Category Archives: Budget Environmentalism

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches – Cheap Packed School Lunch Idea

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are both a classic and a meal to avoid if your school has a peanut ban. You’ll have to check before making this lunch.

They are cheap, although the decisions you make when buying supplies will greatly impact the cost. A loaf of bread can be bought at the store for $2-4, and I suggest you go for some sort of whole grain. My kids aren’t into white bread because they’ve always had whole grain bread of one sort or another. If your kids have the white bread habit, find a way to break it. This may take time, but it’s worth it.

The cost of your peanut butter and jelly will vary quite a bit, but both are really quite cheap per ounce.  You may choose to spend a bit extra for an organic or natural peanut butter, same for the jelly. I usually go a bit light on jelly because there’s a lot of sugar in many of them. Better types may have less sugar.

I’m not going to explain how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich here. Please. I think this is something most of us can handle from a very young age. My 6 year old can do this, although I did have to explain once that you don’t lick the knife between dips into the jar. Ewww!

I have not tried this personally, but I understand that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches freeze and defrost well. That’s nice to know, so that you can have a school lunch to grab on those hurried, running behind mornings. Stack them up in a container, freeze them, then take what you need and put it into your sandwich box. No need to serve them every day if you have enough freezer space.

While they may not freeze as nicely, you can have fun with peanut butter sandwiches. Try banana slices, raisins or apple slices rather than jelly. Many fresh fruits go quite well with peanut butter.

Don’t forget the fresh fruit and vegetables. Your child needs a complete lunch every day.

Recipe Books You May Enjoy

Healthy Eating for Kids
Lunch Boxes and Snacks
The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go

Sand and Shells – Cheap Packed School Lunch Idea

As one of the challenges of making school lunches for your child is beating the price of buying lunch at school, I’m going to post some recipes over the next few days that are cheap to make, healthy, and hopefully popular with the kids.

My focus will be on main dishes for lunch. Fresh fruits and vegetables work pretty nicely as side dishes. Figure out what your kids will eat and that don’t take too much preparation. Vegetables are usually chopped when you pack them for school lunches, but most fruits really don’t need that kind of preparation, although younger kids may need a start on peeling oranges or tangerines. Rice, especially brown rice if your kids will eat it, makes a good addition to a school lunch.

Sand and Shells

2 tbsp olive oil
1 diced onion
1 cup cracked wheat
1 egg, beaten
2 cups water
12 oz. seashell pasta, cooked according to package directions
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large frying pan. Saute onions, then remove and set onions aside.

Mix cracked wheat into beaten egg and mix until coated. Pour into frying pan and cook until egg is done. Pour in water, add onions, salt and pepper and allow to simmer on low heat.

When the water has been absorbed, add in the sea shell pasta and butter. Mix and serve.

Your cost here will vary by the quality of ingredients you buy. If I go cheap, I can get a bag of pasta for $0.25 – $0.33. If I want something better, say a whole grain pasta, it’s going to be more. Free range eggs from a store will cost more than regular eggs, but if you have backyard chickens, you may not consider the cost to be much at all, depending on how you calculate that cost. That said, this recipe comes up pretty cheap anyhow.

I won’t try to get all the nutrition facts, but 1/4 cup of cracked wheat has 5 grams of protein, which is only about 10% of the daily value. Obviously, this dish is high in carbohydrates, so don’t bother with any others.

This recipe makes a lot. I usually serve it for dinner one night, and have leftovers for 2-4 lunches, depending on appetites.

Recipe Books You May Enjoy

Healthy Eating for Kids
Lunch Boxes and Snacks
The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go

With Gas Prices Going Up, It’s Time to Cut Your Usage Down

It seems as though the price of everything is going up right now. That’s especially true when it comes to buying gas. The prices are awful, and not expected to improve anytime soon.

Just call it more motivation to cut back on how much gas you and your family uses. It’s not always easy, but you can often find areas where it’s worth changing your routine to save some gas.

1. Daily commute.

For family members who work outside the home, how is that daily commute? Do you have any alternatives? Carpooling, public transportation, riding a bicycle, even walking? Depending on the distances involved, one or another of these could be worth it. My sister carpools to her job with two other people, which has cut her costs to about a third of what it would be if she drove only herself to work daily. Pretty nice deal, and the added time isn’t too bad.

Public transportation is great when you’re in an area with a good quality system. Not everyone is so fortunate. If this is going to be a regular thing, see what a monthly pass costs versus paying each day, as this can make the difference in whether or not you’re saving enough money to be worth the additional time public transportation costs.

Not everyone can bike or walk to work. The distances or road conditions may not allow it, and arriving at work all sweaty isn’t always the best image to bring forth.

This also goes for students in the family headed for school. Walking or biking is usually far more possible for students.

