Posted by Pinay Home

GM #1 Big Green Eco Bag


When we started pratcicing green living, I said I will make a weekly update on how much plastic we said no to. Over time, we got use to bringing our own bag that it does not appear to be extra ordinary to us (read: no biggie to blog about). We will go to the gorecery bringing 3-4 eco bags and would ask the bagger to just put the other items on a box if it does not fit with our bags. Even frozen goods goes straight to the bag or box, we don’t mind if the other items get as most of them would say. There was a time, no make that more often than not, we got strange stares or even irate look just because we don’t want to use a plastic bag. Sometimes it makes me feel bad.. yeah.. I mean, here I am trying to make our place a bit less polluted and these guys act as if I am the most stupid person for saying no to plastic.

Anyways, for my entry for the freshest and greenest meme in PMB community, the photo above is one of our trusted reusable bag (we have 5 or more). This is the biggest and it can accommodate a lot of items (as long as you pack it properly).

Building House 101

It’s better to just buy a constructed house than start from scratch. You will be saved from so many headaches as I have heard from homeowners. Of course, having your own house build fro the start gives you the freedom on how it will look and the material that will be used. You have the say if you want a Murray Feiss lighting on your living room or what kind of tiles will be used in the bathroom. Based on readings and tales form other house owners, house construction starts from papers. Yes, not building materials but papers. You need to get all the necessary papers before you can proceed with the building. This includes the lot plan, house plan, building permits and the likes.

Of course you need to get a trusted contractor. Just ask around for referrals or search the net for the best contractors in our place. Some charge higher than the others, just be careful and be very conscious on the materials that they plan to use. As some people told me, that one of the reason why a contractor can offer a lower price is because the quality of the materials used is low.

Another thing is you need to observe. Some contractors will assure you that you don’t have to see what’s going on but I suggest you do otherwise. It’s better to see things on their unfinished stage and see what is wrong with them than be surprised on the outcome.

Lastly, patience.. as they say Patience is a Virtue. You will encounter so many hassle in house contruction but you must always remember that it is your dream house you are building.

Frugal Living

Frugal Living means avoiding unnecessary expenses and looking for ways to save and lessen the money spent. Frugal is synonymous to being cheap or being thrifty. There are so many reason why one would one to be thrifty and one of them is saving up for the future. If you are a homemaker, you know at least one or more ways on how to spend less and save more.

For those who is starting a home or suddenly realized the need to embrace frugality, here are some tips on how you can avoid unnecessary spending:

Do your grocery shopping 2 times a month at max. Shop for your needs that will last up to 2 weeks. In this way, your trip to the grocery store is lessened, more trips actually means more spending. If you do your grocery every week, the chances of you buying unnecessary items are very high. Other than that, budgeting your money would be easier if you already bought your two week long supply.

Drop the junk foods and spend on veggies and healthy food. Junk foods are cheap but it does keep you full, you’ll just end up eating more of it which in return make you spend more.

Saving can go a long way even if it is as small as turning off the TV before you sleep, instead of using a timer or letting it run all night.

Use coupons, search for promos and packages before buying.

Home Shopping

There was a time that I really enjoyed home TV shopping channels. It’s like online shopping, you’re shopping at the comfort of your own house. Some of the products that are very tempting for me are scar removal products and other beauty products, I was also interested in dutch masters cigars then. Oh well, I was young, bored and stay at home wife. And I haven’t discovered blogging yet. I sometimes wonder how my life was if I discovered blogging that early. Anyways, now, instead of watching home shopping TV, I just look the product I want in the net and see how much it is (sometimes it is even cheaper on the net and most of them accepts paypal).

The Green Couple

Our suki or the store we frequent in Farmer’s Market already knows that we don’t use plastic bags. I wouldn’t ber surprised if one day they would call us the Green Couple, for being eco friendly.

We use reusable plastic wares for our meats and seafood, so as beef and chicken. As for vegetables, we usually bring two ecobags, one for the smaller type such as onion, garlic and kalamnsi. The other one is for bigger and bulkier vegetables, mostly green leafy veggies. Sometimes I also bring extra bag for extra items that we might buy along the way. In one of our market trip, we might buy a knee brace and it is better that we have an extra reusable bag than use the plastic bags offered in the stores.