Save some green

In this tough economy everybody is looking for ways to save money and to earn money.  I have found a few ways to save a little green and even one way to earn a little green while saving a little green by becoming more ecoconscious and buying natural products.

The first one I noticed last week when I was at Wal-Mart.  In the pasta isle they have Great Value brand pasta sauce in 66 ounce plastic jars.  I got the traditional one.  If I remember correctly they were like $3 or $4.  It has a nice flavor to it and is basic enough that you can doctor it up to be whatever you want.  Like spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan, or it could even be used as a base for goulash or chili.  So far I have gotten a small lasagna and a good sized batch of spaghetti out of one jar and have enough left to make another batch of spaghetti.  Two of those jars cost about $8 together and take up less space in my pantry than 6 regular size jars of spaghetti sauce.  When we could afford it I used to get several jars of Italian baking sauce for spaghetti sauce.  I don’t remember the brand name at the moment but it was more expensive.  The great value traditional sauce is cheaper and still has a good flavor. 

Also in the same isle they have a box of spaghetti noodles that are also great value brand.  It is just 4 of their 1lb packages of spaghetti noodles but it is cheaper to get the box than to get 4 of their 1lb packages and the box is a convenient way to store the 4 bags in the pantry.  A single 1lb package doesn’t last long at our house.  We eat a lot of pasta. 

Another thing I have looked into is a membership with Cosco.  Last I knew it is $50 a year but I think that now that we have a deep freeze a membership would be more practical for us than it would have been before and would be of a better value to us.  I would be able to get certain meats in bulk and some frozen meals.  Also I would be able to buy other groceries in bulk.  When I take time to cook I can cook extra and freeze it for those days when I don’t have the time, patience, or groceries to cook.  Last I knew if I go in and sign up for a membership with a friend of mine who is a member they get a $10 discount on her purchase at that time and so do I.  That might have changed by now.  It has been a while since I looked into it. 

We are hoping that both the hubby and I are able to go hunting this year.  If each of us is able to get a deer that would be a good amount of meat to be able to get through most or even all of winter with it.  Two hunting licenses, two or three tags, and two boxes of slugs isn’t a huge amount to pay.  It is cheaper than buying two or three ten pound tubes of hamburger, two or three good size roasts, and several pounds of stew meat throughout the winter.  Especially since we would do all of the processing ourselves with the people whose property we would be hunting on.

Lastly I found an online shopping club, similar to an online Sam’s Club, with a wellness company.   They have over 350 different products to choose from.  They are an American based company that manufactures all of their products in the USA.  They are a direct sales company so you order your products and it ships directly to you.  They have a wide range of products ranging from nutrition, medicine cabinet, health, and bath and body, to laundry supplies, and household clears.    Their products are natural and safer for you and your home.  In fact their household cleaners don’t need safety caps.  Their cleaners and laundry supplies are ultra-concentrated so you get more product per bottle.  For instance one big bottle of laundry soap will wash 96 loads and costs $18.  To get that many loads of laundry done with Tide detergent it would take three bottles.  That is more expensive and that puts three plastic bottles in the landfill.  Also the bottle of ultra-concentrated laundry detergent is about the same size as one bottle of tide.  You can save green by becoming ecoconscious and get to use natural products that are safer for you and your home.  The part of earning green in this process is that you get a commission for everybody that you refer to the company and you get a small commission for every time one of the people that you referred places an order.  The more referrals you have the more residual income you will have from people ordering.  

This is my one and only big political rant.  I don’t get into politics.  I am not trying to say I am right and everybody else is wrong it is just me calling it like I see it.  Just my way of trying to put a hopeful voice on the government shut down. 

I really hope that in the next election we have more than two candidates to begin with and some of them are people that genuinely care about the general public and listen to them.  This last election was pathetic.  No good candidates.  It literally came down to who you believed to be the lesser evil.  That is partly why I wasn't overly broken up by not being able to make it to the voting polls on Election Day this last time.  I hate having to choose between two evils without a good alternate choice. 

Some people are saying that this government could be the end of America as a nation.  I think it could possibly be the end but it could also be the beginning of a better America.  We should all band together as a people and help support our American big businesses, small business, and home entrepreneurs.

