Frugal Friday: Natural Product Discount Alerts
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Amazon is offering some nice discounts on natural and organic products in April, including:
Save $2 on Neti Pots (and if you don’t know what in the heck a Neti Pot is, find out cause they come in real handy during allergy season. Read about this Neti Pot system.)
$10 off Natural and Organic personal care products
Save $20 on Eco Friendly Cleaning products
Save $10 on Rechargeable batteries (this is nice because rechargeables require a bigger up front investment, but boy I love them! You know how kids go through batteries!)
Save $20 on NatureMade supplements
AND Cute Baby Shoes has a special 50% off coupon code! It is: secretsale
Just go here to shop (before April 12!) and get half off your order. Cute Baby Shoes offer soft soled leather shoes for babies and toddlers - and they are true to their name. 
ONE MORE:
GAIAM is offering $10 - $20 off your order. This one expires April 17th.
You’re welcome. 
Another Natural Mommy Ponders Her Personal Care Product Choices
March 29, 2008 | 12 Comments
Beth over at NaturalMommy posted on her blog that she’s rethinking some of her makeup and skin care shopping as of late. I left a few lengthy comments over there but also wanted to discuss this on my blog. I’ve already expressed what I see as some of the problems of working the CVS system - the tempation to obtain products that really aren’t good for you or for the environment, just because they’re free.
Basically Beth was asking for other natural mommas to share their tips for getting pretty on a budget - and using natural and safer products all the while. This can be a challenge. Personally I hate spending money on beauty stuff, so I do a combination of things to get cute on a budget including:
1) Just plain using less stuff to begin with (a lot of skin care stuff is unnecessary and overkill). Most beauty experts agree that noone needs toner, for example. You need a gentle cleanser (only once a day, at night. Splashing your face with water in the morning is sufficient) and a moisturizer, preferably with sunscreen.
Washing your hair less (or skipping the shampoo altogether) works too. I have very thick, coarse, wavy/curly hair and only shampoo once every 4 days. Any more than that and I resemble a brunette Brillo pad. Or Simba with his finger stuck in a socket. And the styling product I use is a little bit of moisturizer in my hands mixed with a tiny bit of styling gel. I learned this trick years ago and it works great for my hair texture.
When it comes to the kids, I never used soap on their skin at all when they were babies. Ever. Water is sufficient to clean a baby’s skin. As they got older, Dr. Bronner’s was my friend. The stuff goes a LONG way. I dilute! dilute! mine just like it says on the bottle.
I never needed diaper rash cream because my kids didn’t get rashes because if they even looked rashy I just took the diaper off or loosely pinned on a prefold and it cleared up the same day.
2) Making my own or using really simple ingredients for skin care. For instance olive oil for a makeup remover and moisturizer. And sugar or salt scrubs to scrub my body, and baking soda to exfoliate my face. Oh and making my own homemade tooth powder. (which my Dentist approves, sans the cinnamon!) Here are some more of my cheap green beauty tips and natural skin care recipes.
One thing that surprised me was the Pollyanna attitude of some of the other commenters. Perhaps they don’t realize that cosmetics and personal care products aren’t regulated the way that the food supply is. Manufacturers can put pretty much whatever they want in makeup and skin care products without anyone looking over their shoulder. They don’t have to prove the safety of their products.
Putting our head in the sand about stuff we slather on our bodies isn’t smart. We take care to eat well - why would we pay less attention to what we rub in and on our skin, the body’s largest organ and the immune system’s first line of defense? To pretend that everything in the marketplace is safe is not smart. As an example, women in my mother’s generation thought they were doing the right thing by applying talc to their baby’s tushies. Now we know that talc can cause cancer. If we can easily make a safer choice, why wouldn’t we?
One good place to search for safer products is the Safe Cosmetics Database. Searching through the website, I’ve found that some of the data needs to be taken with a grain of salt. For example, some of the Burt’s Bees products get poor ratings, but upon closer inspection, it appears that the ingredients in question (like sodium borate or castor oil) are only harmful or toxic in very large amounts. Still, it’s a good place to start.
