Re: Thrifty green

[Guest guest]

I can't use vinegar on my counter tops. Thx

>

> Hey all,

> I'm quitting my business. YEAY! Which means we need to go to a stricter

budget. I'm all for that! Super excited. Researching things that weren't a big

deal with more expendable income like laundry detergents, dish soap etc. right

now price doesn't matter. I just pay what I pay and thats it. BUT, going down to

one inco,e requires that I be more creative and not settle for toxic. What do

you all do for cleaning supplies, tooth paste, deodorant, toiletries etc? Im

looking for cheaper green alternatives. I don't expect it to e cheaper than the

toxic crap at the grocery store, but certainly cheaper than running to the co op

and just grabbing whatever is on the shelf. Im not a huge fan of amazon. But

even ordering in bulk or auto shipping to save some money is feasible. Just

discovered Charlie's soap at the diaper store. So I think that's a good option

for cloth diapers and clothes, but if anyone knows of something less expensive,

that works, please let me know. We use Norwex cloths for kitchen and bath but

still sometimes need some sort of cleaner on rare occasions. Also looking for

dish detergent and dish washer detergent that works but if green. Currently use

melaleuca. They're. It spends but require a 60-70 dollar a month order and I

need to cut that back.

>

> Also currently ordering coconut oil whe. It goes on sale on amazon. If you

have some other more economical ideas let me know. Thank you!!!!!

>

> -

>

[Guest guest]

Congrats !

I see that at valley natural foods they have bulk bins of 'natural' dish and

laundry soaps in the bulk area, you just bring your own container or buy one of

theirs and fill it up. Don't know if the price is good or if it really is

natural but they may be an option.

I usually only use clay on my teeth, mix it with water. You can also add some

oil or butter, and you can swallow it afterwards if you want.

Shampoo is not necessary, but it takes some time to wean off of it. You hair

will be used to producing extra oil to account for what you strip off each day

with shampoo, once it realizes you are not doing that anymore, it will cut back

on production, unless you are eating excess (being relative to your body's

needs) fat.

Soap is also unnecessary, again, stripping oils off of your skin. Soap is good

for industry profits, not for your body.

Some homemade recipes for natural detergents are available on the web, usually

they involve baking soda and vinegar. Google for specifics and choose the one

you like.

" green " commercial detergents and dish soaps typically still contain synthetic

preservatives, to verify this, you can check under the label of '7th generation'

liquid products. Read carefully and you will see. So you're not missing out when

you avoid such products, especially with those price tags.

Essential oils are great for deodorants. I like eucalyptus, lemon and orange

oils. But you can get creative. This is what is in " burt's bees " spray

deodorant, though it is probably the alcohol that is killing off the bacteria

responsible for the odor, though the underlying cause is something inside your

system, rank body odor is not natural and a sign of imbalance in the body or

excess stress.

To make a natural essential oil deodorant, get a little spray bottle, preferably

glass, fill with clean water (ie not municipal water) then begin adding your

oils, a small amount at a time, testing it on your under arms as you add it. The

reason I say to test it is because I've put too much eucalyptus oil in before

and wound up with burning skin for a while, not fun. It goes away after a while,

but isn't pleasant. And certainly do not use the stuff undiluted!!!

Just some thoughts there, get creative and use the web, don't stop until you're

spending next to nothing on cosmetic and cleaning materials.

Also vinegar is great for washing dishes by hand, if you have a dishwasher

you'll need to find something else I'm guessing, though I've used it for

machines in the past too.

Good luck!

[Guest guest]

The deodorant I make works better than any I have used (though I agree with

that foul-smells come from imbalance/toxicities etc. The most important thing is

to eat well etc). I mix coconut oil and non-aluminum baking soda in about a

two-to-one ratio or more. Then put a few drops of essential oil in. Very easy

and pulls unnoticeably out of my food budget. You really only need a tiny

pea-sized amount every day or two or three. Some folks use coconut oil alone --

that is really cost-effective!

- who left her business about a year ago and is still finding little ways

to save

[Guest guest]

Make your own hard lotion and lip balm:Supplies: beeswax pellets,

coconut oil, shea butter and/or cocoa butter, eye dropper, empty lip

balm tube. The beeswax, shea butter, and cocoa butter can be bought in

bulk at the Wedge Natural Foods Coop in Minneapolis. The eyedropper and

lip balm tubes retail for about $0.79 each.

