Living Green =Saving Money?

Thinking green and trying to live green is on everyone's mind these days. It really makes sense not only for our environment but for our pocket books as well. Every where you look stores are selling the latest, newest, good for the environment goodie. Do we really need to buy more? Wouldn't it be smarter to use what we already have?

My grandparents were some of the most frugal people I have ever known. They were green when green wasn't cool. They recycled everything that could be recycled. They did it not with the idea of saving the environment but with the goal of not being wasteful. Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Nothing was too small.

My grandfather took the time to straighten bent nails from projects and reused them. My grandmother saved scraps for quilts and string from feed bags. She even taught me the fine art of dumpster diving when I helped her and her sister in law collect fabric from the place the local shirt factory dumped their scraps. I still have quilts made from those scraps. When I wanted drawing paper it was most often the blank insides of a junk mail envelope. I wasn't going to be allowed to draw on school paper that they had paid good money for!

Even with all the saving their home was never cluttered because they used the things they saved. I grew up watching that and they set a great example to follow.

Today living green is what is fashionable. I wonder how Grannie and Pa Pa would feel about being so cool? That makes me chuckle! I think my grandparents would think it funny too.

While surfing I found a great little project for using those mesh vegetable bags, and this one which is another use for those junk mail envelopes. Both are by Girl on the Rocks and they are frugal and green. Are you going to save the world or save a bazillion dollars? Nope. But it might get you to thinking about other things you can do and if we all make a few changes...who knows.