A 12-ounce box of Borax costs just $3.62 at my local supermarket—yet it outperforms a variety of more expensive products that have a higher environmental impact. It contains no chlorine or phosphates and can be used in myriad ways. 

Bathroom: 

• Shower and sink: I had been using baking soda to clean the shower and sink for years until a friend recommended Borax.  After giving it a whirl, I am trying to get the word out––Borax really works! In “I Don’t Want No Scrub” Grist compared eight eco-friendly cleaning products on the market.  The author found that Borax was her favorite as well, despite the fact that it costs just a fraction of what you’d pay for many high-end green cleansers.  Furthermore, Borax works far better than more traditional products like Dow chemical’s “scrubbing bubbles” for a much lower environmental cost.

• Toilet: Again, the scrubbing action is awesome!  Plus, Borax has natural deodorizing abilities.  You can leave it in the toilet bowl overnight to freshen up the bathroom by morning. 

Kitchen:

• Refrigerator: Those anonymous sticky spills in your fridge can be quickly scrubbed off with Borax. Plus, like baking soda, you can use it as a deodorizer.

• Garbage pail: Sprinkle some in the bottom to handle smells and use it to scrub the pail when needed.

• China: Who knew!  Borax is excellent for scrubbing fine china.  I am not really a fine China lover—but some of you may be thrilled to learn this

Laundry:

• Baby clothes and delicates: I never even knew about this until Roscoe was out of his baby clothes.  Honestly, I washed them with regular laundry soap and they seemed fine.  Still Borax conditions water so can be used to gently hand wash delicates or can be added to the washing machine for baby clothes.  

• Laundry Booster:  When you have a weeks worth of dirty cloth diapers, it’s nice to know you can toss in a little Borax with the wash to handle the load. 

Living area:

• Carpet cleaner: After blotting the stain, just cover with Borax and allow to dry.  Then vacuum and you’re done.  It even works on wine and alcohol stains!  

• Pest control: You can actually use Borax to control ants in your home.  Treehugger also offers strategies for using Borax on fruit flies here.
  

• Super bouncy balls, slime, or silly putty: I kid you not.  Borax can actually be mixed with glue and a few other ingredients to create homemade bouncy balls, slime or imitation silly putty.  This stuff is amazing!  I’ll have to wait a few years, since Roscoe would most likely try to eat our science project at this point. 

While Borax is cheap and eco-friendly, you do have to use caution with it.  Unlike some higher-end green products, it can’t be ingested or rubbed into the eyes.  Other than being careful to keep it away from my toddler, I love the way it cleans our home and keeps our environment healthy. 

Every week the Green Baby Guide will be hosting the Thrifty Green Thursday Blog Carnival.  If you have a blog and some thrifty green ideas of your own, please join us!  See this post for details.

Joy and I both committed the same eco-sin as young mothers: we bleached our diapers.  Now, at the time we were ignorant of the evils of chlorine bleach.  They put it in pools and drinking water, so it can’t be so bad, right?  Well, it turns out to be an environmental toxin.  When you pour bleach down the drain, it mixes in with the rest of the waste water that then must be processed by your sewer system.  The cleaner we keep our water, the safer it is for everyone.

Not only is chlorine bleach bad for the environment, it’s extremely hard on diapers.  Joy found that hers quickly became frayed and worn.  When she switched to other cleaners with larger sized diapers, they lasted much longer.

Line-drying cloth diaper removes stains, naturally

We have since learned that there are better ways to deal with the stains on your cloth diapers: 

1. Stop worrying about stains.  You could simply try to live with stains.  I tried this but found myself incapable of it.  Keep reading!
2. Use Bac-Out, a natural stain-remover made by Ecover.  Joy diluted a bit of this in a spray bottle and treated dirty diapers before tossing them in her dry pail.  It greatly reduced stains and helped deodorize the diaper pail.
3. Set the diapers in the sun.  I didn’t have the opportunity to try this tip for a long time, as my baby was born in January and I had several months of constant rain.  One sunny day, I set my stained diapers out and the stains disappeared within hours.  It was actually amazing.  The stains did not just fade–they vanished!
4. If you none of the previous options work, you can purchase chlorine-free bleach from companies like Seventh Generation or Biokleen.

As an added bonus, these techniques will not only help the planet, they’ll keep your diapers lasting longer and be better for baby’s skin.

For those of us who love creativity, hate waste, and enjoy watching our savings accounts grow, The Tightwad Gazette is a thrill a minute.  The author, Amy Dacyczyn, was termed the “frugal zealot” for her efforts to “promote thrift as a viable lifestyle.” The Tightwad Gazette was published back in the late ‘90s, but it’s still just as applicable today.  Her grocery costs of just $38.00 a week for a family of eight are still astounding, even if you take inflation into account.