Combine equal parts beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter and/or cocoa

butter in the upper part of a double boiler with water in the bottom (or

put ingredients in a clean, dry measuring glass and put that inside a

slightly larger saucepan with some water in the saucepan. Melt and stir

everything together. For hard lotion bars: pour liquid into a mold (ice

cube trays, muffin tins, etc.), let cool and harden, pop out and store

in a cool dry place. Simply rub across your skin. This stuff works

wonders on very dry skin. For lip balm: use an eyedropper to drop some

liquid into an empty lip balm tube. Fill it only halfway and let it

harden (this will take only a few minutes). Fill the rest of the tube

very full, so that it looks like it might run over. Let it finish

cooling and hardening, then you're done. If you want mint lip balm or

another flavor, simply stir a drop or two of essential oil into the

liquid before dropping it into the tube.

http://www.hardlotion.com/ <http://www.hardlotion.com/>

Make your own household disinfectant/all-purpose cleaner:Ingredients:2

cups hot water1/2 cup distilled white vinegar2 Tablespoons liquid dish

soap or castile soap1 teaspoon borax10 drops essential oil, optional

(recommended: tea tree for antibacterial properties, lavender or citrus

for a nice smell)

Dissolve borax in hot water. Stir in remaining ingredients and pour into

an empty trigger spray bottle. Google " Alice's Wonder Spray " and you'll

find the recipe all over the internet. Tape on a label with the recipe

and you'll never have to search for it!

Make your own laundry detergent:I think I got this link from someone

else's post on this forum. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm very

intrigued. How to make years' worth of laundry detergent for $5:

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=422ED4574B759F2692D01B9D968925CA

<http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=422ED4574B759F2692D01B9D968925CA>

Make your own beauty products:Sophie Uliano has some great how to videos

on how to make things like vanilla body cream, eye-makeup remover,

sunscreen, and anti-aging serum <http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/gg-tv/>

<http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/gg-tv/>

http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/gg-tv

<http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/gg-tv/> /. She has these recipes and

lots more in her book " Do It Gorgeously " . You can check it out along

with tons of other DIY books at the library.

[Guest guest]

I'll chime in on the thrifty body products topic.

Hair: like said, ideally the body is supposed to have the perfect amount of

oil that will leave your hair looking like it has product in it rather than oil.

I tried the no shampoo thin for almost a year and found that until my hair got

to that point, it was a bit of work. Once a week, in the shower, I would take a

wet wash cloth and a small chunk of hair and pull the oils down to the roots.

With long hair, it was a 20 minute job. Now, I value my time more than natural

hair. I mix a tablespoon or so of baking soda with a cupful of water and pour

and scrub. Does the trick.

Soap: agree again with , though sometimes, those kid messes and illness

related gunk could use nothing better. My butcher sells tallow (beef fat) for

$1.00 lb. After rendering 13lbs. of it, buying some lye, and spending an hour

in the kitchen, 54 cents a bar of soap will keep you from buying ivory. Though

I found that an all tallow some is more medium strong and not as mild as some

like their bath soaps to be. I haven't tried our lard soap, but if you eat as

much bacon as we do, you've got extra lard laying around too, which would bring

the price down to the cost of lye. Lye you can pick up at Menards (not Home

Depot).

Have fun.

[Guest guest]

from the Nourished Kitchen blog just did a great roundup of body care

products. Check out the blog entry at

http://nourishedkitchen.com/reader-questions-natural-bodycare/ and the PDF

she posted with questions is pretty good too:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/bodycare.pdf.

Also, homemade hand soap:

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-non-toxic-liquid-hand-soap-2

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 7:02 PM, deborahbrenton <bdbrenton@...>wrote:

> **

>

>

> I'll chime in on the thrifty body products topic.

> Hair: like said, ideally the body is supposed to have the perfect

> amount of oil that will leave your hair looking like it has product in it

> rather than oil. I tried the no shampoo thin for almost a year and found

> that until my hair got to that point, it was a bit of work. Once a week, in

> the shower, I would take a wet wash cloth and a small chunk of hair and

> pull the oils down to the roots. With long hair, it was a 20 minute job.

> Now, I value my time more than natural hair. I mix a tablespoon or so of

> baking soda with a cupful of water and pour and scrub. Does the trick.

> Soap: agree again with , though sometimes, those kid messes and

> illness related gunk could use nothing better. My butcher sells tallow

> (beef fat) for $1.00 lb. After rendering 13lbs. of it, buying some lye, and

> spending an hour in the kitchen, 54 cents a bar of soap will keep you from

> buying ivory. Though I found that an all tallow some is more medium strong

> and not as mild as some like their bath soaps to be. I haven't tried our

> lard soap, but if you eat as much bacon as we do, you've got extra lard

> laying around too, which would bring the price down to the cost of lye. Lye

> you can pick up at Menards (not Home Depot).

>

> Have fun.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I have also found that an investment in an all boar bristel brush does wonders

for the hair. The trick is don't bother unless you have time to throughtly brush

the oils from the roots and disperse the natral oils to the ends. Can take

anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Our grandmas were right: 200 strokes a nigt

makes yourhair beautiful. Once a week does the trick in my opinion. I also will

do occasional avacado and egg yolk treatment on my hair ot egg yolk and yogurt

treatments. Don't use the egg whites as they are a fixative, make a great

hairspray. ( of course none of this since baby, heehee).

