Personally I believe frugality and “going green” go hand in hand. For example, when you replace your conventional light bulbs with CFL (compact fluorescent lamps), you are saving money in the long run because they use a lot less electricity than your regular light bulbs and last a heck of a lot longer too. The other day I was reading a message board, and the issue of “family cloth” came up. If your first thought was “what in the heck is family cloth?”, then you were thinking along the same lines as me.

Family cloth, also known as cloth wipes, is basically reusable cloth toilet paper.  They are 4″ x 6″ squares of fabric, mostly flannel or cotton, that you use to wipe yourself with.  When you’re done, you put them in a “wetbag” and then wait until you are ready to do laundry. When you have enough to launder, you throw them in your washing machine on hot with a little baking soda if you choose. You get bonus points if you use laundry detergent you made yourself.

When I heard of this, I immediately was disgusted. Who would want to do something like this? You would be surprised. Many people liked the idea because they were not only saving money, but they were saving the environment as well.  Personally I can’t bear the thought of wiping myself with cloth after “#2″ and then having to wash it, but to each their own.  Many people use cloth wipes on their babies, so why not do it for adults as well?  Here are the pros and cons that I’ve come up with:

Pros:

• You save money from not having to buy toilet paper.
• You help save the environment from chopping down more trees.
• You aren’t using bleached paper on your “private” parts.
• It’s more comfortable.
• If you run out of toilet paper, you can cut up an old t shirt and use that.

Cons:

• Is it really sanitary?
• Can you get past the fact that you are going to reuse the cloth you just wiped yourself with?
• What about when you have company over, do you just hide your cloth?

What is your opinion on family cloth?

Posted under Extreme Frugality

To Can or Not to Can: that is the question.  Yesterday I wrote how we save money by growing vegetables in our garden. I decided today to take it one step further and can some of the tomatoes that were overgrowing the garden. Please call me crazy.  I am still not done and I started about three hours ago!  This takes a lot more time than I thought it would.  This is an actual picture of one of our tomato plants.  It is over 5 feet tall!

I anticipate getting more tomatoes off these plants.  There are some green tomatoes growing currently.

Look how big these tomatoes are!!  I’ve never seen any this big.

This was my process: dip the tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute, shock them in an ice bath, remove skin and seeds from inside, sterilize jars, put tomatoes in jar, make sure there was no air in them, seal, and put in canner.  I know it sounds easy, but trust me, it was a lot of work!  Honestly I don’t think this was a money saving endeavor, but what can I do?  (pun intended)  The first batch is sitting in my dining room and I hope they seal.  If they don’t, I’m going to have to put them in the freezer, and I really don’t have all that much space in the freezer.  Plus, all the time that I spent on doing this would be wasted!

I think I would have saved (or made) more money had I taken them to the farmer’s market this morning.  If I would have done that, I would have saved time and energy.  I hope that my efforts are not fruitless come winter, and these canned tomatoes are better than any other tomato I’ve eaten.  I can make spaghetti sauce, chili, and a whole lot of other dishes.  Plus, they are in glass jars versus aluminum and I like that.

Do you think it’s worth it to can your own vegetables? 

Posted under DIY, Extreme Frugality, Food