard presents numerous opportunities to be frugal, for example, growing your own vegetables and collecting rainwater for use in the garden and in your home. However, as you�re saving money in your backyard, you can also be landscaping in an environmentally sensitive way to reduce your carbon footprint.

To design a backyard which is affordable to maintain, and also beneficial to the environment around it:

Design your yard so it requires little or no mowing so you can get rid of your petrol powered lawn mower.
Plant varieties which are native to your area and so require little to no watering or fertiliser.
Research companion planting so you can grow your garden without using harmful chemicals, and can instead use natural ecosystems to control bugs.
Make your backyard a relaxing and inviting place to be and you and your family will be able to enjoy evenings and weekends at home together and save on costly family outings.

4 � Renovate instead of moving

In many cases, reusing materials from old properties and refurbishing existing homes can save more carbon dioxide than building a new home. For example, the construction of a new house generates approximately 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide; however, the renovation of an existing home emits just 15 tonnes.

Plus, there is often little difference between the performance of an old house, compared to a new one, and it can take decades for the operational savings of a newer more energy efficient home to offset the carbon emitted during its construction. As a result, there is almost no difference in the average emissions of a new house, compared to a refurbished house over a 50 year period.

Therefore, while it is more environmentally friendly to renovate your existing home, compared to building a new home from scratch, it can also be much more affordable. When you renovate a home there are many materials you can reuse, even if not in their original capacity, for example, structural timbers taken out to open up a living area could split and sanded to be used for floorboards, a kitchen bench top or a dining table.

5 � Build a new sustainable home

If you don�t have a home you can renovate, building your own home is often more affordable, and better value than buying established where you are paying for landscaping and all of those expensive finishing touches, which might not all be to your liking anyway.

Instead, you can plan for a sustainable and energy efficient new home, which will be affordable and environmentally friendly to build and to run. You can do this by:

Choosing a passive design. If you can get the design of your home to work to heat and cool your home, then you can save yourself turning on the air conditioning and heating. For example, using glass in measured architectural designs can mean warmth is admitted in the cooler months, and kept out during the summer months with modern glazing methods.
Heating and cooling ratings. When you purchase the heating and cooling system for your new home, look at its energy star rating as the more stars it has, the more energy efficient it is to run. Another environmentally and financially friendly option is to choose a ducted system, with individually controlled vents, which allows for the system to be turned off in any room which is not being used.
Solar or gas hot water. Solar and gas hot water systems are the two most energy efficient systems to heat the water in your home, and you can make your unit even more efficient by insulating around your hot water pipes � the first two metres from the hot water system in particular. You can also choose a hot water system based on its Renewable Energy Certificate which determines the performance of the system � the more RECs the better the system.
Lighting. In your new home, make sure you install energy saving light bulbs, and choose the lowest wattage you can for an area to save power. Also, while down lights have become very fashionable in new homes, try and avoid them when building as you will need a lot to light up a room, and a lot of heat can be lost through the holes in the ceiling where the lights are housed.
Solar power. When you build a new home, consider running it on solar power from the beginning as panels on your roof can collect enough sunlight and convert enough electricity to power your home, and have power left over to send back into the grid to power other homes and businesses.

6 � Your free time is free

If you are looking for ways to save the environment, and some money, start by looking at home � and staying there. Spending time with your family at home or around your neighbourhood can reduce your carbon footprint, and save you money in fuel and long distance family holidays. Consider the emissions you would produce going on long road trips or towing a caravan around the state, or even towing your boat down to the shore. Instead, find affordable holiday destinations closer to home, or rent a caravan at a caravan park when you arrive, instead of using gallons of fuel to tow your own, or fish from a jetty or the beach instead of towing your boat to the ocean, and then burning fuel all day out on the water.

7 � Creative clothes shopping

Have you ever looked at every item in your closet and thought about how many times you�ve worn it? Chances are that while you have your favourites, there are dozens of pieces which you�ve only worn once or twice, and others you haven�t worn at all. So the next time you see a skirt on sale, or a pair of shoes you think would be perfect for your son, think of all the clothing, materials, time and money which have already gone to waste in your wardrobe, and consider whether this really is a smart purchase.

To reduce the impact of your clothing purchases, look for more creative ways to expand your family�s wardrobe. For example, if you get together with friends to swap hand-me-downs, it doesn�t matter if your daughter doesn�t like the top you chose for her, because it is being reused, not wasted from new.

