As a child, I remember being thrilled to escape school in mid June—but by August, I was bored to tears. Now as a mom I realize how tough it is to find quality entertainment for kids without spending money or driving all over town. This week we’ll revisit a few of our best posts on entertaining your brood for less.

For toddlers:

• Homemade Finger Paint: These days we just head outside with Roscoe and avoid worrying about the ensuing mess. We use the back sides of household papers and just hose Roscoe down when he’s done! You can find a link to Rebecca’s post on fingerpainting here.

• Homemade playdough—including an edible variety! For a very small price, my toddler stays happily entertained with his little blob of playdough. Again, check this vintage post for some great links.

• Homemade popsicles. This entertainment-food will help you clean out your produce drawer, soothe teething gums, and sneak spinach into your child’s diet. With recipes for tofu popsicles and fruity-veggie popsicles in my repertoire, my skills in creative desserts have hit a whole new high!

• Homemade bubbles. Once you make up the bubble solution, you can experiment with pip cleaners, coat hangers, and other household objects to create enormous bubbles. Visit another post of ours here for tips on how to get started.

For older children:

• Cat’s cradle. I still sometimes catch my middle school students enjoying this simple but mesmerizing game. If you’re not sure where to start, this site provide pictures to illustrate each step.

• Paper games. Origami is a great way to provide kids with some quiet, focused crafts—and a great way to recycle junk mail. It may be easier to use a book, but this site has some simple origami shapes that kids can do with limited adult help.

• Hula hoops. I spent years of my life trying to perfect this art—and I still find the hoop down around my ankles most of the time. You can find hula hoops at garage sales and thrifty shops used for cheap.

• Playtime outside. There’s no better way to connect with nature—and one’s desire to protect it, than be spending some time outdoors.

What else do you do to inspire entertainment that doesn’t have to be plugged in? We’d love to hear your Thrifty Green ideas.

Remember that you’ll find a whole slew of frugal, eco-friendly tips below with links back to some fabulous blogs. This week we’ve finally added Mr. Linky.  Please jump into Thrifty Green Thursday whenever you’d like. For directions on how to start, just click here. Thanks for visiting!

Has anyone else spawned a water-waster?  If I give Audrey a little watering can and ask her to water the flowers, she’ll dump the whole thing on the pavement.  She enjoys flushing the toilet.  If she washes her hands, she turns the water on full blast and splashes water everywhere.  Then she cries when I won’t let her wash her hands every five minutes.  One day I wondered why it was eerily silent in the bathroom, and I found that Audrey had taken all the towels out of the cabinet and soaked each one in the sink!

How have you talked to your kids about conserving resources–at a two-year-old level?  Audrey will beg to water the plants or wash her hands, which seem like innocuous enough activities for a youngster–but how do I encourage her to do those things with the proper respect for Mother Earth?  Or do I just need to put up with the waterworks for a few years, then sit her down as a teen for a comprehensive lecture on ecology? 

If anyone has any brilliant tips or suggestions for me, please post a comment. 

Green parenting requires thought, innovation, and courage—none of which come easy on limited sleep.  Having a community of like-minded parents is wonderful, but it can be challenging depending on a person’s geographic location or work schedule.  Still, if you hook up with a few families who are at least willing to try green living, it can be tremendously helpful. 

Here are a few places where you could start finding eco-friendly buddies:

Parenting groups: Usually by joining a parenting group you can find a few families who are interested in eco-friendly tips.  We loved our experience with Birth to Three here in Eugene and have made friendships that will last all through Roscoe’s childhood.

Community events: Story time at the local library, Earth Day Celebrations or free concerts in the park can be a great way to connect with other parents.  

Green groups: These are available in the Portland Metro area through one of our favorite local blogs, Enviromom.  Portland parents in different pockets of the city have free-form meetings to discuss the everyday challenges and victories of green living.

Start your own: Post a free ad in Craigslist asking moms to meet up weekly at a city park or even in your own home.  Hold “swap-meets” with local families to share toys and clothes.  You’re welcome to post a comment on this post asking if any Green Baby Guide readers live in your area. 

The good news is that you’re already part of a group of like-minded people: us!  Please remember to email us with any questions or tips you might want to share online.  We’d love to hear your voices as we continue to make Green Baby Guide a welcoming place for new parents.

