True confessions: I am a recovering spend thrift. There, I said it! Recovering from a super size, Costo surplus mentality, don't think about excess waste, disposable, replaceable, barely used, replace it after a year type of living ... now reflecting on the ways my grandparents lived during and after the Great Depression ... ways that stayed with them until the end of their lives ... a resurgence of my formerly too poor to know the difference childhood is resurfacing ... and just in the nick of time with hubby's retirement, the RECESSION that has been going on for some time that may turn into a DEPRESSION, and the Lord stirring my heart and mind to prepare for the days ahead (waste not want not). It may or may not be doom and gloom just upon the horizon ... but preparedness/thrifty living is something that should NEVER go out of vogue. Now when I examine my pantry shelves and see the two dozen bags of assorted beans I pressure can them or cook and freeze for soup. Or the little bits of egg, veggie and hamburger scraps that once would go in the trash can, I add them to my dog's portion of din-din. The thought of being told, never to give pets people food is ridiculous. With the exception of such tooth sticky food as pasta, or hazard to dogs health chocolate and salmon ... the likes of sliced apples, bits of celery and chicken meat are now going to supplement the dog's food. And those zip-close bags that once got used and tossed with ease are now getting washed and dried to reuse. This week I discovered how to use my power strips to 'power down' the computer, printer, stereo, etc. to not waste standby mode electricity. Some of our mega watt kitchen bulbs have been replaced with compact fluorescent ones. The wasteful years have come to an end. Grandma's ways were best :) What have you done recently to 'power down' your waste?
6 comments:
Dear Mrs. Mac,
you are so on the right track.
I'm thinking.
What have I done?
We don't have a dog, so some kitchen disposal go to waste.
We are enforced to sort our garbage in four. So at least the community are making some money of my leftovers.
Also there's less pollution this way.
I guess I save some money on clothing.
At my age- close to sixty-I don't need to follow the vogue swinging four times a year.
I allow myself to buy more expensive and longer lasting.
For years we have been sending outdated clothes to Ukraina. A local fellow is singlehandedly collecting, feeding, clothing, homing and educating several thousand kids and now also grown ups. Last year he bought two great farms to make the community self supplied with food. All this because people all over south Norway are gathering their old clothes instead of throwing them away.
If it is not powering down, it is helping making the world a better place.
From Felisol
What a thought provoking post...hmmm...let me see, what am I doing to conserve? Well, I make lots of soups with beans also...its healthier for us and much more inexpensive. I sometimes sew my own clothes and only buy when something is on sale. On a lighter note, lol...when the spring thunderstorms come along they find me thankful hearted that my piano and cello require no electricity. We use our wood-burner constantly and that drastically cuts down on the oil furnace kicking on. I only wash clothes with cool water...I figure the hot dryer air is a great germ killer along with detergent.My hubby is a fabulous coupon shopper! We shop frequently at Aldi's....where the price of fresh pineapple is 69cents to a dollar cheaper than Walmarts, can you believe it? I cooked & froze LOTS of applesauce from our apple trees last summer and fall...what a wonderful accomplishment that was...even though those 'hour' sessions out under the maple trees peeling apples every afternoon got to be a bit of a drag..have to tell you, Dr.Gott has a newspaper column and does not recommend reusing plastic bags....I think it depends on what was in them to begin with. better run..I try not to get online when I first get up...till I get some things done around the house. I've wanted to visit you and see about the newspaper pots you talked about and the tp tubes you are planting in. so bye for now Mrs.Mac...=)
I just read the no/low cost gardening tools article...thank you so much. This was chock full of great ideas! You know, I'm daydreaming about growing potatoes but hubby is not in agreement. But they don't have to be canned or peeled or frozen. I guess they do take up a lot of ground..but we do have an acre or so.
Maggie Ann ... check out the "Inexpensive Container Gardens" in my side bar. There is a project about growing potatoes upright in a stack of old car tires. You are right about 'reusing' bags. We only reuse them if dry ingredients were in them; no meat or cheese. We save bags such a those extra ones around Costco bulk bread.
Each week, Brillo Man makes a pot of soup --in it goes all the leftover scrips and scraps that you're probably giving to your dog!! The soup is always delicious - never the same twice and Brillo Man is the King of Soup in our house!
Deb ... I bet your Brillo Man makes the best soup. All of the leftovers are 'disguised' in another dish at our home and I don't cook as often if we have extra servings to save. I used to waste so much food ... it was sinful to say the least.
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