I wanted a BPA-free sippy cup for my son, but I heard so many complaints about leaks and design flaws from other mothers, that I was hesitant to shell out the cash.   I was under the (misguided) impression that most BPA-free cups cost $15-20 dollars apiece, plus shipping, which was tough to swallow considering that I hadn’t heard great reviews.

The Tightwad Gazette offered the simple, thrifty solution of having a child drink out of a cup after turning one.  After all, what did people do before plastic was invented?

We tried instructing our child to gently sip with a straw, but a few dozen cups of spilled milk later, I felt we needed a better solution.  Just then, I read a post on Green and Clean Mom announcing the happy news: Target now carries Munchkin BPA-free sippy cups for between one and three dollars! Eureka!  In her post, Green and Clean mom apologizes for her wild enthusiasm about finding these cups, but I instantly shared her thrill. 

If there were rooftops to shout from, I would’ve.  We purchased four of the sippy cups and were initially impressed with their performance.  There was some occasional leakiness, but it was minor if we assemble them correctly.  They were easy to clean, Roscoe loved them, and the total for four cups was less than it would be for one BPA-free sippy cup anywhere else.  

Sadly though, our sense of victory was quickly quelled when Roscoe learned that he could bite through the silicone nipple.  It made the milk flow much more quickly, but also totally eliminated the “spill-proof” aspect of the cups.  They were quickly retired after one too many milk leakages on the sofa cushions.  

After sharing my depressing news with Rebecca, she tipped me off to a myriad of other inexpensive BPA free sippy cup options.  Here are a few that I’ve discovered since then:

The First Years Take and Toss 10 oz. Spill Proof Cups. A four pack costs around four dollars and they are surprisingly sturdy despite their supposed disposability.  The spout isn’t flexible, but Rebecca found that they held up nicely. They’re also easy to find in most stores.  My son, a biting maniac, has also managed to bite through several of these rigid spouts so they didn’t really work for us. 

Evenflo Fun Sip 10 oz. Sippy Cup.  A two pack is $8.50 and it’s also widely available.  They come with straws or spouted lids.  

12 oz. Sipper by Nuby with Flip-It Straw. This cup costs just $4.50 and works well for toddlers who are transitioning from a spout to a straw.  

And there are more!  Go to Safe Mama.com to view a quick cheat sheet of all the BPA free bottle and sippy cup options.   I’d love to hear from you on which sippy cups were easiest to clean, held up the best, and seemed the most drip-proof.  Parent reviews are the most dependable!

For us, we ended up loving the new BPA-Free Nalgene Grip-n-Gulp sippy cups.  The spout is hard and durable and looks like it will last throughout the rest of Roscoe’s toddler years.  It’s easy to clean and Roscoe enjoys toting it around by the little finger loop.  Occasionally the inner piece falls into the drink and it does leak a bit, but it’s easy to fix and far better than any of the other cups we’ve tried.   

Is it really green to replace plastic sippy cups when we already had a few?  This is where green and non-toxic become separate issues.  It may not have been as planet-friendly to buy new cups, but I can’t justify feeding my child milk out of cups that may be leaching toxins, just to save the planet.  I couldn’t pass the cups on either, since I wouldn’t feel good about anyone else using them, but we did recycle them.

Although I am thrilled to have safer sippy cups for Roscoe, I’m even more excited to realize that finally, merchandisers are listening to us.   Canada’s ban on BPA most likely helped the movement quite a bit, but if all of us create demands for safer products, even mainstream brands are going to respond.  Well done fellow green parents!

Although I’m always trying to shift my grocery selections to organic products, sometimes my inner tightwad cannot handle the sticker shock—especially with the recent rise in food prices.  Buying our produce through a Commmunity Supported Agriculture subscription and having our own raised bed garden has helped, but as a working mom, I depend on having some packaged products to feed my family. 

Store brand organics have come to my rescue with quality, eco-friendly products at reasonable prices.  I have found organic applesauce, crackers, and beans made by Western Family (a generic brand popular in the Pacific Northwest) at my local grocery store.  Even chain stores such as Safeway and Fred Meyer also offer their own organic selections, including baby food.

Trader Joe’s is my dream store, providing endless shelves of store brand organics for reasonable prices.  It’s a nice down-to-earth alternative to boutique grocery stores that always make me feel as though I’m spending my grocery money on their interior décor rather than my food.