Every year, over forty members of my extended family–ages negative one month to 94 years–meet up at Lake Tahoe for a week of swimming, kayaking, hiking, and eating.  Little Audrey had a wonderful time splashing in the lake and digging in the sand with her cousins, and everyone enjoyed catching up over mounds of appetizers, cold drinks, and gigantic home-cooked dinners and breakfasts.  

One of the problems with cooking for such a large crowd is all the clean-up afterwards, and my green sensibilities were shocked upon witnessing bag after bag of bottles, cups, and paper plates pile up after each group dinner and breakfast.  That got me thinking: How could we “green” our family reunion?

Our reunion wasn’t a complete environmental disaster–we practiced many eco-conscious activities.  First, we crammed ourselves in large houses outfitted with kitchens.  Unlike hotels, we didn’t have housekeeping service, so we reused towels and sheets for the week.  We were also able to prepare all of our meals in the houses.  Best of all, most of my family members live close to Tahoe, so we saved on some carbon emissions traveling to our destination.  (I personally cannot take credit for this, as we drove each way from Portland.)

So how could our family reunion go even greener next year?  Here are some ideas:

Cut down on disposable products.  We used as many real dishes as we could, but we supplemented with paper plates and plastic cups.  With so many people and so few real plates, I am not sure paper products could be avoided entirely, but we could stand to cut down.   This year, we got lazy about labeling our disposable cups.  I myself am guilty of using more than one disposable cup a day because I kept losing track.  I hope no one took a picture of me committing this extremely non-green act!  Next year, I am going to vow to use just ONE cup all week.  And I’ll bring a pen for labeling.

Use recycled paper products.  In the future, we could make an effort to phase out any bleached paper plates made from virgin forests or colorful plastic plates and start using recycled paper products.  A quick trip to a main-stream grocery store revealed that Chinet’s plates are “made from recycled materials.”  Other plates were not labeled.  Here are some plates made with sugarcane fibers–they’re biodegradable!

Recycle.  I was surprised that there was no recycling program set up at our gathering place–this was northern California, after all.  About halfway through our reunion, we started sorting our bottles and cans from the rest of the trash so my dad could take them home to be recycled.  Next year, I will set up a recycling system right from the start.  My sister suggested bringing some cardboard boxes, labeling them, and setting them next to the trash bags from day one.  I am also going to write the rental company and ask why they do not provide recycling.

Surely I am overlooking many other excellent ways to conserve resources while entertaining large groups.  Please post a comment to help me green next year’s reunion!  I’m already looking forward to stuffing myself on food served on recycled paper plates and quenching my thirst with Pims punch sipped from my well-labeled cup.  

Do you own a solar powered dryer? If not, they’re available for under twenty bucks and can save loads of emissions in their lifetime. Yes, I am talking about the humble drying rack.

Whether you live in an urban apartment or sprawling acreage, anyone can handle erecting a drying rack and letting nature do the rest. You won’t need dozens of clothespins to hang each sock, baby t-shirt, or undergarment.  Just flop the clothing on the rack in the morning and take it off later in the day.

In the summer I bask in the glory of sun dried clothing.  I hang the sheets, towels and adult clothing on the line while my toddler helps (somewhat sloppily) by arranging dishtowels and diaper covers on our drying rack.  

Although it air drying isn’t glamorous, it is revolutionary.  

What are the environmental benefits?  A clothes dryer is one of the biggest energy users in your household.  Depending on its efficiency, it can eat up as much energy as your oven and more than your water heater, burning up to 5000 watts of electricity each hour.  Refrigerators technically use more, since they’re on all the time, but per hour, dryers are the largest consumers.  Dryers also waste energy twice, since they suck in air from your home (which has been cooled in summer and heated in winter) and then blow it out of the house.

What are the cost benefits?   Besides lowering your utility bill, you’ll reduce expenses on clothing.  My sister, a mother of five children who is constantly battling with laundry, will only air dry her children’s garments.  Since line drying doesn’t set stains the way a heated dryer does, she prevents soiled clothing from being permanently ruined in the dryer.  If the stain doesn’t come out, she just tosses it back in the wash.  Air drying also prevents shrinking and limits wear.

How can I take it a step further?  If you’d like to air dry all your laundry and set up a clothesline,  check out Laundry List–a site dedicated to helping people move away from dependency of dryers.  Even hanging just a few loads a week can make a huge difference in your energy bill and your carbon emissions. 