How do you get pretty on a tight budget - while still using natural ingredients?
Natural Moms Podcast #77
March 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
After becoming a mom, Kathy Cozonac of Broomhuggers switched to natural cleaning products. Then she started a business to meet the needs of people who only want non-toxic, safe products in their homes. Some of her customers have chemical sensitivities, others just want to minimize their exposure to harmful chemicals.
Kathy likes the Shaklee line of cleaning products and also makes other recommendations on her blog.
To increase speed and effectiveness with cleaning, use the right tool for the job. Homemade cleaners are fine for light, frequently cleaned areas, but for deeper cleaning or for neglected areas, a commercial product is often more effective.
Kathy mentioned that apple cider vinegar has been proven more potent at killing germs than white distilled vinegar.
You can listen on the site or download the mp3.
Just When I Thought It Was Safe to Read Parents Magazine
March 21, 2008 | 9 Comments
My incredible waste of paper Parents magazine arrived in the mail yesterday. As I’ve said before, I didn’t subscribe to this publication. It was a incredible waste of trees gift from a well meaning friend. I thought there was hope for them after last year’s “Green” issue, but apparently not. I’ve thought of asking them to stop sending the magazine, but their dumb parenting advice is such great blog fodder.
Their latest bit of bad journalism was an op-ed piece on cloth diapering. First they start with the usual refrain,
“Cloth diapering is too haaaaaarrrrdddd!…”
Oh, whine me a river. Birth is hard. Parenting is hard. Relationships are hard. Life is hard sometimes. Get over it already!
While I do give the guy props for at least trying cloth diapering, I’m so very disappointed in his very (in my opinion) biased and inaccurate depiction of what cloth diapering is really like.
Parents magazine seems to have a real prejudice against everything involved with natural parenting. Of course, I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that their advertisers with the deepest pockets are formula companies, does it?) Breastfeeding is TOO hard. Don’t try to make it work. Natural birth it TOO hard. Don’t try to endure the pain (nevermind it serves a useful biological purpose and is better for you and the baby). Nighttime parenting to TOO hard. Don’t answer your baby’s cries, buy earplugs. Do not get me started on the circumcision article they published awhile back.
Women are too weak to endure the pain of birth, remember? My personal view was that if I couldn’t get through a few hours of pain to birth my kid, how was I going to get through its adolescence?
But then they got really stupid. They started attacking the environmental superiority of cloth over disposables. That’s when I got irritated.
The piece referenced a British study that claimed that cloth diapers were not more eco friendly than disposables, but anyone with any common sense could poke holes in this “scientific” study. First of all, they didn’t look at the way cloth diapers are typically used. (Did you know there is a study that said that single use disposable coffee cups were more eco friendly commuter mugs? I’m not kidding.)
Every parent I have ever known who used cloth diapers did some or all of the following:
- They bought used cloth diapers (some or all of their stash)
- They sold or gave away their cloth diapers when the kid was potty trained (instead of tossing them in the trash)
- They used their diaper stash for a second or third or fourth (or more) baby
- They used their old cloth diapers as cleaning rags
- They made or bought cloth diapers sewn from recycled flannel baby blankets
That one thing (the almost infinite reusability of cloth diapers) blows this study out of the water because it didn’t take that factor into consideration.
Many cloth diapering parents also hang their diapers out to dry (using the bleaching properties of the sun). Most cloth diapering parents also don’t rinse every diaper (flushing afterwards would point to more water use). Even if they only rinsed the poopies, they don’t do it until the poopies are solid (around 6 months) and by then, the baby is only pooping once or twice a day anyway, meaning one or two extra flushes a day.
And if you wanted, you could time your own potty usage with changing baby’s diapers. I always did this. When I changed baby, I would go afterwards so I only had to wash my hands once after all was said and done.
You see, there is this little invention called a Washing Machine. It works remarkably well for removing all kinds of soiled clothing and I highly recommend it!
