Let’s face it: You’re not going to be able to convince certain relatives to skip holiday gifts or to buy from local vendors or from Etsy, no matter how early you start or how persuasive your argument. I know, because I’ve tried!

Here are a two green items from mainstream stores that would be at home on many families’ gift lists:

The Eco-Friendly Cooking Center from Toys R Us:

The Wonderworld Cooking Center Play Kitchen Set is an ultimate must-have toy. This modern Cooking Center invites endless role play activity. The Wonderworld Cooking Center Play Kitchen Set features an oven with temperature and timer controls, a built-in refrigerator, a washing sink and steam hood. The fun will never end when your child is playing with the Wonderworld Cooking Center Play Kitchen Set! The possibilities for imaginative play are endless and the opportunities for creative growth are plentiful. Wonderworld uses only Water-based paint for our wooden toys so to minimize: child exposure to chemicals, a health factor use of underground fossil fuel, reducing CO2 emission, industry refinery reducing CO2 emission and chemical waste release to the environment. Wonderworld as a strong advocate of protecting the environment, insists on using only rubber-wood that is of replenishable source and widely accepted throughout the world as the environment-friendly material. Wonderworld strictly uses only non-toxic color and laquer constituent for all our products. This not only contributes to the safety proposition for children but also demonstrates our determined commitement to mother earth.

They have other play appliances, too. Nice!

Recycled (and recyclable) cardboard chairs from Land of Nod (via Ohdeeoh). These would be so fun for preschoolers to decorate with markers and stickers, or for crafty parents to customize to match a unique nursery.

What do you have your eye on that’s green but grandparent-shopping-friendly?

Just like Oprah did last week, the New York Times looks at couponing today. And speaking of, I got 3 of the $5 off Whole Foods coupon on to one page (pdf) to make it easier to print, to save paper, and to encourage you to use them so the company thinks it’s a good idea and does it again! There is also a new Walgreens coupon out, too.

I didn’t have a post in me tonight… too much sinus pressure… but a coupon for $5 off $25 purchase from WHOLE FOODS? (PDF) This is unprecendented, but let’s hope it’s not the last time. (Thanks to Want Not for posting it!)

Green Your Decor posted some very inexpensive bamboo tab top panels. Digging around at the Brylane Home site, I found bamboo roman shades, blinds, very stylish panels with grommets, and my favorite: the tiers, which are cafe-length. I can’t decide if I want to order these for my unsightly sunroom/office, or if I want to keep holding out to make my own someday.

If you’re thinking about a big ticket purchase for the holidays or just want to save a bunch on a case of formula or a lot of baby clothes, you can save what appears to be 20 or 30% off one eBay item. You have to follow a crazy number of steps and pay through PayPal, but what a great deal!

Vitamin C? Glucosamine? Or maybe both? (I have a cold and persistent joint pain. Fun!) Thankfully, I also have CVS. Centsible Savings shares:

This week Nature’s Bounty vitamins are on sale Buy One Get One Free. They are also printing $2 ECBs when you buy 2. The cheapest item is $4.79. Sign up for the Nature’s Bounty Rewards Club to print $2 coupons. Buy 2 products for $4.79, and use two $2 coupons. Your total will be $.79 plus tax, and you’ll receive $2 in ECBs!

If you’ve ever gotten one of the Nature’s Bounty 2 week freebie trials, those come with a coupon as well. Not a bad time to stock up.

I’ve never quite assuaged my guilt about not using reusable cloth wipes any of our kids, but this how-to for wipes (via Ohdeeoh) that using recycled paper towels sounds doable and is at least a slight improvement over the store-bought versions (Made of polyester? Who knew?). A few other recent how-tos I really liked were the kid’s shoe box to cool craft holder and the dinosaur play mat.

1001 tips for vinegar as a household cleaner and otherwise? Great resource!