Thanks for joining Thrifty Green Thursday!  Come back tomorrow for Rebecca’s line-drying trouble-shooting tips. 

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. 

Our house is perched on a giant anthill.  I have no scientific proof of this except for the constant stream of tiny black specks that march around like they own the place. These little sugar ants are happier than ever since Roscoe has joined our family.  Now they can load up with the remnants of my son’s cracker snacks, spaghetti dinners, and cookie treats to their collective heart’s content.

So how do we mercilessly rid them of their newfound territory without endangering our son or the planet?   We don’t want to use any pesticides in our home, not just because our son likes to put almost everything in his mouth, but also because it isn’t safe for the environment. 

So far our weapon of choice has been Borax.  The Boric Acid it contains has natural ant-repelling properties and isn’t quite as scary as some other products.  It does need to be kept away from children so you have to be careful.

After looking at online resources such as greenpaige.com and barebones gardening, I have some new tricks to try on our little friends. 

Barriers:   Sprinkle or spray these in ant walkways or areas where they enter your home.   Their odors disrupt the scent trails ants create for each other. 

• White or yellow chalk (ants will not cross a chalk line)
• Cucumber peelings
• Red chili or dry mustard mixed with a bit of water
• Lemon juice
• White vinegar or half strength cider vinegar
• Orange based environmental cleaning products
• Cloves
• Coffee grounds
• Cinnamon
• Baking Soda
• Baby powder
• Black pepper
• Mint Leaves
• Mint tea bags

Ant traps: You’ll need..

• Borax
• Sugar
• A sticky substance such as mint jelly or peanut butter

Mix the substances together thoroughly.  Spread the mixture on a cracker and place out of the way of children in a cupboard or on a countertop.  When the ants get the food, they’ll also get the poison. 

Dealing with Ant Hills:  The most merciless way is to pour boiling water or hot vinegar directly into the anthill.  This site recommended putting dry grits outside the hole.  Apparently the ants try to eat them and then explode.  That sounds a bit less humane but it’s your call. 

What are your natural pest control tips?  How do you keep baby safe without ending up with ants in the sugar?  

Since fuel expenses, high food prices, and child-rearing costs are eating into our thrifty budgets, here are some simple, eco-friendly tips that can save some money. They all come directly from stopglobalwarming.org, which has another five money saving tips available for your perusal.  While you’re there, use their handy-dandy online calculator to estimate your carbon and cost savings.

Run your dishwasher only when it’s loaded to full capacity.  It’ll save you $40 per year and reduce your carbon emissions by a whopping 200 pounds.

Move your thermostat down two degrees when it’s cold and up two degrees when it’s hot.  This minor switch will save your family $98 annually and bring your carbon emissions down by two thousand pounds!

Take shorter showers.  Check out Crunchy Domestic Goddess’s post  on this.  She recently challenged her readers to time their showers and try to keep them to just five minutes per shower.  This really isn’t that challenging!  By reducing your showering time you could save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide and $99 per year. 


Switch just three standard light bulbs in a highly used area of your home with compact fluorescent bulbs.  You’ll save $60 per year (and remember that they last for many, many years) and 300 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

If you have a car, make sure the tires are properly inflated by checking them regularly.  You’ll save a shocking $840 and 250 pounds of carbon dioxide. 

Why not give a few of these tips a whirl?  It’s like getting paid to save the planet!  We’d love to hear some of your budget friendly, earth friendly tips too. 

Like many tightwads and environmentalists, I am full of contradictions.  Joy confessed to loving take-out, and I’ve got to admit we’re guilty, too.  Obviously both eating at restaurants and ordering food to go costs much more than making homemade meals from fresh ingredients.  Going to restaurants might not be that bad for the environment, but takeout involves paper or plastic bags, napkins, and containers.

I blame our takeout habit on the baby.  While we used to eat out even more than we do now, these days we have to stay home in the evening hours so our daughter can sleep.  What I want to avoid is what I will call “unmindful takeout.”  Sometimes we don’t even want it, but we end up getting it because we failed to plan ahead.  So how can parents who want to save money and keep several takeout containers from the landfill deal with hectic nights when no one wants to cook?

