Living Green Expo this Weekend!

It's that time of year again. Time for the Living Green Expo at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds this weekend! I LOVE this free expo. You can always find something new that you haven't seen done before. Try new organic foods, and make you think differently about the little things that can make a huge difference. I plan on being there on Sunday, so if you see me, be sure to say HI.

The annual Living Green Expo is a free, family-friendly event that inspires people to lead healthier and more sustainable lives.


May 2-3, 2009
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Minnesota State Fair Grounds (Saint Paul)
Free admission Getting There: Directions

Ride FREE to the 2009 Expo with a Go Greener Pass from Metro Transit.
Plan your route
Download your Go Greener Pass

Happy Earth Day 2009

Get out there today on your walk, and pick up trash along the way.

Bring in your cans to the recyclers today.

Bring in your bags of clothes to the thrift store today.

Challenge yourself to see how much you can recycle today.

See how much water you can conserve today.

Change out your light bulbs to CFL's or LED bulbs today.

Make a difference today.

Earth Day E-Cards

How do you save paper while still sending your friends a great message about Earth Day? Send an e-card. No paper needed, just a few minutes of your time to create them.

Click here to go to WWF's Earth Day e-cards, and send them to all your friends. If they are eco-friendly friends, they will enjoy the thought. If they are not currently eco-friendly, maybe they will see how cool it is to become eco-friendly.

Help spread the word. Send an Earth Day e-card today.

Free Earth Day E-Book Download

Just in time for Earth Day, Grist.org is giving away free downloads of their environmentally focused book, “Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Nonpompous, Nonpreachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day!”

This is a great call to action to not just be eco-conscious one day each year, but to be earth-friendly every day!

Downloading the book will also register you for a drawing for a trip to the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee this year on June 11 - 14 — tickets and airfare for two included. Good luck!

Click here to register.

Earth Hour is Tomorrow March 28th @ 8:30pm

It's that time of year again, Earth Hour.

Tomorrow night (3/28) remember to turn off all your house lights at 8:30pm local time. Leave the lights off for one full hour. Be sure to turn off computers, TV's and electric radios too.

You can sign up here to prove your support, and be updated with the progress.

There is a kids web site for them to learn more about Earth Hour too. Click here for your kids to get in on the Earth Hour 2009 action.

Funny story about our family doing this last year. Ali had one of her friends over, and her parents came over to pick her up in the middle of Earth Hour. We were all sitting in the family room talking with candles lit all over the house. They thought we were a little strange until we told them why we were doing it. Then they sat and joined us for the rest of the hour. They are a eco-friendly family, and are always willing to try something new.

So, remember tomorrow 8:30pm local time, go off the electric grid!

Spending Money to Save Money

What in the world?

Yes, sometimes you need to spend some of your money to save money in the long haul. You know how you buy the cheapest rake you can find at the hardware store, only to have it break in the first week. If you would have spent a little more money up front, you would have gotten a higher quality rake, and it would have lasted the whole season. Same kind of thing. How to spend you money wisely, to help it save you money in the end.

1. CFL Light bulbs. Everybody now pretty much knows the wonders of CFL light bulbs. They do conserve energy, therefore saving you money on your electric bill. I have CFL's in every socket that has a CFL size to fit it. I bought them throughout the year when they went on sale. They are still more expensive that traditional light bulbs, but they are worth it. Watch your monthly electric bill after installing a few of them. You will notice the usage go down. The first rooms I put mine in were the kids rooms. They always forget to turn their lights off, so they were the most used light fixtures. I then expanded from there.

2. The Sunday newspaper. Whether you have a subscription or buy it at the store every week, a serious money saver needs the Sunday paper. They obviously have all the coupons every week, but they also have the ads to see where the best deals are for that week too. There are grocery store coupons, and coupons for craft stores too. My youngest son loves Thomas the Train. Some of the best advice I got was to use the Michael's 40% off one item coupon every week to go buy one Thomas the Train wooden train. I didn't go every week, but by the time his birthday came, I had a huge set to give him, all at 40% off. It also works great on craft kits for girls birthday presents!

