Archive for GOING GREEN

Majesta is Green and a Great Giveaway

Well before life threw me a curve ball I was asked to be part of a team of women here in Canada who tried out Majesta’s new green product line called Treesposible. I have been learning alot and well I will be honest I had used Majesta before and thought they will a middle of the pack brand when it came to paper products. Well besides me there were many other Canadian moms trying out the brand and discussing in a forum many of the ways we can do ” green a bit better”.

Here are some great ways to go “green” and be eco-friendly. My daughter and I do several of these:

  • use reusable grocery bags on a regular basis. Do you realize how just doing that one thing helps?
  • Watch how much packaging you are bringing home when you buy something new.
  • Have you thought of buying second hand.
  • If you own your own home. How efficent are those appliances?
  • Do your laundry in the off hours.
  • Donate old clothes and household items to charity.
  • Use an eco friendly water bottle. My daughter and I both have one.
  • Recycle.
  • Water lawns as little as you can.
  • Plant a tree.
  • Use low watt bulbs.
  • Turn off the power when not in use.

These were just some on the list that the moms shared. What are you doing at your house?

Now as a product tester I did receive for free: paper towels, toilet paper and tissue. I had the notion before I began that well it would do a middle of the road job. Glad my notions were put to rest. I gave my daughter’s teacher a box of the tissue. It held up well in her classroom. Another box help up well when used by my sister in her car and well my daughter got a cold and lets just say there is an empty box and no red nose. So the tissue was strong enough and soft enough to do the job. For the paper towel I used it on 2 big jobs: Widows and the oven. Well lets just say I was impressed with the strength and the ability to get the job done. Now I got several rolls of toilet paper and well we even did a test to see how bio degradable the product was. Lets just say this paper product beat out the competition. The toilet paper was soft enough and cleaned well. Some important things to know about the line of products:

  • No dyes or fragrances
  • Made in Canada
  • Whitened without chlorine
  • Biodegradable and plumbing-friendly
Majesta Bathroom Tissue has been awarded the 2010 Product of the Year in Canada in the category of household products. Isn’t that a good review in itself. I  love that, for every tree used in the making of Majesta products, they will plant three more trees.Each mom was given a seedling card to plant. We planted ours near my daughter’s school.
Majesta is offering a prize of $15,000 towards a Green Makeover! The contest ends on June 27, 2010 and you can enter daily. What could you do with$15,000? Would you do some landscaping? Get new appliances? Make over the kitchen?
Screen+shot+2010 04 21+at+10.24.28+PM Majesta is Green and a Great Giveaway

You can visit Majesta’s web site and tell them what you’ve done to be more Treesponsible. Have you planted a tree lately? How are you going green? You will definitely want to enter the contest too!

* I have been compensated for this post with a Chapter’s Gift Card and product to test.

Works for Me: Earth Day

 Works for Me: Earth Day

This picture was taken by me last summer. For me it represents the great beauty our earth provides for us to enjoy.

But at what costs are we enjoying this earth and will sights like this be around for our grandchildren?

For me several years ago I got concerned about my impact here on earth and the legacy it would leave my child.

I made the choice to be on who tries her best to be apart of the solution. How are some of the ways this common family takes care of the earth?

  • we recycle: blue bins are now part of the Canadian culture, and recycling is done in many cities, but are you a good recycler, do you really do it and do it well?
  • we have gone meatless at least twice a week.
  • we walk most everywhere we go, and when I lived in Toronto we took the subway or TTC.
  • replaced light bulbs with long lasting environmentally friendly ones
  • shop second hand- frugal and earth friendly
  • going paperless with my bills, I access and pay everything online.
  • make use of rentals and libraries for things like books, cds and movies
  • don’t litter
  • and the list can go on

Now these are things that work here at our house, what is working where you are today? Are your kids better at it then you? I know mine is. I am now off to vist We are That Family to see what works for everyone else today. Happy Earth Day!

Gardening on the Cheap

 With the weather finally getting warmer here in Toronto it is time to think of gardening. On the weekend my favorite daughter Roo decided she was going to do yard work. I am really impressed how clean our garden is. It looks good for mid April.

As we look at gardening this year we will be doing mostly vegetables and fruit. We will have a few flowers though, and will be doing some herbs as well.

What is planned to go into ours: Tomatoes(both full size and cherry), strawberries, lettuce, red peppers, pumpkin, green onions, and for herbs we will do cilantro, basil, and parsley. Really a very basic garden for Toronto. How do I do it and do it on the cheap?

1. First I start everything almost from seeds, that is of what I buy. The only exception is what I get from friends  and that will be started strawberries and tomatoes. Seeds are a cheap way to go and your children get to watch the whole growth cycle.

2. Water in the eveing or morning only, and water roots not leaves. First it is the roots that need the water, not the leaves, as well by watering in the early morning or on in the eveing it takes longer to absorb and is better for the soil and plant and you dont end up wasting water. It is also good to do it at this time to save on the pocket book.

3. I also keep my tools on the minimum and to be honest I got them all for free or from the Dollar store. There is no need for expensive tools.

4. NO chemicals…most of the things you need to fight pests,etc can either be done organically or by using your compostable stuff. For weed killer try PULLING them. Just think of it as a workout.

