Green on the Cheap: APLS Carnival Round-up

Welcome to the revived APLS Carnival! This month's theme was "green on the cheap" - in other words, balancing sustainability with smaller pocketbooks. If the recession's got you down, no worries! We've got some great ideas to get you motivated again.

Speaking from experience.
Several APLS'ers shared openly how their family overcame or averted a financial crisis by simply living more frugally.

Abbie at Farmers Daughter shares her evolution in going greener and living more frugally, giving three easy ways to pare back expenses and live more sustainably. Read her post to see how she saved $7,000 last year alone! Impressive!

Heather at Simple-Green-Frugal shares her life of voluntary simplicity and how she got there. "I believe it is in times of crisis that we discover what we're truly made of," she writes. Read on to her comments - she's so simplified her life that she could make a move with only her compact car - taking one trip! I'd love to hear more about how she was able to pare down - our family has a long way to go!


Another Heather, at Heather's Homemaking, offers simple ways her family was able to live more frugally so she could stay at home with her children. I think I'm going to have to figure out how to make the cloth napkins - what a great idea!

Steph at Greening Families shares how her family overcame debt by following the three R's. "Anything that broke or wore out was examined for possible other uses and most of the time there were multiple possibilities," she writes. As an example, she shares ways to get new life out of old pants.

I come clean on how my family's financial crisis has impacted our lifestyle choices and admit to wondering whether I'm being good somedays simply because I must. "Like a dieter who’s craving chocolate, I think about the things I want to buy but are simply out of reach at this time."


Spending smart.
Perhaps any future problems will be averted just by watching how we use the resources we have.

At the Green Adventures of a Big City Girl, Heather cost-comparisons shopping while cutting coupons with buying locally from CSAs and other local vendors. "I was a big coupon clipper. I mean BIG. Like I had a big binder filled with baseball card sleeves of thoroughly organized coupons," she writes. "I had no idea I could do this and actually NOT spend more money than I used to on groceries. Cheap, unhealthy, processed, full-of-pesticide-and-fake-ingredients groceries. And I'm really enjoying the process of learning about new vegetables and introducing them to my family. Dinner is an adventure every night and so much fun to be trying new things."

Kellie at Greenhab shares the challenges of greener birthday party planning when the guest of honor thrives on Chuck-E-Cheese. "I decided to stop hanging my head in shame when my son's birthday came up, and to put my money where my mouth was. Or...put my money back in my wallet and put my conscience where my mouth was. Something like that," she writes.


The Conscious Shopper at the Green Phone Booth admits to her green envy but realizes that prevention can be the best policy when it comes to waste. "Going green can be expensive - at least in some ways - but sometimes the greenest path is also the cheapest," she writes. "And once I realized that, my green envy subsided, and I was able to get creative with what I have."

Lisa at Retro Housewife Goes Green talks about the toughest lesson of learning to be more sustainable: That buying less truly is more. "Green has become so mainstream everywhere you look is some new product telling you how it will help you be more green when most of the time we don't need it," she writes.

Beany at the Middle Way, who admits to "being a tightwad when it was uncool," waxes on how we've put our money where our mouth was and what morals our economy has supported. "I think a strong evaluation of the new American values is long over due. I think people do need to think long and hard at what it means ...when one can zip 100 miles to a job with no consideration of that mode of transit is doing to the environment that surrounds us. Who benefits when one can buy apples for $0.10/lb from Guatamela. Why does one have to maintain vigilant eye on what product is currently the subject of a salmonella outbreak?"

CRSTN85 writes about how you can help the economy and the environment at the same time. "It should be second nature to check in with neighbors to see if they could use something you're getting rid of, and if not, it should be donated rather than left by the curb where hopefully someone will take it before the trash pick up date," she writes.

Thanks to those of you who participated in this month's carnival! Look for September details to be posted shortly on the APLS blog.

8-20: My apologies to Jenni at Web of Life! I'd forgotten to include her in the initial post. Check out her tips on being green while saving green, from thrift-store shopping to investing in microfiber cloths. "Basically, I spend next to nothing to keep my house clean. Now if only I could get somebody to clean it…" she writes.

August APLS Carnival

The APLS Carnival is back!

Join us for a discussion of "Green on the Cheap" in August.

Has the economy impacted how you live green? Do you buy fewer green products to save money? Or have you redoubled your efforts to live sustainably? What have you learned about living environmentally friendly on a budget? Let us know your thoughts!

Please send links to your posts by Aug. 15 to goinggreenmama@gmail.com. Even if you're not a regular contributor to the carnival, we'd love to hear your voice.

We'll post a wrapup of what other writers have to say here on Aug. 19.

Romanticism and reality: Reasons to eat local

"I realize there's something romantic about the desire to know exactly where your food is from," wrote Time magazine's John Cloud.

But there's more than romanticism involved in a desire to eat locally grown food: a desire to impact the local economy, to eat better tasting and healthier produce and to make an impact on our environment.

Why eat local? For me, it started for two reasons: First, food tastes better the earlier it's eaten, and when it's shipped across the country only to sit in a grocery store, produce tends to lose its flavor and health benefits.

Second, it was about helping out the little guy and the local economy. Why not support the farmer around the corner?

But there are many other reasons to consider eating local. You can often get a better variety of produce by trying local than at the grocery. At one local market alone, I can easily find a dozen types of apples, compared to "green" or "red" at the local supermarket.

