From the category archives:

recycling

What I’m Reading 9/11

by Carrie on September 11, 2009

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Time for a Little New and New to Me Furniture

by Carrie on August 10, 2009

The more I try to make the numbers work, the more I see that it’s going to be at least 5 years from now before I can afford to buy a decent townhouse in the Bay Area on my own.

Since I’ve now lived in my current home for 1.5 years, which is longer than I’ve lived anywhere else other than my parent’s house as a child, I figure it’s time to settle in. The house I’m living in now is a townhouse that my parents purchased in the 1970s as an investment property and they’ve been renting it out ever since. I pay rent but it’s a better rate than I’d get anywhere else so I’m not inclined to move again unless I buy something of my own.

Almost all of my furniture is family heirlooms or hand me downs with the exception of my bed, my couch, and a few simple and highly functional pieces that no one else had to spare like bookcases. I think antique and used furniture is great if it’s solid but not so great for fabric and upholstered items.

I’ve been dreaming of a super comfy chair placed near a large window to make the perfect reading nook for over 5 years now so I think it’s finally time to go ahead and buy one. Because I want a squishy upholstered chair, I’ll only be considering new items (reupholstering is often as expensive or more expensive than buying a new piece of furniture). I’ll be testing out chairs when I’m out and about shopping looking for a comfortable and quality piece and when I find one I love I’ll be ready to splurge.

860076_whi_bI’m also in the market for a pair of nightstands for my master bedroom. While window shopping at Anthropologie recently I spotted this piece which would be perfect. However, I am not interested in paying $698 x 2 for a pair. Since a nightstand is a solid item and I’m not concerned about bed bugs/mold/etc, I’ll be checking thrift stores for two nightstands that I can paint white and then stencil to create a similar effect.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Best of It’s Frugal Being Green: July 2009

by Carrie on August 1, 2009

I’m back from vacation so now it’s time to return to our regularly scheduled programming. I hope you enjoyed the past week’s guest posts as much as I did!

I’d like to take a moment to note that whether you’re a blogger or not, I welcome guest posts from any one at any time so please check out my guidelines, email me your rough draft/outline/idea, and we’ll talk about whether or not it’ll work for It’s Frugal Being Green.

My Personal Favorite (Pre-vacation) Posts from July:

With another huge thank you to my fellow bloggers for their guest posts during my vacation:

Top 5 Most Viewed Posts in July:

July comes to a close with 323 RSS subscribers and 102 email subscribers. If you’re not already a subscriber, now is a great time to become one. Check out my subscribe page for everything you could ever want to know about subscribing to blogs.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Using Shredded Paper

by Carrie on July 28, 2009

Stephanie and her family live in the woods of West Virginia where they are attempting to live a simple life while getting out of debt. You can find her blogging at Stop the Ride! and Make it from Scratch.

Shredded Paper

Shredded Paper

A couple of summer’s ago I found a paper shredder at a yard sale. I paid $3 for it. I have certainly gotten my money’s worth of use from it. Every piece of junk mail (nonslick), every envelope, all the kids scrap paper, and discarded coloring pages have met the shredder. Our office trash that once was overflowing by trash day, now has very little in it.

Shredding papers is helpful in protecting us from identity theft, but shredded paper can be helpful even beyond that. There are a lot of useful ways to use all those shreds of paper that accumulate in the shredder basket.

Here are some ways that we use our shredded paper:

1) In the compost.

Paper mixed in with other compostable items will break down to make wonderful soil for your gardening needs. There are so many things you can compost. Want some ideas of things you can compost? How about a list of 163 things! You may be surprised at some of the things listed there.

2) As mulch.

While we are talking gardening, shredded paper will also make a mulch. Simply place it around your plants, and then wet it a bit. The shreds will stick together to create a mulch.

3) For the animals.

We have chickens, and the vast majority of our shredded paper ends up in their nest boxes. It is a perfect (and free) alternative to straw. We’ve also used it in rabbit nest boxes. I imagine it would make a nesting material for other animals like guinea pigs.

4) Packing material.

Shredded paper makes an excellent packing material in shipping boxes. It can be a little messy though. To cut down on the mess simply place the shredded paper into a plastic shopping bag, and tie the top closed. Double your recycling pleasure.

Shredding paper makes sense. It helps protect you from identity theft, and can be a useful product in itself. Happy shredding.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

What Does CRV Mean and How Does It Work?

by Carrie on July 14, 2009

CA Redemption Value

CA Redemption Value

I’ve gotten a couple questions lately related to “CRV”.

First from Lisa, a reader here at It’s Frugal Being Green:

Can you tell me what CRV stands for?

Second from one of my out of state cousins:

What does it actually mean when a bottle says “cash refund”? How does it work?

So here’s a run down on everything you might ever want to know about CRVs.

CRV stands for California Redemption Value or California Refund Value. The acronym is used for both and the two are related.

California Redemption Value is a deposit Californians pay when purchasing bottled water, soft drinks, sports drinks, coffee, tea, beer, or other malt beverages packaged in aluminum, plastic, or glass. Cash registers are programmed to ring up the deposit separately from the cost of the beverage and it appears as a separate line item on your receipt. Discounts usually do not apply to CRV in the same way they don’t apply to sales tax, however, I have discovered that CVS coupons like $3 off a $15 purchase do count the CRV in the total purchase amount.

California Refund Value is the amount recycling centers pay back to Californians when they recycle those containers. The California Refund Value is printed on the beverage package.

My cousin wanted to know how exactly this works. Do we look at each bottle and add up all the numbers? No. The values are based on the weight of the packaging material so we just sort out our recyclables by type (aluminum cans, #1 plastic, or glass) and the recycling center weighs our recyclables and gives us the cash back.

To get your cash refund you must take your recyclables out to a recycling center. I’d be getting back less than $1 a week so I don’t find it worth my while to make that extra trip or spend my time sorting my containers. Instead I put all my recyclables in my curbside recycling cart and have them collected on garbage day. In this case, my city (which operates the recycling center those recyclables end up at) claims my deposit and keeps it.

Are there any other questions about CRV?

Photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/spine/ / CC BY 2.0

Featured in All Things Eco.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →