Archive for ‘Budget Lifestyle’
Save money by buying eyeglasses online
I posted about my new short haircut this week. While I am very much loving the new look and low-maintenance of it, I’m less in love with the way my old glasses look with the new hair. Maybe it will grow on me, but I strongly prefer the new hair without glasses. I can’t wear contacts all the time though, so I’m looking into new glasses styles. I tried on my sister’s smaller frames the other day and liked the more chic look, so maybe I need something smaller? I’m also debating prescription sunglasses, which I’ve never tried before.
I used to buy all of my glasses straight from my eye doctor. What a whopping waste of money! Not only do most eye care clinics have a limited selection, especially when it comes to trendy styles, but I was seriously overpaying! Zenni Optical is one great choice for cheap prescription glasses, with the lowest prices I have seen. They have the cute retro styles I like, and I may end up shopping there for my next pair.
I highly recommend shopping for eyeglasses online. I don’t have insurance for eye care and use an eye care club instead. Between that and shopping online for glasses, it really cuts down on the cost of my imperfect vision! Hopefully I can use those savings to pay for Lasik someday soon…
Honestly Loving The Honest Co.
Awhile back, a friend tipped me off to Jessica Alba’s latest project, The Honest Company. Jessica Alba is best known for her movie roles (and her banging hot body, see: Sin City) but is now a celeb mama on a mission. While researching baby products for her two daughters, Alba quickly realized that there are little to no standards in place to protect families from toxins present in the very products marketed to moms of babies and young children. I’ve said it here many times and will continue to hammer it in: Some of the most trusted brands (Nestle, Johnson & Johnson) also have the most deplorable marketing and consistently poisonous products. Thankfully, Jessica Alba is using her fame and fortune to help families move in the right direction. Her line of baby and home care products are just ‘crunchy’ enough to be truly safe yet palatable to someone used to more mainstream products.
The Honest Company is now beginning to offer individual Honest products for sale, but it is primarily a subscription service. Sign up for one of their bundles – the Diapers or Family Essentials bundle – and every month you’ll receive a selection of awesome non-toxic items. The Family Essentials monthly price is fairly affordable (around $40 I believe), although the cost for Diapers is a little up there – But I may just be sticker-shocked because we cloth diaper. The coolest part is that you can do a free trial for just $4.95. It works like magazine sign-ups and other monthly services – You must remember to cancel on time, but really, how difficult is that. I did just the trial and it was easy peasy. That $5 is the shipping cost, nothing extra, and you get a good amount of stuff to try out.
The Honest Company have more products than I received to review, but here are the ones I tried:
laundry detergent – This laundry detergent is Free & Clear (meaning free of all dyes and perfumes) so it is probably cloth diaper safe but not confirmed. I used my sample on a load of regular clothes with no discernible difference from the All Free & Clear (or whatever brand was on sale that week) that we were using. The Honest brand is probably more environmentally-friendly than Tide, etc., so I’d recommend Honest if money isn’t an object. It’s always important to vote with your dollar, spending your money at companies whose values you support.
hand soap – The scent of Honest Hand Soap reminds me of Mrs. Meyers (a brand with amazingly fragrant natural products), and I love anything that smells like lemongrass. It’s also really gentle, so I would call this an above average hand soap. Our little bottle is almost empty, sitting on our sink, and it makes me happy every time I use it. – Ya gotta love anything that gives you that kind of boost throughout the day, especially after doing dishes!
face & body lotion – The Honest Company Lotion reminds me of Skin MD Natural, which I like a lot. I’m a fan of any lotion that works well on both face and body, and it’s really gentle. And non-toxic!
shampoo & body wash – We’ve tried a lot of baby body washes, and this one is about average although I especially love the vanilla scent. For the record, our fave baby wash is this one, although we are currently loving BabyGanics
healing balm – This is my favorite product of the bunch, and probably the only one that really stands out from other similar products I’ve tried. I love this stuff. The Honest Co. Healing Balm is USDA organic. Not sure if it’s cloth diaper safe but I’m sure it would treat rashes for babies in disposables. Sebastian has never had a diaper rash but I did use the Healing Balm on some scrapes on his chest as well as a dry patch on his legs that was bugging him. It is also the best thing I’ve found to treat a particularly dry & flaky area on my face, and it doubles as GREAT lip balm. I wear it to bed, or underneath my lipstick for a really smooth finish and muted color. Also good for elbows, cuticles, pretty much anything.
We cloth diaper, but did give The Honest Company disposable diapers a try. We received the ‘boy’ bundle (I’m not a fan of having to select gender versus individual designs, but whatev), which included several diapers in fun styles. There were some anchors, skulls, and the plaid design above. Honest diapers are on par with Seventh Generation in that they have less chemicals and are better than Huggies or Pampers… but they’re still disposables. I always feel a little bit dirty when I use them, but I did fall for these a bit. Sebastian doesn’t pee overnight but they did contain a big morning pee when Mama was too lazy to get out of bed right when he woke up.
I have trouble endorsing disposable diapers – It’s scary how much these held – but if you are going to go that route (or use them for a trip or daycare or whatever) Honest is a good brand to go with. The wipes are good as well. You know, they’re baby wipes. I generally use them for makeup removal and stick to cloth wipes for butts.