Although The Tightwad Gazette emphasizes frugality rather than environmentalism, Dacyczyn, points out that most of her cost-savings efforts are eco-friendly. Her family rarely buys anything new, grows most of their produce, and limits their meat intake. 

Dacyczyn, a mother of six, started by selling year-long subscriptions for one dollar each to The Tightwad Gazette newsletter.  The business steadily grew until she was mentioned in Parade Magazine and subscriptions went through the roof.  She had to hire a small staff and eventually was wooed into compiling six years of newsletters into a three volume set of books.  (You can also purchase all three in one bound volume entitled The Complete Tightwad Gazette).

The book is packed with information about reusing blue jeans, brown bananas, mylar balloons and milk jugs—but it also contains wonderful information about preparing for baby on the cheap.  Next week you’ll find out how Dacyczyn spent less than $100 on raising her twins for an entire year.

This is how much I love The Tightwad Gazette: After checking it out three times and reading it twice, I’m actually planning on buying it!  Here at the Green Baby Guide, we’ve written about avoiding book purchases—but I’ll have to break our rule on this one!   She saves me far more money than I’ll spend buying The Tightwad Gazette—and of course I’ll buy it used!

If you’re a frugal soul with some eco-friendly ideas, you’ll want to  join our Thrifty Green Thursday blog carnival here at Green Baby Guide.  We’re looking for posts that offer earth friendly, budget friendly solutions that work. For more information, check out our open invitation here. 

For years doctors have debated over the peanut issue: should pregnant and breastfeeding women avoid them or not?  This July, a new study has determined  that nut consumption during pregnancy increases children’s risk of developing asthma by 50%.  (Read more about it here.)   While many doctors are saying there’s not enough evidence in favor of eliminating nuts from your diet, others are taking a more conservative approach–the British government has advised pregnant and breastfeeding women to avoid nuts since 1998.

When I was pregnant three years ago, I ate peanut butter every day.  Honestly, as a vegetarian, I am not sure I could have survived without it!  With so much fat, vitamins, and calories packed into a spoonful, there was no more efficient way to stave off the hunger pains than to treat myself to a delicious helping of peanut butter straight from the jar.  If I wasn’t eating peanut butter, I was snacking on spicy cashews or sprinkling walnuts on my salads.  At the time I thought I was doing the best for myself and my unborn child.

If your doctor is telling you to lay off the nuts, what can you eat instead?  Sunflower or sesame butter might be good alternatives, though they cost more and are harder to find than peanut butter.   Because sunflower and sesame butters come from seeds, not nuts, they can be devoured with abandon.  You could also try snacking on spreads made from beans.  Hummus with pita makes a delicious Middle Eastern snack, white bean dip with crusty bread turns into a Provencal repast, and good old black or pinto bean dip with tortilla chips fulfill your south-of-the-border cravings.

If you prefer to eat nuts by the handful, you could try substituting dried wasabi peas, baked chickpeas, soy nuts, and sunflower seeds for the can of mixed nuts.

What do you think about this issue?  Are you avoiding nuts–or surviving on a peanut butter diet, as I did?  If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, have you been advised to avoid nuts?  If you have any great snack ideas for hungry pregnant or breastfeeding women, please post a comment.

Blackberries ripen in the August sun, cherries plop onto neighbors’ lawns, and squash crops overwhelm backyard gardeners.  There is nothing I love more than taking advantage of summer’s opportunities for hand-picked fruit—especially when it’s free, organic, and grown locally. 

Here are my favorite food finding tips:

Wild berries: Blackberries seem to be a national favorite but huckleberries, salmon berries, and thimbleberries are just a few of the other choices available here in Oregon. I usually call our city maintenance department to check about which areas are being sprayed, ask about berry hot spots, and end up picking loads of free organic berries! I slather my clan up with sunscreen and scramble out the door in the morning hours before the sun zaps our enthusiasm.  Then we freeze the berries or make them into jam to last through the winter months.

Fruit trees: My goal is to load up with fruit from a neglected apple tree this year. When I see a tree with rotten fruit under it, I shall screw up my courage, knock on the door and ask if I can pick some.  (My son’s charm might help.)  Even if the homeowner wants to use the fruit, chances are he or she will reach a point of saturation with fresh cherries/apples/pears.  Also, here in Oregon, we have the Portland Fruit Tree Project, which helps save urban fruit from rotting away on city sidewalks. You can check out their website to donate to their cause or to join a local harvesting party.  A large portion of the fruit they save goes to vulnerable people who need healthy, organic food.  In other areas, try to call city maintenance to see where city-owned fruit trees are located.