We’re on vacation right now (hooray for beach house internet connections), but when I return and my paper sorter has arrived, it’s time to tackle the office/sunroom reorganization once and for all. See, our sunroom, which is also the entrance to our house, has 6 huge windows, and is totally visible from the street, is now my supply, eBay selling, freepeats listing, and crafting domain. But I still want it to look like a sunroom! It’s full of all of the outgrown triplet clothes, diapers and gear, plus all of my creative enterprises, and it’s 10×10. It’s a mess! I’m hoping this Real Simple organizational guide can help me a little.

Lynn at OrganicMania links to several of her more useful and popular posts about green and organic savings tips — my favorite kind!!!

If you have a budding Tom Brady, why not pick up this soft cute ball at the super reasonable price of $9?

AppleBlossomBaby’s shop, Blossom Toys, has so many nice, affordable items for kids, from crayon rolls to teething rattles. Even gift sets stay within the “baby shower for a coworker” price range, which is generally hard to do when shopping for home- and handmade wares.

You might think I’m not in the Halloween spirit, but it’s just the opposite. I’ve had our costumes ready for weeks, we have a scarecrow on our front porch (named by P, “Duncan!” Duncan’s full name? “Duncan Donuts!”) and an oversized spider living in our bushes, and I’m pricing out the organic lollipops at Whole Foods next week.

Most importantly, the other day we started the neighborhood Booing. On a short jaunt to Target with one of the babies, I grabbed 2 tin buckets, some (hopefully reusable) garland for stuffing, Halloween pencils, and individually-wrapped Green and Black organic chocolates (On clearance! I couldn’t believe my good fortune!). We have a Costco box of fruit leathers, so I stole a handful of those when I got home and wrote up the little pumpkin notes.

On our way home from preschool, P and I left them at two of our neighbor’s houses. I chose the two moms that are the most active in planning block activities, knowing that they will definitely keep the chain going. I can’t wait to see how it spreads down the street!

Have you joined Freepeats? It’s another brainchild of Angie, who is behind BlogCoach and the oft-sourced Baby Cheapskate. It’s in dozens of cities and, for my time, a better stop than freecycle in terms of quick pick ups. Speaking of Baby Cheapskate, readers have submitted deals on two brands of cloth diapers. That’s 3 this week alone. Has cloth diapering tipped?

What is it with me and dollhouses lately? They just keep catching my eye. This recycled cardboard one from the MoMA Store (via Green Deal of the Day) is so bright and modern. For $35, it would be a nice thing to keep at a grandparent’s house or to gift to a classroom or daycare for the holidays.

Ecobunga shares an additional 15% off already low prices can be had right now at Amazon on Amy’s Organics soups. You might think 12 cans is a little much, but it’s just the beginning of the soup season and I bet chili, refried beans, cream of tomato, or cream of mushroom would be great stock up items for practically any pantry. I’m thinking the Thai Coconut could live in my desk at work for those days I can’t scrape a lunch together.

Ask Moxie took up frugal living today, and there are lots of spectacular ideas in the comments that you should check out. She also broached a topic important to me, and closer to my heart on this day (Yom Kippur) than almost any other day of the year: hunger.

More people are going to be eating from food banks. Lots of times what they end up with are food that are not high in nutrition (boxed mac ‘n’ cheese, anyone?), and a consistent diet of that kind of stuff is going to depress mood and cause depression, sluggishness, and weight gain. Which is exactly what people struggling to hold things together financially do NOT need.

I’m wondering if we could think of some nutritionally-good, tasty, not-too-complicated recipes that could be made out of ingredients that can be kept at a food bank. That means nothing frozen, and no fresh meat or dairy (right? It’s been years since I was actually at a food bank and saw the facilities.) We’re talking mostly boxed and canned, with some fresh produce that has a longer shelf life.

If you’re willing to put your recipe-developer hats on and take up the challenge, I’m hoping we can be ready to post next Friday. Then we can figure out how to make these recipes useful. (printing out the recipe and donating the set of ingredients together? making some sort of mini-cookbook for food banks to distribute? something totally obvious I’m not thinking of?)

