Reduce, Reuse...

My grandmother used to reuse tinfoil.  She'd wash out plastic ziploc bags and use them over and over.  If you ate off a plastic fork at her house, you could be sure it wasn't new.

I find myself doing many of the same things.  My kids love those foons you get at Costco with their free samples (or as my niece calls them sree samples) so when the kids hold on to them until we get home, I wash and reuse.

I make homemade bread.  It seems silly to me to use new ziploc bags every time I make bread, so I dust out the crumbs and use them again.

My husband has been heard to call me a hippie because I use cloth bags at the grocery store, but why would I need MORE plastic grocery bags?  Does ANYONE need more of those?

I prefer making homemade treats to buying them pre-wrapped and processed.  True, it's less expensive that way, and healthier, but every time I throw away a plastic wrapper I have a twinge of guilt.

Aside from the idea of global warming or air so polluted you can swim through it, I like to take care of things I'm in charge of.  Don't you?  I mean, I clean my car (occasionally), and wash my clothes, and make sure my kids go to the doctor and dentist.  It's my job.  Just like doing what we can to be good stewards over the Earth.

I guess I could say that long before her time, Grandma was environmentally conscious.

Either that, or she was cheap.

She was probably cheap. I mean, I couldn't have come by my tightfisted ways without help.