Pardon the consruction

Working on upgrading my site from blogger.

Thanks for the patience.

New look!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out! (Beastie Boys, ya hurd!!)

Anyway. New layout that I'm fighting...um, working on tonight.

Like it?

Lemme know...and tell your friends to dig it.

DIY day!!

It's FINALLY pretty outside on a day I have off from work! Although still a bit cold for me :) I was planning on starting my herb garden in our front yard, but I think it's still a little cold to put anything in the ground.

So I've decided to do a few minor DIY things that I've been meaning to do, since my main goal is to reuse anything that we can instead of spending money and creating more waste by buying new.

Today's project, our house numbers.

The style of the previous owners of our house is a little too traditional for us. We've just about taken care of the inside (except the kitchen...) and now that it's "spring" it's time for the outside.

The address plaque outside looked like this:

I have nothing against Country Style or ivy in general...just not for us.

We checked out a few new address plaques at Lowe's/Home Depot/etc, but it seemed kinda dumb to spend at least $30 on something that we had already.

Solution...yup, paint!

First I cleaned it well with my homemade vinegar/water solution. Then I used a sponge brush and black acrylic paint to paint the whole thing.

Then after it dried, I went back with silver acrylic paint and a smaller brush to paint the numbers and lightly paint the details to make them stand out more.

I'm not sure I like the leaves being silver. But the great news is if I decide I hate it, I can always paint over it!

Hopefully more DIY/Recipes to come today, we'll see what I get accomplished!

Happy March!

So it's a brand new month everyone! Time to set some goals, anyone else with me? Ok, here are mine...

1) Pay off Express bill. I have $365 set aside in my ING savings account for Credit Card payments. If you are like me and find it hard to hold onto savings, they are great! They are also running a referal special this month, so if you are thinking about opening an account, comment or send me your email. If you join through my referal email, you get an extra $25!

I also have an extra $120 in my wallet. Think I may go pay the $120 today in cash and then the rest once it transfers back to my account.

2)Keep adding at least $20 a week to both my "House" and "Savings" ING accounts. Work has been great lately, but I know come summer it slows down and I don't want to be stuck struggling.

3) Cut down on the grocery bill!! Through my Mint.com summary, I know that I went over my $200 budget for groceries. This was only what I paid for as well! S.O. paid for a $150 trip to Sam's. Hopefully though we can put off grocery shopping for a while. We have a TON to get through in the freezer/pantry

4) Start running! I have a friend who wants me to do a 10k with her in April (!) It's been a while since I have been running regularly but I am investing in a Nike +ipod today. I found a used ipod nano on amazon for $40 and plan on using my old shoes until I find a great deal on new ones. Everyone tells me it's worth the investment. Lets hope so.

5) Learn how to make my own shower cleaner (that actually works) and finish painting the rooms at our house. I can't commit to a color for the office and guest bedroom and we are (hopefully) getting countertops on a trip to Houston next week (Ikea) so then we can "start" the kitchen.

I think that's enough lofty goals for today! Oh, and figure out all the inner workings of blog-land...like how to get adsense setup right. Any tips greatly appreciated!

Happy Monday!!

under construction

Based on the positive feedback that I have received about "Our Little Green Home" I took the leap and bought a domain name!

We will be relocating to ourlittlegreen.com ASAP.

Since I'm kinda a interweb newbie, forgive me for any bumps in the road during this transition.

THANKS!!

Why I shop at Wal=Mart

Most "frugal" types will tell you they never shop at Wal-Mart. They prefer to compare prices and sales elsewhere and use coupons. Well, I'm just not that organized! Here is a quick response I posted on another blog about why I DO shop at Wal-mart. Check it out!

I actually do most of our shopping at Walmart and the local farmers market. It is convient for us, and try as I may, I'm not much of a coupon clipper! They also are much more environmentally friendly than many people think. If you happen to be there again, take a look at some of their packaging (only concentrated laundry detergent for example), their "Locally grown" produce signs, their brand clothing made from "transitional" fields (to encourage farmers to transition to organic) and the sheer number of "made in USA" products that they have. They are also the first large company to start requiring their suppliers to show a "chain" of production so consumers know what really went into that "organic" product. I think its fabulous and should be applauded that a retail giant has realized the importance of sustainability. They have to potential to reach a vast number of people who otherwise may not have ever been concerned about being "green". I only wish that they would stop with the plastic bags all together...no matter how much everyone would whine and complain about having to pay for them :)

Motivation for organization

So my BFF, her daughter and her dad are coming to stay with us for a night on their way moving back to TX. (Her hubby's coming back from deployment sooner than expected!) Our only little problem was that the "guest bedroom" at our house had this living in it.

Yup. All those boxes that are packed last and get labeled "stuff". We called it the corner of shame...it was next to the closet of shame. That's tomorrows project. Anyway, I spent a couple of hours sorting through all this stuff and reaffirming my belief that if you know where everything is, you save money by not buying more.

Now the linen closet looks like this

And the guest bedroom like this

And I am appreciating what we have and parting with EVERYTHING that we really don't need/love. Everyone should do this.

Take a critical survey of what you have. If it's been in a closet or a box for a year, you obviously don't miss it. That being said, if you come across something that you realize you now can use, you just saved yourself from buying another.

If you think about it, there is a lot of waste that comes with overconsumerism (I made that word up) being a conscience consumer is green in every sense. So look at what you have and work with it!