Good luck and thanks for an awesome topic

Sent from my iPod

On Jan 30, 2012, at 9:02 PM, " deborahbrenton " <bdbrenton@...> wrote:

I'll chime in on the thrifty body products topic.

Hair: like said, ideally the body is supposed to have the perfect amount of

oil that will leave your hair looking like it has product in it rather than oil.

I tried the no shampoo thin for almost a year and found that until my hair got

to that point, it was a bit of work. Once a week, in the shower, I would take a

wet wash cloth and a small chunk of hair and pull the oils down to the roots.

With long hair, it was a 20 minute job. Now, I value my time more than natural

hair. I mix a tablespoon or so of baking soda with a cupful of water and pour

and scrub. Does the trick.

Soap: agree again with , though sometimes, those kid messes and illness

related gunk could use nothing better. My butcher sells tallow (beef fat) for

$1.00 lb. After rendering 13lbs. of it, buying some lye, and spending an hour in

the kitchen, 54 cents a bar of soap will keep you from buying ivory. Though I

found that an all tallow some is more medium strong and not as mild as some like

their bath soaps to be. I haven't tried our lard soap, but if you eat as much

bacon as we do, you've got extra lard laying around too, which would bring the

price down to the cost of lye. Lye you can pick up at Menards (not Home Depot).

Have fun.

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[Guest guest]

Hi, wanted to add my two cents to this thrifty topic.

For personal care:

I tried the no shampoo route for a year, but it was hard with fine long hair. I

have hair that gets oily fast, and while now that I eat a good diet I'm not as

oily on my face, my hair still gets oily quicker than some others. I don't

think it is diet related as much as genetic in my case. I have found that if

you water wash your hair by scrubbing and rubbing in the shower and rinsing well

you can go for a few days. It takes time for your hair to adjust. I now use a

shampoo bar of soap made by J R Liggett which is about $3.50 a bar. It lasts a

long time and is very simple and pure.

I second the boar bristle brush. The best and traditional one is made by Mason

Pearson and is pricey. I have the " Popular " model by them. It is about $160,

but will last a lifetime (know grandmas who had them as girls and still use).

They also are amazing on your hair with breakage and oil distribution. Really

an investment. Also my little ones don't cry ever when I brush their hair with

it. One of them makes dreads every day with her tightly curled hair, yet no

tears.

For conditioner and other personal care products I searched the " Skin Deep

Report " from the Environmental Watch Group. You can find discount store brands

that are really inexpensive yet not bad for you!

Face: I used to be a devoted Channel makeup and skin care person. Geez, crazy

expensive and bad for me. Now I mostly wash with water and a cloth. If I

wanted a face scrub I'd use baking soda and water. Every night I use Emu Oil on

my face. Expensive at first, but lasts and lasts and is lovely. It absorbs

better than coconut oil for me. I do spend a bit more on the occasional makeup

from Miessence (edible, food grade organic makeup). I just use it sparingly.

The mascara is not good though and too expensive. I love a lotion bar with shea

butter my friend makes. Lovely!

Deodorant: we use the salt rock type. One thing costs about $4.00 at CVS and I

have it last for a couple years. It works best if you wet your pits and rub the

salt stick on them rather than running the stick under the water. Running under

the water makes it break quicker.

Baby and children: Cloth diapers are fab. You can spend as little as $500 to

get set up and use over and over for multiple kiddos. Years ago I calculated

the expense of paper diapers and it was about $3000 per child. Huge expense not

to mention environmental impact. Plus cloth diapering is fun and strangely

rewarding and addicting. No I'm not crazy, ask any cd-er.

I rarely wash my children with soap or shampoo. Just cloths and friction.

Home:

Remember the old addage: Water washes--soap helps. Less is more. I mostly use

Norwex and other microfiber cloths and water. I squirt a little dish soap in

the toilet and swish and scrub. Soap is soap. I just started making my own

laundry detergent. It was very inexpensive and so much more pure, easy and

quick. I grabbed some 7th generation recently and noticed it had sodium laurel

sulfate in it. Expensive and cancer causing detergent. Great. For tips on

making your own check out

http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/ I used #10 but

subbed 1/2 cup shredded-ground Fels Naptha soap or ivory. A great blog post and

instructions about detergent making by a member of our list is here

http://www.junecleaverinyogapants.com/2012/01/homemade-laundry-detergent-hand-so\

ap.html

So lots of info...maybe too much, but what a fun topic.

Blessings!

beth

[Guest guest]

Great summary beth.

