BlogHer - saving money - Comments

Love your ideas! Especially for those of us with less space.

Beth Terry — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:23:19 -0500

I think the less stuff we can bring into our homes, the less clutter we'll have overall. I'm writing about reducing paper clutter next week and would love your ideas. Check out the post I just put up on Fake Plastic Fish:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2009/07/help-im-buried-under-paper-and-i-cant.html

Would love to link back to your great ideas about finding ways to organize clutter without buying even more stuff in the first place!

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
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Wedding Share

SavvyChristine — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:41:05 -0500

When I started wedding planning at the end of last year, I came across the idea that a group of brides could get together and share the costs of wedding accoutrements -- all that stuff that comes with a wedding like vases and veils and lanterns. This type of thing works well if you have a friend or two getting married in the same year. It also works if you're getting married at a popular place on a popular weekend -- sometimes brides share the cost of flowers and chair rentals.

I've been searching and searching for the original link to the idea, but I can't seem to find it! Instead, here's a more recent post from the Broke-Ass Bride about setting up a bride-share (well, sort of). It's such a good idea!

Don't Just Mooch!

Green Bean Dreams — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:34:27 -0500

Living in a tiny house with no storage really encourages more borrowing. I mean, seriously!?! Where am I going to put it all. I love borrowing kitchen stuff, outdoor tools, etc from friends and I borrow all my books from the library.

But remember, it's not all about borrowing. It's about lending too. When you see a friend, family member or neighbor thinking of borrowing something you own, offer to lend what you have. It saves everyone money, time and space and builds a little connection while you're at it.

www.greenphonebooth.com

I'm not the best about doing

mrssharp — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:42:07 -0500

I'm not the best about doing this because in my town there aren't a lot of options but I have started really thinking about what I buy and I do borrow from the library and books from my mom.

I also have Netflix which I use the streaming often which is great since you don't even have the waste of mailing.

Not many people think about the fact that even if you are buying a "green" product it's still wasteful so much of the time.

I love swapping and borrowing

AmberS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:02:01 -0500

We love book mooch at our house. :)

I also have an informal community of mothers, and we share baby gear and books. I've loaned out (or given away) a lot of gear, and enjoyed the use of others' stuff too. We also swap kids' clothes. It's really great, free, and green. And it embodies the sort of community that our kids benefit from having.

~ Amber

www.strocel.com

We have an informal kids craft share

thesmartmama — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:46:32 -0500

I'm a big mooch! No reason to buy items you are going to use once or twice. We have an informal craft tool swap among friends and baking stuff. Need a princess cake pan? Somebody has it in our group. No reason to buy it, although I did buy 3 boxes of chocolate or soap molds at a church rummage sale for $0.25. Couldn't pass up the deal, saved a pile of plastic from going to the landfill, and am now very popular in our craft/bake swap group.

Jennifer Taggart, TheSmartMama

http://www.thesmartmama.com/bg

Please Return it Promptly

Condo Blues — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:18:27 -0500

If you can go the borrowing route, be sure to return the item promptly when you are done using it! Otherwise, it may be harder to find people who will let you borrow items from them in the future. :)

If you can't borrow the item, you might be able to rent it. Personally, I'd rather borrow or buy something second hand, but if it's an item I'll only use once and I can't borrow one I'll see if I can rent it.

I've rented Halloween costumes, wedding, and event items when I couldn't borrow, make, or thrift the items needed. My local tool lending library closed so I couldn't take advantage of it for a recent home improvement project, so I rented the tool for the day - a jackhammer! http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-break-up-concrete-or-some... Not free, but still green because the items went right back to the store when I was finished with them so someone else could rent them and use them.

Lisa

PS: Using a jackhammer is very impowering! We should do something like that at BlogHer :)

Condo Blues Frugal green living that's big on style and small on budget http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/

Zwaggle!

