I've had something on my mind the past week or so. As I've slowly been coming out of my first trimester fog, I've been trying to put the pieces of life back together. One of the things that totally flew out the window as soon as the pregnancy sickness hit was any kind of routine or schedule that I had kept to before. I know for my own sanity and well-being, I need to get back to my schedule and routines, but I'm finding it really hard with everything Christmas and the holidays in full … [Read more...]
Being Frugal vs. Being Cheap
Photo by _J_D_R Guest post by Stacey from a GOOD and SIMPLE life: Frugality is a popular buzz word these days. With the recent “economic downturn”, everybody is doing it - or at least trying to do it. But many people are confused about what frugality really is. Many people, including myself at times, are simply being cheap but doing so in frugality’s name. So what is frugality anyway? What is just being cheap? Frugality is in the center of the money spending spectrum, between cheapness … [Read more...]
Becoming a Conscious Consumer
Photo by Fernando Martinez Whether buying a gift for Valentine's Day, or just making purchases in day to day life, how important is it to be a conscious consumer? To think about the impact that our decisions have beyond ourselves? How can we be conscious consumers in today's materialistic culture? These are questions that I've been struggling and wrestling with lately. I definitely don't have all of the answers, but here are some of my thoughts and ideas for how we can make more … [Read more...]
June’s Change Challenge – Frugally Green Baby Care
Wow, I cannot believe it is June already! My sweet baby boy turns one this month! This year has gone by so fast, but what a blessing it has been to get to know this sweet, funny, lovable little guy. How can you resist that smile! In honor of Brenden's first year of life, I wanted to cover frugally green baby care as this month's change challenge. Whether you have 10 kiddos, or you are just thinking of starting a family, or having a family is not even on your radar right now, it … [Read more...]
Change Challenge – Kids & Other Personal Care Products
When I started the change challenge this month, I had several other ideas for posts about making changes in your personal care products. Some of them, like the Oil Cleansing Method, I just don't feel like I can write about right now, and some of them I am right there with you - still needing to make changes and find better products or alternatives to the current products that we use. But, there are a few other changes that I have already made that I wanted to pass along to you. First of all, I … [Read more...]
A Telltale Sign…
Photo by jek in the box A telltale sign that you have been making changes in your life and your home - when you introduce something back into your home that you haven't been using for a while and it is irritating to you. Irritating in more than one way. Here's what happened. We ran out of our homemade laundry detergent. I had more stuff to make it with, but just hadn't gotten around to doing it (keepin' it real - I'm not perfect at this all the time!) and Jer really … [Read more...]
Finding Balance – The Practical Stuff
This is the third post in the series Finding Balance. Read the first two posts here and here. With God's leading, I came to realize that I need to find a better balance in being a good steward of my family's finances, our bodies, my time and this earth. This is when I came up with the idea of being frugally green.You can be frugal without being green as I talked about earlier. You can also be green without being frugal. Since being green is now so trendy, there are lots of expensive products … [Read more...]
Finding Balance – Faith and Stuff
Image by Anita363This is the second post of the series Finding Balance. Read the first post here. And look for the final post in the series tomorrow! “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? … [Read more...]
Finding Balance – The Problem of STUFF
I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm living out my faith in my life and how I can find balance between living as a follower of Christ in a way that is glorifying to God while living frugally, living green, and living responsibly. It's a really big question with probably lots and lots of different answers and I'm sure that I'll always be searching for the absolute best answer, one that I'm completely content with. But, I know that it is important for me to at least try to answer this … [Read more...]
