• Use my stainless steel water bottle. Stainless steel water bottles are often ridiculously expensive, but about a year ago I found some reasonably priced and bought five all at once. So I already own the bottles; we just need to start using them. Except for the plastic bottles that fit in a special holder attached to the frame of our bicycles, I’m going to donate or recycle all of our reusable plastic bottles.
• Look for Fair Trade chocolate. Tracey provides a lot of eye-opening information about the chocolate industry. She convinced me to find a store that carries it—it could be that Target might sell it; I just haven’t looked.
• Goodbye, paper towels. We use sponges, dish towels or rags for most cleanup, but we do usually have a roll of paper towels on hand for occasional spills. Years ago my uncle said that instead of using paper towels, he bought a stack of  “bar mops” for kitchen cleanup. “It’s how they taught us to do it in the Navy,” he explained. So just today I bought two packs of “bar mops.” They look like basic white towels. Then I went to Goodwill and bought a rectangular basket in which to store them. They’re on the counter, ready to swipe up splatters and blobs.
• Environmentally gentle dish-washing detergent. I’m going to pay a little more for Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers or Ecos brand detergents that Tracey recommends.
• Compost. We used to faithfully compost kitchen scraps, then I don’t know what happened. I guess I got lazy. I resolved to begin again and pulled out a plastic tub with a tight-fitting lid we can use while collecting peelings and egg shells during meal prep. The kids can run it out to the garden.
• Cloth shopping bags. I hate when I forget these, and it’s always when I’m standing at the checkout with my items rolling along the conveyor belt that I remember them. I will figure out a way to make this a habit.

Things we already do:

• Wash (most of) our clothes in cold water. I started doing this mainly because I was shrinking almost everything! Sometimes I do a load of extra-dirty whites in hot, but cold water has been working fine. And blouses are staying their normal size!
• Hang clothes to dry. This, too, I started because I was shrinking clothes and thought I should avoid the dryer. Plus, I like going outside in the quiet morning to hang them up and love the way they smell when they’re dry.
• Recycle. Apparently we recycle effectively, because our neighbors couldn’t believe our family of six could fit all of our trash into one container. We didn’t tell them that many times, the container isn’t even full.
• Cook from scratch. Because I usually cook from scratch, we use less packaging than if I used mixes and prepared foods. I like to think it’s healthier, without all those additives and preservatives.
• Buy organic and local. Whenever possible, I try to buy organic and locally grown foods. Shopping at the farmer’s market in the summer makes it easy. An organic farmer has a stand, and so far his produce hasn’t been much more expensive than the others.
• Bike whenever possible. For nearby errands, we are trying to use our bikes instead of driving the van. We can easily bike to the library, piano lessons, grocery stores, Goodwill, Barnes & Noble, Officemax, several restaurants and many other shopping destinations.
• Shop secondhand. Speaking of shopping (and Goodwill), I think of my Goodwill shopping as recycling. I buy 90 percent of my clothes from Goodwill (the remaining 10 percent represents swimwear, undergarments, socks, and a few nicer speaking outfits). I also buy books secondhand. And furniture. And cars.
• Glass storage. I’m trying to transition from plastic storage containers to glass. We aren’t totally there, but we’re moving in that direction.
• Travel mug. For tea or coffee, we are trying to use travel mugs. We usually make our beverage at home, but we’re also trying to grab the mugs if we’re off to church and will fill them there instead of using Styrofoam cups.
• Minimal A/C. I prefer relying on open windows and fans in the summer, but my husband does like to bring down the humidity with air conditioning sometimes. This morning, however, I came downstairs and he had opened all the windows to enjoy the morning breeze.
• Garden. We have a vegetable garden again this year. I’ve never been an amazing gardener, but I keep trying, year after year. We usually get a fair amount of tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers, and it is so rewarding to pick stuff for dinner from my own garden plot.
• Consolidate errands. Whether I’m in my minivan or on my bicycle, I try my best to minimize errands, doing as much as possible in a given outing.
• Natural cleansers. For cleaning, we use really basic, natural products.

We do a lot of “green” things that are so normal to me, it doesn’t occur to me to identify it—I’m sure I could add lots of things on the list that we’ve been doing for years. It’s kind of fun to think about what’s become normal for us, or habit, and what we could do to change even more.Be sure to drop by the book giveaway post and read Tracey’s thoughts on “Slowing Green.”

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Click on the icon and a separate page will pop up. Type in your blog name and paste in the url of your new Make-Do Mondays post. Click enter and it should be live. If it doesn’t work, just include the link in the comments.To visit people’s posts, click on Mr. Linky and when the page comes up, click on a name. You should be taken right to the page that they provided. If I have time, I come back and update the post by hand.

Make-Do Mondays Participants

1. Like Mother, Like Daughter (Winter-Sown Seeds)
2. The Goat (bread crumbs, golf tees, airplanes)
3. My Practically Perfect Life (Whisk-sifting)
4. Queen of the Castle Recipes (10 Tips for Buying Seafood)
5. 50’s Housewife (Make-Do Photographer)
6. mominapocket (using what we have)

Make-Do Mondays with AnnFor many reasons that I won’t get into here, we resisted investing in a gaming system that hooks into the TV. The kids had resigned themselves to using their handheld Nintendo DS gadgets that they bought with their own money. They enjoy playing Wii at friends’ houses and assumed they’d never own anything like it.As we neared Christmas last year, one of the kids and I slipped into Goodwill. She found a used Nintendo Gamecube (a game system that’s no longer being produced new). It was a little high for a used price, but that week it was half price.We bought it.So while it seemed that everybody in the entire country was buying a Wii for Christmas, we wrapped up a used Nintendo Gamecube for the kids to open together:They had no idea what it was.And when they opened it, they still didn’t know what it was.Then the sister who was in the know said, “It’s a Gamecube.”The response:  Can you see the mouth dropped open in shock?They kept saying, “We have a Gamecube? The Kroekers? Us? I can’t believe it! Us! A Gamecube!” The gift came with restrictions–they have to ask permission before playing, for example, and both chores and school work must be completed or the answer will be no. It’s been fun to plug in on some of these dreary winter days.And because we make-do in so many ways, they were thrilled to have a used Gamecube for Christmas.How are you making-do?Updated: Visit Ship Full O’ Pirates and watch the SNL skit she’s posted. It fits with the Make-Do Mondays theme.Tune in tomorrow to see the final logophile lists–there’s still time to submit a word via the comments!

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To participate in Make-Do Mondays, simply explain some way that you’re making do. Join in the discussion via the comments or Mr. Linky.

The Mr. Linky for WordPress.com isn’t as slick as what Typepad and Blogger can use, but I figure I should make-do with that, as well.

Here’s how Mr. Linky works:Click on the Mr. Linky icon, and a separate page will pop up where you type in your name and paste in the url of your new Make-Do Mondays post. Click enter and it should be live. If it doesn’t work, just include the link in the comments.To visit people’s posts, click on Mr. Linky and when the page comes up, click on a name. You should be taken right to the page that they provided.

Make-Do Mondays Participants

1. Like Mother, Like Daughter (hiding ugly tile)
2. Leslie at Rag-Rugging Reverie (how rag rugs satisfy her frugal nature)