I love the quote on page 128 that says:
“Maybe, I thought, the disposable diaper is one of those inventions, like toilet paper, that the Western world just can’t live without - no matter the environmental impact. After all, if we really wanted to, we could wipe our own butts with cloth and throw the cloths into the wash every night.”
Ooh, what kind of freak would do a thing like that?
Another issue that was never even mentioned in the article is the health and safety superiority of cloth. I blogged before about being praised by my baby’s Pediatrician for using cloth, because, to quote him, disposables contribute to asthma and are bad for baby’s skin. Cloth diapered babies experience less rash and less yeast infection, and also tend to potty train several months before disposable diapered babies. There is also a concern with our little boy’s privates being wrapped up in hot plastic for the first two years of his life (or longer).
None of this was mentioned in the article. Then at the end, this little jab:
“And while I think it’s extremely important to make sacrifices for the environment, I need to be sure that my sacrifices are making a difference - especially when the thing I’m sacrificing is the most important time of all: time with Isaac.”
Oh please! Now the author gets to feel superior as a parent because he does two fewer loads of laundry a week than me. Yes, I admit it. I had to take my attention off my babies (who were usually strapped in a sling while I did laundry) to do those two extra loads a week. Poor things! The emotional pain and suffering they must have endured.
I came across this “Project Educate Parents” thread on Diaper Swappers. It’s worth a read if you want more info on why this argument is so very sill
y. Here’s another great article tackling why cloth is so much easier on the environment. Read some of the comments from cloth diapering parents to the article online.
All I’m sayin’ is, if you don’t want to do cloth diapers, at least be honest about it and admit you’re too lazy or grossed our by dealing with your kid’s poop and would rather pass along TWO TONS of biohazard waste and plastic in the landfill (per kid). Don’t come up with junk science and incredibly silly excuses already.
But, you can always make up for that by taking their recommendation to buy a diaper bag made from recycled materials. LOL!
Homemade Laundry Detergent
March 19, 2008 | 6 Comments
I had been wanting to try Lynnae at Being Frugal’s homemade laundry detergent recipe for some time but just never got around to it. Then I ended up with a big container of detergent that had a perfumey smell so strong it made me nauseous when I held my youngest in my lap. Gross. So, I decided to whip up a batch.
I don’t think she’ll mind me sharing the recipe here, as I’ve seen it in many other places around the net and doubt it’s copyrighted material. Or maybe she’ll forgive me for the link love.
Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
You need:
- 1 bar soap (I used a Fels Naptha laundry bar I had hanging around)
- 1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda (get this in the grocery store - same aisle as the laundry products)
- 1 cup baking soda
- 1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax (ditto)
You can either mix all this up in your food processor or grate the soap first then mix it in a container. I wouldn’t recommend doing this around kids because the dust from the Borax can be dangerous if inhaled (I mixed mine in the food processor and “smoke” came out the loading chute thing.)
Use 2 Tablespoons per load.
I think I’ll add a few drops of essential oil because it has a tiny bit of smell that I don’t like. Either that or I’ll use a nice smelling soap next time.
I actually doubled the recipe since I do a lot of laundry and since I was going to the trouble, might as well make a big batch. I found that it worked nearly as well as my other favorite detergents. I say almost because there were several items of clothing stained with the homemade chocolate pudding from yesterday. I didn’t pretreat them though, and I doubt any detergent would have been able to tackle that particular stain without help! So, it will take a few more loads before I know for sure.
It did dissolve quite well for me in cold water so that’s a plus. My suspicion is that due to the fat in the soap, this recipe might make cloth diapers less absorbent. Since everyone in my house is potty trained that’s not an issue. The soap would make the clothing a bit softer which is nice. This recipe is also very environmentally friendly. It also doesn’t contain optical brighteners and other ingredients like fragrance, enzymes and dyes that can irritate the skin.
Have you ever made homemade laundry detergent? What were your results? Was the recipe similar to this one or different?
I’m too lazy to do the math, but from what I hear this recipe costs less than the best laundry detergent deal that you could purchase at the store.
Quick Homemade Pudding Recipe
March 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
My oldest loves to cook. Being a kid, his favorite things to cook are typically desserts.