I wanted to chime in about the Miessence cosmetics. I've been distributing

those products for years (www.LeadingOrganics.com) and I agree that the

mascara is too expensive and never worked well. For people who really

want/need a clean mascara I often recommend Dr. Hauschka's. It's also very

expensive but I think it works much better (I have no affiliation) and while

it has a few ingredients Miessence (and lots of folks here) would never use

(Carmine = derived from bugs; maltodextrin = excitotoxin; trace titanium

dioxide, etc) it is cleaner than most things out there and scores well on

EWG.

BTW, Miessence finally figured out that the mascara doesn't work and have

decided to discontinue it, along with some of their (over-priced) baby

products. The baby products are on steep discount right now as they wind

down the inventory. Maybe they'll discontinue the probiotic household

cleaner too (I love the concept of a probiotic cleaner instead of an

antibiotic cleaner but didn't like how this one worked).

Are they local? No way. They ship from Australia (carbon neutral

operation). But I consider them traditional in that every product they make

is edible (including bug spray and sun block) and they routinely make

decisions based on criteria that have absolutely nothing to do with (and

often hurt) their bottom line.

Take care

Josie

----I do spend a bit more on the occasional makeup from Miessence (edible,

food grade organic makeup). I just use it sparingly. The mascara is not good

though and too expensive. I love a lotion bar with shea butter my friend

makes. Lovely!

From: [mailto: ]

On Behalf Of beth

Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 10:02 AM

Subject: Re: Thrifty green

Hi, wanted to add my two cents to this thrifty topic.

For personal care:

I tried the no shampoo route for a year, but it was hard with fine long

hair. I have hair that gets oily fast, and while now that I eat a good diet

I'm not as oily on my face, my hair still gets oily quicker than some

others. I don't think it is diet related as much as genetic in my case. I

have found that if you water wash your hair by scrubbing and rubbing in the

shower and rinsing well you can go for a few days. It takes time for your

hair to adjust. I now use a shampoo bar of soap made by J R Liggett which is

about $3.50 a bar. It lasts a long time and is very simple and pure.

I second the boar bristle brush. The best and traditional one is made by

Mason Pearson and is pricey. I have the " Popular " model by them. It is about

$160, but will last a lifetime (know grandmas who had them as girls and

still use). They also are amazing on your hair with breakage and oil

distribution. Really an investment. Also my little ones don't cry ever when

I brush their hair with it. One of them makes dreads every day with her

tightly curled hair, yet no tears.

For conditioner and other personal care products I searched the " Skin Deep

Report " from the Environmental Watch Group. You can find discount store

brands that are really inexpensive yet not bad for you!

Face: I used to be a devoted Channel makeup and skin care person. Geez,

crazy expensive and bad for me. Now I mostly wash with water and a cloth. If

I wanted a face scrub I'd use baking soda and water. Every night I use Emu

Oil on my face. Expensive at first, but lasts and lasts and is lovely. It

absorbs better than coconut oil for me. I do spend a bit more on the

occasional makeup from Miessence (edible, food grade organic makeup). I just

use it sparingly. The mascara is not good though and too expensive. I love a

lotion bar with shea butter my friend makes. Lovely!

Deodorant: we use the salt rock type. One thing costs about $4.00 at CVS and

I have it last for a couple years. It works best if you wet your pits and

rub the salt stick on them rather than running the stick under the water.

Running under the water makes it break quicker.

Baby and children: Cloth diapers are fab. You can spend as little as $500 to

get set up and use over and over for multiple kiddos. Years ago I calculated

the expense of paper diapers and it was about $3000 per child. Huge expense

not to mention environmental impact. Plus cloth diapering is fun and

strangely rewarding and addicting. No I'm not crazy, ask any cd-er.

I rarely wash my children with soap or shampoo. Just cloths and friction.

Home:

Remember the old addage: Water washes--soap helps. Less is more. I mostly

use Norwex and other microfiber cloths and water. I squirt a little dish

soap in the toilet and swish and scrub. Soap is soap. I just started making

my own laundry detergent. It was very inexpensive and so much more pure,

easy and quick. I grabbed some 7th generation recently and noticed it had

sodium laurel sulfate in it. Expensive and cancer causing detergent. Great.

For tips on making your own check out

http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/ I used #10 but

subbed 1/2 cup shredded-ground Fels Naptha soap or ivory. A great blog post

and instructions about detergent making by a member of our list is

here

http://www.junecleaverinyogapants.com/2012/01/homemade-laundry-detergent-han

d-soap.html

So lots of info...maybe too much, but what a fun topic.

Blessings!

beth

[Guest guest]

Sorry, one of my links got clipped. Here it is again

http://www.junecleaverinyogapants.com/2012/01/homemade-laundry-detergent-hand-so\

ap.html

beth