So what’s not to love about store brand organics?  Some people worry that generics can undercut companies who are struggling with a tough economy in a very niche market.  Should we spend the extra money to support companies that care for the environment and consider it a contribution to green business?

What do you think?  Do you buy store brand organics?  Why or why not?  Thanks for sharing your stories with us on Thrifty Green Thursday.  

Don’t forget to enter our Baby Blend Tees giveaway by posting a comment on this post.  It’s over on Monday, so get your comments in to win an adorable t-shirt for your baby or as a perfect holiday gift!

Do you have a eco-friendly, budget friendly tip to share?  Just go here to find out how to jump into the Thrifty Green Thursday blog carnival this week!

I live in Oregon where we’re surrounded by evergreens and breathe in pine-scented air on a daily basis.  Every Christmas I’ve had a real tree, some of which we tromped out into the woods to find and others that we’ve picked out at our local tree farms.  It has always seemed like a normal part of the holidays to have a real tree, so I was shocked to hear others touting the eco-benefits of plastic holiday trees.  Say it isn’t so! 

Still, it’s good to consider the plastic vs. real debate and then think beyond it.  There’s certain to be a tree that will fit your budget and your green values.

Pros of Real Trees

• A fabulous woody scent
• Real trees absorb carbon for the time that they’re alive
• They can be composted or shredded into mulch (Available here but maybe not in other cities)
• More natural than artificial trees
• Don’t need to be stored year to year

 Cons of Real Trees

• Must be replaced each year
• Sometimes have to be shipped across country when local trees aren’t available
• Often raised using pesticides           
• If tossed into landfills, can take years to decompose
• Fire danger
• Messier than artificial trees

 Pros of artificial trees

• Can be reused for several years
• Cost less money over the long run
• Are less messy than real trees
• Don’t require a trip out to purchase a tree each year

Cons of artificial trees

• Have plastic smell, or no smell whatsoever
• Most are made in China and have to be shipped to the U.S.
• Contain PVC, a material that pollutes during production and releases toxins
• Have been known to contain lead
• Will take centuries to break down in landfills
• Have to be stored every year

 Thrifty Green Alternatives:

• Decorate a tree outside your home
• Plant a pine sapling in a large container and use it for several years.  When it gets too big, transplant it outside and start another one.
• Be creative with a branch or a bunch of cuttings.
• Use beer bottles!  O.K.  This photo is ridiculous and very UN-baby-proof, but it’s nice to know that people can think outside the box. 

If you celebrate Christmas, what sort of tree are you using this year?  Did you find a way to make it eco-friendlier? Thanks for sharing your input—and for joining us this Thrifty Green Thursday!  Please visit our amazing bloggers below and jump right in if you have a frugal, eco-friendly post to share.  

My life has become a bit easier this year with the addition of a freezer and makeshift pantry in our garage.  What a difference!  I’ve cut my grocery shopping trips down to one or two per month and been able to stock up on sale foods at peak times.  Our membership to a CSA fills in the fresh food gaps with local organic produce each week.

Since my state of mind has shifted toward stocking up, I realize that now is a great time to purchase sale priced products that will last for months.  After studying a few grocery store flyers, I’ve found myself stocking up on the following items:

Baking supplies: It’s a great time to load up on flour, spices (although they are cheaper and eco-friendlier if you can get them in bulk) , and chocolate chips.  Even baking sheets and pie pans are available at a discount over the next month or so.

Turkey and Tofurky: Both of these items can be purchased at fabulous prices at this time of year,frozen, and used later in the winter.  According to Turtle Island Foods, makers of the tofu-based tofurky roast, it can be frozen for up to a year before being used.  Trader Joes has some excellent prices on natural turkeys and  a few local grocers even have free range birds at great discounts.

Seasonal produce: Squash, sweet potatoes, onions and apples are all on sale now and can be stored for months in a cool, dry location.  If you store them separately (so that they aren’t touching one another) they’ll last much longer.  Also look for cans of organic pumpkin and jars of applesauce which both work as cheap organic baby food too!  

What are your grocery shopping tips for holiday savings?  Have you already purchased your groceries for the big meal next week?  Are you in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year or can you happily just show up with an adorable baby at someone else’s table?  For your sake, I heartily hope it’s the latter.   

Thanks for joining us this week for Thrifty Green Thursday.  If you have a simple tip for saving the planet and a few bucks, please click here to jump right in.  We’d love to have you! 