3. "Real" Dinner Plates. Going green is very chic right now, but it is a way to save money too. Get out of the habit of buying paper plates, cup or disposable silverware. They are bad for the environment and bad for your wallet. I went to Ikea and bought a set of dishes at $.59/plate, $.49/bowl and three sets of silverware for $3.99 each. I have a serving for 24 now. They are not fancy, they are just plain white and off-white. But when I have dinner parties, birthday parties, or neighbors over for a BBQ, my plates match, and they are re-washable. It cost a little upfront, but is better for everybody in the end. Don't have an Ikea by you, remember to check out thrift stores. Stick with a color theme, and they don't have to match. It would be very eclectic to have a little girls birthday party with all different pink dinner plates. Not to mention fun to shop and find them all. Just remember to not spend alot on a single plate, check for chips and wash right away when you get them home.

4. No Throw Lunches. My kids have been having no-throw lunches for over a year now. Now that I am back to work full-time, I have them every day too. Basically, your goal is to not have anything to throw away after you are done eating your lunch. So you need, a re-usable lunch bag/box, sandwich holder or wrap-n-mat, real silverware (thrift store), cloth napkins (thrift store), and plastic containers to store different food in. The best part is, once you buy the different size plastic containers, you can buy things in bulk. I have bought canned fruit, apple sauce and chocolate pudding in huge cans. You just divide them out to the smaller containers and pop them in the crisper drawer. It makes it faster to pack a lunch that way too. If you can, remember your beverage containers too. Small thermos for milk, water bottle for water or lemonade, metal coffee cups for coffee or cocoa. If you have a pop, just please recycle the can.

5. Home Energy Audit. This is one of my goals this spring. If you go to your providers web site, and see if they offer home energy audits. We have Center Point Energy in my city. They offer a basic audit for just $25.00, or a High Performance Audit for just $100. You can click on the link above to see everything that they do in the audit. I am actually a energy saving freak, and I am very excited about doing this. They will show you how to save your money in heating and cooling your house. Think of all the money you could save.

6. Insulation. This kind of ties into the energy audit. But if you don't have enough insulation in your attic, you are literally losing money every second. Stop trying to heat the outside of your house, check out if you have enough insulation today. There are also many kinds of eco-friendly insulation out there, more than there ever were before.

7. Power Strips. This is something that we started last fall. Each TV in the bedrooms now is attached to a power strip. Everything except the clocks are attached to power strips too. That way we can completely turn off the small appliance that are sucking electricity. I turn off the computers that way every night too. It is a habit you need to get into. But once again, you will instantly see the difference on your electric bill. Ours cut down at least 25% the first month!

8. Female Products. I am going to do a whole post in the future about this. Female products are an area that nobody like to have to spend money on, but we all need them. I personally use a Moon Cup that I purchased for $35. I have sewn my own pantyliner too. Most people have a very strong opinion one way or the other about these types of products. If reusable products are not for you, that is fine, but try to be open minded about them. They do cost more money upfront, but think about never having to buy a box of tampons again. I do, however have a whole shelf devoted to disposable products that I have gotten free or next to free. After all, my daughter is 11, and things will be changing soon for her. And her friends sleep over all the time. I will not force things onto my daughter, it will be her choice what she will want to use. And I would never force these products onto her friends. What is right for me, is not what is right for all. Watch for a post coming soon about how to make your own pantyliner and pads.

Well, that's the bulk of my list I came up with. There are obviously hundreds of other things out there to help you save money in the long run. What are some things that worked for you? What are something that did not? We can all learn from each other where to invest our money, and what thing to not waste our money on.

Make it Yourself - Laundry Soap

Recipe #2

Laundry Soap

I have been using this laundry soap recipe for a few months now, and it works great too. Again, I have well and septic and it is safe for septic systems, and good with well water too.

