Comments on: Living Green on a Small Budget

By: Denyce

Denyce — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:33:58 +0000

Yep, you are right. It isn't about politics. It's just common sense. Today, I went to the market, and I got such great stuff. I think another thing that is really overlooked is buying food that is in season. There isn't nearly as much of a price difference in America necessarily on different things that are or aren't in season (which probably means prices are inflated or these things are just grown indoors with lots of unnatural stuff added to it or something). For instance, I feel like for most of my adult life, roma tomatoes have been 97 cents to $1.39 at Walmart. But, during the winter here, I might pay $1.42 a pound for tomatoes. But, they are very in season here right now, and so this morning I paid 32 cents a pound. And, of course, they taste stupendous.
We gardened most years in Lubbock. I know nearly nothing about gardening. We got some mulch, organic compost, I think, and then just planted and watered. Our basil and tomatoes always did wonderful. Bell peppers would never start producing when they were supposed to, though. Some farmers in Hart told me to beat the plants with a broom to shake them up some. I did that, and it always worked. Within a week, they would start popping out the peppers.
Hey, we do cloth diapers, and it does save tons of money. I started after Silas was born, and so I had two in cloth diapers at once. Once you get used to using cloth, it really isn't much of a chore.

By: ryan

ryan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:41:17 +0000

Denyce, that's exactly my point. It shouldn't be a political issue or a debated issue. It's just a better, cheaper, and more efficient way to live. And it's so cool to have a missionary from Ukraine commenting!
Lori, I can't believe that I forgot to put cloth diapers down! Yes we use cloth diapers. It is so much cheaper and so so so much better for the environment. Did you know that paper diapers don't really decompose. I mean, if they sit in sun they've estimated that it takes a few hundred years to decompose completely! And consider the fact that most paper diapers are wrapped in a plastic bag, put into a garbage bag, and then sitting in the middle of a dump somewhere.

Jonathan, I love gardening. It is so much fun. Last year was our first year and we did everything wrong. But we still ended up with great produce. This year we've only done things slightly "wrong" and it seems like everything might survive.

By: Lori T

Lori T — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:15:10 +0000

I've also wondered about doing cloth diapers. Do y'all do that? Also, do y'all NOT have a microwave?! I don't think we could live w/o one.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:45:16 +0000

Hippie.

Just kidding. We reuse all the tubs and jars and stuff. We're very tentatively considering a garden. But, we might just buy a bigger SUV with 4 wheel drive to go to Walmart to get veggies instead. Just kidding again… about the SUV, but not about the garden, or you being a hippie.

By: Denyce

Denyce — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:24:32 +0000

Things are so different here in Ukraine. People do environmentally-friendly things because it is jut the obvious choice, given the circumstances. Of course you reuse bags or use cloth ones because you have to buy bags at the check-out if you don't have your own. And, imported things are just pretty expensive, so it makes more sense to buy as locally as possible. It's a great place to live in those ways. Unfortunately, it's the only nation in Europe with no organic food program. The upside is that quite a bit of the produce is organic just because people don't have the money to use pesticides. Also, you can easily buy fresh meats and raw, grassfed milk at the market. We even have a guy how stops by really near our apartment twice a week to sell his cow dairy and sheep dairy stuff!