Posted in Children, Deals, Eating, Eco-quandary, Environment, Green Living, Saving, fair trade, food on March 31, 2008 | 4 Comments »
This Monday series checks out whether something that sounds like a good deal — or takes a bit of extra work — is a good deal. We’ll look at cost and benefit — with everything filtered through my individual experience. Please chime in with your take.
Last Friday was a beautiful day, and Little Cheap and [...]
Posted in DIY, Fun, Green Living, Home, Pets, Saving, recycling on March 28, 2008 | No Comments »
These were my two favorite posts elsewhere this week.
Get Rich Slowly had a guest post from a car reviewer called “What’s Not to Love About a New Car.” I agree with most of her arguments– although I did buy a new car four years ago. (But certainly not at a 10.39% interest rate, like her [...]
Posted in Blog Action Day, Environment, Green Living, energy, utilities, waste on March 28, 2008 | 4 Comments »
On Saturday night - March 29 - from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., it’s Earth Hour.
Dozens - or hundreds - of cities and millions of people around the world are participating. You’re invited to turn off your lights (and any other energy-using device) for one hour.
The event was created by the World Wildlife Fund last year, [...]
Posted in Deals, Hobbies, Saving, money, thrift on March 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Up until a couple of years ago, I’d never belonged to a gym.
For a while, I belonged to our city rec center, where I could go at lunch. That was ca. 1998. Then, nothing. I ran sporadically and did yoga because I could do it from home, for a small investment. I do own a [...]
Posted in FAQ, Saving, money, thrift on March 21, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I read several personal finance blogs, and on several of them, the word “cheap” has come up, usually in the comments. Commenter after commenter will carefully define the meaning of “cheap” vs. the meaning of “frugal,” in every case disparaging the former and praising the latter.
The latest case I came across was this post, where [...]
Posted in Children, Environment, Friends, Fun, Holidays, Home, thrift on March 18, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Today is my daughter’s 7th birthday. Happy birthday, Little Cheap!
We had her party on Saturday. This year, after watching several episodes of Orangutan Island and talking about global warming at school and home, she decided her birthday party would be a fund-raiser for orangutan conservation. Instead of gifts, she would collect donations for orangutan conservation [...]
Posted in Environment, Green Living, Home, Saving, paper, recycling, thrift, waste on March 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Last week, I received a thought-provoking comment on my January post about recycled toilet paper. Anon wrote:
Um, I hope you know you are not doing any favors buying single rolls; the additional plastic packaging is just discarded by the store. You’d be better off buying it by the pack and saving money.
I replied, in part, [...]
Posted in Environment, Green Living, Holidays, energy, waste on March 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Every day at my daughter’s school, they have a question of the day for each child to answer at check-in. Today’s question was “Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?” We don’t, really, even though Little Cheap’s birthday is tomorrow (we’re not Irish, for one). She has asked us to celebrate so I’ve been trying to [...]
Posted in Eating, Environment, Green Living, Home, Shopping, fair trade, food on March 17, 2008 | 4 Comments »
You might remember we ordered a quarter of beef a while back.
Where is it?
I don’t know. Hopefully still at the processor.
We’re new to all this, and it’s rather confusing. We thought we would be picking it up March 1. I called to confirm, and reached general confusion — why on earth did I think it [...]
Posted in Deals, Eating, Environment, Green Living, Home, Shopping, food, money, thrift on March 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Money and Values this week looked at a study that found that people like things better when they’re more expensive. http://moneyandvalues.blogspot.com/ That post ties in nicely with a story on NPR last week that found:
A new study indicates that people get better results from taking expensive pills — even when the “expensive pill” is a [...]