With 14% of customs workers on furlough there may be delays on imports reaching the shelves of stores.  If this shutdown lasts long term it could present the possibility of American businesses opening more factories or it could be the catalyst for more direct sales companies to thrive.  If more factories open than more Americans will be employed.  It could potentially be a step towards America becoming a self-reliant nation.

We, as a nation, need to rebuild our political system in such a way that is more in tune with what our forefathers intended it to be.  We should start electing general citizens who are good hearted smart leaders into public offices on the local and state level then we need to help them get to the national office levels.  It also would not hurt to lower politicians pay a little bit while they are in office and eliminate the “for life” part of their salary.  They can still get retirement benefits like the rest of us but this reduction in pay would help eliminate reduce the number of people running for office that are in it for the money.  This shut down could be a literal rebirth of the nation. 

I know a lot of people want to eliminate food stamps, WIC, and other government assistance programs.  I think they are all really good programs but too many people abuse these programs.  People have found ways to expedite loop holes in these programs.  I have known a handful of people who abuse these programs.   At the same time there are others like myself who use these programs in order to get their feet back under them or to keep their feet from getting pulled out from under them.  We currently get WIC.   Yeah, I know some of you now think I am the scum of the earth because we use government assistance.  We get two checks each month for five 12.6 oz cans of formula.  That comes to $160 a month on formula alone.  Last month we still ended up buying a can of formula ourselves.  The rest of my family of three can get by on a food budget of $300 a month.  WIC is extremely helpful to young families of the working class.  I think that too many people see the horrible abuse done by some to these programs and don’t get to see the good these programs do.  These government programs help a lot of really good people have the opportunity to make something better of themselves. 

Another big hard hitting topic is illegal immigration.  I understand why people come to the nation illegally.  I don't condone it but I also don't condemn it. I think we just need to do better at not helping illegal immigrants quite so much.  That would make it easier for American citizens and those who are here legally but not yet citizens, to have a better chance to make something better of themselves.  We need to give people less reason to come here illegally and encourage them to do things the legal way.  Implementing harsher punishment for those who enter the nation illegally may unfortunately be one good way to encourage people to enter legally.

We as a society need to remember the golden rule of treating others as you wish to yourself be treated by others.  We all need to do more to help each other out.  Care about your neighbors.  When I say neighbors I am not simply talking about the people living in the houses immediately to all sides of your house I am talking those across town, in neighboring towns, in neighboring states, across the nation, around the world.  America used to be the great melting pot.  A nation of great diversity where all could thrive.  Somewhere along the way we seem to have forgotten about this.  We are all so self-absorbed living in this high speed high tech life that we forget about the value of human interaction and the basic human (animal) need for acceptance.  

I guess I am just a bit too Christian to be a politician.  I just think we need to all do more to help each other out if we can and quit helping the politicians.  Hey, look at that I just circled back to where I started.  Also it shouldn't cost so blasted much to run for public office.  It should be something that the people who are just hard working people in the middle or even lower middle class should be able to do.  We need people in office that understand the working class and the poor.  The middle class, lower middle class, and the poor need to have a more proper voice in politics.  There is a higher population in the middle and lower class than in the higher class.  Our political system needs to represent the population better instead of catering to the rich. 

Sorry for the politics rant.  Normally I keep my mouth shut on politics because I understand what the forefathers were trying to accomplish when they set up the nation’s political system and I understand that what it evolved into over the generations is a massively huge far cry from what it was intended to be.  Politics has become so much more about money than anything that if you don't have money you are less than the dirt that is scraped off the shoes of those leading the nation.  I hope that this shut down is the catalyst that the nation needed in order to get back to being what the forefathers intended.  

Gov shutdown

With the government shut down a lot of people are out of jobs.  I seen on facebook earlier that a relative of mine is out of a job right now and she tried to file for unemployment but because of the shutdown unemployment is shut down.  She is the sole provider for her family.

A friend was saying that customs might not even be working so all of the products that are normally imported will come to a halt.  Store shelves might suddenly become rather bare once we go through the supply that is on hand at the stores.  It might suddenly become hard to impossible to find all different types of products. 

