How Can You Stop Making Impulse Purchases?

Lots of us enjoy shopping. All the shiny new pretties are tempting. The problem is that most times we don’t need those impulse items. All those extra purchases aren’t doing the environment any favors, not to mention personal finances and the general clutter that builds in our homes. How can you stop making impulse purchases?

How Can You Stop Making Impulse Purchases?Wait

Deciding to wait on impulse purchases cuts down on most of them. Give yourself some time away from that tempting item before you buy it. It helps. Out of sight, out of mind for one thing, but also you can often think past the “ooh, neat!” factor and figure out if you really need the item. Most times you really don’t.

Do You Want It or Need It?

Really think about whether you want or need the item. We all get some things we want more than we need, but it’s best to keep that under control. Odds are good that there’s something you need more.

What Are Your Alternatives?

That impulse item may not be the best buy for your needs even if you come to realize you need it. If you’re going to buy, make sure you’re really buying the right item.

Stay Within Your Budget

Don’t let impulse items mess up your budget. If they aren’t in your budget, don’t buy. Make sure you’re getting a good deal, both in price and quality. Cheap junk is always cheap junk, no matter how cheap it is.

Think Long Term

In the long run, is this a purchase you will enjoy? This is a thought that can stop many impulse purchases if you give it enough time to take hold.

It’s especially true with clothes. Just think how fast trendy clothes go out of style. It makes far more sense to buy clothes that will look good for years, not just several months.

Think Green

Consider whether you’re making an environmentally friendly purchase, and if not, if there are alternatives which would do better in that sense. Think about how the product was made. Think about where waste from your purchase will go, from the packaging to the item itself when it wears out.

How Can You Improve Environmental Awareness in Your Family?

Most people these days know that we ought to take better care of our environment. That doesn’t mean it happens. If you want your family to be more environmentally aware, you have to make the effort to help them. Here are some ideas that may help you get things moving.

Read About ItHow Can You Improve Environmental Awareness in Your Family?

Start when the kids are young with books such as The Lorax. Encourage them to read other books and read with them as they get older. Talk about what they learn from their reading.

Visit Environmental Websites

There are plenty of environmental websites designed for children. Check some of these out with your kids.

Eeko World
NASA’s For Kids Only Earth Science
EPA’s Environmental Kids Club
Recycle City
BBC Nature Online
Maggie’s Earth Adventures
Kids Planet

Conserve

Teach your children how to conserve things like water, electricity, and other resources. Children can learn about as soon as they can reach the light switch that they should turn off the lights when leaving the room.

Reuse

Don’t just dispose of things because you’re done with their original purpose. Think of new ways to use them, or consider if they’re still good for more use. Water bottles can be cleaned and refilled, although I prefer stainless steel bottles to disposable ones. Toilet paper tubes can be used in a variety of craft projects for kids. Egg cartons are great also.

Recycle

Sort trash as appropriate into the recycle bin with your children. Kids don’t have to be very old to understand that most kinds of paper can be recycled, and you can work from there.

Garden

Whether you want to grow fruits and vegetables or some other sort of garden, it’s good for kids to learn to care for growing plants. Consider native plants and avoid invasive species as much as possible. Do what you can to avoid harsh pesticides and fertilizers, focusing on organic methods instead.

Compost

Teach your children that certain types of food waste don’t have to be thrown out – they can be composted instead, along with appropriate yard waste. They may be impressed when they understand that these scraps become something good for your garden.

Get Outside

You can’t appreciate the environment if you never get out into it. Go camping and hiking as a family. You don’t have to totally rough it, just go and experience nature for yourself.

Volunteer

As your children get older, get them involved in volunteering on projects to help the environment. There’s a wilderness area near me, for example, that has monthly cleanups that children 12 and older can participate in, so long as there’s an adult with them.

Set the Example

If you aren’t being environmentally aware in your own life, it’s not likely the kids will pick it up from you, no matter how you preach it. Be their example, so they know it as a way of life, not just something that gets preached and ignored.

The Preschool Water Pollution Experiment vs. the Zero Waste Snack

recycleWe’ve been having a lot of fun this week celebrating Earth Day in my daughter’s preschool class. The class has always done a lot of recycled art projects, but there has been some extra emphasis on it this week. But one project took a bit of extra effort for us – the water pollution experiment.

You see, the teacher asked each child to save a piece of trash from their snack. This took some deliberate effort for us, as I use entirely reusable containers for my daughter’s snack. Her water bottle is a Klean Kanteen that is older than she is. She always asks for vegetables, especially bell peppers, but that day it was a carrot. There just isn’t anything left most days.