Well it is evening here and with the weather being so nice a perfect eveing for a walk. So here is hoping that some of you are getting your gardens ready just like me. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Earth Hour Fun

earth hour 002.thumbnail Our Earth Hour Funearth hour 005.thumbnail Our Earth Hour Fun Well we did our part last night and participated in Earth Hour. Roo loved it. We used candles and flashlights for the 3 hours that we turned out the lights. Everything in the house was unplugged except for the fridge.

Monopoly was the game of choice, and then we read by candle light and our finale was a walk in our neighbourhood where we found 60 houses that were participating! We could even see the stars and that is rare in Toronto..It really was a fun time and a real reminder that we can still do much to go green.

Works for Me Wednesday- Getting Ready for Earth hour

So what works for me this week is me getting ready to celebrate Earth Hour with Roo. What are we going to do? Well let’s see since 8pm this Saturday night it is dusk her in Toronto Roo and I have decided to have a raw dinner and play board games by candle light…no going anywhere just us girls at home this Saturday night. Now if you are in Toronto there is going to be an eco friendly concert downtown but if you go please don’t drive use the better way:TTC or bike or walk. Now off to Rocks in my Dryer to see what is working for everyone else this week. Are YOU doing earth hour? If yes how?

Works for Me Wednesday

Another of the news stories that got me yesterday was one about going green…we are all trying to do our part right? Now do you purchase green products? This is the part 2 of yesterday, and since it is Works for me Wednesday let me tell you what works for me in regards to this news story.

First the story was this. Ninety nine percent of all GREEN products that are on are shelves have some sot of falsehood or misleader attached….99% what a figure right?

How do they lie? Lets use paper products produced in a sustainable forest, yes the forest was sustainable but the milling practices were very bad for the environment so they forget to mention the trade off. Others lie about what they can do..Others are a good thing put are packaged in stuff that are bad for the environment.So what are we as good consumers and people want to do leave a lesser carbon footprint? Well here is what works for this cheap environment friendly mom:

  • We get meatless twice a week or more…this is not only good for the environment but good for our health and our pocketbooks.
  • We use CFS light-bulbs…..again helping the environment and my pocketbook.
  • I clean with natural products alot that I can make myself no need to buy green here when I can make it at home
  • We recycle and use freecycle as much as we can, this includes shopping at second hand stores..( again I am being a good cheap mom)
  • I walk everywhere I can get to within 30 minutes otherwise I take the TTC.( again good for the environment and the pocketbook). I may use a taxi about once a month.

With these things done I save money, and my environment and all without having to go near the “green” goods….so you might want to try one or two…and check out what you are buying before you do…

Now if you are looking for more Work for me Wednesday posts go over here to Shannon’s…and read..

Christmas Tip#13–Got someone on your naughty list? I really liked this idea from Organized Christmas for Snowman Poop…so get your baggies ready to pick up this yummy stuff that is a favorite of Roo’s.

This morning I am thankful that the rain has stayed away this morning as dear Roo has an outdoor field trip all day…so let it be gone till at least 4 pm.

Starting to Feel A Bit Like Christmas

Tis starting to feel a bit like Christmas. Yes all the store are quickly getting to into Christmas gear, and you truly know the season is at hand when The Bay on Yonge St reveals its Christmas window, they are a site and a tradition here in To.

Well here at Castle a La Cheap Mom we too are getting into the spirit so much so that guess what we broke out this weekend. The Christmas decorations.We went through the box, checked it once, checked it twice, and then began can I say this out loud — to decorate! Last year because we were tree less till just a few days before the holiday I really didn’t get to enjoy the season. So this year I am starting early! But then again I really love the season..

We are using an artificial tree, and have all the decorations we will need for the season minus a table cloth( can you figure out where I will be looking for one this week?).

Christmas Tip #4– When getting out your Christmas decorations why not try and save some green and use LED lights. We switched to these last years and for pennies our tree was well lite while not wasting much electricity…So be good on your pocket book and go green.

Today I am thankful for a daughter who loves Christmas as much as I do! Decorating with her after a hard morning of school work. (She finished her Emperor Scorpion project this morning) was so much fun. We laughed and giggled and remembered where and when each ornament came into our home. It truly was a great afternoon of fun.  

Fall Fair

Today was the fall fair at my daughter’s school. Because the weather was decent we were able to do it outside, but because it was a windy day can you say fly away home! I was working the raffle table all day and well we had to tape down EVERYTHING so it would not fly away home.

The goal was to have a garbage-less event and I think we did well. It was not totally garbage-less but I think we made a very good effort. Much of what was waste was compostable or recyclable so that is good. So we made a good effort in going green this year.

As I said I worked the raffle table so of course I was going to enter, right! I bought $10 worth of tickets ( 6 tickets) and ended up winning 4 of the baskets! Can you say lucky girl! I won about $200 worth of stuff from large canvas tote bag, to shopping gift certificates, to pizza certificates to a Casa Loma family pass. I couldn’t believe when our names were called that many times! Call us lucky!

Well this wind burned mom is exhausted so it is time for a bath and a cup of peppermint tea, may you all be as lucky as we were.