What you need:

5 Gallon bucket
long spoon (wood or plastic)
spaghetti pot
measuring cups
empty gallon milk jug
empty laundry soap containers (optional)
1/3 bar Fels Naphtha soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
lots of water



How to make it:



I could never find a bar of Fels Naphtha soap, so I used 1 full bar of regular soap. Try to use soap without any lotions, scents and as little color as possible. Grate the bar of soap. I used my stand mixer with the grated cheese attachment (real fun!). In the spaghetti pot add 6 cups of water and the grated soap. Cook, stirring constantly, until is melts. Add the washing soda and the borax, and stir again until they are dissolved. Turn your sink onto hot water and let run until it gets real hot. At this point remove from the heat and pour the whole pot into the 5 gallon bucket. On top of the soap mixture add 4 cups of HOT water, stir. Add one full gallon of water (milk jug full), plus another 6 cups of water. Stir, stir, stir.





Let the soap sit over night, cover to keep animals & little ones out of it! It will turn into a gelly gloppy mess. Stir one more time. I then use a large funnel and a measuring cup to pour it into my old laundry soap containers. Be careful not to fill it to the top.





When you go to use the soap, I just give it a good shake to loosen up the gel again, and fill the top cap. Just like regular store bought laundry soap. If you have room, you could also just have the 5 gallon bucket in your laundry room, and use a half cup measuring cup for each load.





I do not have a powdered laundry soap recipes, due to having a front loading machine. But I can check into them, and have one of my neighbors do the testing of it. I will let you know at a later date about it. If anybody has a fabric softener recipe, that is what I really need next.

Next week: basic cleaning solutions.

Make it Yourself to Save Money - Dishwasher Detergent

Sorry for the week absence. I have had two of the kids home with a stomach flu (I will spare you the details). Plus with all the last minute preparations for Christmas, it has been a little crazy around here.

But what I now want to share with you is how to save money by making things yourself...for less.

#1 Dishwasher Detergent

This is the easiest one, which is why I started here. My 9 year old son is now in charge of making our dishwasher detergent when we run out.

What you need:

box of borax (laundry soap isle)

big box of baking soda (Wal-mart laundry isle)

container of table salt

Rubbermaid 32oz or larger drinking bottle

funnel

Here is all you have to do to make it:

Pour 1 1/2 cup Borax into bottle using the funnel,

add 1 1/2 cup baking soda,

add 1 cup of salt.

Cap the bottle and shake well.

That's it. I just fill the regular wash and the extra clean wash bins on the dishwasher door, and turn it on. It washes just as good as the expensive stuff, plus it even scrubs off the gunk that the kids don't scrap off. I have a well and septic system at my home, and it is totally safe for septic systems too.

I have not done the math on how much it costs per batch to make, but I know it has to be tons cheaper than the store bought stuff. We have been using ours for three months now. I would not tell you how to make something if I have not been using it myself. So be assured, it is safe and works great. I would however keep it out of reach of little ones due to the borax!

Next week I will share my homemade laundry soap experiences and recipe.

My First Give-Away!

I am happy to announce my first give-away! Keeping in line with the Eco-Friendly and Organic Web Coupon Wednesday, I will be giving away a heaping 53 Earth Conscious coupons from nationally recognized companies.

These coupons include brand names such as:

Organic Valley

EnviroKidz

Lifestream

CLIF Kids Organics

Alvarado St Bakery

Kettle Brand Chips

FruitaBu

Babara's Bakery

Lundberg Family Farms

Country Choice Organic

Emerald Valley Organic

Equal Exchange Teas

Choice Organic Teas

Wallaby Organic

Santa Cruz Organic

Earth Friendly Products

NatraCare Organic Feminine Hygiene Products

Glad Rags

Biokleen

There is something for everybody here. These are some of the best brand names in eco-friendly green living, and all 53 coupons could be yours! They all have an expiration date of November 30, 2008. All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is leave a comment below with your favorite information that you use on my web site. You can also leave a comment on any new segments that you would like to see more of. Basically I am looking for input as to what is working and what is not. Please be honest, I am a big girl and I can handle constructive criticism.