Fortunately, she was willing to leave some carrot to throw in the container. Pretty much everything else was the horror of plastic you’re probably assuming already, the usual fare so many kids eat as school snacks now.The teacher was glad to see that we saved something, and said she had realized that there was a chance this project would be a problem for us, knowing our habits.

Believe me, I am constantly grateful that my kids prefer healthier options. I’ve been asked several times by other parents if we’re vegetarians, which we’re not. And my kids will eat the same stuff the other kids do given a chance; it’s just that I don’t usually offer it, and they know that real foods taste better.

Of course, the carrot is playing its part just fine in the experiment. The water in the container looks awful, and I pity the teacher when it comes time to pour it out, although I suppose she could just throw the whole thing out and save herself a lot of stink. Overall it has been a good experiment for the kids, who are quite grossed out by all the stuff floating in the water and the talk about how you wouldn’t want to swim in water that looked that bad, so don’t litter. It’s preschool, so of course the discussion keeps things about that basic. I just found it amusing we had to deliberately waste something for this project.

30 Activities For Earth Day

30 Earth Day Activities

Earth Day is a great day for slowing down and thinking about how you treat the environment. Not that you should be ignoring it the rest of the year, but it’s good to take an extra look sometimes and see what you can change, or if there are any little extra things you can do.

This is something the whole family can get into. Earth Day is a good time to share with the kids and anyone else who wants to participate ways to be a little kinder to our planet. So today, I decided to round up some Earth Day activities you can do, whether on your own, with your family or anyone else.

Nature

1. Take a hike.
2. Plant a tree – at your home or at a tree planting event.
3. Garden.
4. Make a pinecone bird feeder.
5. Plant seeds in empty egg crates or tin cans.
6. Walk around your neighborhood and pick up trash, or participate in a community Earth Day event.
7. Help the kids find ladybugs and other insects.
8. Go to the beach.
9. Start a compost pile.

Crafts

9. Recycled paper towel and toilet paper tube tracks.
10. Make a leaf collage.
11. Make paper.
12. Make an egg carton butterfly.
13. Make litter bugs.

Explore

14. Let the kids dig in the dirt or mud.
15. Demonstrate water pollution.
16. Teach kids what can be recycled.
17. Find a way for the kids to safely walk to school. Consider a walking school bus.
18. Go to the farmer’s market.

Replace

19. Switch to a stainless steel water bottle rather than drink from single use bottles.
20. Consider which batteries you could replace with rechargeable batteries.
21. Rethink your personal care items such as shampoo, makeup and so forth.
22. Find ways to eat less meat.

Read (remember your library!)

23. The Lorax
24. Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf
25. The EARTH Book
26. The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps
27. Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World
28. Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
29. Compost Stew
30. Where Do Recyclable Materials Go? Read, Think, Recycle (Garbology Kids)

Want more ideas? Check out my Earth Day Activities Board on Pinterest.

Chayote Squash Soup Recipe

Chayote squash soup

One of the reasons I love my Vitamix is that it makes making chayote squash soup so easy. This soup is amazing – it tastes creamy, but there’s no cream in it. You can even make it vegetarian or vegan if you like, or add bacon to satisfy the meat lovers. Trust me on that – bacon in this soup works well for my husband. Bacon turns this into a recipe he likes pretty well into one he’s enthusiastic about.

Chayote squash soup is ridiculously satisfying to me. A bowl of it will seriously cut down on what else I need in a meal, if I need anything else at all.

Unlike some people, I don’t peel my chayotes for this recipe. You can, although I understand that it’s better to peel them after cooking, or with gloves on if you have to peel them raw. The raw ones can irritate your skin as you peel them. I just skip it. It’s all going in the blender anyhow, and by the time the Vitamix is done, there’s no worry at all about whether or not the skin was tough when I started out (and it usually isn’t all that tough after boiling anyhow).

I’m listing ingredients with vegetarian and vegan alternatives as I go.

Chayote squash soup, vegetarian or with bacon

Ingredients

2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tbsp butter or extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
jalapeno (optional)
2 chayote squash cut into 1 inch chunks
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
bacon (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter or pour olive oil into a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, red pepper and optional jalapeno until onion is tender. Add the squash, cilantro, salt and pepper (and bacon if desired), and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add broth and simmer for 20 minutes or until chayote squash is tender.

Here’s where you have a choice. You can use an immersion blender and puree it right there, or you can use a countertop blender to puree it. I usually scoop the vegetables and other stuff out first, then pour in just enough of the broth to help the soup blend – I like it a little thick. I’d say I leave out at least a half cup of liquid most times – possibly more. Not like I’m measuring at that point – it’s all too hot. Be really, really careful about how you get the ingredients into the blender, obviously. A slotted spoon or bamboo skimmer is really helpful.