Don’t forget to post a comment before Friday for a chance to win a Natural Pod organic t-shirt or onesie!

With a new baby at home, it’s tempting to crank up the heat on these cold November days.  When the energy bill arrives, however, it can be shocking to see how an increase of just a few degrees on the thermostat can impact the utility bill and your energy output.  Since heating the home takes up about half of a family’s energy costs each month, finding a few ways to cut back can make a huge difference in your expenses and your carbon footprint.

•  Don’t heat what you don’t use:  If you want baby to stay extra warm, you can heat up her room and keep the rest of the house a bit cooler.  Close the doors to unused rooms and turn the thermostat to 55 degrees to avoid mildew.

• Bundle up: You don’t need to forgo comfort to save the planet.  Just throw on an extra layer and snuggle your baby into a warm blanket.  A reduction of just three degrees can save you five percent on your heating bill—but remember you can still keep baby’s room warm if you’d like. Decrease your overall house temperature by one degree each week to adjust gradually.  Setting your thermostat just two degrees lower over the course of a year will save an impressive 2,000 pounds in CO₂ emissions.

• Turn down the heat when you’re gone: You may have fallen prey to the myth that it takes more energy to heat up a cold house than to leave the heat running.  Wrong!  Turning the heat down while away from home or sleeping always saves energy.

• Lower the temperature on your water heater: Having the temperature for hot water set to higher than 120 degrees is both wasteful and dangerously hot.  Simply turning down the water heater will cut your energy use by six percent—and you’ll probably never even notice the difference!

• Make sure your home is well insulated:  After four years of incredibly high energy bills, my brother just learned that his house does not have insulation!  He has been pouring heat (and carbon emissions) into the air and money out the window.   Believe it or not, good insulation makes more of a difference than having solar panels on your home.  It’s the least expensive and most effective thing you can do to save energy.  Many local utility companies will do energy audits to check whether your home is well insulated.

What have you done to keep your family’s heating bills in check?  Those of you who live in frigid areas must have some tips for limiting energy costs while keeping baby comfy.  Please share your wisdom with the rest of us!

We’d also like to announce that the winner of our My Little Pakora giveaway is Terra Jones from The Jones Journey.  Thanks for entering Terra! 

For more Thrifty Green Thursday tips, check out the links below.  If you’d like to join us this week click here to get started.  Thanks for visiting!

With grocery prices soaring, it’s nice to know that you can save loads of money on a simple, homemade snack.  We’ve been guilty of buying microwave popcorn in the past, but six months ago I began making it on the stovetop––it’s incredibly easy and requires almost no equipment!  Plus it will help you avoid the hydrogenated oils in packaged popcorns as well as the cost and packaging.  It’s great for the planet, your budget and your family’s health—and it doesn’t require a lot of work.  From start to finish you can expect it to take less than ten minutes, including cleanup.

• Find a large, heavy pot with a lid. (Most people already have one.)
• Generously coat the bottom of the pan with canola or vegetable oil and dump in about 1/2 cup of unpopped corn. (You can eyeball it.)
• Stay near the pot until the corn begins to pop.
• Shake it every thirty seconds or so. 
• When it’s done popping, season it with your favorite ingredients.

Here are some popcorn seasoning options:

• Olive oil
• Melted butter
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Dill weed
• Seasoning salt
• Brewer’s yeast

Not only is home-popped corn delicious, it’s outrageously cheap.  A bag of popcorn kernels in the grocery store is just 4 cents per ounce, while microwave brands cost three to six times as much.  Microwaveable popcorn costs between 30-90 cents for a family sized bowl while the same amount of the homemade version costs less than ten cents per bowl—including seasoning!

If your family goes through one box of microwave popcorn (4 large bowls) each week, you’ll save a whopping 52 boxes of cardboard trash, 208 cellophane wrappings, and 208 paper bags by switching to homemade.  The same amount of popcorn prepared at home would cost less than ten dollars and create just four plastic bags.  (If you buy it in bulk and recycle the bags, you’ll achieve zero waste!) 

Homemade popcorn is also a great alternative to chips, pretzels and other expensive snacks.  As long as you don’t douse it with too much oil or butter, it can be stored in air tight containers and will still taste great the following day. 