The shopping club that I am part of is with an American based manufacturing company who manufactures all of their products in the United States and mail the product directly to you.  All you do is order online or over the phone.  Their products are natural and safer for you and your home.  They have over 350 different products to choose from ranging from nutrition, health, beauty, bath and body, laundry, and household cleaners.  Because they are a direct sales company that doesn’t advertise on TV, print, or radio they can pass those savings on to consumers.  You can get high quality natural products at a price similar or even less than what you are paying at retail for the products that are imported and often not safe for you or your home. You just switch stores and get a lot of really great products from a really great company.  Go green and save green.  Sounds like a good deal to me.

Feel free to leave a comment so I can get back to you if you are interested in getting more information about the shopping club.  Please leave me your email address.  

Shopping club update 3

I placed my order on September 27 and my order arrived on October 2.  Not too bad.  The funny thing about it was that I checked the tracking number in the morning and there was no information but when I got to the post office at about 11:00 it was already in the parcel box.  I was excited.  I opened the box as soon as I got out to the car and looked through everything.  I had to wait until I got to town and back to actually try anything though.

I got home and started really looking at everything.  I didn’t really want to wait to get into everything but we had company and it wasn’t bath time for the kiddos yet.  I was happy when Little Sister made a mess of herself eating.  We could do tubby time.  The shampoo and body wash for the kiddos both smell the same.  Somewhat sweet, which I definitely prefer over the smell of some of the baby shampoos that we have used in the last 4 years.  Dollar store baby shampoo is what we were using and I definitely do not like the smell of that and the scent lasts quite a while.  The new baby shampoo did incredibly well with the girls’ hair.  Little Sister came out of the tubby smelling so sweet and clean that I wanted to snuggle with her the rest of the night.  Papa Bear scrubbed Big Sister’s hair quite a bit and it was still easy to brush afterwards without using any extra conditioner like we normally do with baby shampoo or even with my shampoo.  It is nice that we don’t have to use conditioner on her hair if we don’t want to or if we just plain don’t get it accomplished and her hair will still be manageable. 

I haven’t tried the tooth gel with either of the girls.  I have opened the floride tooth gel for Big Sister and I like the smell of it (berry).  I think she will like it.  I haven’t opened the tooth gel for Little Sister quite yet.  We need to get better at brushing teeth with the girls and hopefully the new tooth gel will help with that.  I got the children’s vitamins for Big Sister.  She likes them.  They are cherry flavor and are chewy vitamins.  They basically look like overgrown Smarties and look like they would have the same texture as you chew them. 

I got the foot care pampering pack for The Hubby and Myself.  We haven’t tried it yet.  It is a foot scrub, foot lotion, and foot spray.  You are supposed to use the scrub first than use the lotion.  From what I can tell you are supposed to use the spray after the lotion and it will help to hold in the moisture. 

I got the hot chocolate mix.  When you open it and smell it you can tell it was made with real cocoa.  It tastes good.  The first cup I made I used 1% milk and mixed it according to the directions.  It tasted good but I like my hot chocolate to be really chocolate.  The second cup I made I just used water and mixed it a bit stronger and it tasted good that way also.  I think I am going to try the milk with an even stronger mix ratio. 

I used my loyalty shopping dollars this month to get an 8oz bottle of the intensive moisture lotion and the disinfectant 2x concentrate and corresponding spray bottle.  I put the lotion in the cabinet because the bottle I have isn’t quite empty but really close.  I mixed up the disinfectant in the spray bottle according to directions and cleaned the top of my stove with it and my kitchen counters.  I like the way it works and the spray nozzle seems sturdy which is really nice.  I think it smells a bit funky but because it is thyme it is going to.  Thyme doesn’t smell all that different than oregano.  The Hubby thinks it stinks but it dissipates quickly enough with the air conditioning running and a candle burning in the room so it wasn’t really a big deal.  I don’t really mind the smell of it.  They have a 6x concentrate and an 8x concentrate of the disinfectant also. 

