I have an enviable, first world problem: I have too much food.

That is, I have a refrigerator, a basement freezer, and a pantry cabinet that are (1) disorganized, and (2) stuffed to the gills. We have bulk purchases, leftovers, items bought on sale, frozen meals friends brought over when I was on bedrest or after the triplets were born, and it is a mess! In advance of starting solid foods (and freezing and making a lot of baby food), I’m declaring bankruptcy.

I got this idea from my husband who told me about the idea of email bankruptcy, or deleting everything you have when you get too far behind and then starting fresh. Since I’m not going to throw food away, clearly, the only other option is to use it all up, no matter what, before letting any more in. Not to say we won’t buy anything, because that’s unavoidable, but no more pasta, no more frozen pizzas, no sauces, just produce and dairy until the cupboard is bare!

The best part about this frugal goal is that I may be able to avoid (except for buying milk) grocery shopping for quite some time since we have an amazing farmers market in our neighborhood. Eggs, cheese, bread, sausages… all fresh and local. I don’t have time to take stock of everything I have and post detailed meal plans, so we’ll just be taking it as it comes. I also have no idea how long it will take, so this is really an experiment in the true sense of the word!

Organic Mania has a post on test-driving a CSA by buying someone’s share for the week while they’re on vacation. I think this is a brilliant idea, especially in August when you’ll see the largest volume of produce. You could walk away with a steal plus utilize food that might otherwise go to waste. Win win!

Get $10 off an in-store purchase at the Body Shop. Coupon link not working? Try signing up for their email list yourself and it should generate a fresh link for you. I love their tea tree oil products (on sale right now 2 for $18 ) and the fact that they have full, detailed ingredient disclosure and responsible packaging.

The Centsible Sawyer is talking cloth diapers and has a FuzziBunz give away!

Natural Choice disposable diapers are 10% off at Amazon with code VALOR808, per Baby Cheapskate. Sizes 3-6 only, from what I can tell.

More than Enough shares an Amazon Grocery code for 40% off clearance (AUGMKDWN). A number of organic items are included. While it’s true that shopping online will save you money on gas, the items still have to get to you somehow. With all of the additional packaging Amazon uses, it’s pretty clearly a bad choice for the environment. However. A lot of their bulk grocery items do come simply in their original packaging, the same way they would be received by a brick-and-mortal store. And sometimes, you know, you have triplets and cut corners a little more than you would like to…

Is everyone having as glorious an August Saturday as we are? I’m not finding anything worth posting and my older son is at Grandma’s all day, so I’m going to be clearing out my clutter and listing it on craigslist and Diaperswappers and then getting myself out for a long walk.

The internet is a grand place but I know I don’t spend nearly enough time outside. I hope to enjoy at least one green hour today with the little ones!

Another book I’m adding to the library list, featured at Mama Speaks: Table for Eight — Raising a Large Family in a Small-Family World. Going from a family of 3 to a family of 6 in the course of one ultrasound was a shock we’re still recovering from. I know we could use some tips from been there, done that families. (Should I put my library list up here? Maybe with the links at the top of the page? Let me know what you think in the comments.)

Not Martha guest posts at shelterrific about how to choose a sewing machine. Timely, since I’ve owed myself a new one for nearly a year.

Eco Childs Play discusses gluttony in children:

The common thread with families who conserve is that they’re part of a community and their children have a sense of obligation. Children are born narcissists and can evolve into selfish beings or amazing, giving and inspired members of our society.

How do we grow them up green?

At 3.5, we’re just at the age where our older son understands that anything at the store could, at least in theory, come home with us. Time to start imparting these important values!

Ohdeeoh shows us how to convert a train table into a construction zone. My husband, when I IMed the link to him, was quick to point out that the materials are not especially green. I love the concept, though, for our little-used train table, so I’m going to think about alternate materials this weekend and see what we can come up with.

From BeCentsable…

Family Tip Friday: How Do You… manage through a day with TWO toddlers when all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep?

