Reuse, recycle, make do

With the economy the way it is, I have felt compelled to be more frugal with the resources we have. I am trying to pare down what we have to what we need and use. I am also trying to reuse, and recycle and make do with what we do have. I find that we have a lot less garbage at the curb and my house is getting into better shape by decluttering. I have also tried to limit what I buy new. It's actually quite a game and it's addicting.

Emma is going through a growth spurt and I've become really good at Goodwill shopping. She has too. If you are patient, you can find some really good stuff there. It's like a treasure hunt. I think I've bought 95% of my clothes at the Goodwill for a few years now. I would never be able to afford name brand stuff if I didn't.

In the spirit of being thrifty, I was thrilled to find these tutorials on mending http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/search/label/Mending at the green/frugal/co-op blog. Especially the post on mending socks. That wouldn't mean much to me if I didn't knit socks. How nice to see the right way to mend them! There is also a tutorial on patching jeans that is awesome.