Ways to Avoid Takeout (Or, advice I should take myself)

1. Prepare meals in advance and freeze them for future use. My husband kicked his cafeteria habit once we started making burritos and freezing them. (Read about that in my cooking black beans post.) I have also made big batches of scones and frozen them for breakfasts. Some people get really into cooking huge quantities and freezing them for dinners, but I just don’t like the idea of eating frozen food for dinner. Hence my restaurant problem.

2. Buy more convenience foods. I used to avoid almost all convenience foods until I realized that being such a whole foods purist is what was sending me out to dine. Buying a few convenience items keeps me out of the restaurants and saves me money. On the down side, buying more pre-packaged foods is not any eco-friendlier than getting takeout in disposable containers.

3. Do more food prep during the day or on the weekends. As an adjunct instructor, I am often home during the day. Dinnertime goes much more smoothly if I manage to do some prep work in the hours before dinner. If both parents work outside the home all day, it might be worth it to spend an hour or two on the weekends to doing a bit of food prepping. Joy makes her own mixes ahead of time so she can whip up pancakes or cornbread.

4. Plan meals in advance. I know some people have great success with meal planning. A housekeeping book from the ‘80s I read as a teenager suggested making Monday taco night, Tuesday spaghetti night, and so on, for ever and ever. I tried instituting a Friday night pizza night, but it lasted just a few weeks before I forgot about it or gave up. I do find we avoid going out if I plan ahead, so I should really work on this tip.

5. Make a list of fast homemade meals. Sometimes lack of imagination sends us to the neighborhood Thai joint. It’s easy to think “there’s nothing in the house,” when really there are always a few standbys we could make without too much effort. Paninis, baked potatoes, or macaroni and cheese from a box don’t require much cooking skill or clean-up. I figured out that spaghetti with jarred sauce costs just .$50 a serving. With the exception of potatoes, all of the items on my “easy dinners” list involve convenience foods encased in that pesky packaging, but at least I can recycle most of it.

When we do get takeout, there are a few things we can do to make it eco-friendlier.  Joy has found some places in her town that use recyclable containers.  While plastic clamshells and plastic tubs with lids (#5 and #6 plastic) are technically recyclable, most towns in the U.S. don’t recycle them.  Portland has one of the best recycling programs in the country but doesn’t pick these up curbside.  Those waxy white boxes have to be thrown in the trash.  Styrofoam containers are probably the worst of all, so I’m glad they’re illegal here, sparing me the guilt of tossing them.  Pizza is a good takeout option because it comes in a cardboard box, and the non-greasy parts can be recycled.  I’m going to make more of an effort to patronize the restaurants that carry biodegradable takeout containers.  Also, you can always ask places to forgo extra condiments and napkins.

If you have any great ideas for avoiding takeout, please let me know.  I’m all ears!

Lately, Roscoe spends all of his time running around our house, hitting a ball with his “ockey tic”  (hockey stick).  He can’t go anywhere without it and even has it by his side when we lay him down at night.  It is his most cherished possession.  It also happens to be a wooden spoon. 

Roscoe also uses his “ockey tic” as a drumstick, a “scooper-dumper” (shovel), and a  cell phone when he can’t be reached on his land line.

A few weeks ago we went to grandma’s house, two hours away.  Roscoe spent the car ride talking on his phone and beating his drumstick along to the songs on the radio.  Upon his arrival we went down to the beach where he used his spoon to dig in the sand, ladle seawater into his mouth, and pack down the exterior of the sandcastle he then quickly destroyed.  One toy sustained all this activity for the entire day.

Before I had kids I heard people talking about how children tend to latch onto cardboard boxes and rubber bands as their preferred playthings, but I had no idea just how true it would become. 

Here are some other objects that Roscoe adores:

Real pans: Instead of playing in a toy kitchen, Roscoe bangs around with authentic culinary stuff while I cook dinner.  I think he likes the fact that actual pans are much louder than their plastic counterparts.

The vacuum cleaner: Roscoe has to be held by daddy while the two of them vacuum the floor together.  It’s always the highlight of his day.

Tape: He loves having scotch tape stuck onto his hand and then sticking it on the other hand for awhile.  This whole process is very entertaining and can last for at least ten minutes.

What weird objects do your children love to play with?  Maybe we can get a top ten list going once we get all your ideas!