Three strategies for a greener, simpler, happier holiday

Revisiting a bustling mall makes me think about the environmental impact of holiday shopping but it also makes me think about human resources that are eaten up by excessive shopping. (And I say “excessive” because I am in no way an extremist, as you all know.) On this blog, a message I hear repeatedly from my readers is how important friends, families and pets are to our happiness and well-being.  Spending time with the people we care about is obviously a crucial component to our happiness and, without a doubt, the best frugal luxury there is.  In a busy world, time with others, and time alone, has become a valuable commodity. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend less time shopping and more time just being?

In Amber’s post, she asks, “What green holiday traditions are you adopting?” Well, I have a few strategies to reduce environmental and financial costs, and make the holidays more meaningful and special to me:

1. Doin’ it DIY. I love making homemade gifts and homemade cards. There is nothing quite like crafting something that is tailor-made and perfectly suited to the recipient.  Seeing them actually use or consume the gift offers a particular thrill.

*homemade treats*

2. Innovative Packaging. Gifts become instantly more environmentally friendly when you package them yourself, especially when you use what you’ve already got around the house - think reusable glass mason jars, wire or wicker baskets, vintage tins, or - my favourite - “repurposed junk”. (Remember the tea box I made? You can find a tutorial I wrote on how to do it at Organizing Junkie.)

*once a tea box, now a gift box*

2. Thrift. I must admit, I owe a lot to Shopping GoLightly at The Thrifty Chicks.  This woman has opened my eyes to a whole new world.  And although I know that I’m preaching to the converted, I must just reiterate that thrift stores are not just full of fondue sets, massaging foot baths and harlequin romance novels.  You can find great vintage pieces for collectors, one-of-a-kind items and plenty of brand spanking new in-the-box items, sometimes with the tags still on.  You get to decide whether your favourite part of thrifting is that it is environmentally friendly, saving you gobs of money, supporting local charities, or providing you with the thrill of the hunt.

*a vintage find for my table - pretty, embroidered napkins*

Shopping GoLightly also reminds us that to be known and understood is the true gift - in this post, Ms. GoLightly responds to a comment I made on her blog, and reminds me (and all of us) that a gift, whether homemade, thrifted, or bought retail, means the most when it is meant to enhance a person’s authentic self:

The act of taking time to truly listen to me, observe me and truly know me is, in essence the gift, not necessarily the object. That’s the part that sets tears in my eyes. To feel, in this wide world, there is someone who has taken the time to truly know me and wants me to continue on as myself and not be swayed.

*life in the beach, last December; expectations for a different kind of year ahead*

Calculating carbon: a frugal household is a green household

Shopping Golightly at The Thrifty Chicks encourages us to count carbon, just as we count calories. I wish I could take a literal approach to her idea. In particular, I wish there was a really good carbon footprint calculator out there that would let us track our monthly or yearly progress.  Sure, carbon footprint calculators are easily found on the internet, but most of them are too simplistic to give an accurate, complete picture.  A good many of them are only accessible to United States citizens, but even those that are applicable to Canadians are limited to calculating factors like transportation, gas, electricity and so on.  I have yet to find one that takes a variety of lifestyle choices into consideration.  Tracking progress and seeing results is such an important component to success; whether we’re talking about dieting, saving money, or putting extra hours in at work, we need to know that what we are doing is making a difference. It helps us to stay motivated.

I’m starting to wonder about what kind of inadvertent (positive) effect my frugal choices have had on the environment.  For example, I thrift instead of buying retail - in fact, during the last 6 months, I’ve only purchased three items of clothing from retail stores - the rest of my purchases have been made at thrift stores. I eat vegetarian about 80% of the time.  I usually drink coffee at home instead of buying out. I use the Garden Fresh Box program and frequently shop directly from market vendors or farms, which means that the bulk of my produce is local, and I rarely require plastic bags.  After learning a few tricks from my readers, I have reduced my electricity consumption and now air dry most of my laundry and dishes, avoiding the drying cycle in the dishwasher altogether.   After my old clunker of a car kicked the bucket, I bought a new, more efficient vehicle.  These are more obvious choices that help to reduce environmental impact - but what about waste reduction in the kitchen? My efforts to create a DIY-kitchen, with homemade foods of all kinds - including snacks, cereals, sauces, and junk food - means that I am less prone to buy ready-made food products that come a box, can, or plastic wrapping. In fact, I used to rely on a lot of pre-packaged, often individually-wrapped, wasteful products, which I now make from scratch.  What kind of impact is this having? Although it might be small, I wouldn’t doubt that the accumulation of this kind of living has got to make some kind of an impact over time.

