Monthly Archives: October 2009

Is Being Thrifty Bad for the Economy? What About the Environment?

Being thrifty became popular again with this most recent recession. Not for any environmental reasons, but because people had to.

But it’s kind of nice to think about how being thrifty also means you’re likely having less of an impact on the environment.

Some people are concerned, of course, that the new popularity of being thrifty is going to slow the economic recovery. And I would imagine they’re right. But I can’t help but feel that’s a good thing some ways.

Just think about how much your average American tends to waste. It’s quite a bit.

If less is wasted because we’re buying less, that’s going to be generally good for the environment.

It’s not perfect. Sometimes the cheapest items aren’t the best for the environment. But there are an awful lot of environmentally friendly products out there that make good sense for people who are really only interested in being thrifty, as they save money over time and on a short enough scale to be interesting.

Time to Give Up on Aluminum Water Bottles?

If you decided to get an aluminum water bottle to avoid waste, and perhaps BPA, there’s a bit of rather frustrating news out today that I came across on Twitter. The Z Recommends website reports that Gaiam’s supposedly BPA-free aluminum water bottles leach far more BPA than Sigg’s bottles did.

Somehow oops doesn’t cover it.

Makes me really glad to have my daughter using a Klean Kanteen. She loves it, and it puts up with the abuse she gives it at school, which is plenty. Hers is going on a year old and has some small dents, mostly around the bottom, but is otherwise still in good shape. I just like that there’s no question of what kind of coating is inside, as stainless steel doesn’t need one.

It’s sad that you can’t always trust a company’s claims about the safety of its products, especially when they lie about specific selling points. But you can remember who gets caught in a lie.

Getting Ready for Halloween

Somehow it’s October already. I have no idea how that happened. But that means figuring out Halloween costumes for my kids.

Most years I’ve made their Halloween costumes. It’s fun. This year I’m not so sure I can, which is a real disappointment.

The baby’s costume isn’t a problem. She has a handmedown dragon costume from a cousin.

My son wants to be Bumblebee from Transformers. He’s never seen the movie or the shows, but he’s completely obsessed with that character, just from seeing the toys in the store as near as I can tell. Amazing how that works.

Making that costume to suit him is likely a bit beyond my skills, though.

My daughter was going to be Wonder Woman until I pointed out that evenings in late October here are likely to be on the cool side. That’s a pretty tough costume to warm up. So now she’s thinking vampire.

With any luck at all, I’ll have some good choices for them at one thrift store or another. Things like costumes I really don’t like getting new when they aren’t too likely to make it into the rotation for playing dress up.

Our neighborhood is looking really promising for trick or treating, I must say. Lots of houses with decorations going up already.

Frozen Homemade Baby Food vs. the Dead Microwave

I’ve posted a few times about making homemade baby food. It’s a process I’ve been enjoying.

Serving it, on the other hand, has been a bit more challenging of late. You see, my microwave died.

Well, not so much died as started sparking. Not a good thing, especially since it’s quite new.

Good thing it’s still within the return period.

But that does mean I have to plan a bit more ahead for when Selene wants her meals. It takes rather longer to reheat her food without a microwave.

How I handle it depends on what I’m doing. Fastest is popping it in a small pot and stirring the baby food until it’s about a safe temperature.

But sometimes I’ll put it in an oven safe bowl and put it in the oven to warm up. This is effective if I’m already using the oven for something else. Takes about 10-15 minutes or so, and if there’s a touch of ice still in the food when I take it out, that’s a good thing. Helps to cool off the parts that are already melted and too hot.

Reheating her food this way means that it often has to spend a few minutes cooling back down to a baby safe temperature. That’s no fun if she’s hollering for her meal now! You know how patient babies aren’t, especially when they’re hungry.

I’ll be glad when I get that microwave brought back to the store and get a replacement. It’s just so much faster and I know better how long to heat the baby food to keep it at a safe temperature so I don’t have to cool it back off.

Still, it’s nice to know how easy it is to cope without.