8 � Stop using your car

This doesn�t mean you have to start walking everywhere � although you would certainly be able to save on a gym membership � but instead, simply consider whether you really need to drive to where you�re going. With a little planning and organisation, you can cut down your vehicle usage, and save on the wear and tear of your car, fuel costs, and fuel emissions.

For example, make a list before you go shopping so you don�t have to go back to the supermarket for forgotten items, wait to go to the post office until it is time to pick up the kids from school so you can make one trip.

Your family may even be able to look at getting rid of a second car with some organisation and timetable scheduling.�You might even donate a car to charity�to help transition the process.”

9 � Switch your car�s fuel

Petrol is one of the most expensive and environmentally damaging fuels you can be running your car on, and if you are able to convert your car to gas or to run on bio-ethanol, the financial and environmental savings can be worth the investment. If you are already looking at buying a new car, consider the fuel it runs on as a priority, right up there next to power windows and Bluetooth, and look for vehicles which produce less harmful emissions running on alternative fuels such as ethanol, hydrogen, electricity and even diesel.

10 � Save your paperwork

Whether you run your own business, work from home, are part of a corporate office environment or are just looking at the contents of your home filing system, you are probably surrounded by paperwork. Curbing your paper use is just one way you can save money and the environment in your office and you can start by:

Printing double sided when you print documents, or reusing old printed pages.
Having bills sent electronically, rather than posted as paper printouts, you also often save several dollars for receiving electronic bills and bank statements.
Making notes electronically on your computer desktop, your email manager or your smartphone to save on note paper and Post-its.
Think twice and three times before you print a document or email.
Organise the files on your computer for easy access to electronic documents as this will retrain you to search electronically for the information you need, so you can avoid printed copies of your work.

Alban is a personal finance writer at Home Loan Finder, a home loan comparison site.

It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living

Tyler — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:00:09 +0000

A few years ago, a gal named Crissy Trask noticed that everywhere she went, people she met were excited and interested in the green movement.� Everyone was talking about how important it is to live responsibly and be mindful of the earth.� Then she realized that all these people that seemed so gung-ho about an environmentally friendly life weren�t actually doing anything about it.

After a bit of research and asking around, Crissy realized that the people in her life were excited and interested in the prospects of a cleaner, more sustainable world, but didn�t really know what they could do to help or even where to go to find out what they could do.� That�s when she decided to write It�s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living.

Who should read this book: If you�re relatively new to the concept of sustainability, need some help navigating the lingo, or looking for some help figuring out what types of pursuits might fit your lifestyle, this book can offer some guidance as well as references that you can continually look back to.

Who shouldn�t read this book: If you�re looking for a matter-of-fact guide to tell you what to do, then this book isn�t for you.� Also, if you�re looking for playful storytelling, this book won�t be a good fit � it�s very middle-of-the-road in its presentation.

It�s Easy Being Green is just what it says it is, a handbook.� In fact, I prefer to think of it more as a reference manual as it is filled with definitions of commonly heard (but often misunderstood) terms from around the greenoshphere (I just made that word up so no, it�s not included in the handbook) as well as tons of external resources to get you going in the direction you want once you�ve read it and decided what that direction might be.

The real value in this book, in my opinion, is the 59 page list of tips (organized by topic) that allow you to define a roadmap of things you will do to improve your eco-footprint.� At 59 pages, it�s a bit cumbersome, but it�s really comprehensive.� Here�s how you use it (This process is also described in the book):

Read through all the tips, one at a time, making a check in the 3^rd box next to it if it sounds interesting to you.
Go through the list again, looking only at the tips you identified as interesting and place a check mark in the 2^nd box if you feel it�s something you�d actually like to pursue.
One by one, go through each tip and begin to accomplish them, giving yourself a time frame to complete each one.� To avoid overload, don�t focus on more than one item at a time.� Give each your full attention.
Using the 1^st box next to each tip, give yourself a rating of 1-5 to identify how you feel you performed implementing it.
Start over at step 1.

This section of the book has the ability to turn into a living document as you fill it out and pursue the tips you identified.� Once you�re done, you might find it useful to go back and look over all the ones you chose, implemented, and scored yourself on.� You�ll probably find that you performed a lot better in certain areas than others.� It might help you to prioritize your green pursuits going forward.

