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My Frugally Green Journey – How It All Began

January 14, 2011 By Emily McClements
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Family

For the past 3 ½ years, or so, my family and I have been on a journey toward living green and living frugally, learning to be a good steward of all of the resources that God has provided us with.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share my story with you over the next few weeks, because I think that telling our stories is so important, and so that you can learn a little about where I came from, and how I came to the place I am today.

I want to start out by emphasizing that this is a journey and not something that just happened overnight for us. God has been really teaching and growing me in this area, and there is so much that I still have to learn, please don’t think at all that I’ve arrived or have this all figured out – I am still on the journey and probably always will be.

Where We Started

Four years ago my husband and I lived what to us was a very comfortable lifestyle.  He had a good job where he made good money and we were trying to get pregnant for the first time.  We didn’t think too much about being a good steward, either of our money, or of the earthly resources that God had provided us with.

We were living a very consumerist and materialistic lifestyle, we liked our stuff a lot, and always wanted more and new stuff.  We lived a disposable lifestyle, choosing convenience over conservation.  Actually, we really didn’t give any thought to the impact that our decisions had on other people or on the world as a whole. In fact, I thought that the whole environmental movement was a little overboard and not really necessary.

Baby Belly

How It All Began

I became pregnant with our first child in January of 2007, and as often happens when children enter the picture, I started to think about my baby and how things in her environment and things in the world would affect her. It wasn’t just all about me anymore, I had a baby to nurture and protect, and thinking about her changed everything.

My cousin encouraged me to try using cloth diapers, so I started reading and researching about them. From there, I started learning about the harmful chemicals that I was using to clean my home. I decided that I wanted to be more mindful for her sake and protect her as much as I could from things in her environment that might harm her.

So, while I was still pregnant, I switched to using green and natural cleaning products, and that was probably the very first baby step that I took on this journey.  And then, when my daughter was born, we started using cloth diapers on her.

Other than that, I was pretty content with the way things were and didn’t worry too much about our other lifestyle choices. I had no idea the path that I had started down would lead me to where I am today.

What kind of life did you live before you started your green journey?  Were you frugal, but not really green?  Or did you live a materialistic, disposable lifestyle the way we did?

Coming next week: My hubby loses his job, and our comfortable lifestyle is not so comfortable anymore. Read Part 2 here!

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11 CommentsFiled Under: Green Living Tagged With: "green", baby, baby steps, cleaning, cloth diapers, family, pregnancy, stuff

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Comments

  1. The Environmental Goddess says

    January 14, 2011 at 11:10 am

    Hi there!
    First of all, you looked beautiful pregnant! I really like your blog! For me, it started with natural cosmetics, I started taking care of my skin more a few years ago and then I started thinking of all the chemicals I was using on my face. I did a little research and was horrified, thinking it could cause cancer and other issues. Slowly, I started thinking of the effects of other products on my health and on the health of the environment.

    Reply
  2. Sara says

    January 14, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    I think my journey has just begun. I’m excited to read your story. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Erin says

    January 18, 2011 at 8:32 am

    It’s funny how having a baby changes you in so many ways! We started with cloth diapers too, and then got rid of paper goods in the kitchen when I was washing so many bibs a few more wash cloths and cloth napkins wouldn’t be much more laundry!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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    […] few weeks ago I started sharing the story of my journey toward living green and living frugally.  Last time I told you about where my hubby and I started […]

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    December 5, 2011 at 3:06 pm

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