One word of warning for parents—you’ll need to wait until baby is about 18 months to begin offering popcorn.  Moms and dads of toddlers: beware the effects of popcorn!  It can result in some very scary diaper aftermath.  (Similar to feeding them too much fruit.)  So let your little ones share in this treat, but don’t let them overdo it.

We’re looking forward to hearing your Thrifty Green Thursday tips this week—and would also love to know how you doctor up your homemade popcorn.  Thanks for enriching our popcorn seasoning list!

Because our trick-or-treating journey will be a bit long this year, my husband decided to make Roscoe’s wagon part of the costume.  My son received it for his birthday this year after we did some rust-removal and repainting. It’s now one of his most prized possessions and we love its versatility and usefulness. 

My hubby found some old cardboard in our attic and a few wooden sign posts.  He cut them out, decorated them with some of our old paint (the red was left over from the wagon) and made an easy add-on to the wagon. 

It cost just under $4.00 total for this fabulous moving costume and the objects we reused have been granted a second (more glamorous) life too!  It’s more adorable and natural than those large plastic vehicles for sale at big-box stores and it’s  provided just as much fun.

Since our son is completely obsessed with school buses, he’ll be wearing a shirt with an iron-on school bus design that my husband downloaded onto a printer-friendly iron-on.  He’ll get lots of use out of the shirt long after Halloween too!

Although we’re still a few days away from Halloween, Roscoe now takes regular rides around the neighborhood in his new school bus wagon.  People stop and ask about it, wave from their cars, and generally love its homemade charm. 

It took my husband less than two hours to craft it and will make trick-or-treating a whole lot easier (and cuter) this year!  For more Thrifty Green Thursday tips visit our contributors in the links below.  If you’d like to join, just click here for details!

Also, congratulations to Abigail Dobbins, the winner of our Natural Pod giveaway!  We hope you enjoy those stacking rings for the next several years!   

Discovering new ways to use natural, inexpensive products gives me a slightly bizarre thrill—like winning the lottery, fully reversing global warming, or seeing my toddler son first thing in the morning. 

You can imagine my euphoria when I found out that a fifty cent box of baking soda could replace diaper cream, eco-friendly cleaners, and baby bath without any artificial ingredients or phthalates.  For those of you that didn’t catch last week’s post, you might want to read up on how baking soda can also replace deodorant, shampoo and even toothpaste!

“Baking Soda: Over 500 Fabulous, Fun, and Frugal Uses You’ve Probably Never Thought of” offers a plethora of ideas using for baking soda with babies and throughout your house.  The book is chock full of ways to replace potentially toxic mainstream products and expensive green cleaners with simple baking soda solutions. The list below is compiled from the book’s section on caring for babies and children. 

Diaper rash treatment.  Generously dilute baking soda with water and gently sponge onto baby’s skin to neutralize the acidity of urine.

Baby bath. Skip the bubbly stuff, and add a few tablespoons of baking soda to baby’s bathwater to soften the skin.

Bath toys. If you have bath toys that are prone to mildew or mold, sprinkle them with a bit of baking soda every now and then.  It will prevent the green stuff from growing on junior’s rubber ducky.

Cradle cap treatment. Make a paste of baking soda and add a bit of baby oil.  Then gently work the mixture into baby’s scalp and carefully rinse.

Deodorizer for baby bottles and nipples. Soak baby them overnight in hot water and a half of a box baking soda.

Cleanser for baby’s room. Rather than using harsh chemicals, just mix baking soda and water to clean cribs, bassinets, and the changing table.

Diaper deodorizer. Whether you add it to your load of cloth diapers, dump it into your diaper pail, or sprinkle it into your wet bag on the go, baking soda can make cloth diapering infinitely less smelly.

Do you have another tip on how to use baking soda for baby?  Please enlighten us!

Everyone with a creative idea about reusing, recycling, or going green for less is welcome to join our Thrifty Green Thursday blog carnival.  Follow these directions carefully if you’re wondering where to begin–and don’t forget to include a link in your post back to this page.  Thanks for joining us this week at The Green Baby Guide!

For years I knew that baking soda had a huge variety of household applications.  We use it to make a soft scrub for the sink, we deodorize the fridge, it helps our muffins rise and can even be used as an antacid. 

But, thanks to a tip from Frugal Babe I tried baking soda as a shampoo.  When I first worked it into my hair the lack of suds and lather seemed a little strange.  Surprisingly, my hair was actually very soft and clean after the wash—as was my skin.   Since then I’ve heard that really oily hair can benefit from a quick “dry wash” with baking soda if there isn’t time for a full shampoo.  Just sprinkle the baking soda onto oily hair without wetting it, work into the roots, and brush out.