I will accept comments until Sunday August 17, 2008 at Midnight Central time. I will then be contacting and post Monday morning the winner of the coupon give-away. Good luck to all, and healthy eating!

Web Coupon Wednesday

Today I am going to try to tackle organics and healthy foods for my web coupon Wednesday. I have to warn you, there aren't a ton out there, but when you get them you will enjoy them.

$.50 8th Continent Soy Milk

$1.00/10 Earth's Best Baby Food

$1.00/2 Earth's Best Sesame Street Products

$1.50 Healing Garden Organics

$1.00 Horizon Organic Milk

$1.00 Kashi Mighty Bites

$2.00 Kashi TLC Crackers

$2.00 Kashi - any product

$1.00 Morning Star Breakfast Product

$1.00 Organic Valley Soy Milk

$1.00 Organic Valley milk 1/2 gallon or gallon

$1.00 Organic Valley 4,6 or 8oz cheese

$1.00 Organic Valley 1/2 gallon Lactose-free Milk

$1.00 Organic Valley 8 or 16oz Butter

$1.00 Organic Valley Cottage Cheese

$1.00 Organic Valley Single Serve 4pk Milk

$2.00 Seventh Generation Diapers or Training Pants

$1.00 Seventh Generation Baby Wipes

$1.00 Seventh Generation Dishwashing Product

$1.00 Seventh Generation Cleaning Product

$1.00 Seventh Generation Laundry Product

$1.00/4 Soy Joy Bars

Stonyfield Farms Dairy Products

$.50 YoBaby Organic Drinkables 4pk

$1.00 YoBaby Organic Whole Milk

$1.00 YoBaby Organic Whole Milk Yogurt 6pk

$1.00 YoMommy Organic Yogurt 4pk

$10.00 Earth Friendly Products coupons

There is also a $1.50 Tofutti Frozen Meal coupon and a $.75 Tofutti cheese or sour cream coupon on my side coupon bar to print too!

Experiment Underway!

It is officially July 1st, and my electricity saving experiment in officially underway. You can check out my ideas on it here.

All the kids have been trying real hard to turn off their power strips in their rooms. They have also been more aware of turning of lights when they are not using them. The air conditioner is on again today, it is supposed to be over 90 but not as humid. It will be turned off again as soon as my husband can handle the heat.

We have also been talking about getting a heat pump for the house. We had one in our last house, and it would save us money on the natural gas come winter.

I have also charted out our last year of gas & electricity bills to see if my experiment has done any good. Hopefully I will be able to report a huge drop in electricity usage with our power strips. I will keep y'all up to date when the July bill comes!

Husbands.....What are we to do with them?

When I came home from work last night, my husband had turned on the air-conditioning for the first time this summer. I was a little sad. I was trying to make it through the month of June without turning it on. I had a whole system of opening and closing blinds at the right times. I even had it set for when to vent the fan in our bedroom, and when to have the air coming in at night. I had the house at a comfortable 73 degrees.

Well Minnesota is known for their snow, but not alot of people know about our summers. They are beautiful, yes they are, but they can be VERY humid too. Today is 94 degrees with a dew point over 60 degrees and rising. Now that might not sound bad to some, but it is quite sticky here.

So as much as I hate to admit when I am wrong, I will admit it when I am. He was right to turn on the air last night for us today. We would have been miserable, and probably in crabby moods when he came home from work. I will however be turning it off again when the humidity goes back down!

Thanks Honey for thinking of us.

My Summer Experiment

I am going to try a summer experiment this year. My husband moved his offices a few months ago, and went from a huge office for four to a single office for just him. In the move of all the computers and printers he has an abundance of surge outlet strips. They have been sitting in the garage for a few months now. I am going to put them to good use this summer.