When I set the lotion bottle in the side of the towel cabinet I looked at the rest of the stuff in that cabinet and got rid of about half of it.  I was looking for products with sulfates or parabens in them.  Of the products that I got rid of the majority only had one or two parabens in them.  I found a few with at least one sulfate and one paraben.  I found one product with two sulfates and two parabens and one with two sulfates and four parabens.  All that is left are products that contain no parabens or sulfates except for a couple that contain only one sulfate.  I have kept them for now until I can get them replaced.  It is nice getting that stuff gone through so there is less clutter.  I still have another couple of gallon bags in the cabinet to go through and a couple of small shelves to go through.  

Shopping club update 2

I just placed my second order.  It is mainly stuff for the kiddos.  Tooth gel for both children, a toothbrush for little sister, body wash and shampoo for the girls, vitamins for big sister, and a foot care pampering pack for me and the hubby.  I used my $20 loyalty shopping dollars for this month to get more of the intensive moisturizing lotion and the disinfectant cleaner and spray bottle.  The quarterly literature and catalogues are being sent also.  My total order with tax and shipping included comes to $80.81 with the preferred customer discount and the loyalty shopping dollars for this month my total savings was $57.89.  That means had I ordered all the same products without the preferred customer discount and the loyalty shopping dollars my order would have cost $134.01 plus tax (that includes shipping).  That is a rather impressive savings.  I am excited to see what everything looks like when it gets here and to try it all.  

Shopping club update number 1 and parabens

A few weeks ago I placed my first order.  It took about a week for the order to get to me.  That isn’t too bad considering it is shipping from Idaho and I live in Iowa.  My first order was small.  Lotion, a clay facial masque, and chapsticks.  I like the lotion.  It is a bit thinner than some that I have tried but not as thin as others and it doesn’t leave an oily residue on my skin like some.  My skin is normally dry to the point of cracking and bleeding especially across the knuckles and sometimes the entire back of my hands.  This stuff soaks in fast.  The main drawback that I have found is that if you put too much on your skin and don’t get it rubbed in really well it can leave your skin feeling a bit sticky.  Not sticky like adhesive sticky but sticky like dirt is attracted to you like a magnet.  I like the clay facial masque.  I don’t normally care much about beauty or all of the stuff that goes with it but this masque might actually get me to take care of my skin better.  The chapsticks are a bit softer than some but otherwise nice.  I like the smell of them and the way my lips feel after I use them.  I got the vanilla one, the sugar and spice one, and the mint one.  I managed to ruin the vanilla chapstick in the first few days that I had them.  I forgot about it in the pocket of my shorts and it went through the laundry.  Oops.  So it goes I guess.  I used to rollerblade like a maniac until I got pregnant with my oldest and I used to go through more chapstick during the warmer times of the year than I did during the winter because of rollerblading and my tendency to bite at my lips.

If you look at the ingredients list on your bath and body supplies look for parabins.   They are used as preservatives in a multitude of things ranging from cosmetics, lotions, pharmaceuticals, to foods even.  They are not really good for the body. The most common parabens used are methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben and butylparaben.  The higher on the ingredients list and the more types listed in the ingredients list the more parabens there are in the product.  Some of the problems with parabens are that your body absorbs them when rubbed onto your skin at a higher level than if you drank it.  Also the more harmful one is that they are similar to certain hormones in your body and can interrupt the way your endocrine system works.  Some of you are thinking “Endocrine system? Huh?”.  

Well here is a diagram of the parts of the endocrine system.

If you go to Mayoclinic.com and search parts of the endocrine system it comes up with 5 pages.  If you search endocrine system disorders it comes up with 33 different pages.  Seems like an important part of the body.  Worth not messing up if you don’t have to.  I started looking at some of the products sitting on the shelves in our bathroom.  I only looked at about 10 items and already have 5 items set aside because they contain parabens.  Some products such hotel shampoo and conditioner bottles and soaps are not labeled for resale and don’t have an ingredients list.  Other items such as sample or trial size or travel size items you may need a magnifying glass to read the ingredients list. 

If you go through you medicine cabinet and other hygiene products and get rid of everything that has parabens and suddenly realize over half of what you had is now gone give me a shout (include your email address).  I know where you can replace those products with high quality all natural products that are as effective or maybe even more effective than what you just got rid of for less than retail of what you just got rid of.