2. Running errands.

How often do you really run your errands in an efficient way? Do you combine errands and make a list so you won’t forget something and have to go shopping again too soon? These are some of the things you need to be more careful about in order to save gas.

You may be able to walk some errands or ride a bike when they’re local enough. Grocery shopping can be a little challenging, but not impossible depending on weather conditions and just how far you have to go.

3. Other trips.

When it comes to the other reasons to drive, think about when it’s really worth it. Can you walk that far and will it still be worth it? What options do you have? Are there any more efficient ways to get there?

Increasing gas prices are really hard on a tight budget, and even those with more room in the budget don’t particularly like paying more for it. If you haven’t done so already, now is a great time to start using some of the alternatives you have available so you don’t drive as much.

Thrift Store Shopping Shouldn’t Make You Feel Poor

The problem some people have with thrift store shopping is that they feel it’s something poor people do. There’s the image of a dirty store with old, unwanted clothing. When you find a good thrift store in your area, you’ll find that the reality is far from that image.

There are a lot of very good reasons to shop at thrift stores. Being poor or just on a really tight budget are good reasons, but there are others.

You could just be aware of good deals. Many times you can find brand name merchandise in good condition at a thrift store. Why would you pay full price if you can get it just a little later at the thrift store for a few dollars?

You might enjoy it as a treasure hunt. It’s not just clothes you can find at the thrift store, but items for all around the house.

You could go thrift shopping as a small way to support a charity you approve of. They usually are for good causes, such as the job training Goodwill does.

You could go thrift shopping because you want to be more environmentally friendly. Reusing is certainly better than buying new.

In so many ways, thrift store shopping is the smartest way to start your search for many items, especially clothing. Once you know where the good stores are you won’t need to go all over town trying to figure them out. There can certainly be particular stores that get the best stuff in an area or that get picked over too quickly.

If you know what days they get and put out deliveries, that can be a huge help to your thrift shopping success. The best things will of course go more quickly. If you’re looking for trendy clothes, getting to them fast may make them easier to find. Sometimes you even luck into clothes with the tags still on.

Certainly you have to be picky about which thrift stores you shop at. It’s often clear when management just tries to sell everything and doesn’t worry about what’s in working condition or otherwise usable.If the one nearest you has awful merchandise, look around until you find one that has the good stuff. They’re out there.

You can of course go to the big names in the business, such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army, but most areas will have smaller charities that run thrift stores as well. Don’t rule any of them out, especially if a good one supports a cause you love.

How Do You Make Your Home Smell Fresh Without Using Air Fresheners?

If there’s one home care product that falls consistently on my least favorite list, it has to be air fresheners. Most do nothing more than add a scent to the air, usually created by some chemicals that if you really thought about it, you wouldn’t be spraying in the air you breathe.

They’re usually unhealthy, minimally to poorly effective, and frankly there are better ways to handle the smells that build up inside a home. For people with conditions such as asthma, it can be vital to avoid many of the usual commercial air fresheners.

Remove the Source

You won’t always be able to do this, but if you can get the source of the smell out of your home, that’s the best way to get the smell to dissipate. That could be taking out the trash, cleaning the cat litter, and so forth.

Open the Windows

Weather permitting, opening the windows is the simplest way to make a home smell fresh. It lets the air circulate. The smells floating in the air in your home have a way to get out rather than continuing to build up.

It’s important to open your windows in your home when you can. Indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air, especially if you use a lot of conventional cleaning supplies.

Use Natural Air Fresheners

Natural air fresheners may not work as quickly as the ones you buy at the store and spray around, but they’re better for you and I think they smell better.

Baking soda is a classic odor absorber. Place bowls of it out where smells are an issue. Sprinkle it on carpets that are having odor problems and let it sit for a little or even overnight before vacuuming it up. It doesn’t have a pretty scent, but that’s not the point of using baking soda.

Vinegar isn’t a favorite scent for most people, but it does help to control odors. Put a bowl of it out or spray it into the air. As it dissipates, the vinegar smell and the problem smell will go away. Add in a drop or two of a favorite essential oil if you want to cover the vinegar smell right from the start.

Different herbs can help make a room smell nice too. Sprigs of rosemary or lavender are good choices, especially if you grow them fresh yourself. If not, dried versions smell good as well.

Boiling herbs and spices works also. Many people like the scent of cinnamon boiled in water. Boiling a sliced lemon or lemon juice is another good smell. Vanilla, orange, peppermint, cloves and nutmeg also smell good when boiled.

Your favorite essential oils can be used on their own to make a room smell good. Drop a little on a cotton ball and place it in the room. You can use a drop each from a couple different types of essential oils if you like.

Growing plants indoors also helps with air quality. Different plants clean air in different ways, but they’re generally good at what they do. Don’t overwater any plants or you may have scent issues relating to standing water or overly wet soil.