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!

Thrifty Green Thursday is the perfect place to consider a whole new version of sustainability that involves both your wallet and your green values.  If cost wasn’t an issue, many Americans would love to eat organic food and use expensive eco-friendly cleaning products.

Since our economy is struggling and prices are soaring, it sometimes feels as though green products will only reach those that can afford them. That’s where economic offsetting can come in very handy. 

Here’s how it works: make frugal choices to reduce your household costs and then apply that extra money to spendier eco-friendly items.  For example, using hand-me-downs for baby can provide hundreds of dollars for organic strawberries and eco-friendly detergent.  (Hint: Rebecca discovered that eco-friendly detergent is actually cheaper than mainstream brands!)  Switching from prepared green cleaning products to homemade versions can possibly even offset the cost of a high quality wooden toy—especially when you find that toy used at a consignment shop.

What about the family who’s already shopping at thrift stores, growing their own food, and using hand-me-downs?  Or the single parent who is working three jobs to make ends meet?  There may not be a way to offset very tight budgets, but if you’re interested in extreme savings, you might want to check out Amy Dacyzyn’s Tightwad Gazette.  After reading it, you may be motivated to go for home haircuts, recycled oatmeal muffins, and other creative solutions. 

Keep visiting us on Thrifty Green Thursday.   You’ll get plenty of tips for offsetting the cost of those eco-friendly items—and you’ll get them from people who have tried it themselves. 

In our comments section, you’ll find links to other bloggers’ Thrifty Green Thursday submissions.  Go here for more information on how to join the Thrifty Green Thursday blog carnival.  And don’t worry–we’re planning on getting a better system (such as Mr. Linky) for this blog carnival very soon!

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. 

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.

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.

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!