Included in the carbon footprint calculator should be a question related to how many pets you have and what type.  I recently read in The Star that feeding a medium sized dog for one year has twice the environmental impact of driving a luxury SUV for 10,000 kilometres.  I must say that I question the research behind this finding - according to the article, the researchers “based their calculations on the amount of acreage needed to sustain the dog’s diet of 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals in a year.”  But most dog food, if I’m not mistaken, does not use “meat”, it uses animal by-products. By-products include the leftover feet, necks, intestines and other “nasty bits” that are not considered usable meat.  So although it obviously takes energy to grind and process the by-products, we should not count the total amount of energy required to raise livestock.  The livestock would be raised for other purposes anyway - if we didn’t use the by-products for dog food, it would probably be thrown away.  This, I’m guessing, significantly reduces our pets’ carbon pawprints, so don’t feel too guilty about having your pet just yet.  Nevertheless, it is still another mouth to feed, and if we want to be realistic, we would want to include our pets as part of our households. So far I’ve yet to see a calculator that takes a dog or cat into account.

Which brings me to a final rant, ahem, point.  Pets are worth having. Children are worth having. I hate it when we get into these debates about whether or not we should just kill each other or off ourselves in order to save the planet. The point, I think, is that we need to rethink our values.  My frugal philosophy is to reduce waste and focus my financial resources on lifestyle choices that are consistent with my values.  Likewise, animals and families are worth fighting for - we don’t want or need to eliminate them altogether; quite the contrary.  The whole point of environmental sustainability is to keep on living, and living joyfully.  We need to sacrifice the things that matter less in order to keep the things that matter.

A frugal household, it seems, is a greener, less wasteful household.  I’d like to find a way to track just how much less wasteful it is.

A new career, a new office

Last weekend, I cleaned out my office.  

Wait, I should back up. Many of you know that when I moved, I had plans of starting my own business. This did not come to fruition for a few reasons, and I ended up looking for full-time work instead. Although I am armed with a great education and experience in my field, finding work was not so easy. I felt the impact of the recession first hand and have spent the last 7 months unemployed.  But I was the busiest unemployed person you could find, constantly applying for jobs, meeting with everyone in my field I could, and often working pro-bono for them, just to get a foot in the door. All the networking and volunteering I’ve done has actually led to something new.  Bit by bit, I am starting my own business - beginning with freelance consulting work. I know there is potential on the horizon for a new small business idea to turn into a reality as I’m already seeing a lot of interest from people in the community.  Actually, lots of communities. I will be vague about it for now, but I am excited about the plethora of opportunities that I think this fall and winter will bring. 

So, I need to make some changes. Changes to the way I budget, changes to my financial plans in general, and changes to my financial record keeping. I have to think a lot about how to budget and make spending/saving plans without a consistent income. I have to keep careful records for tax purposes. I have to find a good way of organizing my time.  And I have to budget my time, and keep track of my time so I know what projects are paying me a good return on my investment, and also so that I know when I deserve to have a break (when I manage my own time I tend to feel as though I should always be working, and I want to be able to say - “I’ve worked X hours this week, so I deserve to take Sunday off”.)

First things first, I reorganized my office. Er, that is, I organized my office.

Here’s the before picture - how embarrassing! The entire desk had turned into a “do it later” dumping ground over the last couple of months.

After: Much better! And I’ve managed to keep it perfectly organized all week. 

(Can you spot Gail?)

By the way, cats *love* it when you do this kind of reorganizing. Everything is a game.

I’d also been keeping some packaging materials around thinking that they would come in handy for reorganizing, and they did! For example, I discovered that boxes containing cotton swabs are actually perfect for storing delicate paint brushes.

Do you work from home? Are you self-employed? How do you keep organized?

The Cereal Box Organizer

I know many of you must be wondering where Saver Queen went! I didn’t intend to go so long without blogging, but this summer has been a busy one! As a result I have a huge stack of blog posts written in my head, full of interesting crafts, recipes and frugal and fun activities.  So I thought I’d start by sharing a little frugal craft I tried a while ago, courtesy of Martha Stewart and her post on the “cereal box organizer”.