Assuming that 1 preschooler + 3 infant triplets is >/= 2 toddlers, I thought I would share a story about this morning. Sometimes P, our older son, decides that pre-dawn is the perfect time to wake up, as do his little brothers. I learned a long time ago that one of the Starbucks near our house opens at 5:30am. Just today, we loaded up all of the kids in the car and headed over there. I know it’s not true of every ‘bucks, but this one has a comfortable seating area with enough room for all 3 infant seats and for us to sit down. There are board games and toys (including Chutes and Ladders and an Etch-a-Sketch), magazines, and most importantly, caffeine!

There is nothing especially frugal or green about this venture. The best I can offer is (1) Use all of your collected loose change to Coinstar yourself a fee-free Starbucks gift card, and (2) Buy your kids the organic milk boxes.

A venti coffee and a half an hour of amused kids out of the house, even at dawn, takes the edge off of the day for sure.

We’re going to be starting solid food with the triplets soon (they are currently 5 months, but only 3.5 months adjusted to their original due date, so we’ll be starting in 3-4 weeks I’d guess). I’ll be making a lot of our own food but I know we’ll buy some too lest we discover they all hate any green vegetable after making and freezing quarts of strained peas. There are coupons for $1/10 Earth’s Best in a lot of locations, including their website. With three babies to feed, I’ll be printing them all!

Checking in at the Taylortown Coupon Preview for this Sunday, there is actually one great coupon that will appear in the Smart Source circular: $1 off 2 Garden of Eatin’ chips. These chips are not only yummy (I think I’ve mentioned my addiction to the Guacamole chips before) but they apply towards the Barnes & Noble gift card offer I posted yesterday. So, if you buy the paper for this coupon, recycle or repurpose (paper mache anyone?) the rest and ship the coupons you won’t use off to someone who will use them, if the paper costs $1 or less and if you were going to buy the chips anyhow… that’s a lot of ‘ifs,’ but it might be worth it for you. Personally, I’ll just ask someone I know who gets the paper already for theirs.

From the always helpful Baby Cheapskate, the full details of the Barnes and Noble gift card rebate:

Buy 10 of participating products, get a $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Buy $20 and get a $10 B&N gift card. Get the details and download the form. Participating products include Garden of Eatin’, WestSoy, Kidz Dream, Health Valley, Maranatha, Spectrum Children’s DHA, and Earth’s Best Sesame Street Tots, Kidz, and Frozen Foods. Not valid on jarred baby food.

There are several free magazine deals out there right now (Family Fun, Wondertime, or Cookie here, just Family Fun here) . One of the first steps I made in reducing my personal footprint was ending subscriptions to several magazines and taking them out of the library instead. My confession: since the birth of my younger sons, I’ve taken advantage of a few free subscriptions. I can’t get out as easily as I used to, and magazine reading is really the most I can hope for (besides blogs, of course) these days. I do pass my magazines along to our community center playroom for other moms to read and try to get the most mileage out of all of them before recycling. I’m sharing these links because I know people will be interested, but I’m guessing you might feel as ambivalent about them as I do

A lot of good reads out there today, but no exciting bargains or coupons that I’m seeing (yet).

More back-to-school talk. Crafting a Green World laments,

The stringent supply lists are maddening. I’m required to buy boxes of a specific, expensive brand of tissues, because it’s important that they learn how to blow their noses on old growth forests.

Autumn also provides, besides that chuckle, links for more green lunch supplies and to a pattern for those Capri Sun pouch bags that are popping up everywhere. teensygreen has a lunch supplies post, too. With all of the great information out there, if you are in the market for these items it should be easy to find something that will fit your needs.

Rookie Moms posted a related reminder, via Family Style Love, that it is great to buy all of the green products out there now, *if you need something.* Otherwise, even greener is to buy one less thing, and to repurpose something in your household to fit your current needs. Family Style Love’s post has a quick idea (and fantastic tutorial) for turning washcloths into bibs that I will definitely be using. In the same vein, Amalah (posting at Alpha Mom, rather than her eponimous blog) gives some great steps for extending your non-maternity wardrobe for as long as possible. I wish I’d thought of half of these during my triplet pregnancy, when I outgrew 3 different sizes of maternity clothes by the end.

I just found Amy’s Notebook. I think she loves collecting links as much as I do! I’m too busy with the blog move to go through all of them now, but I will be back for sure.

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