I was browsing around the internet today - procrastinating, more like - and read an older post by No Impact Man, suggesting we carry napkins and re-usable cloths with us when we are out and about.

We use cloth napkins at home… why not when we go out to eat too?

This may seem a little unconventional. But then, so is carrying a Mason jar for water. Most mornings we fill two quart-sized jars with iced tea for my husband to take to work with him. Why not? It’s free, and it saves me having to clean up the mess left by some hideous leaking waxed paper Big Gulp cup when it held the melted ice for too long and fell apart and left a water stain on my husband’s desk…  The mason jars don’t leak, and I don’t have to carry the trash out so often. My motives are purely selfish.

By now, we should be getting used to a few funny looks. You know - the one for politely stopping the overzealous kid from putting groceries in a plastic bag (one item per bag!) and pointing out the cloth bags you brought with you.

So now that we are accustomed to bringing grocery bags with us before heading to the store - is it that much more to remember napkins and a container for leftovers before going out to eat? I really don’t mind the own-container part especially. It often takes a while to get the styrofoam (ew!) container from the host/ess anyway, and then you have the guilt of bringing home something that doesn’t decompose in 100 years.

I’m putting a couple of napkins and a container for leftovers in my car now.

A friend and I were talking last Friday evening about the potential upcoming Depression. It seemed unfair to be a little doom and gloom on such a beautiful day – it was sunny and clear, and the cooling breeze was almost chill. Weather for throwing a party and putting good food on the grill. But the talk of the day was still last Monday’s 504 point drop in the market, and the tax burden of the president’s bailout plan.

My friend, of course, is the very epitome of frugal. Look up “frugal” in the dictionary and you should see his picture. But what we were discussing was how, if one is already accustomed to being frugal and a major economic downturn does hit, then it isn’t a major lifestyle adjustment and one doesn’t feel deprived as a result.

Even better, we agreed, the people who have been frugal all along, who have been canning and gardening and cutting firewood and coupons, the people who have been making new clothes out of their old clothes and only buying what they need when it is on sale, will be there to help folks who haven’t had to learn that lifestyle before. They can take their friends and neighbors by the hand, and say “it’s ok, this is how you do it.”

I’ve learned a lot this summer, and it seems the Internet has been my friend for learning how to can, freeze or dry the summer’s vegetables and fruits. I’ve taken to leaving the laptop in the kitchen so I can look these things up and not get distracted from the work that needs to get done because I can’t see it from my office computer. I’ve had a busy summer, a good summer, learning all of these things and experimenting.

With my hands this busy, I haven’t missed going to the store. I have a self-sufficient happiness to me now – a feeling that, no matter how bad the economy gets, I can heat my house, dry my laundry, sew my clothes, grow my food, and preserve it. I have made my own medicine for minor discomforts and general health. I can even cook if the power has to be turned off – the top of the woodstove is big enough to hold a few pots and pans. I have a good feeling, knowing that so long as I can grow things in my yard, no matter how bad the economy gets, we will not starve. We may not have a lot of variety and we may even have a weed salad from time to time, but we won’t go hungry. A year ago, I would have had trouble telling you what weeds we could eat and how much of them was safe to consume at a time.

I don’t feel deprived because I’m not buying cereal at $6.00 a box or decorating my house with the latest cool stuff at Target. I have lots of projects, and I have such a satisfaction knowing that our credit card bill is slowly shrinking because I’m not buying… I’m making.

Remember college? Especially if you were putting yourself through, and had to eat off $3 in change for a whole week? Remember not having more than five pairs of pants and just a few tops to go with them? For a girl, I wasn’t terribly interested in clothes back then. Thanks to a couple of roommates – one with a massive load of credit card debt from shopping and the other who frequently got financial gifts from The Bank of Dad – I knew how far behind the styles I was. I had to be creative with my money and adopted a comfortable, boyish look – jeans or cargo pants, t-shirt, ponytail. Clothes were just not important – I was in college to study, right?

Since then, for a long time, I have enjoyed getting new clothes. I’m not a big shopper by any means, but I do like having some nice things that are in style. My closet is full, and so is a whole dresser devoted just to me (my husband also has a whole dresser and a whole closet, but there is less hanging in his closet than mine). I can deliberate for half an hour over what to wear. I spend hours sorting and washing and line-drying laundry every week, and we don’t even have kids!