Her site contains clear directions, so feel free to head over there if you need a better tutorial.  But the idea is pretty simple.  You take an empty cereal box (the jumbo size works best for magazines!) and cut it diagonally across the top so that it fits your magazines or papers. Cover with scrapbook paper, contact paper, wrapping paper, or make a collage like the one I made here with the tea box. Trim and secure using double sided glue or a glue stick.

After making these, the idea of actually paying money for those flimsy magazine holders seems ludicrous.  The cereal boxes are actually strong enough to hold even the heaviest of magazines, such as my collection of Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living magazines shown here. 

I love finding new ways that repurpose junk.  Environmentally sound, frugal crafts that actually help you to organize your home while adding charm and aesthetic appeal are really the best!

What junk have you repurposed lately?

The joys of an empty box of salt

What can you do with an empty box of salt? 

As it turns out… a lot!

I made this craft with an empty box of kosher salt.  Normally I would throw it away, but as you know, these days I am trying to repurpose junk to create a more organized home. I love giving a new purpose to stuff that would normally end up in my recycling bin.  It’s frugal, fun, and environmentally friendly!

Here’s how I did it:

First, I cut the top off in a diagonal direction.

Then I cut out pictures of Archie comics* and followed the same set of instructions that I provided in my guest post at I’m an Organizing Junkie on repurposing a tea box.  

Note: If you don’t want to destroy your old comic books, use comic strips from the newspaper.  I simply cut out the “gag bags” or other one-page stories that had advertisements on the back.  That way I didn’t ruin the entire comic.

I pasted the comics on to the box and then covered it with mac-tack, trimming and folding the edges carefully.

This little box was the perfect size and shape for the comic digests! And the box fits neatly onto a shelf. 

Believe it or not, I didn’t stop there. When you are cutting off the top of the box, save the spout! I taped it on to my box of baking soda to make it easier to pour. This spout will help me to measure out the exact amount of baking soda I actually need, instead of spilling it everywhere, so I will waste less.

With a little creativity, we can turn junk into really fun, attractive, useful items around the house. 

Have you repurposed anything lately?

*So now I have revealed that I am a Star Trek nerd, I might as well admit that I am a comic book geek too. *Sigh* What else will this blog reveal about me?  I haven’t even gotten started on my secret love for medieval themed board games.

A recycled kitchen

In a previous post titled Spicing Things Up, I wrote about ordering spices over the internet.  Since that time, most of my spices have remained in a big box, since I don’t have a spice rack in which to organize them.  A spice rack is not something I’m willing to buy, mostly because I don’t think it makes sense to buy items like glass jars that come for free with pasta sauces and other foods. 

This weekend I went through my cupboards looking for empty jars and adding homemade labels.  I found this cute one for Star Anise.

I also found empty Patak’s jars that were perfect for storing cinnamon sticks and homemade garam masala.  It was my first time making garam masala. My recipe for garam masala came from 1001 Indian Recipes and is very basic North Indian recipe, including ground cinnamon, black cardamom, green cardamom, black peppercorns, and cloves. 

The chili peppers were perfectly suited to this over-sized pickle jar.

I save all my empty spice jars, which of course work perfectly for loose spices. I also found that re-purposed yeast jars work well.  This one is holding whole brown mustard seed.

I also repurposed these little plastic containers.  They were filled with sweet potatoes when I bought them at the market. They have holes in the bottom, so they are perfect for planting flowers or herbs. 

I also found that they are useful for holding garlic or baking supplies in your cupboard.  

I also decided to take my antique oil & vinegar bottle out of the cupboard and actually use it.  I filled it with a good quality olive oil and added a few chili peppers to make a chili oil, perfect for drizzling over pizza.

I love adding beauty and efficiency to my kitchen at absolutely no cost to me or the environment.  Repurposing is so much fun and, in my opinion, adds a certain unique, rustic charm to your home.

Is there anything around your home that you have repurposed lately?

The simple beauty found in recyling

Lately I’ve been inspired by books such as A Guide to Green Housekeeping, by Christina Strutt, and Flea Market Style, by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead.  In both books, the authors emphasize that a key feature of living frugally and sustainably is reusing - and repurposing - old items. In particular, I noted the beauty of re-purposed glass; for example,Christina Strutt turns old jam jars into beautifully decorative and practical items for the home.

