The challenge of making homemade kale chips is knowing the right recipe for your oven. I have tried recipes that called for the oven temperature set at 400, 375, and 325 degrees Fahrenheit. All of these temps caused an unpleasant, smoky odor. That’s no way to get your family eating their dark leafy greens! Continue reading “Make It Monday Recipe Week 7: Kale Chips”
On March 30, in the big garbage bin in the garage, there are 2 kitchen-sized garbage bags. Our kitchen garbage can is nearly empty. Continue reading “How to Lower Your Cost for Trash Removal: My Zero Waste Log March 2016”
In the big garbage bin in the garage, there is one kitchen size garbage bag and a pizza box. Our kitchen garbage is ¾ full. Continue reading “How to Lower Your Cost for Trash Removal: My Zero Waste Home Log February 2016”
During week 2 of The UN Climate Conference in Paris, I chose to write about 7 Frugal and Sustainable ways to reduce waste to coincide with the last 7 full days of the conference: How to Build Habits of Recycling, Benefits of a reusable mug, How to Create a Zero Waste Closet, Zero Waste Lunch Box, Zero Waste Kitchen, Zero Waste Bathroom, and Incentives for Using Alternatives to Plastic Shopping Bags .
While I still have the goal of making my own toothpaste that everyone in my family will like, here is a DIY Bathroom Foaming Hand Soap recipe that moisturizes and smells great: Continue reading “DIY Foaming Hand Soap: Frugal Fairfielder Edition”
The joys of single-stream recycling teach kids difficult lessons on saving money.
Today I packed my car with all the recycling bins and headed off to the dump. My son came with me on a whim–and what a great thing it turned out to be. He saw I paid nothing to get into the dump, then he helped empty the baskets and bins, and on the way home, since I had a captive audience, I thought I’d let him know how much money we are saving thanks to Fairfield’s single-stream recycling program (here’s the link to a document that clearly tells you what you can and cannot recycle).
“So, you know all that garbage we just recycled? We used to pay to get rid of that stuff at the dump. But now since this new thing called single-stream recycling, we don’t have to pay to get rid of all that,” I forged ahead, knowing full well he didn’t read my prior post on hauling garbage. “So, you know how much money people pay to get rid of their garbage?”
“Uh, no,” said my 12-year-old as he was playing with our family iTouch.
“Well, some of our neighbors who have those garbage trucks pick up their garbage pay over $500 a year to have that truck pick up, we pay $120 a year, and we will probably pay around $60 a year now because we are using single-stream recycling,” I paused.
Silence as he processed this information.
“You mean people pay $500 a year to get rid of garbage?” he was incredulous. “That’s just stupid!”
Ah, lesson learned…
~Marilyn, TFF
Two Frugal Fairfielders 