Category — Thrifty Green Thursday

We celebrated my youngest son’s third birthday last night. I served a home-baked banana cake, hung decorations made from recycled construction paper, and asked my parents (our only guests) to wrap their gifts in the comics section.  But despite my green party-planning efforts, I fell short in one pretty important area: I used paper plates.

There, I said it. Ms-Trying-to-Be-a-Greener-Parent served her son’s birthday dinner on paper plates.  If you’re at all interested in my rationale, here it is: I have been incredibly busy and stressed out, between nursing strep throat (my five year old’s), cooking and hosting Rosh Hashanah meals, and tackling a never-ending list of work commitments, my house has taken a backseat on the priority list.  To wit: My sink is practically sinking under the weight of dirty dishes.  [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 →]