Frugal Tuesday

I have a few little things I do be more frugal or environmentally friendly, none of which deserves its own post as most I have gotten from other bloggers (Stacey, Shanen, Abby, & Sara --hehe almost all S's) so I will list them here:

• I compost: fruit & veggie 'junk', paper towels used to just dry wet children's hands (also working to do away w/them), newspaper, junk mail all goes into a bucket
• I provide cloth napkins for our home meals (not childcare quite yet)
• I provide cloth diapers for my childcare kids
• I recycle: plastic jugs, tin cans & cardboard
• I reuse: all glass jars & lids for freezing leftovers, produce (bananas, pumpkin & squash), freezer cooking (mac n cheese, taco meat, chicken or beef broth, etc.)
• I make my own laundry & dishwasher soap now-Thanks Stacey!
• I cook a whole chicken once a month instead of boneless skinless chicken breasts every week-Thanks Shanen & Abby!
• I carry around this aluminum water bottle
• I am learning to make my own mixes: taco seasoning, ranch mix, cream soup mix, onion soup mix, mocha mix, & pancake mix.
• I shop the farmer's market & Iowa food Co-op whenever possible. Shop Fresh Shop Local. From the farmer's market I am loving the hand crocheted washclothes!
• I haven't bought harsh cleaning products in 3 years, vinegar, baking soda & dawn dish soap clean about everything.
• I haven't bought store bread for childcare in a year. I either serve homemade bread or muffins, pita pockets, tortillas or pasta as our grain group @ meals. (tortillas are inching their way to the top of my 'to-learn' list)
• have almost done away w/baggies -minus Tim's lunch sandwiches, which are fewer than they were & the occassional 'prize' found & taken home from childcare (feathers, rocks, flowers for mom) & want to invest in some reusable sandwich bags for camping, childcare & home as well.--thanks for the heads up Sara!
• I have a small (HA) reusable shopping bag addiction  collection.

Things we hope to increase or improve in the next year:

• use the clothes line (just installed last night)
• find a fabric softener for winter months that kills the static cling & do away w/the dryer bar
• get a rain barrel
• build a bigger compost bin
• grow more garden
• preserve/can/freeze more produce this fall than last
• add to my list of homemade mixes, soaps & foods (tortillas, bagels, etc)
• get all childcare children into cloth-will reduce our trash can to the SMALL one! imagine that!! a childcare home w/a small can!
• finish & hang 'towel rack' I am in the process of repurposing for the kids to have their own towels & do away w/paper towels
• install filter in the childcare so I can cancel the water delivery we rely on for our drinking water

No pictures but lots of links to follow! Thanks for visiting & have fun!

Linking up to Frugal Tuesdays go check out the others!!