Reducing our dependence on oil is another reason to consider buying locally. The journal Food Policy even reports that locally food is "greener" than organic due to the impact of shipping for long distances. Reports the BBC:

... if all foods were sourced from within 20km of where they were consumed, environmental and congestion costs would fall from more than £2.3bn to under £230m - an "environmental saving" of £2.1bn annually.

Going local is something to consider, so why not start today? It's Going Local Week in Indiana: a weeklong "challenge" to eat at least one Indiana locally grown or produced food at each meal this week. How can you get started in an attempt to eat local?

• Shop at local farmers markets, farm stands, and farm markets.
• Visit an orchard or you-pick stand and harvest your own produce.
• Ask your local grocery store or market if they sell locally grown food.
• Support restaurants that use locally grown produce.
• Participate in a CSA.

Links to get you started:

• Find a list of Indiana farmers markets, farm stands, and you-pick produce.
• Find "going local" activities in your city.
• Find local eating tips.

Kudos to the first APLS blog carnival

The APLS blog carnival kicked off this summer, and I have to say, I'm impressed.

This group of bloggers is tackling not so simple topics such as sustainable living and affluence. And they're doing it in a way that might surprise you.

If you're looking for guilt, you're in the wrong place. The reality is each of us is making a difference, one moment at a time, and none of us feel that we're truly "there" yet.

Here's just a sampling of some of the comments out there:

• Greeen Sheeep on how sometimes, when everything gives, we can be unexpectedly blessed with a more sustainable lifestyle.
• Eco Burban Mom on how living in our disposable world actually keeps us busier than a more sustainable lifestyle.
• Organic Mania on the family battles that can ensue.
• Mindful Momma on keeping up with the Joneses when the Joneses are living more sustainable lives.
• And many more. Read the entire digest of posts here!
  

Back to school! Our weekly writer wrapup

It's back to school time, and time to learn a few tips on how to make your life a little bit greener. Here's a sampling of what's out there in the blogosphere.




Home ec:

• Going Local shares a "local" 1877-era beverage called shrubs.
• Green Parent Chicago discusses meatless meals for kids.
• Chile explains how to can and shares some quick meal tips.

Art:

• Green Baby Guide writes about carbon-free entertainment ideas for your toddlers or older children. Looks like I'll be coming back on a rainy afternoon.

Political science:

• Surely You Nest blogs about Bush's attempts to weaken the Endangered Species Act.
• Onearth.org writes about how political conventions are going red, white, blue and green.

Economics:

• UK's The Green Parent reports on how the credit crunch is impacting organic dairy farms.

Critical thinking:

• Green Sheeep posts a great essay on her evolution toward sustainability.
• Crunchy Chicken weighs in on whether there are benefits to rising food prices.
• Ecoburban banters about the battle over toilet paper and whether cutting off is in order.

P.E.:

• Parenting Examiner writes about the need for unstructured play outdoors.

Have a great weekend!

Growing garlic this fall

The lack of decent garlic at the grocery store the other day prompted a moment of weakness: I ordered some gardening catalogs online the other day.

Nevermind that I have no budget or a garden plot for that matter. I'm determined to have some decent garlic and shallots next spring. Which means we need to get going on some kind of planting this fall.

The first catalog arrived Tuesday, and I have to fight the 3 year old over who gets to thumb through it. What's not to be interested in - flowers of every shape and color, purple and yellow beans, the likes of which she'd never seen before, blueberries of varying shapes and sizes (which of course she's begging to have).

Explaining to a little one that it's just not time to plant berries doesn't work well, but we settled for a discussion of the three pages of garlic varieties. In the past, I've tended to favor the early-season types because I'm just not that patient (and I can re-use that space for summertime planting).

However, we have new criteria now. It's not hardneck versus softneck, or early season versus late. Based on our discussion continued this morning around a bowl of Cheerios, I've been tasked to order the red garlic.

For my little green thumb, it's all about the color.

Sustainability in an era of stuff

Sustainability, I’m sure for some people, sparks visions of persons who grow their own food on wide swaths of land, who make their clothing, who can and live by candlelight.

But sustainability is possible in an era of stuff, and it’s achieved one moment at a time.

The last several months, my family has refocused on what’s needed in our lives and what’s not

First came a new baby (and the resulting suck out of the wallet from medical bills, diapers, day care and new clothing seemingly every month.) Then came a personal challenge. Then came unemployment.

So my husband and I have, with growing importance, taken a look at what’s truly needed and what’s not.

We obviously don’t dash to my husband’s work to say hello after I get the kids from daycare anymore, and our kids are less cranky and overall happier than had we raced around in the early evening, squeezing a slice of parental time among meals and bedtime.

For all the times I’d receive a call of “What do you need me to pick up on the way home?” when I’d rattle something off, I can count one few fingers the times when the tables have been turned and I’ve received that call since. Less hassles, less purchases, less things we found we truly needed.

The dinners that we’d eat out? They’ve been substituted with quality time cooking meals and shopping at the farmers market, involving our oldest many times.

The hand-me-down boy clothes, always appreciated, have been washed and sorted by size. And I was surprised by the generosity I’d been the recipient of and of my stash. Who needs 20 onesies in size 2T? Those leftovers found a new home among a domestic violence recovery organization.

The pants I tried this morning with the unhinged hem? It’ll take a needle, thread and time and will be ready to wear. May not seem like “sustainable,” but you’d be surprised how few people these days can even manage to fix a hem or a fallen-out hem.

Yes, sometimes sustainable living takes time, and I'll be the first to admit I'd not truly there yet. In all honesty, many times it takes much less effort than the headaches of shopping for more. Life is a long series of small choices, and our footprint on this planet is marked by the individual prints we make each moment.