About a month ago I was in our attic sorting through some boxes for a yard sale when I came across my favorite bag from college. It is a WW2 map bag, sized like a small messenger, with loads of pockets in the front for pencils. It had been the perfect size for a couple of textbooks and a notebook, and had been easy to sling over my shoulder as I hopped on my bike to ride to school in the morning. At some point in recent years my dog with the nervous disposition had chewed the strap, and I had stopped using it.

I’m back to using it now. I washed it and took it to my overloaded closet and pulled out a beaded belt I’ve worn maybe three times. It was easy to tie it to the strap rings, and I’m super thrilled to have what feels like an old friend back. I haven’t bothered changing purses to match my outfit since, and have gotten more compliments on my bag than I usually do with my favorite Liz Claiborne.

I’ve realized I can be creative with that strap. I have lots of scarves I could tie on it instead of the belt – I can make the bag “go” with my outfit anytime I so choose by changing its accessory.

If I can do that much by being creative with a bag, what can I do with all the other stuff hanging in that closet? New ideas and ways of thinking are starting to sprout. Maybe my creativity hasn’t entirely left me after all.

This year, I have only bought 5 new items for my closet, and I did that this Spring before I decided not to buy any more. I’ve come to realize that what I wear does not matter. It can be last year’s jeans and the sweatshirt from 10 years ago with my alma mater emblazoned on it. What’s wrong with continuing to wear that teddy-soft t-shirt with a few holes in it while I am home? And even if someone did come to the door, they’d know they came without calling me first. Most people dress for comfort while at home.

Many people don’t bother themselves too terribly much about how stylish your clothes are. Jeans and cargo pants have been my uniform for decades, I just forgot that while trying to impress clients with my Ann’s Taylor and Klein. I’m regressing back to my college days of dress, just a little less sloppy and a little more fitted. The people that do care? If what I wear, being three years out of date, bothers them so much that they no longer want to be seen with me, then are they really people I want to know? Why should I continue to spend money to impress people?

For myself, it isn’t that I want new clothes so much as I don’t want to be perceived as being poor. We look at each other and assess their value based upon what car they drive, what neighborhood they live in, the square footage of the home, and how many Maholo Blahniks are in the closet. We look at the jewelry our friends wear, the style of their haircut and color job, their nails. They’re all measures of status, and whether you are worthy of people’s attention falls on your appearance, not your education or all the things you have accomplished in your life.

It’s a consumer culture, and my closet is going to keep what it has in it for a looooong time.  Maybe I can sell my other bags on e-bay.

If we all showed love for our fellow man like this? I love the sign here for “Free Hugs” - our world is so lacking in love. I know people who fill that empty hole in their hearts with new toys or bad addictions like alcohol. If we were better at showing that we can love our fellow man, how much better a world would this be? Just food for thought.

Free Hugs Campaign

As a side, I am recently learning to hug more. It takes time, but we can all learn.

I originally wrote this post for www.unofficiallyoptimistic.com, so forgive me for the cross-post but I feel this is useful information. You can find many recipes for home-made laundry detergent all over the web, and doubtless some of them are better than mine - but I thought the harmful chemical information good to have as well. Making my own detergent hasn’t been just about saving money, but about keeping harmful things away from me and water. I pass on all softeners too - they aren’t really needed!

Here is a list of just some of the chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
• Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
• Limonene: Known carcinogen
• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t appreciate chemicals like Pentane that is harmful if inhaled being in my laundry. I mean, what’s one of the most natural things to do when you get something out of the dryer and it’s all soft and warm? I know, especially in winter when it’s cold - you put your face in that warm laundry and inhale. haha. Cute.

You can find a list of other toxins added to laundry detergent and their effects on humans here: http://www.ourlittleplace.com/chemicals.html

To make your own detergent, you need the following: Borax is Hydrated sodium borate, Na2B4O7 -10H2O, is a mineral ore of interlocked chains of boron, hydrogen, oxygen , water,and sodium. It is often found in dried playa lake beds. A playa lake is one that fills with rain water then dries out leaving various salts.The simplest refining method is to boil the ore in water, add carbonated soda which causes the borax to dissolve and impurities to settle out. The water borax mixture is poured off and cooled, borax crystals form and are collected. Borax is a water softener, cleanser, whitener and disinfectant.