I was rather inspired to look inside my home for opportunities to pull out the little gems that may have been gathering dust in the back of my kitchen cupboards and actually use them to bring more beauty into my home at no extra cost.

The little jam jar (left) turned into a cute handle holder.  This jam jar was in fact used by my grandmother to can raspberry jam in 2007, so it has fresh sentimental value.  So do the little butter dishes (right) from my Nana’s antique collection.  These little butter dishes used to sit at formal dinners, holding a small pat of butter at each place setting.  I have four of them, and as it turns out, they are the perfect shape for tea lights.  

These frosty jars are great for keeping beers cold on a summer day.  But once defrosted, they could also easily be used for holding a few flowers, or perhaps candles as well.

But then again, they do their job with the beers pretty well.  These old fashioned mugs could probably be found pretty easily at flea markets.

I truly love the idea of re-purposing items found within your home to add beauty, as well as practicality, to a frugal life.  Of course, I love thrifting and antiquing, which is a great way to decorate a home at low cost and without contributing to any environmental stress.  But I also believe that the best way is to make do with what we already have.  Not only is it the most frugal and environmentally friendly way to go, it also reminds us of the abundance that already exists in our homes.  We can be self-sufficient while enjoying a bountiful, fulfilling, simple daily life.

Is there anything you have found in your home lately that you would like to re-use or re-purpose?

The carbon footprint of wine

Although I enjoy drinking fine frugal wines, I’ve never considered the carbon footprint of wine - until now.  According to Dr. Vino, National Geographic just published a diagram that illustrates the carbon footprint of wine by region.  

The results are a bit surprising - it shows that it is actually far better for a New Yorker to drink wine produced in France, Chili, or even Australia than in California.  Why? Because wine produced in the US is shipped by truck or plane, instead of boat.  The minute your wine gets onto a truck or a plane, the carbon emissions escalate. As a recent article in the NY times explains, glass is the main culprit, adding mass.  Wine stored in tetra-packs can be packed much more efficiently. However, as Josh pointed out to me, tetra-packs require more energy to recycle than glass.

The best solution is to drink local wines.  Living in Guelph means that my lowest carbon emitting wines would come from the Niagara region, Pelee Island, and the small wine producing region surrounding Port Perry.  I’m guessing that the next best solution would be to buy from New York State.  For international wines, France is probably the best choice.

Where does your wine come from? What is your preferable low-carbon emitting, frugal wine?

The cloth bag movement

As most of you have heard by now, the cloth bag movement has begun. As of yesterday, customers at Loblaws will have to pay 5 cents per plastic bag.  You can see the full article with Galen Weston, executive chairperson of Loblaw here, published in the Globe & Mail’s Report on Business, in the article “Memories of plastic”.

Apparently there has been some controversy around this subject but the protest seems silly to me.  In fact, Loblaws is going out of their way to help their customers make the transition.  For example, they offer a Green Bin borrowing program.  If you forget your cloth bags or Green Bin, you can add a fully refundable deposit to your bill and take one home with you for free.

If you live in Toronto, you can get a Green Bin FREE when you buy $25 or more worth of groceries - up until January 22 only. Follow the link to get the coupon. (Thanks to Frugal Freebies for that tip via twitter!)

Work the policy to your advantage: Loblaws is still offering 50 PC points for every Green Bin or Green Bag you bring in.  Last time we were there, they gave us points for our other cloth bags.  

Bringing cloth bags can be fun - there’s no need to stick to conventional bags designed just for carrying groceries.  I love my rock and roll cloth bags, which you can find at any rock shop and many luggage or accessory stores.  Some Rock bands are even selling them at concerts now - REM had a cute cloth bag for sale at its Toronto concert last summer. 

Reduce, reuse, rock on.

The multi-purpose kleenex box

A fun way to stay organized and recycle packaging - reuse a kleenex box as a plastic bag holder.  Simply cut-out the plastic part and stuff your plastic grocery bags inside.  I did the same with an empty ziploc box for all my bread bags.  I recently ran out of my stash of ziplocs (we stocked up at a big loony sale at Price Chopper last spring) and now I’m trying to come up with a stand-in solution so I don’t have to buy new ones.  For now, I’m using bread bags and plastic vegetable bags.  The empty Ziploc container is useful to hold them all.  I love finding new things to do with packaging!