School Colors

I came up with a cute new snack bags that happens to be my son's school colors. I had fun creating the color combinations and finding the right fabric. Like it but not your schools colors. Let me know and I can create a custom set for you!

Shopping Bags

I am having so much fun making new things. I just started making new shopping/ grocery bags. Here is a picture. Hoping to add soon to the website.

Esty Site Open

Hi! Since my paypal buttons aren't being very nice to me I have included the link to my esty site. I have a shop there you can see some of my reusable bag sets!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenerRoute

Extra Spoons

Save some money and be green by buying extra spoons. When packing a lunch you will have spoons for the yogurt, jello, pudding and then the spoon comes home. (you hope!) I bought a pack of inexpensive spoons at Walmart for about $1 for approximately 6 spoons. You get to use over and over again so you will get your money's worth!

Dryer Sheet Cost Cutting

If you like your dryer sheets and don't want to give them up for other greener options than try this. Cut the dryer sheets in half. You will save money by only using half and use less of them which is good for mother earth. It still works great and has the same results!

Second Life for Dryer Sheets

I learned this a while back and recently tried this. It works great. Take your dryer sheet and use it to remove soap scum around your bathroom tub. It works great and doesn't scratch the surface at all.  Give it a try next time instead of just throwing out your dryer sheet.

Portion Control

I have discovered my newest love. It is the 1/2 cup glad ware cups with lids. No more waste from my kids. When they used to see jello in a big container their eyes were bigger than their stomachs. I would waste a lot of jello and other food items. So now I make the jello in a pourable Pyrex measuring bowl and then pour directly into the 1/2 cups and snap the lids on them. They then go into the fridge and are easily accessible for all. It also helps me to make lunches very easy.

I love convenience packaging but it is expensive and wasteful. Now, I make them up ahead of time with jello, pudding, applesauce, and diced pears and then kids have a choice on what they want for lunch. Its cheaper, and reusable. The glad cups come in a set of 6 for about $2.99 and are reusable whereas you buy refrigerated Jello premade it cost the same and you can't reuse the cups.

Repurpose Leftovers

We are a throw away society. We throw out leftover food and for me leftover scrap material. I decided that I would take my leftover material and make bookmarks. I love reading so it seemed like the easiest thing to do with my scraps and great thing was the  bookmarks don't need to be a certain size. In repurposing the scraps I am giving a new life to something I would have thrown out.

So the next step was to decide what to do with the bookmarks. I decided that I was either going to donate them to the librarian or teacher as a treat for the students or see if the PTO could add them to our school's bookfair.  I saw last year a little boy who didn't have enough money to buy anything and it was sad. I figured the PTO could charge less than a dollar for the bookmakr and everyone could afford something and not feel left out.

Speak Up!

This weekend I was at a church function. We we outside at a water theme play time with the kids. It was hot, we were enjoying Rita's ice and water bottles. I asked where the recycling bin was for the water bottles. The hunt for one was headed by the pastor's wife and then she took charge going through the garbage to dig out the thrown out bottles.

Do you know that it takes approximately 92% more energy to make a water bottle from scratch then remake a recycled bottle. Think of the impact of that on our environment through global warming and pollution.

Don't be afraid to Speak Up!

Frugal And Green

The two things I love best are being frugal and being green. The two words go hand and hand.  I try to breathe new life into my things by giving to Goodwill or selling at a yard sale. I hate to throw anything out.  Convenience packaging is great but not cost effective on a budget or very green. Buy in bulk and package yourself. We need to teach our kids about protecting the planet that has seen so much human destruction in the last century. Start small and you will never get overwhelmed with change. I am hoping to blog more about the frugally green lifestyle I strive for.

New Pictures Updated

For picking out fabrics I have chosen to just use small swatch samples. Because of that it is hard to visualize the size and fabric on the bags. I have placed examples of several current and previous fabric bag sets under product description and photo gallery. Be sure to check the sets out there! If you need to see a certain bag set before buying and it is not there email me and I will send you a photo!

Clean the World

I was recently on vacation and felt called to be a good steward to the earth. Cleantheworld.org is a nonprofit company trying to recycle used hotel sized soaps. They sanitize them and repackage to send to third world countries. I was in a timeshare resort and made it a point to stop and let the staff know about the program. How many are going on vacation and can suggest the same?

Earth Day

So yesterday was Earth Day. I posted on my facebook page how we all can make a difference for our earth. I of course asked what everyone was going to do to make a difference. I hardly got any posts. I was suprised with all the social movements to become greener that no one was sharing what they were doing. I few friends did the same thing and the same result for them as well. Very few commitments or suggestions of greener living. I was very saddened by this. We all should try to live a more simple and greener life. One way of course we can make a difference is to stop using plastic. Carry reusable shopping bags and reusable snack bags.

