re-gifting is not a bad thing

I’m not sure why some people feel so bad about regifting. I absolutely support the idea. I mean, if you get a gift you can’t use, what’s wrong with passing it along to someone who might have a better use for it? Provided the gift isn’t used, of course.

Considering the state of the economy and how tight budgets are the rule rather than the exception these days, I think people should understand it’s a means of debt consolidation also. Nothing wrong with that.

In fact, it makes perfect sense too especially since we’re talking about going green and finding ways to save the environment. Why throw a perfectly good thing away or just leave it to rot?

Recently I got a coffee maker from a friend as a thank-you gift. She’s so sweet and frankly I love the coffee maker. It’s just that I hardly ever make coffee. I prefer instant, lazy bones that I am.

So I re-wrapped the coffee maker and gave it to another friend for Christmas. Coffee freak that she is, she was thrilled at my thoughtfulness. See, it’s okay as long as the article hasn’t been used. With good friends, even if the article has been lightly used, it’s still okay.

natural baby products all in one place

A cousin of mine has just had a new baby and when I visited them, I notice they’ve set up a themed baby room with lovely coordinated crib bedding. How lucky some babies are these days!

Back when my kids were babies, we did manage to get a few coordinated items but there certainly weren’t the choices available now. I mean, look at this, everything’s coordinated right down to the lampshade. How cool is that!

If you go to Baby Earth, you’ll find that a large selection of their products are made from natural products, and therefore safe for baby as well as the environment. Ah, now we’re talkin’!

Although my kids aren’t babies any more, I still had a great time browsing Baby Earth’s online store. There’s so many cute things I wish had been available to us when we needed them.

shopping with eco-bags

The other day, I tried to play my small part in being eco-friendly. So when I went grocery shopping, I brought along these few recyclable bags so I wouldn’t have to use the plastic ones that the store gives out.

The thing with eco-bags are that they are quite a bit bigger than your regular plastic bag. So they can hold a lot more stuff. Yes, and that’s exactly what I did. I tried to cram all of my shopping into those 3 or 4 eco-bags that I’d brought.

Came time to lift them from the shopping cart into my car boot, I swore even if I’d swallowed a handful horse supplements, I couldn’t have lifted those bags up. You’ll be surprised how heavy a few bottles of milk and drinks can be!!

Whoa!! I honestly couldn’t have gotten all my groceries into the car if my son weren’t with me that day. So much for trying to do my part for the environment!

joining the eco-friendly peeps

I’ve somehow managed to collect a whole bunch of eco-friendly bags like these here in a range of different colors from red to green to brown to beige.

They’re all from different companies. All free, of course, if you don’t mind doing a bit of free advertising for the companies that make these bags for distribution.

I used to mind using bags with company logos on them because they made me feel like a cheapskate. But not these eco-friendly ones though. I mean if a company is socially responsible enough to make these bags for us, I don’t mind giving them a bit of exposure.

I refused my first plastic bag!

The kids and I are seriously hamburger-deprived at this stage. We haven’t eaten out in a whole week. So first stop – Carl’s Jr. Since we can’t afford even the cheapest Vegas vacations, we might as well stuff ourselves silly with hamburgers, right?

I had a shopping list to fulfill after lunch. So we stopped by GNC for our vitamin supply. VIP card members get 20-25% off certain items. I’m not a card member but my credit card entitles me to a 20% discount.

The girl was about to drop my vitamins into a plastic bag when I told her, stop, I brought my own eco-tote bag. For the record, that’s my first refusal of a plastic bag! Yes, I’m helping to save the environment and my grandchildren will be so proud of me. Yay!!

reusing pretty containers

What do you do with the containers from your shopping trips? Do you just throw them away or do you recycle and reuse them?

I love collecting chocolate and biscuit tins and re-using them as trinket boxes or as a hold-all for odds and ends such as pens, candy and loose buttons and clips. It’s usually because they’re so pretty that I can’t bear to throw them away.

They can also be reused to pack homemade food gifts for friends and neighbors. Although the savings aren’t much, it sure beats having to buy them.