I used to work for our state’s largest independent food bank. I know a little too much about food insecurity and how it touches so many lives. So I responded to the post and to Moxie privately, as well, offering what knowledge I have.

My comment #1, in part:

I used to work at one of our state’s largest food banks with more than 30 pantries in the bank’s network. One of my former colleagues had a lot of healthy recipes using common donation items, like ramen noodles. Anything that encourages healthy donations is such a plus, but we also loved it when we would receive cake mixes and things like that. Even families facing hard times like to celebrate birthdays, you know?

IME, the recipes are out there, but small pantries in churches and the like wouldn’t have the budget to print a cookbook for all of their clients. One thing pantries really need? Volunteers. This is especially timely, because I always volunteer around Yom Kippur. Most pantry volunteers are seniors and they have a lot of trouble packing and lifting the heavy bags and boxes.

And after a few questions were asked, #2:

Food *pantries* distribute food in a community, while food *banks* distribute food to pantries. So… while a case of tomatoes might overwhelm a pantry, a bank would make good use of them. And a $ donation to a pantry might go to buy food, it won’t go as far as the $ to a bank because they have the real buying power.

That being said, don’t neglect your pantry! If you have the time, find the one in your neighborhood and ask them what their needs are, they’ll definitely tell you. The food bank will answer that question if you call, too. One nationwide food bank is America’s Second Harvest and they do peanut butter and jelly drives at schools. Maybe start one at your school, even if you don’t live in a A2H city?

I wanted to share this all here, because I think it’s important, and say a little more.

First, if your situation dictates, don’t be wary about asking for help. You might think that only unhealthy food comes from a pantry, and it’s true that is often what is donated, but any food bank (and their pantries) that get any federal funding *must* follow the food pyramid and you will get peanut butter, beans, and other proteins, as well as pasta or another grain and likely some fruit. If your family qualifies, utilize your community resources. Get WIC or food stamps and use your dollars (and your coupons!) for all the other stuff.

There is absolutely no stigma to asking for help to feed your family. If you visit at a food pantry, you’ll see, these aren’t homeless single men or some faceless other being served. It’s families like ours that couldn’t make ends meet this month. Consider volunteering if you have the time. It’s very rewarding work and children can help!

If you start to think that the small green consumer choices you’re making don’t add up, think again.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“Industry — including oil, steel, chemicals and cement — produces 23% of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the McKinsey study. But a handful of other emission sources more directly controlled by consumers far outweigh industry when those sources are pooled together.

Passenger cars account for 17% of U.S. emissions — something consumers could affect by driving more-efficient cars or by driving less. Residential buildings and appliances contribute another 17% of emissions, underscoring the impact consumers could have if they lived in smaller buildings, or added more insulation, or bought a more energy-efficient model next time they replaced their washing machine.”

What we do as individuals does make a difference.

If WSJ says so, in this case I’m actually kind of inclined to believe it!

Apartment Therapy introduced me to Modern Fabrics and I couldn’t be more excited.

We reclaim and collect new fabrics from the finest luxury furniture companies throughout the United States and offer them to you at 50-75% off list price. Our customers are eco-conscious consumers who intend to reduce demand for virgin materials and to reduce waste.

They specifically have an eco-friendly section. Looks like it might finally be time to upholster our dining room chairs!

Kelly at Almost Frugal lists 13 ways you can save money in under 5 minutes, and guess what? They’re pretty green ideas, too.

Christine at Living Cheap and Green gave me an “Aha!” moment when she suggested reusing old hand soap pumps for shampoo. I love my huge Aveda pump bottle of conditioner, so why not do this for everything? I bet it will inspire the preschooler to wash his own hair, too.

Treehugger lists the resource MeetWays, a mapping program that will find a middle meeting point like a coffeeshop for you and friends. Very cool!