This frugality lesson brought to you by Elmo

I was doing some grocery shopping this morning while waiting to pick up our Christmas pictures (who's on top of things? Yes, that's right: me!!) and came across these in the clearance bin for a quarter.

It took me a second to figure out but finally I realized they are travel toothbrush holders. Here's where my frugal self and my earth friendly self butted heads.

Earth friendly self: "You don't need these. They are plastic and cheap looking."

Frugal self: "But they're only a quarter and what will you use instead?"

Whereupon EFS shamefully admits to wrapping the bristles in toilet paper (I'm sure her kids enjoy the two-ply mixed in with their toothpaste).

So into the cart they went and I had a small epiphany that reconciled my two selves. In an ideal world wherein I would make my own sustainable toothbrush cover and/or not use a toothbrush in the first place and opt for brushing with a twig, these would be waste. But I live in the real world, where these will get used at least four times a year and might possibly last indefinitely (i.e. until my kids are too embarrassed to have Elmo in their toiletry bag).

Which brings us to the moral of this story:
No waste is nice but a lint free toothbrush is just as nice.

On kindness

Today I watched my daughter struggle to hold open a heavy door for an adult who went through it without a thank you and without even looking at my daughter.

I was hurt for her. I wanted to apologize for the rudeness of the world. Inwardly, I raged at anyone who would ignore a child and then go on to complain about the faults of "kids these days."

Before I could say anything, however, she turned to me with a big smile on her face and said "I'm a helper."

She didn't see insensitivity or unkindness. She saw her role as not to fix the world but to shine her light into it.

I have so much to learn from her. I pray that I can let kindness be such a strong motivation that other people's indifference or unkindness fades into the background. Let me be a helper.

Five Frugal Things

Hi, folks, I'm back again. Took a much needed break to reorganize and prioritize.

I've seen the five frugal things idea most recently on The Non-Consumer Advocate's blog (can't remember if the idea is original to her or not though). I thought the idea was a good one so here goes:

Five Frugal Things:

1. Overcame temptation to eat at Chik-fil-A and instead had leftover beef vegetable soup (sorry CFA cow mascots). Was rewarded when 15 month old closed her eyes, sighed and said "ommy" (yummy).

2. Replaced elastic in the legs of 10 well loved BumGenius diapers. They were basically useless to me with the old elastic and this will hopefully be the last time I need to replace it. Good thing because each one took me half an hour. Thanks for the false hope, five-minute tutorial on YouTube. Honestly, though, thank you five-minute tutorial on YouTube for showing me how to do this in only half an hour instead of the three it would have taken me to do it my way.

From stretched out to like new...

3. Held a garage sale. Was not so much rewarded in money (though $11.75 isn't nothing) as in fellowship. Thanks, A, for sitting with me in the cold and covering for my multiple trips inside to change diapers, feed kids, and change outfits (toddler+wet grass+dirt=mud). Actually toddler+anything+anything=mud come to think of it.

Some leftovers went to Goodwill, others in the back of my van for drop off at Half-Price Books, and some I sold on a virtual garage sale page. This box represents "as yet to be dispersed" items.

This is so much more manageable

4. Sweet talked my way into a free paint stirrer stick at the hardware store. No, actually, I offered to pay. We have an area on a doorframe where there once was a hinge. Rather than filling the entire thing with wood putty, my husband suggested gluing in a piece of wood and puttying around it. We had some paint sticks that were a smidge too big, and the ones at this store were just right. The guy behind the counter was not so much overcome with generosity because of my ingenuity but by sympathy for my fool's errand. In his immortal words: "I don't think that will work." I haven't done this yet. I'll let you know.

5. Made a batch of baking mix. I pinned a Pamela's copycat recipe awhile back but something always went wrong in the three times I've attempted it. I think by swapping buttermilk powder for regular powdered milk and using store bought rice flour instead of grinding my own I'm on the right track. It's still a tad bit salty for my taste so I'm going to cut the salt next time.

A bowl of (future) biscuity goodness
got the recipe here: http://community.stretcher.com/forums/t/1823.aspx 

P.S. Re: painting on leaves and using them to stencil your walls: um...fail. I'm glad I practiced on a sheet of paper first. The leaves will stay in my backyard for the time being. Kudos to anyone who attempts and recreates the concept though.