Now, borax CAN still be harmful. But at least in making my own laundry detergent, I know exactly how much of it is IN my detergent.

Then washing soda, I use Arm & Hammer brand, and Fels Naptha soap (you can use unscented Ivory too).

Shred the whole bar of Ivory, or only 1/3 of the bar of Fels Naptha, into a large pot that you don’t cook food in. Add six cups water, heat it until the soap dissolves. Then add 1/2 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax and stir until it dissolves. Remove from heat.

Pour 4 cups of hot water into bucket. Add the soap mixture, stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups water and stir. Let sit 24 hours. It will get up… into a weird sort of egg soup mixture. Use 1/2 cup per load.

The site I got the recipe from had even broken down the costs. It costs roughly a penny a load to use this stuff, and you have about 2 gallons worth to work from. I find it lasts us a few months.

You can add scent to this as well - just add one ounce of the essential oil of your choice before it gels up. Favorites include: peppermint, lavender, lemon grass, and orange essential oils.

I love my little car. It’s not a hybrid or anything really “green” but it is a small, manual transmission vehicle that gets pretty good mileage. With the advent of $4/gallon gas, it’s now costing ME fifty smackers to fill up my tank. Ah, the not-so-long ago days when it was only $12. Oh well. No sense mourning the past (dammit!) – we must simply deal with the here and now.

My area is fairly hilly. In fact, we have a few low mountains around here. These hills and mountains are perfect for my little experiment: driving in neutral.

I’ve found I can travel down nearly the whole mountain in 5^th gear – that keeps me at a steady 60-65 mph (provided someone with less nerve isn’t in front of me hitting the brakes at 40). On that very last curve and drop, I drop the car in neutral, let it go as fast as it wants (about 70) until I hit town, where I can barely make it up a hill still out of gear, dropping me down to 30 mph and then the gradual downslope keeps me inside the small town’s range and I have to stop at it’s only traffic light.

I do this all the time – at the top of a hill, I put the car in neutral and see how far I can go without being in danger of some speed-happy motorist coming up behind me. It’s totally fun, and if I’m saving myself only a mile’s worth of gas per 30 mile trip, it’s still saving me something, right?

Except my clutch, I bet.

I have no idea how much gas this actually saves, sometime I guess I’ll try going a week without doing this and a week of my creative acceleration and seeing how well it works.

At some point, I suppose I’ll get pulled over for either coasting downhill too fast or for floating along on a flat stretch as far as I can and be going too far under the limit. I’ll keep you posted on what the officer says when I explain my frugal endeavors. I’ll probably wind up with a ticket and all the gas savings will be lost. Would be my luck!

Our homes are under attack! Paper, paper everywhere!

Many times I’ve visited a friend or a relative and wanted to help in the kitchen, washed my hands and then stood there like an idiot by the sink with my wet, drippy hands looking around for a dishtowel to dry off with. Seems the humble, often attractive kitchen towel is on its way to extinction in favor of paper towels. I try to dry my hands with just one little sheet to conserve a little waste, but it winds up sticking to me and doesn’t really want to go into the trash. With such a short lifespan, I wouldn’t want to go in the trash that fast either.

Me being the decorative type, I have tons of dishtowels in various shades of green that match my kitchen, so the lack of an opportunity to decorate a home is lost on me. I switch them out every day, and I have some of terry and some that are more like bar towels depending upon what I am using them for. Please help the humble kitchen towel avoid extinction, and for heaven’s sake don’t use paper towels with all that tacky ink on them - a cloth towel is so much prettier.

My next in line? The cloth napkin. Often reserved for black-tie events and restaurants where the cost per plate can be no less than $50, the cloth napkin is an indication that you are special enough to warrant a little extra laundry. Why not be special to yourself every day? Besides, who wants paper napkins? They don’t mop up spills very well, tend to leave little shreds in men’s facial hair (which you know he spent considerable time grooming rather than sleeping early that morning), fly off in the slightest breeze and stick to your glass.