Frugal Babe also recommends storing vinegar in a spray bottle and spraying it on as a conditioner after a wet baking soda wash.  I gave this a try and felt like I was wearing “ode de pickle” all day.  Rebecca tried adding a bit of lemon essential oils to her apple cider vinegar spray and found that it worked well and smelled quite nice.

I have to admit that I haven’t tried this next idea, but it sounds rather intriguing. According to How Stuff Works.com, you can make your own toothpaste by mixing 3 parts baking soda with 1 part salt. You’ll need 3 teaspoons of glycerin (which can also be used to make homemade bubble solution) and 10 to 20 drops of flavoring (peppermint, wintergreen, anise, or cinnamon). It can all be mixed into a paste and then stored in a refillable squeeze bottle.  Although I haven’t tried baking soda toothpaste recipe, I know that just using baking soda on a wet brush works wonders. 

Bolstered by my success with baking soda shampoo, I tried using baking soda as a deodorant and found it works better than anything I’ve ever used before—including traditional brands with aluminum-based antiperspirants! I put a bit of lotion on my skin and then sprinkle on a little baking soda.   If you use too much baking soda, or put it directly on your skin, it can cause a rash so you have to experiment a bit with it.  Baking soda utterly wipes out the smell, so that even though I might sweat a bit there is no scent. 

Although there is no direct link between deodorant and breast cancer, spreading aluminum-based antiperspirant on skin that is located near several lymph nodes isn’t appealing to me—especially when breastfeeding.  Since high school I have been trying different versions of natural deodorants, only to find that none of them worked.  I had switched back to traditional brands but was trying to use them less frequently. It seemed like a difficult choice: do I want to expose my body to toxins, or feel smelly most of the time?   Thanks to baking soda, there is solution that works for my budget, my body, and the environment.

What a thrill to get to replace shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and deodorant with more natural, eco-friendly, and thrifty alternatives!   It means saving over a dozen plastic containers a year costing around fifty dollars (on the cheap end) with one big cardboard box of ultra-cheap sodium bicarbonate.  My baking soda fervor continues next week as we explore how to use baking soda with baby.  

Click here if you’d like to join us for Thrifty Green Thursday and please check out the links below!

Is it possible to have a wickedly wonderful Halloween without disposable costumes, expensive candy, and ultra sugar highs? Yes! You could …

A. Move to another country
B. Hibernate
C. Join a commune

Kidding—but seriously, there are a few ways to limit the cost and eco-impact of this year.

Tricks:

Throw a Halloween party: Our friends are going to celebrate the holiday with a party, allowing them to skip late night trick-or-treating with their children and manage the sugar factor a bit. I’ll have to pass along Rebecca’s recipe for wholesome pumpkin bars so they’ll have an easy treat that the kids can enjoy.

Manage the candy: We are planning on going trick-or-treating this year, but we’re just going to a few houses and limiting my son’s candy. We haven’t yet decided whether to let him gorge for one night and then give the rest of the candy to our co-workers, or provide a piece of candy to him daily for awhile. Option number one lets him enjoy and then get back to healthy habits but option number two might entail a huge stomachache and a late bedtime. What do you do about this?

Make the costumes: Using Rebecca’s clever costume ideas, your child can be a trend setter hobo baby this year! Hit the thrift shops and think outside the box!  Roscoe posed for this picture in his $4 resale shop pumpkin suit when he was just two months old. 

Treats:

Pennies: I still remember the woman in my neighborhood who gave out a small bag of pennies each year at Halloween. It was my favorite house! We might do this for little ones this year, but just hand them a few so that we don’t have to package them up. The older kids might not be thrilled with this option but I don’t think they’ll refuse free money.  Foreign coins would be especially cool but I’m not sure if I want to exchange money just for trick or treaters!

Stickers: It’s fun to know that children can have something to play with instead of eat in their Halloween bags. While this isn’t a perfect eco-option, it’s better than plastic wrappers that often can’t be recycled.

What are you doing this Halloween to keep the holiday healthy and green? I still haven’t decided what to pass out on Halloween night so I’d love to keep the ideas coming!

Thanks for joining us this week for Thrifty Green Thursday!  Want to jump in?  Read here to see where to start.