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Beware, I'm Just Ranting

So is everybody else all mixed up this week thanks to the holiday Monday? I did errands yesterday instead so I feel as though today is Tuesday. I'll have to keep reminding myself it is Wednesday so I'll get everyone fed and dressed for church tonight. I don't guess it would look so good for the pastor's wife to forget church LOL.

Did the dreaded grocery trip yesterday, too. There I was praying my way through the store trying to fit everything into the budget. I came to the steel wool section and was debating whether I could afford to buy SOS pads this week. Yes. You read right SOS pads.

So anyway this woman comes up beside me and we are both studying the shelf. I strike up conversation by mentioning they apparently do not sell the storebrand or Brillo brand anymore, only these lavender SOS things and the huge boxes (the most expensive ones, natch). She agrees and says that they indeed are not selling a variety anymore and not the ones she likes to buy. She liked the mini ones because she could just throw them away after one use. (Keep that in mind, irony alert ahead) So she picks up the SOS brand and studies it for a minute then picks up a nondescript little brown box of scrubbies beside it. After comparing the two she says, "Well, this one (brown box) is more expensive (oh, yeah, that's why it wasn't even in my little internal debate ) but it is made from recycled bottles. So I think I'll buy these. We ARE trying to go green, you know." ........Y'all.......I didn't even stop to think how it sounded , it just slipped right out. I said (very sweetly I might add), "Really? We're just trying to make it from one week to the next." .........After gaping at me for a few long seconds (picture a fish out of water) she sort of mumbled and moved on. Oops.

Now before anyone jumps on the whole politically correct, save the earth bandwagon and leaves any comments to reprimand or educate me let me say I'm all for doing what you can to make a clean earth and healthy body. But have you noticed there is a whole new market now for recycled, all-natural, herbal, homeopathic, etc? And it ALWAYS cost more than the artificial, chemical, bad for you, bad for the earth counterpart. It wasn't always this way. My mother-in-law was using alternative medicine long before it was in vogue. Back when it conjured up images of long hair and tye-dye with Birkenstocks. It was always the cheaper route. But now everything is packaged with brown paper and raffia or boasts of all it's "natural" ingredients. Sometimes it's the chemically riddled, disposable, non-biodegradable item but it's packaged with recycled materials. But always more expensive.

But when you are just trying to feed your family and clean your house while being a good steward it sometimes leaves you in a dilemma. Buy the more expensive one and be the supposed good steward of the earth? Or buy the less expensive and try to be a good steward of the money you have?

In the end, I bought the smallest box of 10 lavender (natural essence, see what I mean?) scrubbies and went on my way. Two weeks ago I bought a whole set of glasses on clearance for $3. The glasses and the box were made from recycled ingredients. So I figure that will cancel out me buying the non-plastic-bottle-recycled-scrubbies. After all we are trying to go green.

Comments

  1. I completely agree. Often times I feel bad (or am made to feel bad) because I just can't afford much of the "green" stuff. I still don't understand how things that take less chemicals, etc...can be more expensive. Guess they're just trying to cash in on the current craze. We've been very blessed lately but there have been many times that I too was debating what to buy or not buy...because that extra dollar might overdraft our bank account. We're still living lean but God is blessing us in ways un-imagineable. Thanks for sharing...and know that you are not alone!

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  2. I hear you, Lisa. The natural, green stuff is always much more expensive and we can't afford it at all. Same for the natural medications and vitamins and things like that. We've never been able to afford stuff like that. And, I know what it is like to save up for Saran Wrap.

    P.S. -- I don't even bother to go green any more. I think it is a scam. My husband used to oversee the garbage contract when he was at his last base in the Air Force. The people in the area had to separate out all their trash (bottles in one bin, recyclable paper in the other, etc.). My husband asked the civilian garbage people what they did with the stuff, and the guy was honest with him and said, "We don't make any money off of recycling, so we just dump it in the same land fill!" After the people went to all the trouble to separate it out!!! They're (the liberals) are making fools out of us.

    This save the earth stuff is pagan, imo. Not that we should deliberately trash everything and live in filth, but God says that at the end of all things, He is going to burn this planet up. I don't know where all this "good steward of the earth" stuff comes from, anyway.

    Rant on.

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  3. Kris
    It sure lets you know it is always about the almighty dollar. While I can understand that some things might take a little more to produce if you watch, every time the news says something has just been discovered as the next new miracle whatever....the price shoots up. (Pomegranites, flaxseed, you name it!)

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  4. Mary,
    I always wondered about that with the recycling especially in smaller areas. As for trying to afford healthier, etc sometimes we just have to do what we can with what we have and trust God for the rest! :o)

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  5. Lisa, that wasn't in a rural area where they dumped the separated-out garbage all together in the same land fill. That was in the Santa Barbara area of California when we were stationed out there. The Air Force paid a civilian garbage contractor to come on base and collect the trash, and my husband's job was to oversee these civilian contractors and make sure they were doing their jobs. Just out of curiousity, he asked them what happened to all the separated-out trash that the people in the town 10 miles outside of the base had to categorize, and the contractor said that because they didn't make any money off of recycling, they dumped it all together in the same land fill after the people separated it out!!!! (We lived on base and for some reason did not have to separate our trash into separate piles.)

    So, this was in the Santa Barbara area of S.California!!

    We don't have to recycle anything here in the Dakotas, and we can burn our trash in the back yard, too! Ha!

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  6. Mary,
    Wow! No excuses for that....still goes back to someone getting rich off it. What a shame!

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  7. Lisa...I would love any help you could give me on the sunday school lesson thing. Like I said (I'm almost ashamed to admit it) I don't know that much about the bible myself even though I'm trying to learn and I would really want to give these kids a good lesson/activity. I would hate to do something they wouldn't enjoy or that wouldn't be productive. No curriculum, just supposed to come up with our own thing.

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