Make-Do Mondays with AnnThe Belgian Wonder and I both come from a long line of make-doers.  The Belgian Wonder grew up as a missionary kid. He and his siblings learned to make-do in creative ways. For example, the Belgian Wonder wanted a radio in his bedroom, but had no money to buy one from the store. Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he asked for permission to salvage the radio, speakers, and battery from a junked car that the family kept for spare parts. He rigged it all up in a hand-me-down desk in his bedroom–voila!  Make-do music!I, too, grew up in a family that practiced frugality and thrift. Both of my parents grew up in lean times–my dad was a Depression-era baby, and my mom was a young girl during WWII. They remember simplicity modeled by their parents and passed along that value to me. We shopped at auctions and garage sales for clothes, furniture, antiques and miscellaneous stuff.So I guess you could say its our heritage. We’re comfortable washing out plastic storage bags to reuse in our sack lunches and shopping at used book sales while wearing socks with holes in the toes.But for one day, we’re breaking out of our make-do mindset.Today is our anniversary, and we are pulling out the good socks to wear when we eat out. At a restaurant.It’s a rare exception to our make-do mentality.What about you?

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• DIYWe’ve reverted back to doing home improvement projects ourselves. This summer we actually hired some friends to help us get some pretty big issues resolved in our house, but now we’re back to The Belgian Wonder trying to figure out stuff by himself on evenings and weekends, checking a few things off the list at a time. It’s slow-going, that’s for sure, but it’s thrifty.
• Reduce Gas ConsumptionThe gas crisis, which preceded the financial mess, already inspired us to reduce auto-outings. To get to work, The Belgian Wonder started taking a bus from our suburban area to the city center as often as possible. The kids and I started to ride our bikes to piano lessons, weather permitting. We’re continuing to look for ideas to combine errands or pick things up by bike.
• Freeze on Discretionary SpendingI knew I should have bought those decorative, coordinating pillows for my bedroom when I first saw them a few months ago. They would have provided a nice finishing touch, but now they fall into the “totally not necessary” category of the budget. This is a technical term we toss around to sound like professional budget analysts. “Honey, do you think I could go ahead and get those pillows?” “Sorry, babe, but wouldn’t you agree that those are ‘totally not necessary’?” And it’s true. There’s so little we actually need.
• Continue Shopping SecondhandWe’re continuing to shop first at secondhand resources before heading to retail stores in search of clothes. The children seem to appreciate this decision more than ever. We never officially signed up to “compact” (buying almost nothing new), but we tend to lean that way naturally. However, even at Goodwill, we must be careful not to load up on things that are “totally not necessary.”
• Frugal Friendship-OutingsSeveral of my friends like to meet for coffee, but I proposed to one of these ladies that we go for a walk instead, both to get a little exercise and also to keep costs down. We had just as nice a conversation as we would have while drinking a $3 Starbucks latte. The only down side was that we couldn’t look each other in the eye.
• Frugal Date NightsSimilar to the creative alternatives I’m trying out with friends, The Belgian Wonder and I are trying to preserve chunks of time together on dates without spending big wads of money. In nicer weather, we, too, went for walks together by a lake. The other day we ate a meal in the dining room, enjoying an uninterrupted conversation while the kids had their meal in the kitchen with two of their friends who stayed for dinner.
• Electricity-MisersWe’re hanging our clothes to dry, washing with cold water, keeping the thermostat low (we have a heat pump), turning off lights, etc., in an effort to conserve electricity. The savings is probably negligent, but maybe this falls into the category of “every little bit helps” and “small efforts add up over time.” 

Things we want to implement:

• Dig for DealsWe’d like to do more to dig up deals. We could use coupons more effectively and pay more attention to flyers and sales for the things we’ve already decided to purchase. We’re ready to be more diligent with this.
• Food SavingsWe don’t eat out very much, so we automatically save a bundle by eating at home. But we could save more on our in-house meals by utilizing coupons, shopping at Aldi’s, stocking up on oft-used ingredients (like ground beef or macaroni) on sale, and planning out each week’s menu. I need to inventory our freezer and organize what’s there to make the most of what we’ve got. I’m not sure if we’ll save dramatically, but it’s worth a try. Thankfully, we all like simple foods.
• Scaled Back ChristmasChristmas is going to be more about experiences and togetherness than stuff. Even among extended family, there’s talk of keeping things simple. I asked the kids the other day what were some of the things they enjoyed at Christmastime, and they listed lots of things they would enjoy that had nothing to do with gifts. They listed making cookies with friends, decorating the tree, eating on Christmas plates, listening to holiday music, Advent activities, the occasional party. Sure sounds good to me.
• More VegetarianThe day after I made a pot of lentils and rice, we stopped at the grocery to pick up some ground beef to add to our spaghetti sauce for dinner. What a difference in price! I made an enormous pot of healthy and delicious brown rice and lentils seasoned with vegetable bouillon for a fraction of the cost of a small pack of ground beef. I’d like to eat more plant-based meals for health and savings. Ramona and others talked in the comments about this and other ways to save on food.
• Look for InspirationIf you’re just tuning in, click back to the comments and Mr. Linky on the previous post to see what others are doing to adapt to the economic roller-coaster ride. I’m going to go back and study their suggestions for inspiration. I also intend to cruise the Internet and incorporate some of the super-frugal ideas floating around out there.

It’s nice to know we’re not alone.Regardless of our frugal choices, we’re trying to learn contentment. Whether in plenty or in want, we want to keep our focus on Christ Jesus.This gives perspective so that we don’t obsess or fret about frugality and savings, nor do we get cavalier with spending as if the money is ours to do with as we please.Because in the end, it all belongs to Him.

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My friend John described a wilderness hiking trip he took with his son.

“No pop-up campers out there, eh?” I asked.

“Only what we could carry on our backs. We even slept under the stars.”

“No tent?”

“Nope.”

I must have shuddered or made a face, because John grinned and tried to convince me of the beauty of backwoods camping. “It’s liberating to realize that everything you really need is stuffed inside a pack on your back.”

I’ve thought about that often, especially when cramming my crockpot or mini-fridge into our pop-up camper. Could I fit everything I truly need into a backpack?

But I’ve also thought about it as a lifestyle. A lifestyle of liberation. What would it take to live that lightly all the time?

Maybe this is what so many people are craving these days when they are irresistibly drawn to simple living. Are we feeling imprisoned by stuff, weighed down by the accumulation of possessions, drowning in excess?

Sara at Nesting Gypsy and her husband have sold all but the barest essentials and moved to Montana. She first introduced me to Compacting in one of her posts. I was struck with this radical idea and started Googling it, learning more about the trend toward simplifying, trimming away what isn’t needed to live in, say, an RV full-time or a Tiny House.

It lines up with my own decades-long craving for simplicity and frugality. I’m not liberated quite yet, and I certainly don’t have family buy-in to try Compacting for a year. But we did have a fairly simple Christmas, at least by suburban American standards.

I’ve been reading Writing from the Center, by Scott Russell Sanders. When preparing for a trip into the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, Sanders and his daughter had to pack lightly. How does one decide what the take on such a trip?

The criterion for deciding what to load in a canoe or backpack is the same as that for deciding what to load in a spaceship: Is it worth its weight? Eva and I have winnowed down our gear and food to an amount we can carry. What we portage across land and paddle across water is only a tiny portion of what we need, of course. To provide everything we need, we would have to carry the sun and moon and stars, fruitful grass, fertile soil, nourishing sea, trees and ferns, bacteria and bears, rock and rain and air, and the countless moorings of our love. No pack smaller than the universe would hold it all. (p. 120)

Wow. I want to experience liberation from all the stuff holding me back because I think in the end, I crave everything—the sun and moon and stars, the grass and soil, the trees and sea—not the stuff from Target.

Is it any wonder I’d like to unload and live a liberated life? I want to make room for things that truly nourish.

I want to make room for the universe.

______________________________

Is every hour rush hour at your house?

Looking for a way you and your kids can live with less hurry and more purpose? Ready to redefine success?

Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families offers refreshing alternatives for a more meaningful family and spiritual life.

Find a pace that frees your family to flourish.

“Not So Fast is a gift to every reader who takes the time to slow down and breathe in its pages.”

—Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Christ

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