Category — Green Shopping

I took my sons to the Renaissance Festival yesterday.  What a great time we had, especially at the joust reenactment. (That half hour was the equivalent for my five-year old son of me, oh, I don’t know, spending the day at the spa. In Maui.)  By the ride home, we had run out of water and food, so the crankies were starting to flare.  I decided to run through the drive-thru at McDonald’s to get everyone a drink.

Unfortunately, the kids’ chocolate milks came in these little mini jugs that were clearly going to spill all over my car.  So, I asked for cups with lids, and straws, and poured their milk into those.  (Of course, they still managed to spill all over themselves!) I was already feeling bad about all of this waste when my five-year old said to me, “Mom, will we recycle these cups or put them into the garbage bin?” [Read more →]

I mentioned last week that my family is a big fan of second-hand deals.  We moved trans-Atlantically a few months ago.  The cost of overseas shipping was so excessive that we only moved that which we really loved (somehow our most beloved possessions still amounted to 62 boxes!)  I kept all my grandmother’s dishes and my copper pots that were a wedding gift, but we sold all our furniture and a good number of books, toys and knicknacks.  When we landed back in the States, it was time to start fresh.

I had a very limited budget ($2,000) and of that amount, I had to allocate several hundred toward new mattresses. Thanks to hand-me-downs from my parents, Craigslist deals and garage sale steals, I was able to pull together a comfortable, attractive apartment. No, it’s not a page out of Better Homes, but it’s no mismatched bachelor pad either. My favorite finds: A beautiful pecan-wood china cabinet and six-seat dining room table for less than $250, a less than 2-year old Maytag washer and dryer for $250, and matching Pottery Barn quilts for the boys’ beds ($20 for both, including the matching shams). [Read more →]