We are going to connect everything that doesn't need to stay plugged in, into them. Every room in the house. Now, I live in a 4 bedroom two-story with 2 1/2 baths and an unfinished basement. We have a well & septic system, so the water is free, but it uses electricity to run the pump to get the water into the house. We also have gas appliances: stove, dryer & furnace. Thank goodness we haven't had to turn the air conditioner on yet this year, I guess thats one good thing about having a cool spring.

I am going to dig out May 2008 electric bill to use as a reference for how many watts we used that month. June will be a "training in" month with the kids. Hopefully after a few weeks, turning off power strips in their rooms will become habit. And July will be the first official month of turning off unnecessary appliances & such.

It will be interesting to see how much electricity we can save over the summer. I do not plan on using the air very much (we'll see), and if we are to hot, the kids & I can always clean out the basement. We do use fans at night in everybodys bedrooms when it is hot & humid to at least move the air around. Plus, I do also still have a few more CFL bulbs that need to be changed out.

At the beginning of July I will post the control bill (May) and we will see by the end of July if it has helped at all. I sure hope we can cut our bill even lower.

Free CFL Recycling at Menards!

Here's just another reason to love your local Menards store:

CFL recycling has never been so easy! We are proud to announce a new FREE and convenient CFL recycling program that will launch TODAY Monday, June 9th at Menards stores statewide(Minnesota)!

The Center for Energy and Environment, creators of the Minnesota Energy Challenge, has joined Great River Energy and its 28 member cooperatives to offer CFL recycling at no charge to Minnesota residents.

You can now drop off expired CFLs at the service desk of any of the 36 Menards home improvement stores located in Minnesota. I know a lot of people are concerned that CFL's aren’t being properly recycled. Until now there hasn’t been a free and convenient way to recycle CFLs - but there is now!

Tell your friends. You can check out the whole story here.

Thanks to WCCO for reporting all these Earth Friendly reports!

Free CFL Lightbulb

If you have been reading my blog you already know how I feel about CFL lightbulbs, you can check out my post here. Well here is a chance to get a bulb for free.

Provide your address to request a free CFL lightbulb from Accent Energy using promo code: EARNRWG.

Help Save the Polar Bears....takes 1 minute!

This is an excerpt from a e-mail I received from the WE Campaign. The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. Our ultimate aim is to halt global warming. Specifically we are educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.

All you need to do is click the link below, and sign the petition. It literally takes 1 minute of your time, and I think the polar bears deserve 1 minute for how badly humans have screwed up their homes. Please forward this information to your friends and family who care about the environment to get the petition signed by hundreds of thousands of people!

As climate change causes the continued shrinkage of Arctic sea ice, polar bears are increasingly at risk. Leading American scientists say placing the polar bear on the federal Endangered Species list is key to its survival.

A federal court has given the Bush administration until May 15 to decide if it will list the polar bear as endangered. Click here to tell Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne that the polar bear, and its fragile Arctic habitat, requires protection from the effects of global warming.

If the Secretary listens to the scientists, the polar bear will gain important protections. Additionally, federal agencies will need to consider how their future activities could affect the species -- and that could be an important step in leading the government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Please sign our petition to protect polar bears today.

Eco-Friendly Tip-of-the-Week

Today is all about the reusable bag. I have and love my different reusable bags for different reasons. I was thinking about doing this topic last night when I was watching Rules of Engagement on TV. The women in the show were shopping, and both had their reusable bags over their shoulders. I noticed it right away, but then my husband even said something about it. (He is coming along nicely) There are different price points for reusable bags. Here is a run down of what I have and how I use them.


First reusable bag...your old bags. Cost is free, usable until they fall apart. I do forget my reusable bags from time to time, I am only human. When I do forget, I think about the stash of bags I have in the pantry and think about what ones I am running low on. I use the paper bags for my weekly recycling and a few for gift wrapping and craft projects. I use those multiplying plastic bags for poop patrol with the dogs. The kids use them to haul their winter gear to school in too. I have also started "collecting" a few more for the upcoming garage sale.