FYI- I celebrated yesterday by hanging a load of laundry and my husband decided to not drive to work yesterday and take the day off. He of course just wanted a day off and was not due to Earth day :)

Raising a Greener Generation

I was at the gym the other day and one of my favorite friends, who is also a big supporter of the reusable snack bags, was there. I showed her a new fabric and she loved it. She of course bought it right on the spot. Her daughter who was in a tumbling class across the room saw the bags and immediately came charging towards them thinking there was a snack inside. Kids love these bags, not only because they are whimsical but because they carry food. A greener lifestyle can start young by just making the greener route more enjoyable and fun

Coming Soon Napkins

Tonight at dinner I was experimenting on a fabric to use for my napkins. At my house I am using homespun cotton which is nice but to encourage kids to use they are a bit boring. So I had one napkin and make my children play guess which hand behind my back has the napkin. Of course the youngest won which made the oldest mad. He sulked all through dinner. It was encouraging to see the response of my new fabric and the excitement to use them. So as soon as my business allows I will be adding reusable napkins as well as my reusable snack bags!

Customized Reusable Snack Bags

My house is full of Star Wars fans. So, when I began this journey one of my main focuses was to create bags with the beloved Star Wars. Of course to find fabric is impossible! I came up with an alternative solution. I got some cool images off the web and fused them onto the snack bags. So if you have an image you love in a jpeg or a request that I can find on the web let me know!!!

A New Use

The last few days I have been dealing with allergies for the first time in my life. The reusable snack bags is about being more savy and wasting less. Well here's my new thought. You can use it to transport tissues around. No more shoving them into your pockets and them making a look like a cotton snowball. Neatly fold them into bag and you have a instant travel pack. It saves money for not having to buy the small individual bags of tissues and less plastic waste when dealing with those little bags as well.

Break Even Point

Saving money is very important in today's economy. So I decided to tell you when you'd break even with your bags. I estimated off a box of 100 Walmart brand sandwich bags at $2.19 a box.( Of course if you use brand name sandwich bags your break even point will be sooner and savings higher then the store brand.)   Dividing up the box it is about 2 cents a bag. I use to send in at least 2 bags per person. I pack for 2 people right now. My house would go through approximately 20 bags a week. So I would go thru a box in about 5 weeks. After those five weeks I would have thrown out $2.19 in the garbage and hurt the environment.

A set of reusable snack bags from me would start paying you back in about 30 weeks and I would then not need to purchase any more bags!  Of course this would vary for each family but the first year I would have saved $8. The next year would be even better $25.

 It's the little savings that start to build a fortune in time. Take those savings and do something big with them. Invest them into the next thing to save you money- paying for college, paying off the house early, paying for a babysitter for date night. All great causes!

Small Transitions

We live in a world of all or nothing. Bigger is better. But change sometimes starts small. The other day I was using a ziplock bag (I KNOW) because all my bags were in the bottom of the laundry pile. And I am not about to run out and find the bag right then and there when my son has to be on the bus in 5 minutes. So, in true mom form I started yelling at myself. I make these bags and am a protector of the environment, yet I am using a ziplock. Reality check. We all get guilty for not doing enough, what ever the cause. But sometimes we need to rejoice in the small steps we are taking. One less ziplock bag we use is better than nothing. We all need to cut ourselves some slack sometimes!

Not Just for Food

Reusable snack bags are not just for food. They can be useful for other purposes as well. They can keep crayons in one place, carry make up and money. They can also hold small toys, sunglasses, and hair accessories. The sky is the limit. Show off your individual personality is fun ways with use of reusable snack bags.

Not a Boring Brown Bag Lunch

The best thing about reusable sandwich and snack bags is that lunch is not boring anymore! May of us are creatures of habit, packing and eating the same things day in and day out. It can be easier that way, not having to think about what to pack for lunch. With reusable bags, you can liven up your lunch. Maybe you have a favorite sports team you love or a cartoon superhero. Maybe it is a cause close to your heart or you love ladybugs. Whatever makes you happy you can have on your reusable bags. A little sunshine at lunchtime. A little smile awaits each day. A perfect way to say I love you to your family each day, or yourself!

Machine Wash

The nature of the reusable sandwich and snack bags is to make convienent. and easy to use. If it is not convienent then why bother with them? To clean they are machine washable on cold and line dry is preferred. Or you can handwash.

Wasted Money

I think my time is valuable but I'd rather have the extra money personally. Add reusable sandwich and snack bags to your lunch process to help save money.  If you make up your own convienence bags on sunday night for the week then you will see savings, have the convienence of easy lunch preparation and also help protect the planet.

We waste so much money on throw away plastic food bags and convienence packaged goods. WHY??? It saves time. How valuable is your time? I know mine is, however, the average savings from a waste free lunch versus a waste filled lunch is about $247 a kid. How many kids do you have? Most families have 2 kids and that is almost $500 a year.

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