With all that in mind, it should be pretty easy to consider bringing the cloth napkin back to your table. They aren’t a whole lot of laundry, and they sure make your guests (and yourself) feel special when dinnertime rolls around. Plus, you can get the kids a book on fancy napkin folds and keep them quiet and out of your way for an hour or so at a time.

One more on the list: the little old rag. They’re great for dusting, wiping down floors, countertops, bathtubs and so much more. Best yet: they’re reusable! Just wring them out over running water and keep going! When you’re done, chuck it in the wash until cleaning day rolls around again.

I have plenty of rags from my husband’s holey old t-shirts to use for cleaning house. They’re even color-coded: old white ones for spaces that need to be really clean, and dark ones for floors (this is also so I don’t ever REALLY know how dirty my floors were before I started). No expensive Swiffer pads for me.

Your home will be no less clean for using cloth over paper. Really. And think about it: paper products are just another way to get us to buy more stuff we don’t really need. Is it really any harder to throw away several paper towels and napkins a day rather than throw the fabric versions in the wash?

With power prices rising in some parts of the country in double digits, it makes sense to adjust your thermostat. My own thermostat is set at 79 during the day and 77 at night. If prices rise higher, and as the summer gets hotter, my home may find the air set at 82 during the day. Still considerably cooler than the 100+ degree temps we’ll be enduring in August.

Before you get bored with me suggesting a horribly obvious way to save both money and energy, let me delve a little further into the topic. Experiencing the weather isn’t a bad thing for us. In our current lives, we are so insulated from the realities of the elements that we might be missing some of the benefits of the weather. Such as living in air conditioning all summer rather than enjoying the warmer months.

But it’s HOT, you say. Yes, of course it is hot! However, your body has a remarkable ability to adjust to the heat – your blood thins down and the body naturally wants to shed a few pounds to help it stay cooler. Think of all the ads that say “Lose Weight… EFFORTLESSLY!” We don’t need to subscribe to some expensive 3-meal a day diet plan. My husband and I both lose weight in the warm months of the year. He lost a pant size last year and appears to be about to lose another pant size this year – getting close to what he was when I started dating him over a decade ago. I’m doing much the same, as many of my size 4s are too big and I’m running out of safety pins to help keep things in place (the only downside is some of my assets are disappearing too, but oh well).

In the summer months, we drink a great deal of water, our appetites are very low in the heat and what we do consume is usually fruits, fruit smoothies and veggies sautéed on the stove and tossed over whole-wheat pasta – because it’s too hot to turn on the oven! We are just listening to our bodies and what they want, and it appears they don’t want a whole lot.

Further, letting your body sweat is good for your skin – sweating keeps the skin in the elasticity stage, helping to prevent wrinkles. I am all about multitasking. Who knew that instead of that $60 wrinkle cream, all you had to do was take a good long walk or work in your yard for an hour a day? You can get in shape or clean up your yard, and have an anti-wrinkle treatment at the same time! How cool is that?

Since I’ve always spent a lot of time in the hot weather (I grew up in Florida), I bet that’s why people consistently think I am in my 20s. Two years ago I had people asking which high school I attended. That’s a little too young and nearly insulting but I know they had only the best of intentions.

There is another benefit to letting our bodies experience the heat. When we sweat, impurities and toxins are released through the skin, thereby cleansing the body. You may not need some strange new device or mineral tablets or odd diet to help release toxins… our bodies contain ways of doing that very thing – so long as we are careful about what we are putting in them and not overwhelming them, and letting them function naturally to take care of themselves.

Nature really is amazing, isn’t it?

Many visitors remark, upon leaving the stuffy cars they’ve been trapped in for hours while they traveled to see us, that the air here seems wonderfully clean and fresh. I’m inclined to agree. We live in a small town that is surrounded by exceedingly rural conditions – mostly woodland – and our home is situated at the top of a hill. Consequently we are blessed with both good drainage and a gentle breeze.

It is just this air, and enjoying this air, that makes hanging the washing on line so pleasurable to me. The job is full of little pleasures, from carrying the wet linens out in an old wicker basket, to enjoying the breeze and listening to the birds while I carefully hang each item.