Carmen S — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:52:48 -0500

Thanks for the great review on Zwaggle! Our company is growing all the time - come check us out and I can virtually guarantee that you'll find something you - or your kids - need, at no cost to you!

--
Carmen

Borrowing

susanna — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:31:48 -0500

Luggage is a great idea. We did borrow backpack/suitcase luggage for a trip to Paris from friends who had bought the luggage for their trip to Europe a year or so before -- how many trips to Europe do most of us take, after all?

I would also suggest borrowing craft equipment before investing in it or for a one-time usage -- like sewing machines and spinning wheels. Often friends are happy to let you borrow something if it might get you hooked on a hobby they love. :)

Cheap Like Me blog
http://www.cheaplikemeblog.com
Where economy and ecology meet the good life.

Our decision to go car-free

greenyourdecor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:50:55 -0500

Our decision to go car-free wasn't our own. Long story short, the economy got us. When we were living in a place with easy access to bus stops (albeit with an outdated bus system that stopped at 8 p.m.), losing the car was tough, but not impossible to overcome. We did a lot of walking (which led to a 40-pound weight loss for me...yippee!) and we bought bus passes.

Where we live now, however, the nearest public transportation is easily 10 miles away. The nearest grocery store is easily 15 miles away. No kidding. This has made our lives a lot more challenging. Thankfully, we have the ability to share a car with family, so we're able to get where we need to go. But if nothing else, not having a car has made us become a lot more savvy at planning trips so we can do everything at once. And it has also made realize that a car is a convenience -- not an absolute necessity, although it can feel that way when you live in a rural area.

I wish I'd written a post in time to enter the carnival, but I am certainly inspired to write one now :)

Thanks ladies!

Jennae Petersen

GreenYourDecor.com - Your guide to stylish, eco-friendly home decorating!

Day Five

How Green Is My Valley — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:32:51 -0500

So I'm realizing that this is the end of my car-free week; we have some pre-arranged car-dependent activities on both Saturday and Sunday. I suppose they could be done without the car, but I'm not sure that my biking skills (or my confidence) are strong enough to fill in the transit gaps--particularly in a less-familiar part of town.

With that in mind, Day Five--my final post for this challenge--is up.

Day Four

How Green Is My Valley — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:39:03 -0500

My latest post is up: Day Four, in which the course of my day is not really affected at all by the challenge. Sounds fascinating, doesn't it?

Very cool!

KYouell — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:10:46 -0500

I'm so glad that you linked to CafeMama's post too. I highly recommend watching the video of her Ignite presentation -- I mean meditation -- because it is wonderful. I think it really helps people to hear her voice and see that she's not some wacky person, just a mom who is living her convictions.

This morning on our way to our library walk I got to the top of a hill where I can see quite a ways out to distant mountains. As I descended the hill I realized I was looking through a layer of smog. My small little hill went above, through, and below that smog layer. Never would have seen that from a car, and I had the pleasure of knowing I wasn't contributing to the smog.

It's easy to go through the rush of your day and not notice those kind of things. To me car-free is very much like slow food. Your whole way of looking at your world changes if your eyes are open to it.

Thanks for giving me more to write about on my blog, too!

So far, so good

How Green Is My Valley — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:18:37 -0500

I'm still looking forward to ice cream, too! I didn't eat any last night, though, so I probably won't make a trip to the store until tomorrow.

A lot of what I'm doing isn't all that different from my daily routine. Most of my days are car-free or car-limited already. Most of the time I use the car for errands and to meet up with friends, but the majority of my commute is by bus. And I have ridden to the bus stop in the past; I just had fallen out of the habit. Today's visit to the farm market, which itself is new, will be a bigger test. I still haven't decided if I'm going to bike there and back, or take public transit in one or both directions. It'll depend on how I feel at the end of the day. And it'll depend on whether my panniers are still chained to the bike rack.

Still looking forward to ice cream!

Beth Terry — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:59:21 -0500

@How Green Is My Valley So far, are you enjoying the car-free life?

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
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