Where Reducers are Producers
Consumption Coach
Use What Nature Provides
A couple weeks ago we planted seven arborvitaes that we bought from a nursery. To finish the look, we wanted to get some rocks to line the landscaping bed. If you've never been involved in a hands-on landscaping job, you may not be familiar with the cost of nature. One rock: $50. They go up and down from there, but I wanted to give you a perspective.
Now, not to sound like a Master Card ad or anything, in nature, rocks cost zero dollars. You just have to go on a little hunt.
We've taken to digging them out of the sand at the lake's shore. You can get some really interesting ones that way. Or, near construction sites, often there are chunks of bedrock piled nearby that the crew is just going to haul away. That's you're opportunity to swoop in and claim them.
I'm all about the hunt. It's fun and free.
5 Tips for a Successful Garage Sale
2. Don't forget to announce your garage sale on Craigslist - it's free advertising
3. Have a clean garage. Even though it's a garage sale, it's still retail staging
4. Have your kids put up a lemonade stand. People sometimes feel awkward if they don't buy something, but will happily give a kid a quarter for a refreshment
No kids? Have a "free" bin. If someone picks something up for free, they'll likely buy something as well.
5. Don't hold back. If you're going to have a sale, really go to the depths of your house, shed, attic to get out the stuff you're not using. Secondly, be emotionally okay with getting rid of the clothes and toys that your kids have outgrown. They're not doing you any good, let someone else enjoy them.
What to do with leftover Chocolate
Whether its Valentine's, Easter, Sweetest's Day or Halloween, you're going to be left with piles of chocolate. Instead of pigging-out or smashing your chocolate figurines and eating the crumbs, melt them down.
Fill mini cupcake cups with crushed potato chips from the bottom of the
bag, broken pretzels, peanut butter or rice crispies. Then freeze them for future get-togethers. The smaller portions are more inviting, and certainly more portion controlled.
Watch the following video as a quick guide.
Watch the following video as a quick guide.
"A cake, Franck, is made of flour & water. My first car didn't cost $1200" -Father of the Bride
My especially green sister (think cloth diapers) hosted a party for her son's first birthday this weekend. She specified that no gifts could be made in China, and spent the previous day making three cakes from scratch.
I took a chunk of cake home, taking the risk of my husband throwing it in the garbage because he does that when he sees excessive sweets sitting around the kitchen. This cake, however, lasted through the night. When the junk food Nazi came home he pulled out the cake plate and a fork. "That cake is actually all natural," I added hoping to preserve the remains for another day.
It worked. The man who lined up all the sweets in our house on New Year's Day, before throwing them all in the garbage, let the homemade cake "live."
I had a thought, I should make cake from scratch, how hard could it be? So I cracked open good 'ol Betty Crocker and had a looksee:
flour- sugar- butter (I totally have all of you) - milk - baking powder - salt - (yep, got it) - vanilla & eggs (yeah, covered there)
So what I'm saying is I basically could whip up an "all natural" cake any day of the week. There's no search for vanilla beans, crème fraîche or figuring out yeast packets.
See, scratch just sounds difficult. Try it. It'll look good on you.
Portion Control Your To-Do List
The more I thought about this in a non metaphorical sense, it made me remember the dream I had last night.
I was at a buffet and I reached for a plate. Instead of taking one from the stack of wet, ceramic ovals, I leaned down and pulled out a huge platter in the shape of a fish. Another customer protested that I couldn't use that as a plate. I reminded them that I was at a buffet and I could take as much food as I wanted. When I sat down to eat, all that was in front of me was a small bowl of salad.
As overachievers, moms have the availability to take on endless amounts of causes or work within those causes.
I think we all can portion control when it comes to the environment (for our own sanity): the light bulbs, hormones, chemicals, gas emissions, etc. It can be overwhelming.
My thought for today is to think about what you can realistically do, write it down and actually do it. I'm not asking that you go all Ashton/Demi on me and make some righteous pledge. No one has to hear about it or see it. Just you will know you're doing what you can for our earth, your family and yourself.
For those of you who are also feeling a bit overwhelmed, my doctor assured me, "this is a problem that smart people have. Dumb people get hit by cars, smart people have too much on their plate."
IF THE SHOE FITS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT
Later in the dream I not only have pink boots, I have yellow Converse sneakers and green, knit clogs. I'm digging through a suitcase to find clothes that will match all these crazy shoes I bought. Do you know how hard it is to match yellows? On top of that, I'm pulling this stuff out from under my bed because, what, my closet is full of other thrifty items I don't need.
This dream is a repressed issue I've recently overcome in my "real" life: Cristin, don't buy it just because it's on sale. Cristin, when you buy someone a birthday gift, don't buy a duplicate for yourself.
I once bought a Liz Claiborne sweater for ten dollars and wore it to paint a room. Where's the respect?
I've found that items that I want no matter the cost or inconvenience are the ones that I wear the most. The fastest way to clutter your home is overbuying - I can't part with it because I paid money for it. I can't give it away because I haven't worn it yet - or there's a chance I might wear it to that Mary Kay party I don't want to go to.
Stop it. Don't do it. Be selective.