It also allows me a chance to really inspect the state of each article of clothing. My husband will wear shirts until they are so full of holes they are technically more hole than shirt, and so it is good for me to catch this problem before he does. Once the item is dry, I can cut it into rags (a practice he protests no matter how many holes decorate his shirts).

As I hang each item with my wooden clothespins (the plastic ones just don’t work so well) I think of my grandmother, and her mother, and countless generations of women from whom I am descended. I probably don’t hang the washing as they would. Compared to them, I’m a novice. My mother hung clothes on the line every once in a while when I was younger, and I only dimly recall that shirts should be hung upside-down and that the pins should be removed as you take things down – leaving them up is tacky (and bad for their life expectancy if left out in the rain).

I’ve found that I’m much more inclined to fold each article as I take it down than when I just take a giant wad of warm clothes out of a dryer. From the dryer, the folding just seems like this giant pile of clothes to fold, and I really have hated that part of the washing. Now though, it’s just as easy to fold the pants and shirts as I drop them back into the basket, and I don’t mind coming inside with a basket full of warm, fresh-smelling, folded laundry.

Despite the roughly ten minute time investment that it takes to hang the clothes up rather than chuck them into a dryer, it’s a great break from my computer routine to carry that washing outside. There’s something satisfying about glancing out my office window and seeing the sheets flapping in the breeze. Something old, and quaint, and a basic sign of life, and knowing that those waving pieces of cloth are flags declaring that I’m trying to do my part for the environment… and saving money at the same time.

In our consumer culture, it’s too easy to equate being unhappy with needing something. We look outside ourselves to find happiness – food, clothes, the latest toy. Many times, this just doesn’t cut it, or the joy is temporary. Now throw in frugality, and you have a starvation reflex building up. If you are cutting back on your budget or trying to live a frugal life and are still looking for outside things to make you happy, then it’s easy to feel deprived – creating a belt-tightening/splurge cycle. This is what happens when you cut back, cut back, cut back, then feel the need to “reward” yourself with something – a new wardrobe, or car, or a short vacation. Afterward, you are back on your starvation diet and feeling miserable because the wardrobe isn’t quite working for you, or the pleasure is over.

So how do you live frugally, and happily?

It took me a while to understand why I was happier in college, when I had $3 that had to magically feed me for the week, few belongings to speak of, rotten roommates who didn’t do the dishes or clean the bathroom we shared, and my idea of a good time was riding my bicycle through Flatwoods Park. I didn’t have money to go out to dinner, or to see a movie, or get myself some cool looking clothes like so many of my classmates did. But I was happy, why?

The answer was pointed out to me in Your Money or Your Life – the authors explained that there is this curve, where at some point after your basic needs are met and you accumulate your worldly possessions, that the thrill of each new thing grows less and less. You get your first car. You buy your first home, a good TV, an equipped kitchen… and from there the thrills go downhill. Another new car is fun for a week, then reality and payments set in, and it doesn’t make you happy anymore.

The trick is to learn to live in the moment. Enjoy what you have, and see the beauty of each moment of your day. It takes practice, and it took a while before I felt like I was applying it as frequently as I should. But over time, I’ve gotten better at appreciating these little moments. For example, as I type this, it’s a simply gorgeous day outside, and I am enjoying the play of light on the wood floor behind me as it filters through the young leaves of the sugar maple outside. Spring is here, and all the trees have new leaves and growth, everything is green and it’s a joy to glance out the window for a second or two as I type.

I re-appreciate my slate-tiled bathroom every morning. I always wanted a slate-tiled bathroom floor, now I have it. I enjoy watching my dog try to catch bees, or watching both dogs run and play in the (admittedly weedy) yard. I could go on explaining these little things forever – they are just little details that make me smile and be glad for the moment. I get infinitely more pleasure from the smell of the soup I am cooking as I slice veggies on our wooden board, the late afternoon sunlight catching the bottles my husband and I painted back when we were dating on the kitchen windowsill, than if I just sliced veggies for dinner because it’s one more thing I have to do. See? It’s a mindset, and it needs to become constant. You just learn to appreciate that which your senses tell you is nice in every moment. The next thing you know, you find yourself a very happy and satisfied person.

Live in the moment, and there is no deprivation.