I should also mention that Crissy understands that her audience likes to buy stuff as she includes 2 chapters in her book titled Buying Green and Green Shopping Online. Personally, I prefer the Don�t Buy Stuff method to getting through life, but that�s not exactly realistic and it�s important to know how to make the best choices when you need to purchase something, so I�m glad she covered it thoroughly.

Crissy also writes a chapter titled Getting Involved where she provides numerous tips and resources for easy ways to connect with organizations that promote sustainability in areas you may be interested in.

Overall, I can�t say that It�s Easy Being Green was a great fit for me.� I feel like I�m slightly beyond the level of material that was presented, but I do appreciate all the external references provided.� I�ve written down a number of them that I will eventually check out to see if they could fit into my pursuits. But like I said earlier, if you�re just starting out or need help finding direction, you might find a lot of guidance from this handbook – especially from the 59 page worksheet.

~~~~~~

If you enjoyed this post,� please share it with your friends, leave a comment, or subscribe to get free updates.

Eco Dry Cleaning: Spiff Up Your Clothes and the Environment

Tyler — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:00:32 +0000

Ever since we terrestrials decided long ago to cover our loins with leaves, we’ve been on a mission to set ourselves apart with our clothing.� If you work in a professional environment, dress code or not, you’ve likely found yourself the proud (or frustrated) owner of at least a few “dry clean only” garments.� Myself?� I do everything I can to avoid them for simplicity’s sake, but I do admit to owning a few pairs of pants that must be cleaned by a “professional.”

Once every few months (I don’t wear them often), I begrudgingly gather up these pants and march down the street to the local dry cleaner.� Little did I know, the main ingredient in this process is a chemical called perchloroethylene or, more affectionately abbreviated, “perc.”� Turns out, perc is a nasty toxin, classified as a Group 2A carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.� In other words, it’s likely carcinogenic to humans.� We already know it does nasty things to fish and other wildlife, causes skin irritations for many people, and is heavy enough to seep under the water table, making it a soil contaminant that is very difficult to clean.� Did you know you might live next door to a future Superfund site?

Enter the Eco Cleaner

Given my increased awareness of these sorts of issues and an intense desire to avoid itchy legs, I decided to take my bi-annual load of dry clean only pants to a new eco-friendly shop that just opened up a few more blocks away.� They call themselves ecodrycleaner and shops just like them seem to be popping up all over the country.� They bill themselves as sustainable for these reasons:

Their cleaning solution is a liquid silicone that breaks down into water, CO2, and sand – no potentially harmful chemicals involved.

Their newer, efficient equipment allows them to harvest and recycle cleaning solution so that very little is wasted in the process.

They offset their electricity needs with investment in renewable energy.

Recycling of metal hangers, cuff clips, collar supports, and poly garment bags is heavily encouraged and promoted through their customer recycling program.

They reduce auto emissions by offering a free pick-up and delivery service that maximizes the efficiency of car trips to their business.

After chatting with the girl at the counter for a bit, she handed me my receipt and I was impressed to see that the cost was pretty comparable to other dry cleaners I’ve used around town.� I suppose they might be better able to compete by being able to reuse more solution (most traditional dry cleaning shops I’ve frequented have pretty antiquated equipment) and by cutting costs on new expendables by encouraging their patrons to drop off� unneeded hangers, garment bags, and other accessories.

Either way, now that I know that they exist and are competitively priced , I’ll continue to give my business to ecodrycleaner for my bi-annual laundry dump.

Cut down on your trips to the cleaner

At this point, you might be wondering how I manage to make such infrequent trips to the cleaners.� Like I said above, I have very few dry clean only garments and I don’t wear them all that often, but I also wash them myself from time to time.� That’s right, if it isn’t stained and just needs to be “freshened up,” I’ll hand wash an item to prevent a trip to the dry cleaners.

You might be surprised to know that many clothing manufacturers will label a piece as dry clean only when delicate hand washing is more than adequate.� This is a marketing tactic they use because people are more likely to buy something they perceive to be less work to maintain.� Turns out, most people consider going to the dry cleaner less work than hand washing.� Now, you can’t do this with every item and different materials will require different types of care, but for many typical garments, some delicate elbow grease will do the trick.� Check out this article for a more in depth explanation of how you can care for your dry clean only clothes.

All in all, we should act within our means whenever possible to reduce our impact on the environment.� This is especially true when alternatives to what we are used to exist but require just a small investment of time to discover and implement.� By rejecting the status-quo and committing ourselves to life long learning, we will continuously improve ourselves and the world around us.