How Expensive are Children -- Part II

I love it when the green choice and the frugal choice are the same. One example of this is in clothing. Judging from the marketing, it seems like the green choice is clothing made out of bamboo or organic cotton, died with soy-based inks, definitely not bleached, etc.... Nope -- the greenest choice is to buy used clothing. No new resources are used, we are keeping the clothes out of the landfill, and any leftover money can be used to do green things that might cost a little extra.

When the clothes are a little destroyed (shirts with a minor stain, but still really comfy, pants with a tear), they can live a new life as play clothes (or gardening clothes), pajamas, rags, quilts, stuffing.... the possibilities go on and on. Just a few days ago, I taught my son to sew. He made a little pillow, and since we didn't have any stuffing, we cut up a piece of an old t-shirt to use as stuffing. The project cost nothing, and he now has a pillow for his bear.

We gave up paper towels a long time ago, and now we use rags for wiping the floor and for groddy spills. If it's something really gross, I sometimes throw the rag away because I just can't face washing it, but there's really not a shortage of rags. I Goodwill or pass on any useful clothes, but if the clothes are destroyed, I just pop them straight in the rag basket. I have a separate basket for dirty rags so that they don't contaminate our regular clothes.