Tomatoes, zucchini, squash and other garden faire: Although it’s wonderful to grow a prolific garden, slogging through twenty pounds of summer squash in a few weeks is no easy task.  On the first days of September, my fellow teachers often leave heaping boxes of squash, tomatoes and zucchini in our staff room for the taking.  It’s worth it to let your friends and family know that you’ll welcome their garden overflows and then sit back and enjoy the unique flavor of a homegrown food.   You may be inspired to grow your own garden next year!

Damaged fruit:  According to Parade Magazine, grocery stores toss an estimated $20 billion worth of food annually.  While it might be tough to get large chain stores to offer you a discount on imperfect produce, independent grocery stores sometimes have a damaged fruit and veggie section.  If not, ask the manager if you can get produce for free or for a discounted rate when it needs to be removed from store shelves for disposal.  You can always cut away the bad sections and use the rest to make soups or sauces. 

By picking the food yourself or saving it from the grocery store dumpster, you’ll be cutting your costs and ensuring that local food doesn’t go to waste.  Instead of buying kiwis from Chile next January, you can happily pull those local blackberries out of the freezer for a low-emissions, no-cost treat!

Every week the Green Baby Guide will be hosting the Thrifty Green Thursday Blog Carnival.  If you have a blog and some thrifty green ideas of your own, please join us!  See this post for details.

Many months ago, I wrote about the baby rules I break for the planet.  One of those “rules” included mopping up baby with wads of paper towels.  I don’t think I’ve ever bought a roll of paper towels in my life.  We do have two rolls of paper towels in my house.  One roll was generously left here by the previous owners.  We moved the other roll over from our last house, where it sat in the back of a closet for at least four years.  My husband bought that roll long ago, without my consent or knowledge.  I cannot be blamed!

Aren’t trees nicer than paper towels?

Last May, Peggy from Treehugging Family issued a paper towel challenge.  She personally wanted to reduce the number of paper towels she used and asked readers to do the same.  You will see my comments on those posts, urging people to try the “hide the paper towels at the back of a musty closet” technique.

I hate to see paper towel commercials that make it seem like these tree-killing/landfill-filling products are indispensible to modern life.  The one that really gets to me shows a mother going through her house, allowing all the glorious messes of family life because she has paper towels to help clean them up.  “If you knew he’d make a mess, but let him anyway, you’re crazy,” it begins.  At the end of the commercial, she plops down on the couch with a magazine, confident that she’s cleaned everyone up with Bounty.  

Giving up paper towels when the baby comes along might be an even greater challenge than eschewing them under normal circumstances.  There’s always a mess to clean up–on the baby, on yourself, on the floor.  I got a few packages of baby washcloths as gifts, and I used those instead of paper towels.  I just threw them in the wash when I was done, and they’re so small I’m sure they didn’t add to the overall amount of laundry I did.  Of course, any old rag or washcloth will also do the trick.

Think of all the money you’ll save by giving up paper towels.  Say you normally go through a pack of six rolls a month, at $10.00 a pack.  In ten years, you’ll spend $1,200 on a completely unnecessary product!  And if that’s not motivating enough, think of the trees.  Paul on things that make you go green says, “The NRDC estimates that if every household in the United States used one less roll of paper towels, we could save 544,000 trees.”  Saving a few thousand trees seems like a much better reason to take a self-satisfied couch break! 

Never buying paper towels works for me.  For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

A friend of ours just had her second child after 61 HOURS of labor!  Before I had children, that would have made me tired—but now it makes me want to flop onto the floor unconscious.  Why?  Because I always imagined that childbirth was a marathon.  What I realized after my first, is that it’s just the beginning of an endless “Ironmom” tournament that lasts for years. 

In that long succession of sleepless nights, there is a way to balance green values and exhaustion and it’s as simple as asking for help. Here are a few things I’ve learned from wise friends who have kept from being plumb pooped in those early weeks:

1.    Construct a support system: I spent my first few week of motherhood napping, figuring out breast feeding, and eating glorious nourishment prepared by my mother.  Then she left and I felt a little lost. Two of my well-supported friends have arranged for friends or family to help every day of their first month with baby.  I will make sure to do the same next time around.

