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After a recent storm in Los Angeles County, it was estimated that at least 2.3 billion individual pieces of trash floated out into the Pacific. I read about this in an article in Sierra Club magazine that talked about the “flotillas” of plastic and trash that are currently floating in the Pacific Ocean and how they are killing the sea life and polluting our oceans and beaches. As consumers, we can help remedy this situation, family by family. Here are five Eco-thrifty ideas that you can incorporate into your household to help decrease your contribution to the trash “flotillas”.

Plastic Water Bottles – JUST SAY NO to plastic one-time-use water bottles. It does take water to clean the reusable bottles but if you have a filter on your fridge or a Britta filter pitcher, the water you drink will be perfectly safe and taste great. This will also save you a lot of money.

Laundry Soap – Consider going back to a traditional powder laundry detergent. Tide HE Detergent is a highly rated powder and works in the new front-loader machines. You can recycle the cardboard box which is already made from post-consumer cardboard.

Plastic baggies and zip-style food storage – In our house, we try our hardest to use a tupperware or other reusable container to store leftovers and or freeze foods. For packed lunches, we use gladware rather than baggies whenever we can for sandwiches and snacks. Reach for the reusable first and save money!

Plastic Milk Cartons and Bottles – When we lived in Colorado we had a milk delivery service that brought milk in old fashioned glass bottles once a week. What a treat! No plastic coated cartons or plastic gallon bottles were being used to provide our milk. If you can get a service like this in your area, give it a try! The bottles are completely reusable.

Plastic bags in the produce section – Once again, JUST SAY NO to these bags. They are a complete waste! Do you really care if your produce gets mixed up in the bottom of your grocery bag? If you are completely addicted to these bags, you can re-used them many, many times if you pop them into the bottom of your reusable grocery bags after you unpack your groceries.

Keep cutting back on the plastic and the world will be a better place…

Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com

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This week we’re talking to Stacee Gillelen, who started a Cottage Industry called Dragonfly Designs: Jewelry with a Conscience. If you are interested in her jewelry or jewelry-making classes you can visit her website at www.jewelrybydfly.com.

1. Tell us about your business: We are a socially conscious jewelry company that offers jewelry making classes for adults and children, Jewelry making parities for adults and children, handmade jewelry, jewelry making supplies, custom design, date nights & Jewelry making year round camps (winter, spring, summer & day camps for children ages 5 and up).

2. Why did you start this business? Because I fell in love with the art of making jewelry and wanted to share my passion with others. This business allows me to combine all of my passions into one career (jewelry making, teaching, children, and giving back to society) while making a commitment to outreach programs that promote equality, the environment and support women & children.

3. What is your background? I am a mother of 4 young children and when my second was born I left a 17 year long career at Bank of America (the last 5 years as a VP/Bank Manager). I returned to school to work towards a career as a social worker for children when I discovered my love of jewelry making. I completed certificate in early childhood education, and subsequently started my own business.

4. What skills did you need to acquire for your new endeavor? I had to learn about a business that I knew nothing about. I had to learn how to create, manufacture, price, market & sell my product, including where to sell it (trade shows & how that process worked). I had to meet with business lawyers to set up my corporate structure, human resources to set up an employee handbook, pay structure, hiring documents. I had to learn an accounting system, and how to set up a website, create a logo etc..the list of responsibilities is endless when you own your own business.

5. Biggest challenges? My biggest challenge remains to this day to be cash flow.

6. What have you learned and advice to others? I love what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else but when you work for yourself the work never ends, never! I’d advise others to do their homework and get a realistic picture of what it takes to start a business. However much capital you calculate that you need to start a business, triple that number. Decide if you want to dedicate all of your time to your work. I’ve heard it said that it takes 7-10 years to become an “overnight success”. I equate owning a business to having a child, you can do the research and talk to friends all you want but until you’ve actually done it you have no idea what you’ve gotten into; it’s something that you have to experience to fully understand. My advice is love what you do and don’t take the step of starting your own business lightly.

Take a look at her website. She has some gorgeous pieces. We wish her good luck with her Cottage Industry!

Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
Founders, Rubbingnickels.com

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The Dinner Garden is an unique non-profit organization that was started in San Antonio, Texas with the idea that the best way to battle hunger in this country is to get people to grow more of their own food. To this end, they provide seed packets for free to anyone who is interested in starting a “dinner garden”. They have free distribution sites all over the country but they also mail packets of seeds, postage-free, to anyone who wants them. In addition to providing free seeds, they also are a good resource for gardening information, including battling the pests that will try to eat your dinner garden before you can.

How can you get involved? Here are a few ways:

1. Order some free seeds and start your own garden. If you can get to one of the seed pick-up spots, you can save this thrifty non-profit their postage costs.

2. Help find and create a seed distribution center in your area. Churches, temples and other community agencies are good choices. If you find a potential host, you can contact the Dinner Garden through their website.

Read the rest of this entry »

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These are my favorite cheap-o designer-style jeans. They carry them at pricey department stores but Amazon has them on sale for $25 off! They fit many figure types from my skinny neighbor to booty-ful me. They look just as good as $150 jeans and have a little bit of stretch that makes them comfy.

Happy Shopping at Amazon!

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