The other day he made homemade donuts (not the kind that comes from canned biscuits either), the kind Caroline Ingalls might have made. They were the best tasting donuts I had ever eaten! (Yes, I sneaked one bite despite my wheat intolerance!)
Today he made homemade pudding and I thought I would share the recipe. I’ve been using this one for years, and it’s a slight variation of the recipe found in Whole Foods for the Whole Family. Which is an excellent cookbook by the way, it’s one of my all time favorites.
This recipe has about a million variations. You can make it gluten free, egg free, dairy free and corn free (just substitute arrowroot for the cornstarch and cook for a shorter time) in case of food allergy. You can make it plain old vanilla, carob, chocolate, coconut, fruit, lemon, rice, butterscotch, etc. And of course it’s wonderful as-is.
It’s delicious and VERY inexpensive to make. And honestly, it takes about the same amount of time to make as instant, especially if you put a kid on the job.
It has far less sugar and more actual food and nutritional value in it than instant pudding you can buy on the grocery store shelves. As a point of reference let’s take a peek at what’s inside one major name brand instant pudding:
Sugar, Modified Food Starch, Coconut, Contains Less than 2% of Artificial Flavor, Disodium Phosphate and Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate (for Thickening), Mono- and Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Artificial Color, Sodium Metabisulfite (Retains Coconut Whiteness), BHA (Preservative).
Yum! A chemical conglomeration passed off as food! Conveniently packed in plastic disposable servings!
Try this instead:
Quick Homemade Pudding
- 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup milk (this makes more sense to me than saying “2 cups milk, divided”)
- 4 Tablespoons sweetener (I use honey or Rapadura)
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla (use 1 teaspoon if you’re making chocolate)
1) Place sweetener and 1 1/2 cup milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat on low. While you’re waiting for it to reach a simmer, mix the 1/2 cup milk with the cornstarch or arrowroot. Get the eggs ready in a small bowl too.
2) When the milk is bubbling a bit, add the cornstarch/milk mixture, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
3) Mix about 1/2 cup of the pudding mixture into the bowl with your beaten eggs and stir well, then add to the saucepan. Cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly.
4) Remove from heat and add vanilla and other ingredients.
I think it’s tastiest cooled but you may not want to wait that long!
To make chocolate pudding, mix a scant 1/4 cup cocoa powder with a little hot water then stir in. (Remember to decrease the vanilla to one teaspoon. You can also use carob.)
For coconut, add 1//2 to 1 cup coconut flakes.
For rice pudding increase the milk by 1/4 cup and add 1 cup cooked rice to finished pudding, sprinkle nutmeg on top and add raisins if you like.
For butterscotch, add 2 Tablespoons molasses to the sweetener and stir in 2 Tablespoons butter after removing from heat.
For lemon, substitute lemon juice for vanilla and add 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind.
Add fruit like sliced bananas if you wish to the basic vanilla recipe.
Leave out the eggs if you’re allergic. Use soy milk instead of dairy if you’re allergic to that. If corn is an issue, replace the cornstarch with arrowroot and decrease cooking times. You can also use 6 Tablespoons flour instead of cornstarch.
Natural Moms Podcast #76
March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This week on the show, Monica Salazar of Familia Libre again joins us to talk about fridge free living with a 
pot-in-pot.
Pot in pot is a refrigeration system that works with simple physics. Building a pot-in-pot is inexpensive and easy. It can be used to store food as well as medicine. Using a pot-in-pot saves money on utilities, so it is ideal for families who are on a tight budget as well as anyone who wants to be more self reliant.
I
t also provides a learning opportunity for kids, who will ask questions about how the pot-in-pot works. Similar to the human body, the pot-in-pot cools by a process of evaporation. When the water inbetween the two pots evaporates, it cools down the inner pot where the food is kept.
It’s important to use unglazed pots. Your pot-in-pot can be large or small. More important is how large the gap is where the sand is (evaporation area) and make sure you keep the sand wet. Keeping the pot-in-pot in a dry location where there is a breeze is also a good idea.
More information:
Mohammed Bah Abba revolutionising lives in Nigeria with pot-in-pot
Pot-in-pot was used in ancient times by the Egyptians and Abba has brought it back into popularity among his fellow Nigerians. This simple technology is producing some pretty incredible results in their lives.
Thanks to Monica for the pot-in-pot pictures and instructions (in Spanish)
You can listen to the interview at the natural moms talk radio site or download the mp3 link here.
FF: When Frugal Isn’t Best
February 29, 2008 | 5 Comments
Chele from Moms Love Shopping asked me to come back on her show to talk about what I see as a negative side of the CVS shopping “system”. As I said on the show, it was with much caution that I wrote about this. If you haven’t read it yet, go read my post on CVS and the natural mom.
One of the points that I made on the show is that we vote with our dollars. We make a statement with our purchases. And our non purchases. When we buy lots of single use products that pollute our environment and our bodies, we’re telling manufacturers to create more of these cheap disposable goods with unhealthy ingredients. We’re telling them that cost is the most important consideration for us. (When it should only be one consideration.)
We’re also getting caught up in the culture of spending, the culture of consumption. That’s a bad habit that leads to more of the same.
On the other hand, when we buy quality products that are built to last, that are reusable and not wrapped in multiple layers of plastic, we are also sending a message. To both the marketers of these products and our children.
There are better ways to be frugal in my opinion. We can make our own natural skin care products, we can use cloth menstrual pads or other alternatives. We can use cloth diapers. We can clean with natural home cleaning products that we make ourselves. And there are a million other ways to save money.
We can also buy products that last. For example, buying toys from family owned companies like Heirloom Wooden Toys so that our kids can pass these along to their own children.
Some other great related blog posts about when frugal isn’t best:
Get Rich Slowly: Shopping leads to more shopping
Being Frugal: When buying on sale isn’t frugal
So what do you think? When is the frugal choice not the best choice?
WFMW: Homemade Hot Cocoa
February 27, 2008 | 8 Comments
I don’t know that I’ve ever bought a box of cocoa mix. Why would I, when homemade is almost as easy, much cheaper, and healthier too?
Case in point: A box of Swiss Miss cocoa mix contains the following:
sugar, modified whey, cocoa (processed with alkali), hydrogenated cocnut oil, nonfat milk, calcium carbonate, less than 2% of: salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglyderides, artificial flavor, carrageenan
Hmm… some of those things I just don’t want my wee ones to eat. Plus, all that packaging… with the cardboard box it comes in plus the individually wrapped servings, it just seems so wasteful.
So, I thought I would share my Homemade Hot Cocoa recipe for this week’s Works for Me Wednesday. It’s a slight adaptation of the recipe that appears on the side of the Hershey’s Cocoa containers.
Firstly, grab a medium sized saucepan with a heavy bottom. Put about a half cup of water in it and place it on medium/high heat. While the water starts to boil, add:
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 1/2 cup Rapadura or Sucanat
- a dash of sea salt
Let the mixture boil for a couple of minutes and stir it constantly. Then, turn it to low and add:
- 4 cups organic (I use raw) milk
- 1 tsp. all natural vanilla flavoring
Let that heat until it’s as warm as you like. I usually dip out two cups for the girls right away while it’s just warm, then let it heat up a minute longer for the boys and me. The whole process from start to finish takes LESS than 5 minutes.
You can also add a dash of cayenne to the adult’s cups if you like. And, did you know that a cup of hot cocoa has more antioxidants than most people eat in two days? One more thing: If you like to drink Mochas, you can use a tablespoon of the cocoa/sugar mixture to a cup of strong, freshly brewed coffee, then add hot milk and skip the trip to the fancy coffee shop.
Just when you thought I was done talking about chocolate. LOL!
Baby Needs a New Pair of (Soft Soled) Shoes
February 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Thought I would pass along another Bargainic alert: Cute Baby Shoes is offering discounts for President’s Day on their adorable soft sole shoes.
Buy 1, Save 15% - Use coupon code: pd1
Buy 2, Save 20% - Use coupon code: pd2