2.    Consider a diaper service: Luckily my husband has a weird affinity for laundry so I had lots of help with cloth diapers.  Sometimes sheer exhaustion makes other families want to give up on cloth, but having a diaper service can make all the difference.  It’s totally possible to launder diapers alone, but it’s also important to know when to call in support.

3.    Avoid wonder-mom syndrome: Before becoming a mom I judged myself by my daily accomplishments.  Afterwards, I felt lucky to have achieved a shower. It was tough for me to go from a human-doing to a human-being.  The classic symptom of the wonder-mom disease is the urge to do housework when there’s an opportunity to nap.  Let the mess slide, have someone else make peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, and breathe in the smell emanating from the very top of your baby’s head. 

We would like to have a second child someday, and to be honest I’m already nervous about those long sleepless periods with a toddler in the house.  Still, if I follow my own advice, we can balance exhaustion and eco-friendly living. 

We’ve received a couple emails asking us about BPA and phthalate-free bathtubs.  This Spa Baby European Style Tub claims to be BPA-free, and the baby in the picture appears to enjoy the “European spa” experience the tub offers.  At $45, it’s a bit pricier than the typical tubs found at Target, but if you are worried about toxins, it may be worth the higher price.

Of course it’s possible to go without a baby bathtub.  One water-saving option is to have the baby bathe or shower with a parent.  Babies can also use the full bath tub, but that can end up being a waste of water, especially in the early days when the baby isn’t interested in splashing around for the fun of it.

We ended up getting a free plastic bath tub at our local consignment shop.  Our kitchen sink was not suitable for baby-bathing, and we didn’t want to waste water by filling our gigantic claw-foot tub with water.  Also, it seemed much safer to have the baby contained in a small little tub in those first few months.  At the time, we did not worry about BPA or phthalates leaching into the bath water and into our baby’s bloodstream.  Honestly, I probably wouldn’t worry about it a second time around, either.  The baby is not drinking the water–just soaking in it for about ten minutes.

I do worry about bringing another hunk of plastic into the world, which is why I was glad I found a secondhand one.  Once Audrey had outgrown the tub, we passed it along so it could take part in another baby’s bathing adventures.

Although babies, gas, food of any kind, and air travel are becoming ridiculously expensive, we here at greenbabyguide.com believe it’s possible to save the planet and a wad of cash with a few creative ideas.

Do we have these ideas completely outlined for you? Well, no. Although we have to humbly admit that Green Baby Guide posts some fabulous suggestions, many talented bloggers can add to our collection of eco-friendly, frugal ideas.

So, it’s time for a carnival! Starting on July 24th, any blogger can get a piece of the action by joining our “Thrifty Green Thursday” blog carnival. Just write a post on a simple way that families (or individuals for that matter) can save money while going green on your blog. Then just follow the simple steps below:

1. The Thrifty Green Thursday post will be up by 8pm every Wednesday night.  

2. Add a comment to the post and share your blog’s Thrifty Green topic. Readers can click on your name to read your clever frugal tips.

2. Be sure to post a link back to us in your post.

3. If you want, copy the “Thrifty Green Thursday” image onto your Thursday post.

If you have any questions or input, please comment here or email us at greenbabyguide@gmail.com. Welcome to the carnival!

Oats were one of Audrey’s first favorite foods.  I’ve written a few times about the porridge I made for her as a little baby when I needed to fatten her up.  Once she was about fifteen months old, I started making her normal oatmeal for breakfast.  She has astounded me with her capacity for oatmeal.  Today I gave her a full adult serving (1 cup cooked) and she ate the entire bowl!  Normally, though, I will cook ¾ cups of dry oats for us both.  That will yield about a cup of cooked oats for me and a half cup for her.

So what is thrifty and green about our breakfast?  I buy oats in the bulk section.  Organic oats cost about $1.00/lb.  I can sometimes find conventional oats for $.50/lb. on sale.  That means our ¾ cup (2.25 ounces, according to my scale) of organic oats cost just fourteen cents!  I add some dried apricots and a little brown sugar, which boost up the price, but oats still end up being much cheaper than most other breakfasts.  And, by resisting convenience foods such as instant oatmeal packs, freezer waffles, or toaster pastries, we’re avoiding wasteful packaging.

Oats for Two

¾ cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 ½ cup water

Four or five dried apricots, cut into pieces

Put the ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and zap for two minutes*.  Stir.  Cook for 1.5 minutes longer and stir again.  Spoon a portion of the oats into a smaller bowl for the baby.  Top with brown sugar and eat!

*Note: our microwave is not very strong.  Cooking times will vary depending on your microwave.  You can also cook the oats on a stovetop, of course.

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.  Bon appétit!