Overall, I found The Honest Co. products to be pretty great. The Healing Balm is the only one that really stands out, but all of these are a huge step up from the usual crap on drugstore shelves. I do wish that these would move into stores where they could get more visibility – As of right now, moms who don’t spend much time online probably won’t even hear about the brand. And I feel like moms who research products online are more likely to already be making healthier choices. But, baby steps.
I am not affiliated with them in any way, but Cool Mom Picks is currently running an awesome Mother’s Day Giveaway featuring a $200 gift card to The Honest Co. You can enter their giveaway here – It ends on Sunday.
Chase Me Home
Chase Me Home Antiques, Reclaimed Art and Used Furniture – Located on the corner of 2nd & Hood in downtown Gresham
Our favorite local secondhand clothing store, Chase Me Again, recently opened a consignment furniture shop. Conveniently located right next door, Chase Me Home sells secondhand furniture and home items. Some pieces are individually consigned while others are set up into cultivated booths. On our first visit this week, the husband and I found a couch we absolutely loved (and at a great price!) but unfortunately it was already on hold. We’ll definitely be checking back often! Sebastian loved the new shop too. It isn’t exactly a kid-friendly store but he did really well, practicing his “nice hands” with delicate objects – Gotta start him on antiquing young! Like Chase Me Again, Chase Me Home has awesome, affordable prices. They could probably charge a lot more but shhh, don’t tell them that! — In all seriousness, both stores have a great heart, with profits benefiting My Father’s House Family Shelter. I love that my dollars & donations help local families, and that their stores themselves are accessible to those with limited income.
This booth is full of projects straight from Pinterest – I’m sure the seller will do very well.
I believe the prices go down each month items remain unsold in the store, keeping plenty of room open for new items.
Vintage baby doll dresses
Not my normal style but that ‘Tacky People’ potholder made me LOL
It was Donny’s idea to stop into Chase Me Home and I’m so glad that he dragged us in! We’re still working on fully furnishing our apartment and I think this new shop will be getting a lot the hard-earned cash we’d previously ear-marked for Ikea.
Overall, I highly recommend you stop into Chase Me Home if you’re in the Gresham area. Portland has a lot of wonderful thrift/antique/secondhand shops but this one (as well as Chase Me Again next door) really stands out in both price, mission and customer service.
Sebastian’s “first” Easter and making traditions
As atheists, Donny and I are working to establish holiday traditions that are in line with our personal values while still allowing us to celebrate along with everyone else. I really want Sebastian (and future siblings) to be able to share holidays with friends and classmates, so we intend to celebrate Easter on the same day as everyone else, with our own annual traditions. As Sebastian gets older, I would like our festivities to focus on the beginning of springtime, more similar to Ostara than mainstream Easter. (We are still very much on the fence about the Easter Bunny!)
This was technically Sebastian’s second Easter, but his first year dyeing eggs and our first year putting together a basket.
Eggies!
It’s pretty easy to celebrate Easter as a non-Christian, as the rituals are largely based in Paganism anyway. Eggs are a symbol of fertility, and decorating eggs is probably my favorite part of the holiday. Sebastian loves eggs – holding them, shelling them, eating them – and I was excited to share this activity with him.
He was completely enthralled from the get-go. There were no smiles, but only because he was concentrating so hard the entire time. I let him crack & smoosh some of the hard-boiled eggs, although I encouraged him not to break all of them. He tried to color them with crayons, but mainly enjoyed dunking them in the color cups over and over, alternating with arranging them back in the carton. (He also liked to dip the crayons in the vinegar-dye solution and suck on them.)
Out of a dozen eggs, we ended up with five that weren’t broken. Three out of five cups of dye also ended up completely spilled. But it was so much fun!
The basket!
I really wanted to find a nice basket at Goodwill and paint it myself, but every outing with Seb this week ended in massive amounts of wrangling and meltdowns — Just thinking about thrift shopping made me exhausted. This year’s basket was from the good ol’ Dollar Tree. Donny picked up a package of fake grass but the chemical smell was SO strong that it went immediately into the trash. (I had dreams of growing our own Easter grass this year but that too got pushed to next year.) Instead, I cut some felt panels into strips, which I was really happy with.
Donny and I have different preferences when it comes to treats and decorations, so I assume we’ll always do a combination of natural and more commercial Easter treats. I’m sure we’ll do more full, elaborate baskets as Sebastian gets over – I’m really inspired by this Toddler Basket and Baby Easter Basket – but for an 18 month old, this was perfect. Daddy hid a few jellybeans in the plastic eggs. Those and an organic “squeezie” were the favorites. I ended up eating half of his chocolate egg and all of his Peeps – Proof that kids’ gravitation towards candy is learned and not a natural preference!
Future traditions
Pysanky – Ukrainian eggs, hollowed out and decorated in a batik style. More intricate and permanent than dyeing hard-boiled eggs, I hope to start making these part of our family tradition in the coming years. Donny created Pysanky with his mother growing up, so it will be an especially nice project to carry on. ♥ An alter – I have always loved the look of altars and shrines, and would love to set up an alter to usher in the springtime each year. ♥ Daisy crowns/floral headpieces ♥ Ostara pouch – My friend Tiffany’s easy low-budget idea, for candy or other small treats that don’t go in the basket.
What are your family’s Easter traditions? I’d especially love to hear how other atheists/non-Christians celebrate this time of year!
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