From the category archives:

Green Living

Making the Switch to Cloth Napkins

March 24, 2009

in Frugal Living, Green Living, Tightwad Tuesday

Thanks to Sara from Learning the Frugal Life for writing this guest post on her family’s journey to using cloth napkins!

My family switched to cloth napkins about a month ago. I have been thinking about making the switch for about a year and finally decided to take the step. It was actually a little intimidating since my family had become so dependent on paper napkins and towels.

We used paper towels and napkins for everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Having 4 children in the house you can imagine how many we could go through in a day. We used them for noses, spills, eating, smashing bugs, wiping up mud, you name it. I could easily go through a package of 500 every couple weeks. While I know that paper napkins are fairly cheap (I could usually get a package for about $2-$3) that is still around $50 a year. Then if you add the cost of paper towels it begins to add up. What was really bothering me the most was the waste factor. So, I decided to make the switch.

There are many ways to get cloth napkins without buying brand new fancy ones. You can buy them second hand from thrift stores or yard sales. You can make your own from any fabric, old t-shirts, bed sheets or towels. If you watch the stores you can sometimes find napkins on clearance, especially around the holidays. Last month I picked up a whole bunch of Valentines napkins on clearance for .31 cents each. For everyday use I figured it wouldn’t matter what they looked like. Besides it’s kinda fun having a little variety.

I made my first set of napkins from some cotton fabric I found on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1.97. From this fabric I made 9 napkins, that averages to about .27 cents each. I sewed them all by hand in my spare time. I measured them each at 12 x 12 inches. I made them a little smaller than most of the conventional napkins to maximize my fabric. I cut them out and folded over each side and sewed them. This made them about 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches. While this is a little smaller than I initially wanted, they ended up being the perfect size for my toddlers to use.

Some people will argue the fact that using energy, water and soap to wash the cloth cancels out the good your doing by not using paper. I disagree. I don’t feel like the cloth napkins have increased my energy or water usage at all. The napkins are not that big and I just throw them in with my other laundry. Plus, we are typically only using about 6 napkins per day. Unless they get extremely soiled we just keep reusing them until they are dirty. I wash all my cloths in cold water, thus reducing energy. And if you hang them to dry you are using even less energy.

I invested less than $7 for my cloth napkins. I figured I spend about $100 per year on paper towels and paper napkins. While I have not totally eliminated paper towels I have definitely cut back our usage. So for that small initial investment up front they have more than paid for themselves, as I estimate that I will be saving about $70 per year. It feels good to be wasting less, and saving more. I expect my napkins to last me many years. I recommend that everyone look into switching to cloth. Not only will you save money, you will also be helping the environment.

Have you switched to cloth napkins or thought about doing it? For more frugal tips, visit Being Frugal.

Sara @ Learning the Frugal Life is a wife and mother to 4 boys. She used to work as a Medical Assistant, but after the birth of her third child decided to take the job of homemaker. She enjoys teaching herself and others how to live more frugally in their day to day lives. Sara also enjoys gardening, baking, organizing, scrapbooking and coming up with new arts and crafts for her kids to try. You can visit Sara at Learning the Frugal Life for some great tips on saving money or at her personal/crafty blog at One Mom, Five Boys.

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Using Reusable Cloth Shopping Bags

January 28, 2009

in Green Living, Works for Me Wednesday

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States every year. The bags are not biodegradable, which causes the landfills to grow ever larger each year. Plus, it uses oil to produce the bags, which could be used for gas or heating.

Although I’m probably not considered very “green” (I do recycle, but I use paper towels, etc), I do use cloth grocery bags when I go to the store. My community recently added plastic shopping bags to their list of recyclables, but before they did, I wasn’t comfortable with the number of plastic bags that were ultimately thrown away at our house. I do like to keep some plastic bags for things such as holding dirty diapers, etc, but I didn’t need the multiple bags that I was collecting each shopping trip.

Over time, I purchased reusable shopping bags from my normal grocery store for $0.99 (obviously, Meijer, from the picture). I was able to pick one of them up for free from a deal at the store (Buy x, get a free bag). However, there are more frugal ways to get these bags. For example, Cost Plus World Market was giving away reusable tote bags at their store on 1/25. Or, you could make your own bags. Also, some divisions of Kroger offer incentives if you use your own bags (around $0.04 to $.05), so these incentives add up over time to reimburse you for the cost of purchasing the bag.

I originally was resistant to the idea of using these bags, because I didn’t think I’d remember to use them. However, I have a system in place to help me remember: as soon as I unload groceries, I stack up the bags and immediately put them back in my trunk. Then, when I get to the store, I just need to remember to pull them out of the trunk and bring them in.

Do you use cloth shopping bags? Do you have any frugal tips on acquiring them? How do you remember to use them? For more tips that work for others, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

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Works for Me Wednesday – Stop Junk Mail

January 7, 2009

in Green Living, Works for Me Wednesday

Do you get tons of junk mail everyday? Do you want to eliminate some of it? I dislike junk mail for several reasons (besides the obvious…that it’s junk):

Junk mail wastes resources (paper to print and gas to deliver).
Junk mail wastes my time, even though it’s ultimate destination is my trash…I still have to sort through it.
Credit card applications sitting in my mailbox could be an identity theft hazard.
If you have a problem with debt, it may be too tempting to receive credit card applications in the mail.
Catalogs waste lots of paper.
Catalogs are like window shopping…you may be tempted to buy something you don’t need just because you saw it.

There is a way to eliminate much of your junk mail. It’s a free service called, ProQuo. They claim they have saved over 25 million pounds of junk mail waste in 2008, which is the equivalent of 64 jumbo jets. You choose which marketing companies you want to eliminate (so you can continue to get the coupons in your mail), they give you information on how to stop the credit card offers through the credit companies, and you can manage your catalog subscriptions, so they quit coming.

I signed up last summer through them, and I barely get any junk mail (except for the coupons, which I allow to come). I have not gotten a credit card offer for as long as I can remember. I still need to sign up some of my catalogs (you have to enter some info about each catalog), but I plan on doing that soon. Otherwise, my way of avoiding temptation is to send it directly to the recycling pile. I’d rather they never printed it to begin with.

Reducing junk mail works for me. For more ideas that work for others, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Photo courtesy of lizerixt at stock.xchng

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