Second reusable bag...Chico Bags. These were the first bags I actually bought, and still use them today. I bought them at ReusableBags.com and paid $4.95 each for them. I got five, and I literally fit a full Cub Foods cart of food into them, minus the milk. I purchased them back on 4/4/07 and have used them soooo many times. I have used them for groceries, camping trips, dance competitions, caring food at holiday times, even caring toys for the toddler. My oldest son and I used to count how many bags we saved by using them, and completely lost track after 100. I would guess we are in the 200's by now. The best part of these bags is that they fit into a small carry pouch that is attached to it. I can fit all five bags into a medium sized purse and still have room for all my other stuff. Plus now they come in fun colors, I may need to get a few of those.

Third reusable bags...store bags. I personally have three Target bags, the huge ones. They cost $.99 for the smaller ones, and $1.49 for the medium and huge ones. Thanks to California, pretty much all national stores now offer some sort of reusable bag. These are normally a better price, but different quality. The Chico Bags above are made out of machine washable nylon, the Target bags are a woven material, that if pierceed will rip. Do not rule these out because of that, they are a great bag, and the big ones will hold alot of purchases if the cashier knows how to pack them right. (I have asked to pack my own when they don't know how to) Store bags can be used at ANY store. Just because it has a particular name on the outside, it can go anywhere. One of the nicest I have seen, but do not have yet, is the bags at Home Depot. They have large clips on the side, so the bags attach to the plastic bag holders for easy packing.

So these are the bags that I personally have. There are thousands of other bags out there. There are even some for free, like the free Earthbound Organic Bags. I have not received mine yet, but I am waiting patiently. Some stores do have free giveaway days, so be on the lookout for those. But the trick to making the bags work for the environment is to use them. Leave them in your can, carry a tote bag full of them, do whatever you have to do to remember to use them. Then think about how many bags you are saving!

Energy Saving Tip-Of-The-Week

You are on your computer right now.

How often during the day are you at the computer?

Do you not use your computer after a certain time at night?

Computers suck so much energy and electricity it is scary. When you are done for the day be sure to turn off your computer. I use mine through the day, but when I head to work in the evening, I turn it off. The older kids have computers in their rooms. I keep telling them to turn it off too, but you know how kids can be. I make sure they are turned off as I am tucking the into bed for the night.

What about your other office equipment?

Our printer and copier have power save modes on them that kick in automatically. The old printer didn't though, and I would turn that off every night too. Some people have all their equipment plugged into one surge protector and turn the whole thing off at night to prevent the draw of unnecessary power. I haven't done that yet, but want to soon.

Also, make sure you turn off your computers at work when you are going home for the night. It won't save you personally any money on the bills, but it will save the company. It will also save the energy for the environment, which is always a good thing too.

My Family's Earth Day Event

Well I just got finished with my families Earth Day event of cleaning a half mile of County Road across the street from our home. It was myself, all three kids, one neighborhood girl, one of my best friends and her daughter, who is also my daughters best friend.

It only took us 1 1/2 hours and collected two lawn & leaf bags of garbage, and one filled with cans and bottles for recycling. Plus, two giant armfuls of shingles that either blew off a house or a truck. My kids left saying that they wanted to do it again next year, and do even more roads. I am so proud of all the kids, parts were icky, but with the garden gloves on they handled it just fine.

When we were half way done we even ran into other kids from the neighborhood cleaning up a empty lot next to their house. It was good to see other kids caring about the environment too. I am going to look into "adopting" that part of the road before next year rolls around, then we can make it a yearly thing. The picture above is of the five kids who helped and the back of my car filled with all the garbage we picked up. A deepest Thank You to those who helped us...you know who you are!

Free Pine Tree

If you live in the Andover, Ham Lake, Blaine area of the Twin Cities, head over to Mickman's Garden Center on the corner of 65 & Andover Blvd. They are giving away 500 Black Spruce Tree saplings until they run out. The trees are located right inside the door by the registers.

If you have pets, they also have dog & cat food samples by the registers right now too.

Thanks to my good friend Lisa for this find!